AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 9133, Issue 9133, 4 February 1910, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

SUPPLY OF BUTTER BOXES

HER LITTLE PART,

INCIDENTS OF THE FLOOD

A GIRL'S STRUGGLE,

FIGHT FOR £100,

SYDNEY, Jan. 25,

A young lady cleric of Sydney named Miss Dorothy Boyd had an exciting encounter with a street thief on a recent forenoon. The young woman had been sent to the bank to get sufficient loose cash to pay the weekly wages, and carried with her a sum of £100. When she alighted from the tram at Smith street, the chauffeur of a motor car waiting close by blew the horn, and Miss Boyd turned her head to sec what was amiss. Instantly she was set upon by a muscular young man, who, approaching from behind, tugged violently at the bag containing the money. For a moment or two the lady messenger thought she would bo compelled to let go, but getting a firmer grip with both hands she hung on like a grizzly, and screamed loudly for assistance. Presently, attention was directed, and the young man, fearful for his own safety, decamped, leaving Miss Boyd gasping on the footpath, but clasping her employer's cash. The driver of the motor car watched the proceedings from a few yards tiwav. and made no attempt to

interfere. On the contrary, when the struggle was over, he drove quietly away in another direction. The description of her assailant furnished by the young woman is such a good one that the police expect to make an arrest shortly.

WIFE KILLS lIER HUSBAND

A shooting affray is reported from Maule's Creek, about 17 miles from Narrabri. It appears that J. J. Buekman, a selector, and his wife, Carolina Buekman, had quarrelled, and Buekman was chasing his wife, .both being on horseback. The woman ' struck a tree, and was thrown off. Buekman rushed up, and attempted to strike her with a stick> The woman pulled a revolver from her dress and shot him dead. Sfn> then returned to the house, harnessed a horse, and drove to Narrabri. where she arrived at 5.30 a.m. She gave herself up to the police. The Coroner has gone to the scene of the tragedy. Accused was brought before the Court and remanded. She is 35 years of age, and the mother of nine children. A good deal of friction existed in the family, Buekman having been twice charged with being insane. and once for assault on his wife, all of which charges were dismissed.

There is _ a growing movement in the northern rivers districts of New South Wales in regard to some better system of dealing with the supply of butter boxes. It has been considered that imported timber is necessary for making butter boxes that will convey no taint to the sensitive product; and for that reason no effort lias been made to season local timbers that, with the exception of odour, are in every way suitable for the purpose. It would be interesting (says the Sydney Daily Telegraph) to learn what amount is spent for New Zealand pine for butter boxes, and what amount is paid for freight; but there is also another important factor to be considered, i.e., strikes. Within the last few weeks the butter industry has been threatened with almost absolute extinction by the Newcastle coal strike, for. if the strike had continued a little longer, and no coal had been available for the boats, there would have been such local storages of butter that the loss to dairymen would have caused them to give up dairying, and produce something of a less ' perishable nature. Taking in round numbers the returns from the district as

1200 tons, the number of boxes holding 561b of butter required would amount to 48.000 per month, or 576.000 per annum. The charge for boxes was Is each, but recently a combine captured the butter box trade, and the pricc was raised to Is sd. This increase means an extra cost to the factories of £14,400 per year. It is also to be remembered that 'with local timber, made up on the spot, the orignial cost of Is per box cuold be materially reduced, ,-jnd the result would be ■not only enhanced profits to the producer, but absolute safety in case of an industrial crisis such as a coal strike.

An unfortunate woman, with no fewer than 200 convictions recorded against her, nearly all of them being either for drunkenness or cases arising therefrom, was brought before the Sydney Central Police Court on a charge of being an habitual drunkard. "We're all playing our little part 011 the stage of life,"' she ejaculated in a melancholy way, after the charge had boon read over." She wm sent to Long Bay Penitentiary for twelve months.

The Weewaa correspondent of the Sydney Daily Telegraph says:—"The accident which resulted in the death of Mr and Mrs James Grace and Mrs and Miss Chapman is the most deplorable incident of the flood. They were all living on the other side of the lagoon, and when the flood was 'at its highest. Constable Reegan, together with four volunteers, took the boat over to their assistance. They were coming back when the boat ran into a tree trunk and smashed like a matchbox. The constable, after great efforts, succeeded in saving two little boys of the Chapman family, but he left considerations of his own safety so late that he was dashed against the bridge and seriously injured. Apparently the four civilians who were assisting the constable had enough to do to look after their own safety. The damage done by the floods here cannot be even estimated yet. The water is not yet off the flats, and the owners are not aware of the extent of the stock losses. That these will be very great is certain. The river is still carrying in its current thousands of carcases of sheep and cattle destroyed by the flood. There is hardly a settler in the district who is not a fairly heavy loser. Stock in many cases were driven on to places where they successfully weathered the flood of 1908, only to be swept away this year and drowned. THREE DAYS ON A ROOF. Among the exciting experiences of the flood were those of the Mackenzie.?, who live at Iverrisdale, about two miles from Moree. Mr Douglas Mackenzie left there on the flood morning for Moree, and ordered a boat to be built in town in order to rescue his sister and younger brother, who were rather uncomfortably perched on.a table, "with the prospect of spending several days on the roof. He returned to tell them that the boat was being made, and then set out again with two horses to bring back the boat, but on the way had to abandon both the horses and was washed into a tree, where he was found by a rescue party in a Chinaman's boat, all of whom had to stop by the tree in the boat through the night, the current being too strong to enable them* to either proceed or retire. On the following day MiMackenzie and the others returned to Moree, and the improvised boat, with a crew of rescuers, succeeded in taking a stock of provisions to Kerrisdale. leaving Miss Mackenzie and her brother on the roof, according to instructions, as thev were perfectly safe. i ALLEGED HORRIBLE MURDER, j On a charge of having feloniously j and maliciously murdered Roma I Brady, or Mitchell, at Sydney, on or

about May -3, 1909, Peter Brady, 29, a barman, appeared before Mr G. M. Smithers, S.M., at the Central Police Court. Olive Mitchell stated that she was a married woman, living apart from her husband, and that she resided at Waymss Street, Surry Hills. She knew the accused, and had been living with him for about two years. On November 23rd she gave birth to a female child, and Peter Brady was the father. The child became ill, and at the end of four or five months, Brady suggested that he was going to do away with it. He took the child upstairs to the bedroom, and afterwards told witness lie had strangled the child by putting a brass wire round its throat when a second dose of laudnum did not answer the purpose. After tea the accused put the child in a sugar bag, and then in a hamper, and took it out of the house. He came back about four hours later with the body, and said that he had been run by water police. This happened on a Sunday night, the body was in the house until Sunday afternoon. Subsequently witness went with accusod in a "boat and he sank the body in the deepest part of the harbour. The case stands partly heard.

THE PEA-RIFLE PERIL

MELBOURNE, Jan. 24. Reuben Finch (19) was fatally shot on the Mossiface Road, near Bruthen, on Saturday evening, it appears that deceased started out to shoot a rabbit. The ground was rough, and he tripped, causing the pea-rifle to explode. The bullet passed through his chest.

A sad shooting accident also occurred at Mount Williams, four miles from Lancefield, on Sunday afternoon, a bright young girl named Olara Isabella Powell, daughter of Mr and Mrs Edgar Powell, losing her life. It appears that Powell, his daughter, and some other members of the family went, out into one of the paddocks near the house, taking with them a pea-rifle, for the purpose of shooting rabbits. Miss Powell picked up the rifle, and as she did so it exploded. The bullet entered her left breast. A doctor was immediately summoned, and on arrival said that death had been practically instantaneous. A CONFIDENCE TRICK. A doctor named Carmeli Garofolo, of Naples, was victimised of £250 by a confidence trick in Melbourne. The doctor came down from the north on the steamer Orvieto, bound for Naples. While aboard the vessel a companionable sort of young man grew chummy with him. The doctor had with him foreign iiiuni'v, but. went to the Bank of Aus-

tralasia, and changed the money into four £50 notes and five £10 notes. Whilst in a hotel he was initiated into the mysteries of a match game. Dr. Garofolo was induced to hand his £250 to a companion. Then one of the men left the room. As ho did not return

another went to see the reason of his delay, and as he too was absent for some minutes the third sauntered out to ascertain the reason of such ungen-

tlomanly conduct in delaying the game. When the doctor found himself alone he suspected trickery, and communicated with the police A MYSTERIOUS GRIME. A sensational shooting affray occurred recently on the beach near Glcnclg, as tho result of which a middle-aged man. Edmund D. Davis, a greengrocer, residing at Glcnelg, is lying in tho Adelaide Hospital dangerously wounded. It | appears that Davis went from tho beach ! into the sandhills at a spot about threequarters of a mile from Glcnelg jetty northwards. Ho there met by chance an acquaintance named W. Noy, with his wife and family, was camping on tho beach. The men sat and talked together for some time. In tho vicinity were several couples seated behind the sandhills. Davis rose from his place and j walked down tho side of the hill on which j he and Noy sat towards a clump of undergrowth. As ho did so a young man, aged about 20, rose from the side of a girl and walked along the crest of the hill until his cyo lit upon Davis. Ho then pulled a revolver from his pocket, and with the words, "I'll shoot you !" pulled tho trigger. The first shot did not take cffcct. and a second was fired, and Davis foil badly wounded in the stomach. Harry Backman, a mechanic, residing at- Salisbury, was arrested, and identified as the man who fired the shot. Davis, who was j through the right side of the abdomen, is severely wounded, but fatal conse- j quonces arc not anticipated. 1