AUSTRALIA.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 349, 21 November 1879, Page 2

AUSTRALIA.

[Special to Mail.]

; i ■ ' ' Sydney, Nov. 20. Arrived—Wakatipu. ; ;<. , Sailed--Rotomahana. Passenger ffor Wellington, Dr Hector. " • Webster represents New i "Zealand at tlie Exhibition. . ,■ . .* At the inquest, held yesterday, on the two bushrangers shot, they were'identified as Nesbiti, an old Pentridge prisoner, and Wrence, ;aged nirieteen, the son of an hotelkceper in Melbourne. ' The prisoners are Bennett, Rogan, Lyon, and Moonlight.. • ,- (from the lyttelton times.) '''*._[ : . Sydney, "Niovv.lß. The Wontabadgerybushrkngers bailed up.over 30 persbiiS. ; :Gaptain Moori|ight and,Nesbjtt, .a .former' c'ompnjnion, were amongst the gang;., The'formor was the leader, and he was captured uninjured. Three civilians, goi«g ! tor the ' assistance of the police, fell into an ambuscade, and were allowed, five minutes" to prepare .for death. The police arriving , ,'a desperate fight ensued. : . . ; The bushranger captured was found concealed in a house close to the scene

of the encounter. Tlie constable wounded yesterday is in a critical state.

!The Wontabadgcry bushrangers have been indentified as Victorians. Five youths, under the leadership of Captain Moonlight, intended to rob the Gunda■gai.bank. Nov. 19. Captain Moonlight was training his gang for a bushranging career. He says that he intended to bail up # the Ghmdagai Banks, but tlie men commenced drinking at the Wontabadgery Hotel, and spoiled his gavr.e. At the ■station they-prepared.to hang 4»h(vo¥er-„ §eer for refusing rations. , Moonlight got a rope, ordered tlie gang to put Mr *Bajfrnes J ia,;a-::-b,ugg : }c, i ;,,driye io,.J)h,fc,first:; convenient branch, 1 &nd leave him suspended there, but the women's shrieks prevented! the accbniplishment "pf- the i deed. At the hut'where the final combat took place, the owner and his wife ■ r i.i .■ r ' '■ ■ ' ' f >'■ were inside. When the fight confmencedthe owner jumpdii into an undergroand dairy,.but .the bushrangers prevented his wife .folic wing,' saying that-the , police would cease firing when they discovered her, presence. .She got-up a stone chimney. The gang fought with the utmost. determination. r >,;: "■ : ]