AUSTALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2218, 16 June 1870, Page 2

AUSTALIAN NEWS.

An inquest was held at Armidalc lately ou the body of the bushranger Thunderbolt, when a verdict of “Justifiable Homicide” was returned by the jury. It seems that Constable Walker chased the outlaw for seven miles before bringing him to bay. Thunderbolt tried to make his escape by crossing a piece of water, but Walker came up and shot his horse. The constable then summoned Thunderbolt to surrender, but he refused, saying “ I’ll die first.” Walker replied, “ Then it is you or I for it, ” and fired, shooting the bushranger through the left breast, dead. The Colonial Secretary has ordered that Constable Walker shall be promoted and a reward granted to him. It is contemplated to strike a gold medal for the reward of members of the police force performing similar services. The following is the letter written to the Chief Commissioner of Police by the late Mr Parsons, before his death: —“ Kind friend—Please send some person or persons to Kew to take my corpse qut of the river there, saying nothing to anybody until you have dme so, —passing by the Kew Hotel and up Princes street to the line of the back fence of tin? Chief Justice’s premises, and proceeding thence to the river, ono end of a clothes lino will be found on the last post, and my body at the other in the water. Take it to a cheap receptacle near, from whence, when the law has done with it, it may bo buried in Kew Cemetery. Kindly at the inquest produce this and the two accompanying manuscript letters to the Queen. Of the printed one, many hundred copies arc already distributed in Melbourne. Mr Gaskin, office-keeper of this court, or some friend, will kindly identify my remains, to save the pain of any of my family being called. Kindly, too, insist on no verdict of ‘temporary insanity,’ or anything of the sort, being returned, but ‘found diwncd,’

or anything of that kind, to preVont my labors from being in death, as m fife, discredited. If you can get these papers into print, and myself thus better known, my memory—dear to my family—pay y e “ be esteemed. Unable to stem vice in life, I die to terrify it and escape the torture of unjust defeat and poverty. If ever laud lawtitle be again considered, I may here statehaving omitted it elsewhere —than an able English lawyer sent me word that he thought the suggestions of my pamphlet of August, 1563, one of the best systems the lauded interest could adopt. Kindly urge my family not to remove my remains from where you take them to until burial, and not to spend an unnecessary shilling over that.” A private letter received by the last English mail, states that the first of a new line .of steamers, intended for the London and Melbourne passenger trade, is being'constructed by Napier, of Glasgow. She is to be called the Queen of the Thames ; her burden will be equal to 2,600 tons, and her engines will be of 400 horse-power nominal. She is expected to be one of the fastest steamers afloat; and Capt. Macdonald, who is to command her, and under whose superintendence she is being constructed, is confident that she will be able to make the voyage between London and Melbourne in less than fifty days. She is to sail for Melbourne in September. The largest nugget yet found at Berlin was brought into the Bank of New South Wales on the 3rd iust. it weighed 1,1210z 15dwt, and is valued at upwards of L 4,000. The closing chapter in the life of Mr Gregory Nicholas of Fitzroy—an old colonist ■who had accumulated considerable property but who was not much known beyond the circle of his own friends—is possessed, of more than passing interest. His aged partner in life was to be buried yesterday, but the funeral was postponed in consequence of his own death, which took place 'within a few hours of the time named for removing the remains of his wife to the cemetery ; and to-day the aged couplo, who upwards of 50 years ago pledged their vows, will together be conveyed to their last resting-place. An acrobat, one of the Wielaud Brothers, yesterday morning was observed standing for a couple of hours in the middle of Bourke street, and on being asked what he was waiting for, he replied with much solemnity that he was in expectation of receiving the wrath of Go 1, which he anticipated would burst on his head in the shape of a thunderbolt. Scrjeant'Rerry removed him from the roadway to the watchhouso, and he was remanded for medical inquiry. At a pic nic in the Melbourne Botanical Gardens, a purse was awarded to the prettiest lady and the ugliest gentleman, A large concourse of people attended. Thq result of the action Troefiel v. Tho Colonial Bank, tried lately in the Supreme Court, Melbourne, will act as a warning to the banks not to be too hasty in dishonoring their customers’ acceptances. Troedol, who kept an account at the Colonial Bank, had a bill of his falling due on Saturday, Sth January, for L 238 10s. On the morning of that day there was L9l Kis 8d to his credit; at half-past 10 he paid in LBO, and at 12 o’clock he paid in LI 11, putting his account in funds to meet his acceptance. His last Snnjnt was not promptly entered by the w, In cqnsequeuoe of f'he press of busi? ness, there having been 10Q credits entered between half-past U and 12 on that day. The ledger-keeper examined the entries at about half-past 12, and not finding the entry of Llll to plaintiff’s account, and being ignorant of the payment, returned the bill for L”3S 10s dishonored. The defence to tho action was that the money was pot paid ip in a sufficiently reasonable time to enable tho bank clerks to become aware »f it; but the jury negatived this view, and, subject to a point reserved, gave a verdict for the plaintiff for Lsoo—the whole amount claimed in the declaration. The statistics published by tbe Government Zi .jd’dtll Australia with respect to the wheat harvest of 1869-70 fully explain tho disheartened feelings of the farmers in that colony. A 5 against an average of 9j bushels iu 1868, the yield of last year was only 5J bushels ; the respective totals being 5,173,970 bushels in 1868-69, and 0n1y3,052,320 bushels in 1869-70 ; tho falling off representing a pecuniary loss of upwards of three-quarters of a million sterling. Of course the surplus available for export is inconsiderable as compared with that of former years. Local con. sumption, the Reg Her estimates, will absorb something like 1,050,000 bushels, whilst seed for 540,000 acres will make away with about 810,000 bushels more. This will leave 1,200,000 bushels or thereabouts unappropriated, which, at 45 bushels to the ton, will leave 26,000 tons for exportation. This at the best is no great stock to fall back upon, and the returns of produce sent out of the colony show that already some 14,000 tons have been shipped to outside markets.