AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 3611, 18 September 1874, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

The Rev. Mr Omstein has tendered his resignation as minister of the Melbourne Hebrew congregation. An experimental message was sent from Sydney to Java and a reply received in 2min dbser, the distance travelled by the electric current being 8,700 miles. d;^i re w rkiib J e i “ B . taß ? e of » man immediately before death having a presentiment of ““.‘f te v } wlthoatan y a Pp are ntreas-on, occurred at the Benevolent institution, Melbourne, on the Bth mat. An inmate named John Mellos© when speaking to the doctor, said, “I think 1 will go upstairs and lie down on my bed and die.” He went up to his room, sat on the bed, and in a few minutes fell back and died. He was seventy -four years old. During the hearing of a case at the City Police Court, Melbourne, recently, in whLh a Chinaman bad been assaulted with stones by a crowd of b ys, a novel feature presented itself in the shape of an English youth, who acted as Chinese interpreter His name is William Henry Hutton, and he was brought down by the police from Beechworth to interpret in the Chinese lottery case. He speaks Chinese most fluently, and does not hesitate in the least for words. He astonished a Chinaman in the box by the manner in which he elicited the evidence. It appears that he spent two years and a-balf learning from books, and since then he has spent eight or mae years conversing in the language and now he can speak in seven teen different dialects of the Chin-se language, in addition to reading it One peculiarity he has is that he can ‘express himself m fewer words than the Chinest themselves. The criminal proceedings instituted against Captain Edgar, of the Oak worth, for not rendering assistance to the crew of the fishing smack which was run down by bis vessel off

OJd Head of Ktnsale on March 20, have resulted in hia acquittal. This decision wa irrivccl at by the jury, mainly, it would ap -ear. from the difficulty they experienced ii Hh interpretation (;{ an Act of the Imperil Parliament which the Court wa.without any guidance derivable from Englisl mtbority. As Mr J ustice Fellowes stated, in summing up—“ Before the jury could con vict they must be satisfied that it was prac finable to save one at least of the crew.’ The offence consisted “in omitting to d< something which, if done, would, in all human probability, have been attended with success. It was practicab’e, no doubt, to save ; but was it practicable to save V Thiswas the point on which the whole questioi turned, and in the conflict of testimony, and in the absence of precedents for the interpretation of so recent an addition to the Impe rial Statute Book, the jury leaned to the sidt ot mercy, and returned a verdict of “ not guilty.”

fc’ome reports that appear in the Melbourne papers show the length to which the larrikins of Melbourne go in violence and outrage. The magistrates at the City and citzroy Courts were on the same day called upon to deal with cases ia which gangs of these young ruffians having first behaved in such a way as to require the interference of the police had then joined in a savage attack on the constables. In one case the fact of the road having been newly metalled afforded them an ample supply of missiles, and. having furnished themselves w th these they pelted the constables with these projec lies till he was nearly stunned. Had not a sergeant come up just in time there was every reason to believe, from ihe evidence, that the policeman would have been murdered. As it was he was badly injured abeut th« bead, and the police sergeant who re* cue f him had his thumb broken, Iu dealing with this case the magistrates displayed what they no doubt considered severe iu fining the prisoner U5, or in default nine months’ imprisonment.