OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2097, 3 May 1894, Page 5

OU R AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

(Fhom Our Own Correspondent.) Melbourne, April 11. SPEIGHT v. SYME.

In the appeal by the Age against the verdict on the one count in the first libel action, the judgment of the Fall Court was to uphold the verdict. The Age has thus lost its applications to the court both in the Speight and Alison Smith cases. The ground of appeal was that the causes of action having been joined a verdict on one could not be received until all the others had been disposed of; but the court, while admitting that there was a good deal in the point, held that it was the plain duty of the court to see that justice was done. Mr Speight had 11 causes of action, and if he were not to be allowed a verdict on one or any of them until a jury could agree on all of them, he might be deprived of justice till the day of judgment. There must be finality for a suitor who invoked the aid of the court, consequently the verdict on tha single count would stand. The order made by Mr Justice Hodges upon the verdict was, however, varied somewhat in order to make it clearer that the costs to be allowed to the plaintiff on the finding of the jury were the costs of the one issue only, and not the general costs of the action.

A BIG CONTRACTOR'S SUIT.

The hearing of the suit of Froudfoot v. the Railway Commissioners, which has reference to a number of large railway contracts carried out by the late David Froudfoot, a well-known railway contractor, was commenced in the Equity Court in Sydney last Wednesday. The amount involved is £1,030,000. The plaintiff is George Froudfoot. The application is for an order to restrain the defendants from signing judgment in two actions at law, or from taking any steps to have the actions dismissed in default of plaintiff filing his replication therein. The commissioners rest their case on the contention that the contracts were not carried out according to the specifications, while the plaintiff claims that they were executed as requested. The matter has already been several times before Parliament, but all attempts at settlement have failed. A very strong bar has been retained on both sides, arid the heating is likely t6 be a very protracted one. RAILWAY SALARIES IN NEW SOUTH

WALES.

In view of the decreasing revenue, the Railway Commissioners of New South Wales have decided to reduce the salaries of officials by 10 per cent. The reduction is to apply only to persons receiving over £200 a year. The commissioners, in notifying this decrease, state that there is no alternative but to take this course. It has not transpired whether the commissioners intend to reduce their own salaries. It has also been decided to rearrange the hours of work at Eveleigh and at other workshops throughout the colony.

The necessity for this step is shown by the fact that the railway revenue has shown a gradual fall during the year up to March 31 of £85,000 and of £107,000 since July 1, the drop being confined almost entirely to the passenger and mineral traffic, the former being responsible for £75,000 of the falling-off and the latter for £33,000. Mr Eddy states his belief that many people who formerly travelled first class now travel second class, while the stoppage of the silver-mining industry has caused great loss in the trade in minerals.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Despite the dissensions at the New Australia settlement, a number of people still have faith in the promoters and in the scheme. Mr W. W. Head, secretary for the trustees, alleges that 300 applications have been received for passages from Australia on the next voyage of the Royal Tar, and, as the ship can only accommodate 200 families, a third of the applicants will have to bo disappointed. A letter received from Mr A. Walker by Mr Head asserts that the men who were expelled were ejected because they had broken the rules relating to drink.

The libel action of Hayes v. the Australasian is occupying the Melbourne courts. The plaintiff is Jimmy Hayes, the well-known jockey, who, upon his license being refused by the V.R.C., was declared by the Australasian to be a puller of horses and a youth of bad character generally. The court is crowded all day with members of the racing fraternity, and among6t the witnesses are many of the leading jockeys and trainers, as well as popular racing men. Whatever the resiilt of the action tha evidence throws a lurid light on Hayes's methods and acts. According to Charley Budings, for example, he seemed to be going to turn a two-year-old into a steeplechaser at Moonee Valley, for he seemed to be unable to prevent his wiuning except by jumping the fences. He chased horses all over the course to clutch their bridles, and opened out to let them up on the rails only to jamb them when they tried to come. RidiDg St'onebroke on one occasion he could only loss by attempting to climb over another horse ; and the individual who was standing in with him in backing the other horse declared that such a wonderful piece of good riding he never saw. He was the boon companion of Billy Buck, Chuck Dalrymple,JGriffe, Joe Goddard, and other fighting men, and he would bring the " push '■' down on anyone who offended him with the remorseless energy of a Sydney larrikin. The principal witness against him is a young man named Scott, who began by backing Hayes's tipßj went on to ow'p horses, and ended a beggar. According to this individual's account Hayes once '^took down" his own father^ with whom he had had a quarrel. A la/i named William Horwood, aged }g years, sqn of Edwajrd Horwood. a groom reeling in Albert street, Brunswick, met with, a.

peculiar accident on Sunday morning. The little fellow was lacing his boots, and being unable to untie a knot in the lace he procured a fork for the purpose. In endeavouring to loosen the knot the lace broke, and the point of the fork entered the boy's eye, cutting the eyeball. The boy will lose the sight of one of his eyes.

News from the Murchison goldfield, in Western Australia, states that Mr R. A. Burdett, late part owner of the Rubicon mine, has committed suicide while in a state of temporary insanity. He went down a shaft 50ft deep there and cut a gash in each wrist, subsequently cutting his throat.

Miss Violet Varley, of the Williamson Comic Opera Company, had a narrow escape from being crushed to death by a lift in Melbourne. She did not notice that the lift was upstairs, and so stepped into the "well" instead of on to the floor of the lift. The " well " was 18in deep, and as she lay in it the lift descended. It had actually touched her before the boy in charge, hearing her and her sister's screams, stopped it.

An alarming railway collision— fortunately unattended with injury to life or limb, but reresulting in serious damage to rolling stock — took place the other morning at the West Footsoray station, near Melbourne. A few minutes after 8 a.m. a special excursion train from Adelaide, chartered by Messrs Cook and Son, the tourist agents, ran into a goods train which was crossing the main line, completely wrecking two trucks and damaging two others. As both the "distant" and "home" signals were against the main line, the driver, fireman, and guard of the excursion train were suspended pending a departmental inquiry. The result was that the driver has been discharged and the fireman reduced.

In Foy and Gibson's, in Collingwood, there are 1008 hands employed in the place, 655 of these being engaged in the clothing and other factories, while 353 are salesmen or otherwise employed. At the present time 250 dozen shirts are being turned out every week for the retail trade alone. For the last summer season 2000 dozen blouses were made. The 175 sewing machines at work are all driven by steam, so that tho seamstresses are relieved of that laborious part of their occupation. In cutting out the old-fashioned scissors is a thing of the' past, and a band-saw cuts out 20 dozen shirts, including every detail, at one operation, and puts through 130 dozen in a day. Eleven years ago 40 hands were employed in the place.

At the Central Criminal Court in Sydney the trial of Charles Montgomery and Thomas Williams for feloniously assaulting Contable Bowden with intent to murder took place before Mr Justice Stephen. The two men were the principals in an attempt to break into the Union Company's office in Bridge street, and while attempting to escape they were sought to be arrested by the police, five of whom were felled by frightful blows inflicted by jemmies carried by the accused. A verdict of guilty was returned, with a recommendation to mercy in the case of Williams. Both men were sentenced to death, the judge holding out no hope of mercy. Montgomery was unmoved, but Williams appeared to feel his position very keenly. A singular fatality is recorded from Sydney. When the Ulawarra train to Sydney was passing through the Obford tunnel, the driver, named Neild M'Ginley, fell on the cab of the locomotive in a faint, and his condition was only discovered when the train emerged from the tunnel at Otford. Efforts were made to restore him to consciousness, but without avail, so the fireman ran the train to Sydney, when his companion was conveyed to the St. Vincent's Hospital, where he died.