AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10421, 20 April 1897, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Press Association.Electric Telegraph.-Copyright. A HORRIBLE MURDER. Sydney, April 19. A TEERIBiJi murder occurred to-night). Two Swedish seamen, Larsen and Johnston, belonging to the ship Westgate, quarrelled. Larsen struck Johnston, whereupon the latter seized a razor, and attacking Larsen, made a fearful gash in his throat. The wounded man jumped on to the wharf, and ran a couple of hundred yards along tha street, and then dropped dead. Johnston has been arrested,

MILDURA SETTLEMENT. Melbourne, April 19. A statement prepared by the Minister regarding the water supply shows that the mortgages on the orchard lands at Mildura total over £168,000. EXTRAORDINARY HAILSTORM. Sydney, April 17. During a hailstorm at Douglas the average stones weighed over six ounces. Windows were broken wholesale and tin and Plata roofs pierced. Fowls and geeso were killed in large numbers, and enormous damage was done to the fruit trees and crops. NEW GUINEA GOLDPIELDS. Rookhammon, April 17. A large number of miners aro returniog from New Guinea. They give most discouraging accounts of the goldfielde. A STEAMER QUARANTINED. Adelaide, April 19. The Himalaya was quarantined on arrival from London, Shiels, a steward, being found to be suffering from small-pox in a mild form. IVALIDED MINERS. Cooktown, April 19. A schooner has arrived from New Guinea ! with a number of miners, almost all suffering terribly from fevor and dysentery. Daring the voyage sevon out of forty died. Another went mad. Most of the men remaining on the fields aro sick and dying fast. THE MEAT TRADE. Melbourne, April 19, In a speech at a luncheon Mr. Parkermea said he hoped all Australian meat exported would bo branded, so that the British public would have an opportunity of judging properly of its merits, and guarding against the shameless frauds perpetrated by English butchers. '''