Later Australian News.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1697, 27 July 1875, Page 3

Later Australian News.

[By the 'Lochnagar.']

By the Lochnagar, which arrived to-day from Newcastle, after a splendid passage of seven days, we have later Australian news. CON TK OVERS V BETWPEN THE CHIEF JUSTICE AND GOVERNOR. A rather undignified controversy in the press has occurred between the Chief Justice and Sir Hercules Bobinson over Gardiner's case. In one letter the Chief Justice says:— "I was much buiprised that that conversation had been used by his Excellency for the purpose of justifying his conduct in the matter of Gardiner's liberation. I understood i* to be distinctly, and no request was ever made to me to allow it to be communicated to any one. As it has now been imperfectly and inaccurately made public, by his Excellency, I feel myself not only at liberty but bound to state how I was drawn into it, and what really was the substance of it. I suppress (for the present, at all events) the reason given by his Excellency for wishing to obtain his opinion and advice. He, no doubt, recollects as well as I do what he said If circumstances rendered it necessary for me to state that reason, I shall most certainly state it, but I pass it by on ILis occasion. It is sufficient now to say that I was requested to call upon his Excellency. I did so, and on his stating why he sent for me I gave it to him as my clear opinion that he' had made a mistake in promising to liberate Gardiner. I told him that I was certain that such liberation would be disapproved by the authorities in England, and that it was condemned by public opinion in this colony. I advised him notwithstanding the intimation given of his intention to release Gardiner, to state that that intention would be carried out, and I added that that was the only way in which he could escape from the difficulty in which he was placed. He referred to the printed papers, and said that he really had not in direct terms pledged himself to release Gardiner, but that he nevertheless considered that the honour of the Crown required that the promise subsequently made to Gardiner ought to be kept at all hazards. I discussed the matter with him at considerable length, reiterating several times the opinion which I had first expressed.' The Chief Justice concludes: "If I had had the least suspicion that his Excellency intended to quote me to the Secretary of State as approviag.of the course taken by him, in making the promise, I should most certainly have declined to have any conversation with him on Gardner's case at all." SHOCKING DEATH FROM BURNING. On last Sunday evening about 8 o'clock (reports the Inverrell Times) a sad catastrophe occurred in the near neighbourhood of InvereU. A weatherboard house, roofed

with bark, and in the occupation of a man named W. Browne, caught fire. Many made their way over the M 'Intyre to the scene of the mishap, when it v/cts f<-uod that the house—roof, walls, unri nil Us belongings - was one complete glow t.i llama. Whilst, the onlookers were siandicgby witnessing the destruction .of the building, some one casually remarked that he thought he saw a human body in the flame, others thought the object to be a log. It at length, however, became evident that what all eyes were now fastened on was certain!v the remains of a human being either male or female. Some long sticks were procured, and after a little time the charred trunk of the man William Browne was raked out, a seething mass of flesh, from the debris of red coals and ashes. Both arms and legs had been quite separated from the body, and the head dropped off whilst being placed in the coffin.ltwouldappearthattheunfortunateman was unmarried, and that he had been drinking, several persons having seen him under the influence of liquor on Sunday. The cause of the fire is entirely presumptive. Most likely he had lain down in a condition of helpless drunkenness with a large straggling lire on, which caught the woodwork of either the floor or walls.