AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 105, 26 February 1891, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

'':♦■ : — - ' ''■'• By Electric Telegraph.— Copyright jPEIt UNITED PRKSS ASSOCIATION j Melbourne, February 24. During the voyage of the Houroto from New Zealand an unmarried woman who was a passenger, gave birth to a child. The Customs Department endeavoured to compel the Captain to enter into a band providing agninst the infant becoming a burden on the colony. He declined, and it has now been decided that the Customs and Immigration Department has no power to prevent the woman being landed. The Vegetable Products Commission is enquiring of Sir James Hector respecting the growth of New Zealand flax, which it is believed would be suitable for cultivation on the waste lands of the colony. Wilson, who murdered his sweetheart by cutting her throat, has been sentenced to death. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Mr Pound, metallurgist, on a charge of stealing platinum valued at £6000, belonging to-the Otway Ranges Platinum Company. The revelation* concerning this Company are the sentation of the week. It was started about 15 months ago, and consequent on a report by Mr Pound; shares, which were orig iDally worth 15s, rose at a bound to £35. Mr Cosmo Newbery, Government analyst, subsequently tested the ore, and failed to find a trace of platinum, upon which Mr Pound instituted a libel action against him. Sydney, February 25. An exhaustive report furnished to the Government on the deposits of iron in yarious parts of the colony, computes that 12,944,000 tons of ore are available, containing 5,853,000 tons of iron. Hobaet, February 25. The Supreme Court has refused to issue a writ of Habeas Corpus to i >aniel Trehey and Patrick Troy, arrested here on a charge of gold robbery at Greymouth. Brisbane, February 24 Squally weather is predicted over the ocean east and south-east from Gabo Island. Sydney, This Day. Alhngham, another officer of the English, Scottish and Australian Chartered Bank has been arrested for embezzlement. The defalcations are about