AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2120, 21 February 1870, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

A telegram from Brisbane says :—A lott r written bra resident of Roma states that the Cooper’s Creek Natives have spread a rumor that there is a whi'e man living with the blacks a long way to the west of Iloma, or north-west. It is also stated that the white man is thelast-surviv'ng representative of a large party of Europeans, who reached the locality many “ summers ” ago. The reason why he stayed was that he was cr ppled and unable to travel. His companions all died of fever. Some suppose that this story relates to Lcichardt's la«t expedition. The Hon, Charles Gavau Duffy lectured to a crowded and appreciative audience in the Polytechnic Hall, Melbourne, on the Cth inst, the subject being “ Why. is Ireland Poor and Discontented?” The lecturer asserted that Ireland was poor because she was habitually misgoverned, and that she was di-contented because all the effort-! which had be' n made to induce tho Imperial Parliament t > relievo her from the laws under which she had decayed had been mad-- in vain. Ireland, he contended, had been denied by law tho conditions under which all other agricultural countries had prospered, aid without which none of them had ever done so. These assertions were supported by a long array of facts, and the lecturer’s descriptions of the wrongs his country had endured, and the “accursed sights for ever burned, in his memory,” were listened to with the deepest sympathy. On Thursday, the 3rd instant, William Scott, a farmer residing at Strangoways, Wallan Wallan, Victoria, shot a man of unsound mind named Timothy Waul, a brother of Mr Ward, of Pyalong. It appeared that deceased called at the farm of Scott at dusk on tho above date, being armed with a heavy stick. Tins owns nobody in the house but Mrs S ott and hj r chidmi. The deceased is said to havo threatened to take the ife of Mrs Scott and to bu 11 down the stacks. One of Scott’s bti ! e girls ran out to die paddock for her who came towards the house. He was met bv deceased, who knoeiicd him down with a blow. iSsott then sent for bis gun and loaded it. The deceased aga.n knocked him down, and attempted to repeat tho blow wnile Seott was on the gro .ud, Scoit then cocked his gun, and shot the do* cased in the forehead, the shot having fatal effect- When Scott found tint the deceased was dead, he at once proceeded to Kdmore, and gave himself iijto custody. Ward’s brother stated that deceased had shown symptoms of insanity during the past twelve, months, and on the Ist inst. he attempted t»