AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 January 1903, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Sydney cabmen are iu revolt because the polios required them to wear a numbered enamelled badge on the arm, one outside the cab, and one inside. It has been conceded that the arm badge may be carried in the pocket. The chief objection to the badge for the outside of the body of ihe cab is that it bears a crown as well as the number, and the cabmen object to the crown as making their cabs appear to be Government property. They are appealing to tha Premier. Should he fail them, they propose to fight the matter in the Law Courts. The badges are a smaller edition of those worn by London cabmen.

A ninc-year-old boy fell 'into a dam at Beulah, Victoria, last week, and sank out of sight. One of his companions ran to a house 200 yards distant and informed the boy’s father, who was unable to swim, but who fished ihe boy out with a piece of fencing wire.. The boy was apparently dead, but he was brought to, after twenty minutes’ perseverance with remedies for restoring the" apparently drowned. Strange to say, the father, for the first time in his life, happened on the previous Sunday to read a pamphlet containing instructions regarding the restoring to life of persons recovered from the water, and this knowledge saved his son’s life.

The charred and fragmentary remains of Constable Doyle and Mr Dhalke, the victims in the Kennif murder case, are still in the possesion of the Registrar of the Queensland Supreme Court, and cannot be dealt with until the Executive has finally disposed of the cases. It will then be necessary to apply to the Court to have the remains handed over. The mothers of both deceased are anxious to have a combined funeral at Beaudesert.

Some weeks ago Lang and Hat pegged and leased some ground near the centre ot the Southern Cross township. Western Australia, where some gold had been found. They have worked the property since. A reef three feet wide, carrying one ounce of gold to the ton, with exceptionally rich pockets, was lately disclosed, and last week, at 40ffe, they unearthed a patch fully half gold. Nothing like the samples taken out, so it stated, have ever been seen in Southern Cross, the find equalling the sensational find made at Londonderry in the early days of Coolgardic. The stuff was exhibi'ed for the benefit of the Federal visitors on their way to the opening of the goldfields water scheme.

During a thunderstorm on the afternoon of Sunday, the dthinst., William Kemp, a resident of Sandringham, near Sydney, was struck by lightning and.. killed! Kemp and two companions had fceen out for a stroll, aud were returning home when the thunderstorm broke. There was no shelter in the vicinity, and the men ran to a high pine tree which was several hundred yards away. They were standing side by side close to the trunk of the tree when it was struck by lightning. The tree was shattered, and the bark was taken off the trunk. .Kemp fell to the ground, but his companions were uninjured, and ran into the open. They then went back to where deceased was lying, and found that he was dead. One boot was stripped from his foot, and crushed to atoms. The victim left a widow and seven children. The same lightnjpg storm knocked down a horse being driven in a sulky in another Sydney suburb, throwing out and injuring the driver, and on the same day a miner was killed in the country in the presence of his family, and a great fig tree was river close to Sydney while the owner’s family sat on the verandah a few yards off.

An enterprising indvidual, who gave the name of Emil Rondez.'and described himself as a foreign correspondent, was before the Melbourne Bench last week. Before coming to Australia Eondez familiarised himself with the names of members of English and Continental firms having agfencies in Sydney and Melbourne. In Melbourne he called on representatives of firms and informed them that he bad letters and reference

with Sydney agents. His first interview was with Mr Chester Adamson, representa'ive of Babcock and Wilcox. Having assured Mr Adamson that he knew all about the firm, Rondez mentioned that his wife had just died at Deniiiquin, and then grabbed him by the hands and sobbed bitterly. Adamson lent him £‘d. Several other business men filed into the witness-box and relate! their experience with Rondez, which were precisely the same as Mr Adamson’s except as to the amount of money with which they patted. On the complaint of Mr Adamson Eondez was arrested on a charge A false pretences. Tho story of the deceased’s wife was discounted on tho day after bis arrest by tho appearance at the Police Station of Mrs Rondez, “looking splendid,” as a Sub-Inspector informed the Court. Rondez; who spoke in Court whenever an opportunity offered, contradicted all tbjg witnesses flatly. He 'then entered the hex and proceeded to make a long speech in defonco. The chairman of the Bench found it necessary to apply the cloture, as Rondez appeared to be stonewalling with tho object of prolonging his liberty. The prisoner was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment, and accepted the decision of the Bench with cheerful complacence. Mr John Bale, some eight or ten years ago secured certain rights from the New South Wales Government to found an experimental coffee-growing station at Wolbin Island, on the Clarence River. There he planted out several acres of young coffee trees, which are now in full bearing. Already he has harvested 30,0001 bof berries, and has still another 10,0001 bto gather. This means that each tree’s yield is from 501 b to 601 b, or 15 lib tins of the prepared article. Realised at Is per tin, tho revenue represents a handsome income as the trees are planted in rows about 20 feet apart. At this rate, and providing that a market can be secured fn* the product, the industry on the same basis of success ought to give returns much more handsome than any of the subtropical crops raised on the north coast. The drawback to farmers used to returns ranging from monthly to yearly is that there is no yield from the coffee trees till they are four years old, and then they are not in full bearing. Besides raising the coffee in its raw state, he has also roasting appliances and modem grinding machinery, and turns out the coffee in labelled tins ready for the market. Probably coffee will yet be grown with commercial success north of Auckland, where the climate is similar to that of the Clarence.