AUSTRALIAN SUMMARY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVIX, Issue 3003, 15 December 1896, Page 1

AUSTRALIAN SUMMARY.

~ln summing up to tlio jury in Sydney the other day in an action for slander, Mr Justice Simpson said that the law was not intended to assist persons in bringing actions for libel and slander purely for the purpose of mating money out of them. It would be a beneficial thing if some provision was introduced into the law to ensure

bonafides in such proceedings, A little girl named Bond was bitten by a snake at Tarago, New South Wales. She was walking with her mother, and complained that her leg was sore. Her mother made an examination, but discovered nothing which appeared serious. The child was shortly afterwards seized with a fit. The wound was scarified and suckod, and the child was taken into Qoulburn. Dr Burkitt met the conveyance ®u the road, and administered ammonia and strychnine. It is supposed the child was bitten in passing through a crop. An inquest was held at the Parramatta Hospital for Insane, touching the death of an imate named Claudius Leach, who was found hanging in his cell. Evidence was given that deceased was admitted into tho institution suffering from symptoms of delusional mania. Ho occupied a single room owing to his quarrelsome nature. Ho had drawn his bed to tho window, having previously torn a strip from tho bed coverlet, one end ot which no fastened to a wire grating, which was in all tho shutters for the sake of ventilation. Ho tied the other end round Ins nock, and was found hanging in that position. Tho steamer Titus, which is now regularly employed in the island trade by Messrs Burns, Philp and Co., on December 4 brought news to Sydney from tho Solomon Group of an attack upon a labour vessel, said to bo tho Fearless. The natives of Guadaloanar fired upon tho vessel, but no details of the result reached the Titus. It was in Guadalcanar that the massacre of the scientific expedition under Baron von Mouler took place, and from the news that reached tho Titus it is believed tho bodies of tho victims were not used in a cannibal feast as was first reported. On December 4 news was icceivod by Mr Pratt, as.agent,for tho London Missionary Society, that the Hanamoa, a cutter, had been wrecked. She belonged to the New Guinea Mission, and was used by the mission for coastal service. Tho report states that tho craft was lost off Motumotu in a gale, which also wrecked another vessel twice tho size of tho Hanamoa. Tho members of the crew were saved. The wreck is a great loss to the mission, ae thoao in tho mission were dependent on the Hanamoa for their supply of native food, firewood, &c.» all of which had to be procured from some distance down tho coast.

The trading barge Laurel, the property of Messrs A. Martin and Co., of Wentworth, Now South Wales, waa burnt to the water’s edge near the Murray bridge on 28th November. Nothing waa saved. The vessel was just being loaded, ready to proceed to tire Murray and Darling ports. The vessel was only partly insured. This makes the third vessel the firm has lost by fire, whilst another was' blown up, and their bulk store at the boundary was destroyed by fire a few years ago. At Bathurst a Japanese cook, who gave the name of Tonie Mikuni, was fined 20s, or 14 days’ imprisonment, for travelling from Dubbo to Sydney without paying his faro. The method ho adopted was a novel one; He got under a tarpaulin on a truck of chaff, and remained there till tha station was left behind. He then crawled out and climbed on the top of another truck, always returning to his shelter as each stopping place was approached, tho engine whistle being tho single of his disappearance. Annie Marston, aged 41, residing at North Eichraond, Melbourne, committed suicide on the 2nd inst. by jumping from the Church street bridge, a distance of 50ft. She struck the rocky bank, and sustained frightful injuries, dying a few minutes afterwards in the arms of her Jiusband. Tho deceased was discharged from the Kow asylum on .probation only the day before. . At Brookfield, N.S.W., a party of “ tin kettlers ’’ went to the house of a farmer named Martin, whose daughter had just been married. Martin’s sou wont outside the back door to see the cause of the row, when a gun waa fired, and a heavy charge of coarse dirt struck him in the face, causing a terrible wound and ruining the sight of one eye. . An Australian paper says:—.“Latest nr the way of mining experts. The Goraldton Express last year engaged a man to report on the Murchison fields, and his opinion amounted to a statement that our mines were half-ounce shows. This year the Express has engaged another noted expert, who has stuck up a written notice outside a Cue pub. asking owners of leases to communicate with him if they want their mines noticed.”

What appears to have been a dastardly attempt to blow up the Angus mine has been repotted to the Broken Hill police. It appears that a quantity of explosives, such as dynamite, cartridges, and other mining material, were left in the drive at ther 140 ft level, and the following day theso articles could not bo found. On November 27th a boy working at the mullock heap unearthed with .his pick some peculiarlooking stones, and later on the missing box of cartridges. The stones proved to be plugs of dynamite, 28 in number. Had an explosion occurred whilst the dynamite was being roughly handled with the pick, the mine must have been wrecked and the boy and three men working below killed. In Banco Court, Adelaide, on December Ist, Emily Lathlean obtained a divorce absolute from John Lathlean. She got the decree nisi for her divorce as long ago as 1878, and then, hearing that her husband had been killed in an accident at Gawler, she married again in New South Wales without getting the decree nui made absolute. Since then she found that her first husband was alive and well, in the same colony. The decree absolute was granted. Two men broke into a dwelling last week at South Broken Hill, and had collected sundry articles together when disturbed in the act. They immediately cleared off across country. Constable McLeod was communicated with, and as the burglars , had a good start an exciting chase followed. The constable meeting a butcher’s cart took possession, and after travelling for some miles arrested a man’and took him to the lock-up. ... A comparative table of Australasian railway statistics has been prepared by the Comptroller of Accounts in the South Australian Department. Victoria has the largest system, the number of miles open last year being 3121, and the capital expenditure J 638,108,151. New South Wales comes next with 2531 miles, and a capital cost of .£36,852,194. Queensland has 2386 miles, the expenditure being j£16,769,406 ; and New Zealand 1998 miles, with an expenditure of -£15,425,532. The cost of construction per mile in New South Wales has been -£14,559; Victoria, .£12,272; Tasmania, -£8390; New Zealand, -67659; South Australia, -£7305; Queensland, .£7024; and Western Australia, .63993. Last year the New South Wales lines produced the most revenue, namely, -22,820,417, 'Victoria coming next ■with .£2,401,392. The earnings per train mil® in the different colonies were:—New South Wales, 87.68 d; New Zealand, 85 75d; Western Australia, 82.44 d ; South Australia, 68.57 d; Victoria, 64.11 d j Queensland, _ 54.91d ; Tasmania, 49.36 d. The population per railway mile is thus stated; New Wales. 510; Tasmania, 383; Victoria, 377; New Zealand, 349; South Australia end Western Australia, 207 ; Queensland. 193.