AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 6790, 19 November 1883, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

(Peb Wakatipu, at Wellington.)

Melbourne.

William Thomas Knowles, who has confessed to,the murder of F. M. Bates, says he haa committed three other murders and several large robberies. He says he was compelled to confess by joining the Salvation Army. He has sent the detectives on a lot of wild goose : chases, digging up stones in secluded paddocks' and tearing up a hearthstone in one house, acting on his information. He is evidently mad, and his confessions are not believed.

Some passengers, chiefly mechanics, have returned by the barque Leopold from South Africa, and. give very gloomy accounts of the state of matters as far as the industrial classes are concerned.

Signor Verdi, the opera-singer, has filed hia schedule. - . -.

The reward for the discovery of the perpetrator of the Commercial Bank robbery was apportioned as follows: —Sub-inspector Brown, £100; Detective Mackajy. £60; Detectives Nixon and Ward,. £50 each; Detectives Considine and Porter, £30 each; three constables, £10 each; A. A. Corbett, £200; Maud Corbett, £150; Emily Corbett, £50; Henry Thome, £225; Edward Davis, £25. About 100 cases have been instituted against country publicans under the Trade Marks Statute by the customs officers. The Salvation Army barracks at Williamstown has been-placed in charge of Captain Jeannie W. White, a young woman from New • Zealand. ■ - Adelaide. An experienced person estimates the yield of wheat to be from eight to ten bushels of good plump grain. - The Chinaman Mah Poo has been hung for the murder of a countryman. ■■ Brisbane. The captain, second mate, and two of the crew of the labour schooner Alfred Vittery have been arrested for the murder of a Kanaka on board the vessel at sea.