Australian News.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 181, 3 February 1897, Page 2

Australian News.

James Lynch, aged 26, employed as fireman on board the Warrego, was smothered while the vessel was being coaled at Brisbane. An obstruction occurred in the coal. shoot, and Lynch was in the act of removing it with * crowbar when the coal, suddenly be* coming free, precipitated him to the bottom of the bankers. When he was relieved he was found to be dead. John Smart, aged bix, was bitten below the knee by a black snake abont Oft long while on his way to school at Captain's Flat, New South Wales. His brother Alfred, aped 10, who was with him at the time, immediately placed a ligature above the bite and hurried him into the local chemist's shep, where strychnine was successfully, applied. Patrick Gorman was proceeded against at the Warrnambool Police Court re-, cently on a charge of arson. The evidence disclosed that on New Year's Eve a storehouse occupied by th* accused was in flames, and he made no attempt to extinguish the fire. The flooring and ceiling were burning for about six hours and Gorman, it was said, was the only person about the place. During the fire, it was alleged, he removed all the furniture without damaging an article, and also took off the doors, windows and window-sashes, without breaking even a pane of glass. An examination of the premises, made subsequently revealed the fact that the flooring and ceiling boards were satuated with kerosene. The accused was committed for trial. James Hurst, who was supposed to have been drowned at Henley Beach on December 19, has been discovered at Broken Hill. Clothes belonging to Huts! were found at the beach, and in one of the pockets was a letter addressed to bis wife, who lives in Sydney, bidding her an affectionate farewell. The police searched for his body for some days, without any result. Hurst recently wrote to the Adelaide Steamship Com* pany from Broken Hill, directing them to forward to him a box be had left in their charge. The wife of the missing man, however, had previously requested the company to forward the box to her. The police were thereupon acquainted with the f acts, and Hurst is said to have admitted to the Broken Hill police that he left his old clothes at tbe Henley Beach, but declined to say anything further in the matter. By the mail steamer Polynesian, from Noumea, news has been received at Sydney of a murderous attack by a Japanese upon two girls, members of a well-to do family named Mercier, by wb,om tbe man was employed. The ats tack was made on the afternoon of the, 11th inst. While Miss Josepbine Bleis cier was taking a siesta^ the culprit stabbed her in sixteen plaoes, and her niece, who, went to her aid, wan stabbed four times, a table knife being the wea- ; pon used- Some male servants who mahed in grabbed the man, but be adroitly wounded himself, and declared. upon his arrest that he had decided to kill Miss Josephine and then die him* self.