Late Australian News.

Hastings Standard, Issue 419, 7 September 1897, Page 4

Late Australian News.

Large shipments of horses are now being collected for consignment to India from Sydney and Melbourne. The board appointed to fix the wages in the Melbourne boot trade has concluded its labors. The minimum for the men has been fixed at 7s Gd per day of eight hours. The estimated stock losses in New South Wales during the drought, dating from the Ist January last, were:—Horses, 15,506; cattle, 72,939; sheep, 4,926,711 ; lamljs, 8,658,412. At the Wallsend Police Court last week a man was sentenced to 14 days for attempting suicide by throwing himself in front of an express train. His excuse was that he was drunk and knew nothing about it. The Victorian Cabinet has decided to allow the law to take its course in the case of Charles J. Hall, who is under death for murdering his wife. Hall will be executed in Bendigo Gaol on September 13. In the Bathurst cattle market there is a great scarcity, and prices are quoted at 25s per 1001b. For some time past the butchers have been getting their supplies from Sydney. There is no stock fit to kill to be had in the district, and for the next month the supply of meat will not be equal to the demand. A man named Patrick Twomey, who cut his throat at Abbotsford (Melbourne) recently, did so on account of a singular hallucination. He had been a driver for a city firm for 11 years, and was implicitly trusted by his employers, but he was greatly depressed by a notion that he had lost their confidence. Letters from Now Guinea report that the place is in a state of stagnation. Miners are returning from Mambare with discouraging accounts. Frost's party, who were reported to have been lost on the south-east coast, have arrived at Sarnari. Rowan, one of the three survivors of the Mambare massacre, has also arrived. Fever is very prevalent. The mystery connected with the finding of the young man Benjamin Armstrong, with his throat cut, at the bottom of a shaft near Fairfield (Brisbane) is explained. Armstrong, on recovery stated that he cut his throat with a razor, but finding the wound did not cause death, he jumped down the shaft, where he was found almost dead.

A singular exhibit was recently placed before the managers of the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, by the honorary surgeon. It consisted of a mass of hair, tightly matted together, weighing 21b, taken from the stomach of a female patient who had been operated upon for a supposed internal tumour. It is conjectured that the hair was swallowed by the patient 18 months ago while in a delirious state. Arrangements have been concluded for the transfer of a portion of the public funds from the Queensland National Bank to the other Banks in Queensland ; £400,000 is to be withdrawn from the current account in the Queensland National Bank and placed at fixed deposit. With the Bank of New South Wales will be deposited £200,000, and the Union Bank of Australia and Commercial Bank of Sydney will have a deposit of £IOO,OOO each. The legislation of the New Zealand Parliament relative to the settlement of industrial disputes and the results were referred to by the New South Wales Minister of Labor the other night, when three members of the Assembly urged upon him the necessity of introducing arbitration and conciliation measures. The Minster said he was having two Bills prepared, and would bestow attention on the matter diuing the recess, when he would confer with his colleagues. A Sydney party has made a successful ascent of Mount Kosciusko, the first winter ascent, recorded. The last eight miles were done in snowshoes. The party, which was five days out, found all the valleys near the summit partially filled with snow, the drifts being several hundred feet deep. The head waters of the Snowy River and the lake immediately under Kosciusko were represented only by immense fields of frozen snow. The temperature on the summit at midday was 20deg. The party suffered considerable privation. A lucky digger who has arrived at Sydney from British New Guinea, says that after very hard work at the Woodlarks Island, off the New Guinea coast, some 200 men are making a living. Others are doing very well. There is some fever, but not much, and the place is free from the drawback of native interference. The returned minep said that a rush was likely to take place shortly to Normandy, a new field stated to be tolerably rich in alluvial. It had not yet set in, but in New Guinea they expected it. Some interesting particulars concerning the earnings of organ grinders in Sydney was elicited at Court there the other day, when a man named Manning, who presented a pitiable sight, being only able to walk with difficulty, was paralysed in both sides and blind in one eye, charged his assistant with stealing some money from him while being undressed at his lodgings. It appeared that the cripple made 30s a day, sometimes more, had a banking account, lent money out at interest, and paid his assistant 8a per w T eek. The case was dismissed on its merits. The force of the boiler explosion at Bathurst the other day, when a young man named Peter Gettbey was killed and others injured, may be gathered from the fact that the boiler, we : ghing four tons, was lifted bodily from its solid bed and carried to the hillside, 40 yards away, while the back end of the boiler, weighing 3cwt, was thrown over the river high up on to a bill, 200 yards away. The men were engaged on a claim near a sluicing machine, which was driven by the boiler. It is not known what cavsed the explosion' It is but natural that the returned Premiers should hay© *a few personal

experiences to relate concerning their Jubilee visit to the Old Country. Unostentatious Bir George Tamer, who hates display of any kind, was greatly troubled in mind concerning the scarlet-coated footman deputed by Mr Chamberlain to dog his every footstep. To such a fialc did thy watchful spectre of a gorgeous]) 7 clad lackey reduce the Victorian Premier that he was compelled to resort to desperate stratagem finally to rid himself for a few hours of the attendance of the courteous " Old Man of the Sea" told off by the Colonial Office. Sir George also firmly resisted the attempt of a uniform! d to dress him. "No you don't, I am in the habit of dressing myself; there's the door," said Sir George in desperation. The eccentricities of a deceased woman of 80, Mrs McCallum Moore, of Gippsland, were related on the opening of a Court case relating to her will. She had left everything to a servant named Keogh, and her relatives are disputing it on the ground of undue influence. Keogh's duties were apparently multifarious. He used to keep up the temperature of the old lady's room, building a fire at 1, 4, and C o'clock every morning. He used to read to and write for her, and go to market and make purchases for the house. When she promised him all her property in consideration of his services during her lifetime he thought it was a fair bargain. One of the witnesses called alluded to deceased's mental condition at the age of 80, when she asked a young man in the presence of others to marry her. She dressed strangely, wearing her husband's old boots and leggings ; also a leather belt around her waist, and she had over a dozen tape loops on her dress. In each of these loops she carried a piece of rag. The case is not concluded. '•Felix Tanner," who visited New Zealand quite recently in his professional capacity as a fasting man, was respondent in a divorce suit at Sydney last week. His real name is Charles -Jackson, and he is a bricklayer. His wife petitioned on the ground of adultery. It was alleged that the respondent had been living in Victoria with another woman. Mr Ralston put in a letter written in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1896, by the respondent to the petitioner, in which he asked if she had " any objections to my marrying again, as I have an idea of doing so at the close of this yoav." The respondent signed the letter, " Your loving husband, Charlie," and wished the respondent and her children " a merry Christmas and a happy New Year." "We shall come to something soon," his honor remarked with reference to this passige. His Honor pointed out that there was a difficulty in this case as to whether the respondent was domiciled in New South Wales in 1897 at the time of the institution of the suit. After argument, he reserved his decision on the question, with a desire to grant a divorce if he had jurisdiction.