AUSTRALIAN SUMMARY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 11387, 1 October 1891, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN SUMMARY.

« THE MEMBER FOB REDFERN. THE MUKCHISON GOLDFIELD. STRIKE OF LAUNDRESSES. A NOTABLE SUSPENSION BRIDGE. [Br Telegraph.] (Per s.B. Wairarapa at the Bluff.) Melbourne, September 22. The case of Janies Peter Howe. M.L.A.. for Redfern, late Chairman of the Australian Mercantile Loan and Mercantile Guarantee Company, charged with fraudulently obtaining dßo9o from the company, is exciting much interest in Sydney . According to the records of the KegistrarGeneraFs Department, Howe bought certain land in 1887 for .£6O, and in March last transferred it to one Cree, the price being recorded as JS6SO, and seven days later the land was sold to the company for .£6OO. Howe was in the chair when the purchase was decided on, Cree receiving an uncrossed cheque for the purchase money. Startling revelations are not improbable, as several other arrests have been threatenod. The case was remanded, and bail allowed the accused in two sureties of 45100 oach. Messrs Dibbs and "Willis, M.L.C.'s, became the sureties. In South Australia the loss from the locust plague last year is estimated at .£IOO,OOO. A party have returned to Geraldton from the Murchison gold fields, where the rich finds wero recently reported, and state that 250 men are on tha ground and 200 on route, but that owing to scarcity of water the field is no good as an alluvial one, and will not support more than a score or so. Two men are reported to hive an immense quantity of gold in their possession. j The Rev. ffeorge Walters, who was appointed arbitrator in the recent liun dreseos'strikeat Pyrmont Steam Laundry Sjdney, has givon his decision. He says from tli6 evidence brought before him he was compelled to decide that the record of Miss Minnery's previous conduct did not justify her discharge, which was the cause of the strike. The construction of the North Sydney suspension bridge has been commenced. It will be the third largest in the world f and will cost between four and five hun drod thousand : '