AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4408, 30 December 1875, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Melbourne, December 20._ The Sydney Eleven practise well together every day, being conveyed to and from their hotel in a four-hand drag. Ooates arrived this morning, and was present on the ground. They are most fancied for the match. The Victorians on Saturday had a practice match, eleven against thirteen, which was unfinished. No large scores were made. Richmond and Robin Hood (late Sylvia colt) are the best favourites for the Champion Race. H.M.S. Pearl sailed early yesterday morning, with Commodore Hoskms. In the evidence before the Volunteer Commission, it was recommended that the defence of the Heads should be by forts and two lines of torpedoes. December 21. In the Assembly to day, Sir James McCulloch stated his .intention of moving the adjournment of the House, from Thursday to Tuesday, the 11th January, for the Christmas holidays. In the absence of the Speaker, who lately met with an accident, the Chairman of Committees presided. -After a debate in the Assembly, an agreement has been arrived at to pass the increased assessment clause in the Land Bill, so as to secure the £30,000 during the current half-year. A petition was presented against the proposed increased assessment on stock. The Government then proposed to postpone the budget debate, and proceed with the second reading of the Land Bill, dealing with the increased assessment. The Opposition objected, and commenced talking against time to obtain delay. Ramsay, the bank manager.at Runnymede, was drowned in the Campaspe. There was a cricket practice on the ground this morning. All the men are shaping well. Sydney -is believed to have the best of the bowling. There will be a practice match for the Victorians on Christmas Day, when the eleven will be finally chossn. All the Sydney eleven are in capital form. Evans and Coates are bowling splendidly. Spofforth has not been very well. The batting [is good. Seale and Thompson are both in good form. The eleven will play in a regular practice match on the South Melbourne ground to-morrow, and finally choose the eleven to-morrow night. Tooher is oat of it, and the choice will be between Sheridan and Seale. December 22. A sub-committee of the hospital has been appointed to inquire into the whole of the circumstances connected with the death of the boy j\lichael Barry under chloroform. The Assessment Bill passed through all its stages in the Assembly yesterday. The Victorian cricketing eleven have been finally selected. They are Messrs. Allan, Allee, Alexander, Blackham, Boyle, Cooper, Cosstick, Campbell, Horan, Kelly, Sleigh; emergency, Gaggin and Kendall; umpire, T. W. Wills; scorer, W. Bipwell. '

The uniform of the Victorian players is a bright blue; that of the Sydney players dark blue. On Christmas Day the Victorian Cricket Association will give the cricketers a picnic at Mordialloc. Brisbane, December 20. The Roma clears for London to-morrow. The master is fully satisfied of the safe condition of the cargo. The Leichardt shipped 6000 ozs. of gold from Cooktown. There has been a heavy alluvial find of gold on the Mitchell River ; a rush is setting in. The ToowOomba, immigrant Bhip, has arrived at Keppell Bay, from London,, with 224 immigrants. The cargoes received at Rockhampton during the past three weeks are valued at £100,000. Excepting bulk ales, the market is fully stocked. The New South Wales cricketers met with a cordial reception. Bishop Hale holds an ordination service to-morrow. The Chinese merchants at Cooktown are about to subscribe £1000 towards the organisation and maintenance of a Chinese Police Force for the protection of their countrymen against the attacks of the blacks on the Palmer River. December 21. The Lucy and Adelaide, schooner, reports that on the 10th instant, the Esperance, of Noumea, was in Havannah Harbour, with 92 return labourers, and was condomned as being nnseaworthy. Adelaide, December 20. The steamer Edinburgh has arrived with the cable for the Cape Borda line and the cable for New Zealand. Hot weather is setting in. There are myriads of locusts shewing themselves in the city, and doing damage to the gardens. Wheat is dull at 4s 9d. December 21. Mr. Todd has received intimation that the repairing ship Agnes has spoken the Madras, and is now grappling for the Penang end of the cable. A singular fire accident occurred yesterday : a dray load of furniture ignited, and everything was Burnt except the horse. It is supposed that loose matches ignited by the strong heat of the sun. The weather was 106 degs. in the shade yesterday. Wheat is dull and unchanged.

Melbourne, December 19. At a meeting of votaries of rowing, held at Sydney, it was decided to send Trickett, a native of the colony, to England to compete for the championship of the world. In respect to the find of gold at the depth of 1000 feet at Clunes, a telegram from that place says :—" Large heavy gold ha 3 been seen in the blue slate casing, and also in the solid quartz. Great satisfaction is expressed by all classes at the discovery, the Clunes Company being the oldest and most popular in the district. The mining and every other interest has been very much depressed here for some considerable time, but the finding of this reef has created hope for the future. Shares have advanced to £55, but there are no sellers. The trial of Richard Egan Lee, the proprietor of the Pictorial Budget, was commenced in the Central rh-imin.il Court on the 17th, before Mr. Justice Molesworth. He was charged wiiii having, on the 23rd October last, published an obscene print entitled " The St. Kilda Beauty and the Young Squatter," to the manifest corruption of the morals of the youth and other liege subjects of Her Majesty. The publication and sale of the print was proved by Oashmore Lazarus, news-agent, who bought 2000 copies of the print and handed them to his boys for sale. The line of defence, judging by the cross-examination by Mr. Duigan, was to shew that many prints, more objectionable, were published and sold in Melbourne, but no notice waß taken of them. The Veuus brand on tobacco-boxes was exhibited to the jury, and Roderick Random, Shakespeare, Juvenal, Horace, and the Argus report o£ the breach of promise case of Titley v. Moltine were referred to during the trial as works containing more obscene passages than anything in Let's Pictorial Budget, Those works, it was argued, were to be found in the Public library and the Police Barracks Library, or could be purchased at any bookseller's. At the close of the case Air. Duigan submitted that the identity of the papers purchased with thoso published was not complete. This objection was' however, overruled by Mr. Justice Molesworth. Mr. Duigan then contended

that there was nothing obscene in the print; because obscenity,meant allusions, to matters that were only referable to in private. His Honor allowed that question to go to the jury. The writer of the article complained of was then called, and_ stated that the defendant Lee knew nothing of the contents of his contribution until it appeared and excited comment, and then he destroyed the unsold portion of the issue, at great loss to himself. The defendant made a similar .statement, and Mr. Duigan then addressed the jury, contending that the proceedings taken against Lee were a political persecution, not a legal prosecution. Lee was acquitted. . . , At a meeting of the council of the Art Union of Victoria, on the 18th December, the twenty-seven designs received inresponse to the circulars issued to Australian and IN ew Zealand artists were fully considered, and six to be photographed were selected by ballot. The Arptts of the ISth has the following on the position of affairs in the Victorian Parliament '—The result of the division m the Legislative Assembly yesterday morning, and the attitude assumed by the Opposition, were the principal topics of discussion in the city yesterday. The Berry party having been defeated on their original amendment, now seek to further obstruct the business of the country 'by a second amendment, declaring that as the Government proposition which has been affirm ed involves a radical change in the present system of taxation, a general election should take place before it receives the final sanction of Parliament. It is more than probable, however, that this amendment will be ruled out of order, on the ground that it is not within the order of reference to the committee, the committee to which the proposed new taxes were submitted having been appointed to consider those duties only, and having thus no power to consider a question of dissolution. authorities on the point are very distinct. The proposed new duties having been remitted to a committee of the whole, the only question that can be raised is, does the proposition for a dissolution of the House come within the order of reference ? There is little doubt that this will be answered in the negative. In that case, notice must be given of the motion in ordinary course, for submission to the House, with the Speaker in the chair, and in the meantime the Opposition must discover some other means of obstructing the business and discrediting the financial reputation of the colony in the old world. There are said to be a score of members pledged to the '' stone-wall" policyand to vote for a dissolution of the House, while devoutly hoping that that end will never be accomplished. The following proclamation has been issued by the Victorian Government:—"Whereas on Thursday, the 9th day of December inst., an attempt was made to upset the seven o'clock up Ballarat train off the line at about three and a-lialf miles on the Melbourne sido of the Werribee station, three iron rails and one wooden one having been secured across the permanent way, but, owing to the speed at which the train was running, the obstacles were cut through And whereas this is the second attempt of the kind made on the Geelong and Melbourne Railway line within little more than a month : Notice is hereby given that a reward of £200 will be paid by the Government for such information as will lead to the conviction of the person or persons who placed the aforesaid obstructions on the railway line. His Excellency the Administrator of the Government, in the name and on behalf of Her Majesty, will grant a pardon to any accomplice in the attempt above described, not being the actual perpetrator thereof, who shall give such information and evidence as shall lead to the apprehension and conviction of the principal offender."

APPALLING SUICIDE IN MELBOURNE. We give from the Melbourne papers some particulars of a late suicide there, which has been reported by telegraph:—"A brothel in Little Flinders-street was, on the evening of the 16th, the scene of a most horrible case of suicide, the victim being a native of Dantzic, named Maurice John Mackewitz, aged 42 years. About twelve months ago, a young woman named Alice Buckley was rescued from drowning near Princes' Bridge by the efforts of two men, who saw her iirininent danger and risked their lives to effect her rescue. One of them was drowned in the attempt, but the other succeeded in bringing the girl safely to land. She possessed considerable personal attractions, and though she was known to the police as a woman of certain repute, several persons took an interest in her, and amongst them the unfortunate man who yesterday blew his brains out. He appears to have been an industrious and respectable individual, and having made the acquaintance of Buckley, he at once proposed marriage to her. She consented, and the ceremony was duly performed. With the means they had at command, the married people took the Empire Hotel at Hotham, and carried on business there for some time, but not with the satisfactory result that they anticipated. After a time they were obliged to relinquish the premises, and with what they could save from the wreck they took another hotel named the British Lion. This also failed, and about a week ago they resigned the business and separated, the woman going to live in a cottage in Flinderslane, where the tragedy occurred, the deceased intimating liis intention of going up country to look for employment. The deceased was prone to jealousy, and at times cruelly ill-treated his wife. At the time she left him he was quite aware of her purpose, and undertook not to intrude upon or trouble her in her new home. He kept faith with her in this respect until yesterday morning when, about ten o'clock, he called at the cottage in Flinders-lane, where Buckley lived. The house is one of a range of four, between Kussell and Stephen-streets, and consists of a front parlour and a back bedroom, both meretriciously furnished after the style of such abodes, with premises to the rear, where the ostensible lady o£ the house and her children slept. She, not knowing who it was that inquired for her, sent out word for him to call again. The message having been conveyed to Mackewitz, he left, stating that he would return about one o'clock. The woman seemed to be aware of who the visitor was, and, accordingly, was prepared for him at the hour named. Punctual to promise he arrived. He seemed troubled and ill-tempered, and, without saying anything, entered the parlour and took his seat upon a sofa. Buckley approached him in a friendly manner, and, placing her hand upon his shoulder, made some inquiry about his going to the country. He said that he intended starting on the following day, and asked her if she had got any money. She opened her purse and handed him a sovereign. Some conversation ensued as to what he-purposed doing with the money. He replied that several articles of clothing belonging to Mm were in pawn, and ho wanted to release them so that they might be useful to him in the country. This satisfied her, and, on apparently friendly terms, he rose to take his departure. When at the hall door he stopped, and turning round he said, in tones that indicated determination, ' I shall return this evening at six o'clock, without fail. Mind, I am determined to see ! yon, and therefore do not fail me.' She j said, ' All right,' and he then went away. | Shortly after the hour named he knocked at the door, and there being at the time no one else but herself in the house she gave him admission. They both proceeded to the bed-room, and she, in the first instance, suggested that she should return him the pawntickets of his clothes and other articles which she had in her possession. His manner was abstracted, and the expression of his eyes waa wild and revengeful; but she took no particular notice of this until he leaned over and struck her in the face, at the same time throwing a quantity of silver on the floor. This sent her reding against the bed, on to which he pressed her, ■ leaning over and holding her down with a sort of convulsive effort. He then raised one of his fingers and, addressing her said, ' Do yo* see that ? That is a ring, composed of your hair.' He at the

:same time -drew - from his -pocket a smallpistol, which hs shewed her. The woman, believing he wu going to shoot, shrieked and struggled to escape. The nert momont Bhe heard a report and felt her hair and face deluged with blood. She was so terrified that for a time she remained insensible, and, on returning to consciousness, she found herself lying on the bed and the room in darkness. She rose and looked about, and in the floom distinguished the body of her husband, orribly disfigured, lying on the floor beside the bed. She rushed to the door, and in doing so had to stumble over the corpse, and cried for help. Beside the body was found a document, from which it was evident that the wretched man had committed premeditated suicide from motives of jealousy."