AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 3687, 16 December 1874, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NOTES.

EXTRAORDINAUY HALLUCINATION AND SUICIDE

From the * Bendigo Advertiser * we learn that on the 15 hj ult. a married woman named Fann deliberately committed suicid by throwing herself into the Campasj e at FcMica. fche ha t previously gone to the police station, and wanted to deliver herse'f np stating that she had committed a robb ry, but the police refuse 1 to take her in charge frhe thereupon immediately went to the river and threw herself in. A boy, who witnessed tne act, ran to the spot, and her body was got out before it sank It was still warm, but all efforts to resuscitate her were unavailing, life being extinct. A RELIGIOUS LUNATIC. The ‘Border Posi,’ reports that two farmers, who reside at Baruawartha, discovered a man under a tree in the bush, praying loudly and fervently for forgiveness, and beseeching the Lord to transport him anywhere from this wicked world. He was barefooted and bareheaded, and nearly naked. They recognised the poor fellow as Henry Peid, the senior partner of the firm of Beid and Watts. He was remanded to Beech worth gael for eight days for medical treatment. He is praying incessantly, repeating passages from the Bible, and chanting spiritual hymns. Eeid’s wife, it seems, separated from him, taking the children along with her, and now beeps a publichouse in Fitzroy ■ or Colliugwood, in Melbourne. CUPIOUS CHANGE OV PERJURY. Two cases were brought before the Hobart Town Police Court, on the 17th instant, by the police authorities against two young girls, the charge being that of perjury. According to the reports in the ‘ Tribune ’ of the following day. they had given evidence in a recent case where the police charged a young seafaring man with an assault, wherein they stated that they did not see the assault, although acknowledging to having seen the arrest, at which time the assault took place, whereas, according to the information, “they must have seen it.” The novelty in this case is the fact that sufficient proof should have been adduced as to whether the girls actually distinguished between an assault on, and a resistence of, the police as to warrant the magistrates in committing ope of the defendants. The solicitor for the defence said that a witness would be gifted with great nicety of judgment who could say that the legs of Madden, as they were coiled round the policeman, were being us d in the act of wilful kicking, or in spasmodic attempts to release himself from his position on the ground. He then referred to the experiment made by fcir Walter Raleit-h, in writing down an accurate statement of a circumstance that occurred under his very eyes, and then obtained accounts of it from several other p rsons who witnessed it, all of which differed mateiially or collaterally The evidence, thejgirl who was committed gave, was that she did not see Madden atsault the constables, but that it appeared to her he was only struggling to get away. She said, in cross examination, that she would swear Madden had only struggled with his legs, and that ho did not kick Brennan. A COURAGEOUS LAD. One of those gallant and courageous acts, the ‘ Kyneton < >bserver’ writes, the frequent occurrence of which in this Colony has fully sustained the fact of Colonial boys being worthy inheritors of British pluck, occurred near Kyneton. A child eighteen months old, the daughter of Mr Hartigan, was playing near the mouth of an open well, and, crawling too near the edge, fell in. The mother missed the child almost simultaneously with its disappearance, and instinctively called out for assistance. A lad, thirteen years of age, named Michael Doyle, working for Mr James Hall—whose premises adjoin those of fit flartigaa—rushed to the well, and just

saw the little child far below. The well is twenty feet deep, and contains eight feet of water, but without pausing for a sec'-nd th> brave boy caught the rope, and descending hand over hand, dived under the water. After two attempts he succeeded in grasping the object of his search. Mrs Hall having by this time arrived to the assistance of the mother, the two ladies drew up the insensible child and her noble rescuer. Boyle was greatly exhausted, and the infant was at first thought to be dead, and it was only after half an hour’s most assiduous attention that she was resuscitated. MARVELLOUS INSTINCT IN A DOR, The f 'flowing circumstances are related by the ‘ Gawler Bunyip’ : _A dog belonging to one of Mr./. Keynes’s shepherds at an outstation in the Murray scrub suddenly appeared at the head station unaccompanied y its master, and alone. Mr Keynes, naturally feeling some alarm at so nnusuai an ocourre? ce. and apprehensive that some thing serious might have befallen the dog’s mas er, immediately dispatched a messenger to the out-station, where he found that the shepherd had been struck down by a sudden attack of measles, and had despatched the dog to Mr Keynes, a distance of titty miles, as his only means of communicating to him that something was amiss. ( n ascertaining this r markable fact, medical help was promptly sent to the invalided shepherd, who was brought to head-quarters, and is now restored to health.