AUSTRALIAN NEWS

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4288, 22 February 1901, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Recently a few gentlemen ai Young it is reported, were amusing themseive? killing rabbits with sticks, at the rate ol 10!• an hour.

A bush fire, surrounded the township of Jindera, in the Kiveriua, on February 7th. A young man named Smith, who went out to remove stock, is mis.sand it is feared that he has perished.

A farmer named Singer was ’ severalv burnt while trying to save his house. A destructive bush fire broke out at Stony Park, near Albury, on February 7th, travelling towards the township, and doing great damage. Mr J. .M. Thompson, an old Queensland colonist, died on February Gth, at South Brisbane, aged eighty-seven. He arrived in Queensland in 1849. February Gth was the hottest day of the summer season in Adelaide, the thermometer registering 110 degrees iu the shade, and 160 degrees iu the sun. at

The township of Mount Pleasant, S.A., has narrowly escaped being swept away by tho immense bush fires which have been raging in the vicinity. The damage is estimated at over £IO.OOO.

The loss by the fire at Queenstown (Tasmania) on February 7th is estimated at about £2500. Tho total insurances only amount to £9lO. A relief fund for the’ sufferers there and in other parts ef I lie district lias been opened. At a public meeting held in the Council. Chamber of tho Melbourne Town Mall on February 7th, it was decided to elect a. statue in memory of the late Queen Victoria. The amount subscribed iu the room was .£667.

Mr Arthur C. D. Tyson of the firm of .Messrs A. and A. Tyson, of Pcvcnsey and Corroiig Stations, iu the Hay district. died at Armadale, Melbourne, recently from typhoid fever.* Tie was a nephew of tho late millionaire. Mrs Ivors, aged seventy years, died at Heifer Station, about eight miles from Svdiiey. The body was laid out and surrounded with candles by deceased’;; daughters, who then went into another room. While they were absent a fire broke out in tho room where the corpse lay. The fire is supposed to have origin ated tlirough a gust of wind blowing some curtains on to tho lighted candles. The flames made rapid progress, and before the body could be removed the heme was one mass of flames, and was quickly demolished. The remains were charred to cinders. A son of the deceased was in Orange at the time making the funeral arrangements. _ Ah's I3ur.ge.ss, woo died at Pieton on February 6th, and whoso ago was given a ; - ninety voars, was a servant to Governor King. * It is now stated that her proper age was 116 years. Sixty 'houses wsro burned down through hush fires round Queenstown, Gormanston unci tho Linda A «uiGn( levs.), oil February 7. There* were also oush tires I‘ound Strahan and Fechan. Inc Lvcll sawmills and coke stacks were sav-

John Fallon, employed at larago sawn.ills, at Keerira, in Gippsland. (Vic.), was killed bv a log falling on him. Ho was bringing it down a steep hill called Spion Kop, when it slipped, knocked him off his seat, fell on him, and broke his neck. TS'.g lacutonant Governor of Victoria ha;-, received the following telegram from Lord Hopetouu : —“I am shocked to read of tho terrible bush fires in Victoria. Pray believe how much I sympathise with all. those who have suffered in person and pocket.” ■ Tho manager of Glenormiatoa Station (Q.) found the body of a man, Thomas Peterson, on the 21st ultimo, two miles from the homestead on Boulia road. It is surmised that deceased walked from Herbert Downs, 35 miles, without water. H-> had opened a vein in his arm with a pcoket-knife. There was £l3 in his pockets. A man named Wm. Northfield, a woodcutter, was burned to death in a bush fire at Arakies, near Geelong (Vic.), on February 7th. An old man named Charles Anderson also perished in a bush fire in tho Hamilton district, making the second fatality in that locality. The Hamilton district is reported to be a blackened wilderness-

Sir Alex. Onslow. Chief Justice and Administrator of the in West Australia, has applied for and been granted leave of absence for twelve months on the ground of ill-bealth. His intention is to leave West Australia for Europe iu the Arcadia on March 4th, after ihe arrival of the new Governor. Mr Justice Stone will be asked to accept the position of acting-Chief Justice. Three boys were burned to death in the bush fires, near Birregurra, iu the Colao district (Vic.), where great destruction was wrought. Two were sons of Mr J. McCollum, aged 10 and 12, and the third boy was a son of Mr J. McDonald, aged 12. Fifteen horses perished in the flames, and several men engaged in fighting the fires were so severely burnt that they had to be taken to the Colac Hospital. One, named Kingswell, has since died. An unusual incident happened at St. Mark's Church (Bosedale, Vic.) on February 3rd. A member of the sixth contingent was among the congregation, and did not remove his cap. The preacher H-iov H. T. Langley) requested him to uncover, but the young soldier refused to do so, as, he stated, he was under discipline. However, the preacher ■would not go on with the service until the trooper either removed his haij or left tho church. He chose the latter course.

During the recent bush fires near Portland (Vic.), a party of teamsters had a sensational experience. They were in of three waggons heavily laden with timber, and when they had gone eight miles through the forest, the fire was upon them. They' could not turn back, as a great wall of fire hemmed them in They went forward as fast as they could amid smoke and falling trees, managed to reach Portland, parched and blackened, but unhurt.

j A big bush fire occurred between Longwood and Euroa, in the north-eastern district of Victoria. An extraordinary spectacle was witnessed on February 6. A mighty whirlwind started amongst the flames in tho racecourse paddock, a i quarter of a mile from Longwood. The I deafening roar created by the whirlwind I caused people to rush from their houses ■ in alarm, and they were panic-stricken I as tho vast column of smoko and flams | threatened to sweep right through the ; township. Trees were snapned and up- ! rooted, and tit o’ air was filled with char- • rod and burning "material as the whirl- | v irtd cleared the burning .area, and sa coping tbrought the township, stripped the roofs from the Ifbusos, levelled fencing and chimneys, and did other dam. :UgO- _■ i The bush fire at Ycvong Creek, near I Wagga, again broke out on February 15, and travelled from The Rock to : Mangoplah, over 30,000 acres of grass | and crops being consumed . | A peculiar ease of snake-bite is re- ' ported from Goorangoola, a settlement thirty miles from Singleton. A .voting Indy residing at that place was on February 6 getting through a fence about 500 yards from where shelived, when a black nakc rose and bit her on rhe hand. With commendable promptitude and great presence of mind—for she recognised that she was thirty miles away from a. surgeon—she ripped up the wound with her teeth, and, sucking the part, she walked to her

Ihome, where she rubbed salt into the wound. She has nw fully recovered. In Melbourne recently a man complained at the Detective Olfi'-e that he had been robbed of a valuable gold watch in the city while "showing round” some members of the Imperial Contingent. He gave a minute description of tho watch, and was positive that it had been stolen from Idm. After a long search at various pawnbrokers’ shops, Detective Dalton at last found tho watch at a place in Russell -trcct, where it had been pawned for £l. A.s usual, tho detective obtained from the pawnbroker a description of the supposed thi..’ who had pledged tho article. The “thief’s.” appearance tallied so strangely with that of tho complainant that the latter, by request, accompanied Detective Dalton _to the pawn office, where the proprietor at once identified him as the man who had pawned the watch. Complainant was hugely perplexed and perturbed at the alarming possibility of being tried and convicted of stealing his own watch. His property was handed back to him, and after ho had attended at the Detective Office and heard a. temperance lecture, fie returned to his home. The Commissioner of Police at Brisbane hag received the following report from Inspector Brannelly, , of Rockhampton, dated 7th instant: —“About midnight last night a report was made to the police that a man had been found in a critical condition under tho raihvay briclge near Y eppoon Crossing, three miles from here. Constable Wilson was despatched to inquire, and found the man unconscious, and removed him to the hospital, where he died this morning. Deceased’s name is said to be ’Stock,’ but ‘E. Pistock’ is latooed on his left arm. The deceased and another man were supplied with free passes ,vt Brisbane to Clermont on the 4th instant. and on arrival at the railway station on the 7th deceased’s mate was considered too drunk to he allowed to proceed to Clermont, and soon after the train loft hero deceased and another man had an altercation on tho platform of the carriage, and_ it is not known whether* tho deceased fell off the platform or was thrown off on to tho railway line. The other resides at Wallaroo, and got off tlie train at Dnaring.i. °