AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 4134, 27 May 1876, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

(Per Arawnta at the Bluff.)

Melbourne May 22, Stevenson’s case still absorbs much public attention. Presentments against five of tbe defendants, inclnding Messrs Stevenson, Brind, and Wilkinson, have been filed, and will come on at the Criminal Court next month.

A second trial in the celebrated Lcarmonth and Bailley case is now proceeding at the Supreme Court.

The contract for furnishing thirteen rooms in the new Government House amounts to nearly L 12,000. John Roberts, junr., will play his first game of billiards in Melbourne this week. A man has been arrested for the horrible outrage perpetrated on Mrs Reece at BurShe baa identified him. A project is intended for the estab’ishment of sea-water baths with a capital of L 26.000. V Tb® Philadelphia Rifle team left for Wimbledon by the mail steamer. The amount a aired, LI.OOO, was raised by private snb ptions, in addition to a similar sum from tho Government.

• tho tragedian, returned in tho A orthnmberland. Nothing has been heard up to March 17 of the barque Skeorybore, which took Victorian exhibits to New York,

The convict Duffers, for a criminal assault on his own daughter, was hanged this morningat Castlemaine. The weather here is generally very favorable, but heavy rains, with partial floods, have occurred in Sydney. Mining generally is satisfactory.

Bird, the pedestrian, re'ently ran forty miles in five hours, the course being on part of the main road between Launceston and Hobartown, Tasmania.

At the Trentham Police Court, Victoria, a couple of weeks ago, au extraordinary scene occurred, AMr Lyon, who had just been appointed a Justice of the Peace, took his seat on the Bench for the first time, and had just given a verdict against a defendant, whoa the latter turned suddenly upon Mr Lyon and said ;—“Lyon, you are not fit to sit on the Bench; you are a sly-grog seller ; you know it and I can prove it. Ho was ordered to be locked up for twenty-four hours’ for contempt of Court, but ou apologising he was liberated. Mr Lyon then stood up and volunteered a statement to tho effect that ho had, when a wine and spirit merchant, many years ago, sold grog, but since he had been a saw-mili proprietor he had not done so; but during the time his tramway was being constructed he had supplied the men with a nobbier occasionally from a bottle out of his own private case. The great Adelaide “blackmail case ” has come to an issue. The trial resulted in a heavy verdict for the plaintiff. The Hon. Alex. Hay, M.L.C,, is the owner of a large sheep station at the North-west bend, Murray River. Near to or upon it is a section of about 950 acres, on which there is a valuable well. This section was advertised to be sold at public auction, with the improvements, which referred to tho well. It was absolutely essential to Mr Hay that he should get the well; the prosperity of his run depended upon it. Mr James White, M.L.A., knowing this, waited upon Mr Hay and threatened to oppose him at the sale if he did not let lum have a block of twenty-fivo square miles of country at the price he (Mr Hay) paid for it. This Mr Hay at first refused, but on consultation with his partner he thought it best to let White have the twenty-five miles of country. He told White in tho auction-room, aud the result was White did not bid, and Mr Hay got the well. These are the bulk of the facts sworn to, Mr Hay distinctly avers that he acted under pressure ; that he wanted to keen the twenty-five miles of country, but that he was glad to part with that rather than lose the well. It appeared that both Mr White and Mr Jenkin Coles, M.L.A., went to no less than four Ministers of the Crown to get the valuation of the section and well reduced; aud Mr Patterson, a witness, deposed that White told him he had had to pay Coles LSO to keep his mouth shut. Mr Justice Stow’s summing up was masterly in the extreme. He administered a rebuke both to White and Coles for their conduct in the matter, and thought it evidenced a low state of political morality, Tlie jury returned a verdict for Ll,Boo on the first count, and by consent a t olle prosequi was entered on the second count. The ver diet is subject to a few legal points, one of which involves the question of the validity of the sales of waste lands for years past. The attempt to establish an inebriates’ retreat in South Australia appears likely to be successful, Mr G. F. Angas had forwarded a cheque for L 750; thus bringing up his donation to the munificent sum of LI,OOO, aud Mr J. H. Anyas, M.P., gave L2JO, making LSOO subscribed by that gentlemau. The gross amount of subscriptions received to date was L 3,200, thus putting the committee in a position to claim the L 3,000 promised by the South Australian Government. The entire structure, when complete, will accommodate about sixty persons of both sexes and ail classes, Tho total cost will be about L 6,000.

A young woman named Mary Jano Fry, a native of Melbourne, committed suicide at the Arlington Five Dock Hotel, near Sydney, on April 27, by taking strychnine. The ovi deuce showed' (says tho ‘Sydney Morning Herald') that she was employed as a servant in the hotel. On the evening of April 27, a brick maker named Silas Keen was going along the Parramatta road, wheuheheard a whistle, which ho answered. He jumped over the fence, and in the paddock he saw tho deceased, whom he knew, walking about, about twenty yards from the road. She said, “ You devil, is it you? I thought it was Billy the sailor; have you seen him tonight ?” He asked her what she was doing in the paddock, and she said, “I have no other place to go to.” After desultory conversation, sho placed her two bands on the top rail of the fence, and commenced sobbing. He asked, “What is the matter, Mary ? Can Ido anything for you She made no reply, but fell, and he caught her in the act of falliug. She said, “Oh, Sil, I have done it. Tell Billy it is all through him.” She drew herself up, and went into a sort of convulsive fit, trembling all over. Ho procured assistance, but the girl died. The jury found “that Mary Jano Fry died from the effects of an overdose of strychnine, taken by herself, knowingly.”