VICTORIA.

Southland Times, Issue 1259, 31 May 1870, Page 2

VICTORIA.

The Census Bill has. .been read a. second time, and has been passed through Committee. It is rumoured that Mr [W. J. T. Clarke intends to resign his seat in the Legislative Council. ' The deposits in the. Savings Banks during the, past year :ainounted to £233,412. Severe floods have taken place in Gipps Land, and much property has been destroyed. The miners' claims were inundated, and two miners drowned. Three notorious characters, named Duncan, Watson, and Baxter, have been found guilty of burglary on the premises of Mr Anderson, jeweller. They have been remanded for sentence. • The shop of Mr Stephenson, watchmaker, Elizabeth street, has been destroyed by fire. . . • Herr Von Guerard, the well-known artist, has received the Order -of— Francis Joseph from the Emperor of Austria. Donald Cameron, an old resident at Smy thesdale, has murdered. his wife ihjt cutting her throat. ■ ; ; : The merchants and others interested in the grain trade, hare resolved to hold a public meeting to recognise the cental system, which is to' be brought : into operation on the Ist January, next. The Hay ward Testimonial Fund; has reached £100. < ■■ [ ~'J--The Melbourne Banking Company have • declared a dividend! of 8 per c^ent. • The Treasurer, Mr Francis, made his financial statement on the 17th, in a speech which lasted for upwards of three hours. He took a much less favorable view of the revenue than . his predecessor, Mr. Berry, who he considered had over-esti-mated the probable receipts for 1870 by £196,900, principally by expecting to redeive too much; tinder ' the heads territorial and customs. "While the late Treasurer proposed to expend £3,750,852, • Mr Francis believes he will be' able, to bring the expenditure of '. the country within £3,498,127, from which must, be deducted £38,599 for recoups from the railway and waterworks loans. This makes his estimate of the expenditure £291,324 lower than Mr Berry's. This reduction is brought about in a great measure by cutting down the estimates for public works, upon which £110,000 less is to be spent than was proposed by Mr Berry. The net result is that whereas Mr Berry

jsoectei to carry forward to 1871 *-" balance of only "£9,036,. Mr-rFcaucif ixpects to have at hia disposal for 1871k a mm of not less than. £92,000. Tb» liacussion upon the statement >was reserved until -to-nisfhfi. wbien the debate svill'be resumed by Mr k^rry.! Before bhe House • , rose, Mr HiginbothaTJ, referring to a passage in the Treasurer's address,- -stated his intention objecting bo any money being sp^nt upon itnmigrabion this year out of the general revenue until the matter hid besn discussed by bhe House, which led to (an iutimifcioa From the Government th\t~ the whole question of immigration would be brought before Parliamant at an earlv date. Thomas Webb Draper appeared the City Bench on the 14th, under a writ of habeas corpus on an information charg» ing; him, whilst in the employment of the Commercial Bank (Limited), with bavin?, on the 10th September, 1869, ; with intent to defraud, made in a certain book of account, to wit, a certain ledger, an entrypurporting to give credit to one F. 0. Klemm for certain moneys, to wit, the sum of £390, which said entry was then a false entry, contrary to the form of the Statute in that; case made and' provided. After evidence had been led for the prosecution, the prisoner was committed for trial at the Criminal Sessions to be held on the 23rd inst. , , ? The Attorney- General has decided not to proceed against the young man, Henry James Edwards, who was committed for the murder of Susan r Egan, and the prisoner has been set at liberty. The Queen's Birthday ' Company at Dunolly have struck the Goidsborough reef. Sixty, seven tons crashed yielded 72ozs. - ••- The brig Ben Nevis, from ' Newcastle, coal laden, which -struck on the Nepean.. Beef about midnight on the 20th, was got off and reached the jetty, _ w )> en she filled and grounded in 14ffc.;.of : water. 1 l ln the course of the next; aay Bhe gradually settled down ib the sand, and. her deck js now under water. ' 'No lives hive bean lost. . - . The contract for the first 56 miles of the North Eastern Railway has been definitely closed for the sum of £305,500. The, contractors V areoMessrs O'Grady, Leggatt, and Noonan. .T At the conference of delegates representing "the' Australian colonies to be held in Melbourne next month, it is proposed to submit the question of the protectorate "of the "Fiji Islands for consideration, with the object of their becoming an appanage of th'e British' Crown. ' ' " xu ' Li '"' The Great Britain arrived in Melbourne on the 15th, after a "passage 55 day?, with upwards' of 60Q.'passengers. A swindler, representing himself as a clergyman, has been travelling round the "Western District in a buggy, accompanied by a servant., He has been collecting subscriptions for the erection of a new-church at ChristchurchV said to have been burned down down by-Maoris. He seems to have been pretty suceessfur.iri-Hs/effoiffci. Probate was granted on the 19tlr to the will of Enoch Chambers, by Mr Justice .Molesworthj in the Eguity Court.^ The property. was sworn under £4u,060.' The Qeelong Advertiser states that deer have been shot within ten miles of. Steiglitz — not for sport, but byjarmers in order to preserve their crops., The deer, it is said, can be seen browsing 'about in herds numbering over fifteen and sixteen head. Eour members of one family residing in Talbot street, Bullarafc, have' been carried off in one week? by.:. diphtheria. Great sympathy is felt in the district for the unfortunate parents. A man named AlexanderJtJTatt,. aged : thirty-two years, committed suicide at North WiUiamstown on Jhe ijfternoon of the22rd, by tanging himseDTin a watercloset in Dover road. The deceased was formerly gunner, and recently an instructor, on board" the block-ship Sir Harry Smith ; but, owing to the reductions which had been made in the Government service, was discharged a fortnight ag^>. In March last his wife died, leaving him with, three : small children, rant} 'recently he lost his mother-in-law ; and it appears that these bereavements; with the/loss of his situation, had preyed upon his mind. Yesterday he. appeared "in his usual health, and after dinner went into the back premises of Mr Creighton, with whom he lived. He was gone about half an hour when be was discovered hanging in the watercloset, and ( on being cut down he was quite dead. It appears that the unfortunate man had committed the rash act in a most determined: manner. He had fixed one end of a piece of Manilla rope, to the-, ridge-board, and, standing upon the seat of the closed vhad placed Jbi§_head_ through a noose at the other end , and. ■ jumped- • off, his feet almost - tducHing the ground srhife ( jeuspjerided. The sum of £23 193 was found apon the body when searched at the morgue, where it now. awaits a .coroner's inquiry. We take the following particulars of a shocking" murder and J suicide from the Ballarat Evening Post t)f-the~ 2lst :— At half-past 9 this morning, the whole town was thrown into a, tremendoju^ state of excitement by a rumour,' twhichf' spread -with fire-like rapidity," that MrsTMDoss, the wife of Mr W. Moss, tinsmith, in Armstrong street, had been foully murdered by a man named James Cooke, of the firm of -Cpoke Brothers,, ironmongers, also of Armstrong street. .„ Unfortunately these terrifying rumours were correct. Upon hastening to the scene o£ ; -murder and suieide-i-the 'sWop of Mr Moss, ia Armstrong "stfeetYr-a horrible spectacle presented itself "to bur eyes. ... Stretched out upon the floor," covered Jwith crimson gore, the murderer, and his T unfortunate victim lajr within : few /inches 1 of each other, and their ghastly! counjt^naAces and vacant eyes struck terror into wes hearts of the onlookers. The various articleßih the shop were covered with blood, and bespatterred with the murdefe?s"brains7tbrming a sight'sickening "to behold. Thespectacla was one which baffles a -just; Nearthe murderer^ on the floor,, .shy the murderous weapon,- . a : ~" double^MMTelled gun, from the barrels of which the smoke

st

Tvas yet issuing. The smoke of powder — the bloody and brain-bespattered floor — "the mangled and horrible-looking corpses •of the murdered and the murderer — these were the things upon which we gazed, -while all around presented traces of the appalling crime committed. The circum stanceß attending the fatal affair, as nearly as can be ascertained, are as "follows : — At about five-and twenty minutes past 9 this morning, Cooke came into the shop of Mr M033 at the front entrance. Mr Moss was absent at the ■time, and Mrs Moss seeing Cooke come in the door, went into the shop and spoke to him. The subject of conversation, however, is not known. Elvira Dodds, a girl in the employ of Mr Moss, states that she was looking through a window, -and heard Cooke say, in answer, to Mrs Moss, " I'll be back in about five minutes." He came back, arid more unknown . -conversation ensued, when he took a black bottle from his pocket and swallowed some liquid from ifc- Mrs Moss asked him what he had taken, when, to the best of our informant's knowledge, he answered that it was strychnine. He then ran to the door, and nodded to somebody, who brought in a double-barrelled gun to him (borrowed by him from Mr Moss a few aays before). Fancying that something was about to happen, after Cooke had swallowed the contents of the bottle and obtained the gun in such a strange manner, ihe called out to Mrs Moss, who was then standing facing the shop door, and that unfortunate woman was just in the act of turning round when, he presented the gun at her and fired. The girl ran out at the back door for help, and immediately heard another report. Mr Killmister, saddler, being next door to the scene of the murderous calamity, hearing the first report,, ran with all speed into the place," and saw Cooke place the muzzle of the gun underneath his chin, and fire. The suicide i immediately fell, while the bloody brains and portions of the skull were blown about the room in various directions. Mr Killmister informs us that he was hardly two inches from the murderer when he took his own life, and that had he been a minute sooner he could possibly have prevented the Becond fatal shot being fired. The murderer and suicide, who fell with hi 8 head between his victim's legs, uttered no word, and made hardly any exclamation ; but, after a convulsive movement, lay perfectly still. Numberless reasons are assigned for this rash and fatal act, but this is alone known to those who have met with such a sudden and horrible death, and are now stretched in grim Tepose. May be 'twill be buried with them, and perhaps it's better so. An "inquest was held- upon the bodies in the course of the day; when "Walter George Cooke" deposed: I am an ironmonger, residing at 32 Armstrong street. Deceased was my brother. I saw him last alive at our own store, about ten minutes before the occurrence. We had been talking about business matters, and he seemed exceedingly strange in his manner — excited and flurried — but not from drink. He was not a drinker. Ido not think he took on an average one drink of intoxicating liquor a month. Por the past six months he has been very excited. He. would burst out crying. He did not appear to know anything about what he was doing. I have known him to forget things which have been brought under his notice almost immediately. He had complaiued lately of headache to a great extent. About a week since his head was so bad that he had to leave the business and go home. His brother would be twentyeight years of age on the 28th of next November^ In their verdict the jury stated that there was not sufficient evidence to show the state of deceased's mind.