OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11198, 22 August 1898, Page 3

OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

(From Our Own Corkespondent.) .MELBOURNE, August,l3.., STICKING UP A BANK. Penshursfc fi a small town in the Western district, has been the scene of a bank i robbery quite in the style of the old bushranging days. .At about 10 minutes before closing time a man entered the bank on pretence of business, and having overawed the manager (Mr Jamie- ■ son), who was the only officer, with a revolver, tied and gagged him. The man wore a full black beard and dark glasses, and spoke in broken English. When,he had the manager tied up, lie'shut" the door and put down the ; blinds, and proceeded to ransack the bank. ' One or two persons came to the bank door and, thinking matters suspicious, looked through' the window blind and saw the suspicious stranger. They went off for the local constable, but he was absent from the town. The man soon came out with over £500 in a black bag, and going to his buggy, which he had waiting, for him close by, drove off. So far his plans had been quite successful, but they broke down badly when he strove to leave the district, He had cut the telegraph wires, but word was soon conveyed to the : adjacent' towns, and, a stranger's movements were soon known to the police. Consequently he was soon arrested, having nroceeded by train to Ararat. He threw "he bag containing the money out of the train as it passed along! When he was arrested he gave the name of James Ryan, but was identified, as James Slattery,. a man well-known m j-the "Western district, and formerly secretary 'of a local Shearers' Union. At this period J of his history he contested an election against Mr Shiels, the ex-Premier and author of the well-known Divorce Bill. In the middle of July, 1896,' Slattery came to the front as the perpetrator of a very clever series of frauds on sharebrokers, by means of forging scrip of the Broken Hill Junction North Company, and selling it openly in the market. By this means he sold scrip to the value of £3600 to various brokers. Ultimately Slattery left Adelaide for .Melbourne with 1500 sovereigns, and a'bank draft for £1500. Within a few days the fraud was discovered, in Consequence of a'purchaser who desired his .scrip divided' into parcels forwarding his scrip to the office of the company in Melbourne. He was arrested in Melbourne through cashing the draft, and £965 was found in his possession. Of this ; £400 was lodged to the credit of a young girl to whom Slattery was engaged to bo married, but directly she learned how ;it was obtained she renounced all claim to it. Ditectiyei Macmaiiamny subsequently ob- j tamed a full confession from Slattery, and j he was extradited to South Australia, receiving three .years' and a-half hard labour. The 'girl to whom he was engaged was at one time in service in the bank at Penshurst, which no doubt accounts for / Slattery becoming ■familiar with it. '''■,'■ ANOTHER BUSHRANGING RAID. A regular bushranging exploit has been carried out in New South Wales, the mail coach j: running between'the mining township of ! Captain's Flat and Biingeudore being, the db- ; ject of attack. The outrage was planned with j a view to capturing the large cheques and remittances which it was known were to be paid over by the mining,companies at Captain's i Flat on Monday, and afterwards to be sent ; by the mail coach to Bungendore to be lodged • in the bank there., I The coach left Captain's Flat at half-past : 4 iii the afternoon, ;with six; passengers (of ; whom two R were ladies) and the driver, and, i when within six miles of. Bungendore two men 'suddenly rushed in front of the horses and peremptorily ordered the driver to "bailup." Thescommand came with such suddenness that in-the semi-darkness of the evening the mail-' .man did not realise that a deliberate atttempt ■ was being made to stick up the coach. • He j therefore" continued to urge his horses up the hill which they were ascending. One of the .robbers then presented a revolver, at_ the driver, and the other stood close by with a j gun levelled at the passengers. The*foremost bushranger (so'the driver alleges) snapped his revolver at the horses, evidently with the in--tention of shooting. them, whereupon ..the ;team was.pulled up. .'.-.''■ The men took the mail bags, and specially : asked for the registered mail bag, so that they had evidently been on the look-out for it. > The registered mail is supposed to have contained cheques, drawn principally by the Lake George Mines' Company, of the value of. over £1500.: One" business firm sent away, by the same mail a cheque for £550, and other lesser amounts ranging up to £250. The mail bags were found burnt, arid portions of -the cheques amongst them; so that it is difficult to kn6w what the robbers expected to -gain., , , : ' ■ '"-.'•'■'.' ' A young woman on the' coach displayed .great'bravery, and ■it is alleged that .she ■upbraided the mailman for. giving up the .bags without demur. ' She also took charge of large sums of money' from the'male passengers, which she secreted about her clothes." ■A man named King has been arrested on suspicion, and some of the money found oh him ■has been identified as portion of the contents'; of the mail bags. The. pistol, found on. the accused was a"tirijf"one-ofthis kind ilsed-by :children in firing flat percussion pellets.- It' Us also reported that what the other, man presented,was not a gun, buta stick. ~ A PLUCKY DOCTOR. : '• Mr ' Stirling, one of Melbourne's -best known surgeons, liad an exciting experience with a burglar the other night. The burglar was a French criminal'named Emil: Dubois. He broke into Mr Stirling's house in Rich-, mond at about 2 a.m. The doctor woke up to find the mail in his room with-a dark lantern, and he sprang out of bed after; him. without a moment's delay, and chased him dbwnstairs. In the hall; he overtook him, and knocked him down, then catching him by the throat and holding him safe on the 'floor.- Presently.-the rest of the household came on the spot, arid,two doctors from nextdoor were aroused, and the Frenchman handed over to the police. He.'1 had £25 of Mr Stirling's money, on him, and. a gold watch and chain. He had-taken the money alone first, and was putting on his boots in the hall .preparatory to'leayihg when lie. de : cided'to go back .for'the watch and chain, which proved his iindoing.

FAITH HEALING. A peculiar case of •" healing " has been made public in Adelaide. A few weeks ago iDr Poulton decided that Miss Annie Amelia Taylor, a patient of his, should .undergo an for hydatids. Instead, however, of going ,to him to be operated upon she went to the "Home of Truth," a building recently presented to;,' the Christian Meta* physical Society by a rich member of that, organisation, which has sprung into existence as the result of addresses delivered some time ago by Dr and Mrs Mills.. -Last week the girl came out of the Home of Truth, and Dr Poulton found it necessary,-to send her'to the lunatic asylum, his certificate being supported by Dr Giles.' Dr Poulton states that the hydatids have not been cured, and were not the cause ( of the girl's madness.

Mr Glover, the professional healer, who holds sway at the Home of Truth, says that it was fear of the operation which upset the girl's mental equilibrium, and adds; that his treatment mitigated the disease from which the girl was suffering. He'further states that he recently. went to her house, and directly he mentioned his name a young fellow, about 23 years of age, came out, and time after'time knocked him down, eventually driving him off the premises. The truth of this statement the girl's brother admits. Glover expresses his willingness to have the case inquired into by an independent committee of pressmen and doctors.

DANGERS OF CYCLE RACING.

One of the suburban councils in the neighbourhood of Melbourne has prohibited bicycle road races on1 account of the danger to traffic. Some definite action towards controlling road races and protecting riders against accident is likely to be taken also by the League of Wheelmen. Last Saturday a 25-mile road race was held, in which there was a field of 78 riders. A series of accidents occurred, some of which were serious, these being due to the absurdly large field permitted to compete on a roadway, only a small portion of which was, owing to the bad weather, fit to ride on. Dr" Adams has made the following report to the league on the matter: -—" As medical officer' at the 25-mile Championship on Saturday, I should like my-opinion to be recorded, and it is that, in future, unless the race can be run in heats, or several Satyrdays taken for the heats and "final, no 25-mile road race should take place, as where 76 men are starting and racing the road is too narrow. Cattle are about the road, and farmers' carts are continually obstructing the track. Linsted's Hotel on Saturday was nothing else than a hospital, the ambulance men and myself working for about lj hours, attending to men seriously injured. I saw seven men myself, one unconscious for half an hour, another with a dislocation of the left shoulder, and others with injuries too numerous to mention. I say it is asking men to attempt suicide in a novel manner to race under the conditions as on Saturday. Witti-three-quarters of a mile of the start 19 men fell."