AUSTRALIAN SUMMARY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 3263, 21 October 1897, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN SUMMARY.

(Specially Compiled fob the New Zealand Times.) The pastoralists of the south-west portion of Queensland have been endeavouring to secure relief from the Government.A deputation that waited upon Mr Foxton affirmed that station - owners suffered terrible losses from drought and rabbits, and that unless rents were considerably reduced the pastoralists would be mined, whilst part of the’ colony would "be deserted. Mr Foxton, in reply,-.said that Queensland pastoralists were no; worse offr than others on the other side of the border..; A suggestion that was" not takofi seriously was mads at the Sydney Presbyterian Assembly when the Eev Mr Craigie asked that a committee'be : appointed to ask the Minister of Lands to insert a clause in the Land Act granting country congregations, as snob, the rights of selectors under the Crown, to acquire homestead selections for church purposes. A great number of congregations, he said, were mnoh inconvenienced through not having sufficient laud for glebe purposes. An extraordinary decision was delivered by the Port Melbourne Magistrate in a case in which Mrs'Emily M. Brown was charged with evading the Customs duties, and with theft," Mrs Brown arrived from England by the German mail steamer, qnd is the wife of a ’highly respectable colonist, Detective Christie informed the Court that they found in the possession of accused a diamond ring, a chest of tea and a gold watch, which latter she dropped into the bay at Port Melbourne. Thewatch was valued at £ls and the ring at £35. r A 1 diver was searching tor the watch. The accused pleaded guilty to the first charge, and a fine of £IOO was imposed, to be reduced to £3O, with 10s 6d’ costs. On the other charge she was fined £5. ,'The fines were paid. , - Tbs New South Wales Colonial Secretary is introducing a Bill to regulate registry offices for servants. Ibis matter has been urged for many years in Parliament, and the proposed measure k lively to receive veaidy acceptance, . lh the ‘Per£h''Supremo Court Mrs Louisa Blackwell sued the Adelaide Steamship Company for £SOOO damages on account of the death of her husband, who went on board the Marloo at Fremantle Jetty to sail as a steerage passanger to Jjlolhanrne and fell dovfi) held aui wds killed. jury gave a 'vordidt for'the plaintiff,' assessing Hie'damages at -$1440 with oests. '■’ln'de’nneiilioh tho : sentencing «# ■': Albert’ K'. (Nixon fuv stabbing his wife,' the Eriqdnqr^’q counsel said" that hie qli9pt,'whd was overcome by emotion, had requested him to explain that he committed the act under gross provocation) and that he lost control of himself. Mr Justice Boucaut stated tliat he did not believe that the prisoner was overcome by emotion, and said-that he w£\a oply acting. The law did not aUbiy wrongod men as the ; prisoner "had been to go about committing assastination... If it. were, hU6wed let one crime, it would have to bo for any other, and then the people would be going > about' with revolvers ahc( shoot each other in'the streets., With infinite pain he hiss?® ju the gallery during thp speeeffi of the Ctown Solicitor.' Ha had intended ‘to clear the. court’if iff had been repeated. .He ,wp\\l(l not bjo, overavfed by the gallery, or. allow the" jury o.r cpUPSeI to be overawed, Hia fjopor then sentenced Nixon to 18 months' hard labour. There was a pathetic sopne when Mrs Nixon bade. farewell to her son; The prisoner, as ha was, being driven along Ganger street in the police van from the Court to the 'gaol was ohe«!rp.d lustily by a large crowd. The counsel who. del fended Nijjon was also cheered u ho vfas. leaving the courthouse, j Daniel Ross, a horse-dealer at Hatherley (Tiotoria) gave himself up, tq the police mat weak, stating that while hia wife was undev the influence of prink the previous higis he gave her a push, and she fell against a box in the bedroom, cutting her head, : He did not know her head was cut at the time, but found her later near the htuse insensible, and sbe never recovered. A middle-aged man named John residing at Geelong, suddenly beaaipq ifif sane and 'imagined crawled up. ana-, ifcj# > the ; railway line, Until * traSh came along, when he was xm oyer. He was badly mutilated, nnd died soon afterwards, ,