AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXXII, Issue 57, 5 May 1924, Page 8

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

SAFE BLOWN OPEN. THIEVES' IiXVL OF £IOO. Sydney, April 25. Expert, safe-breakers are believe'! to have been responsible for the blowing open, with gelignite, or the strong-room und safe at the Vanelus" Council Chambers early yesterday morning. Notes to the value of £IOO were taken. Entry to the building was gained by forcing the front window with a jemmy. The door of the strongroom was then blown open, and a safe inside similarly treated. The s afe contained about £350 in cheques, bank notes, and silver, pari of the money being funds of the New South Wales Government Savings Bank, the branch of which is located there. The intruders took only about £IOO in hank notes. There was strong evidence that the intruders made a hasty exit, because bank notes and silver were found on the floor. The envelopes containing the wages of the municipal employees also were left behind, Mr John Hannani, a butcher, who lives opposite the council chambers, stated that he heard both explosions, but did not think of the possibility of safebreakers being at work. He armed himself, however, and went outside, hut could see no one. It is believed that it was the noise Mr Hannani made in opening his door which caused the safebreakers to decamp so hastily.

A .Mi: AN THEFT. SHOW RIDER ROBBED. Sydney, April 24. A mean theft was perpetrated . t i the Show Ground yesterday, when Mr ! Eric Weir, the well-known Show rider, was robbed of a .suit of clothes, £5 in money, a gold watch and chain, 0 medals, and the ribbons he had won for contests he was engaged in during the Royal Show. The articels were taken from Mr Weir's room at the Show Ground. While taking part in a hunting contest early in the day his mount. Glencoe fell at the sod wall. Ibwas removed by the ambulance to the Show Ground casualty room, and it was while the injured rider was recovering—he only received a bruised ankle—that some contemptible thief robbed him. TANK BURSTS. MAWS NARROW ESCAPE. West Maitland, April 23. A huge tank erected on piers 10ft high for the South Maitland railways, at East Greta Junction, bursl when filled for the first time. George Digby. shed foreman, had a narrow escape. The tank contained approximately 120 tons of water, and when the side collapsed with a loud report Digby was overwhelmed by the volume of escaping water. lie was carried along about 100 yards, and was picked up in a semi-conscious condition, with abrasions to the head, but recovered later. A large piece of iron was torn from the side of the tank and hurled some distance. ORANGE TRAGEDY. MANSLAUGHTER VERDICT. Dubbo, April 2:!. The sitting of the Circuit Couvt commenced at Dubbo before Mr Justice Campbell to-day. and the fir.st case was that against Thomas Henry Newton, charged with having feloniously and maliciously murdered Joseph Leslie Quinlan. ai East Orange, on February 13. Newton pleaded not guilty. The Crown Prosecutor, outlining the ease, said thai accused acknowledged to the police that he had si ruck Quinlan with the butt of a ride, and claimed that he had been driven to it by the conduct, of Quinlan with accused's wife. * Accused deposed that he had no intention of killing Quinlan. The act was not premeditated. The jury, after an hour's deliber.at ion, returned a verdict of int. j guilty of murder, but guilty of man--1 slaughter. Xewton was remanded Ut sentence.