AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1804, 2 December 1879, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

[Via Bluff.] MELBOURNE, November 25. Mr Berry continues stumping the country in the hope of ii flueneing the elections. A call of the Assembly is made for the third reading of the Reform Bill, on December 2nd. The Bill will then be sent to tbs Council, and probably disposed of beforo Christmas.

There had been several rowdy scenes in the Assembly, but fair progress had been made with the Stamp Duties Bill, which occupied most attention.

The bushranging business at Wantabadgery has been the principal feature of interest. The four prisoners and two men shot dead were • taken on to Gundagai. There an inquest was held, and a verdict of “Justifiable homicide” returned. Constable Bowen, who was so bf-dly wounded, died on Sunday. At the inquest a verdict of “ Wilful murder” was returned against the prisoners. The prisoners will bo forwarded to Sydney and fried there. The following particulars will afford some idea of the encounter, which was carried on with all the skill and bravery of an engagement, and it is a wonder that no further casualties occurred. The country facing the house is elevated, and the police coming over the brow of the hill deployed in front of tho house. The encounter commenced and was carried on gallantly. Tho bushrangers’ horses having been frightened away, tho police advanced from tree to treo. Tho boy Wernecke held the slip-panel corner in a plucky manner for a considerable time. He shot Constable Berry's horse dead, and sent several bullet* unpleasantly close to Berry himself. So eager was tho youth for tho fray that he was continually endeavoring to find a new vantage point, but in changing his position ho was eventually shot through the side by Berry. In falling he cried out, “ Oh God, I am shot l and I am only fifteen,” His ago is entered in the police records as nineteen, but his appearance was that of a mero lad Constables Berry and Bowen then entered by the slip paneland made for tho kitchen, a detached building at the rear of tho house, to which the remainder of the gang had retreated. Bowen was shot through the neck, and fell down alongside tho boy Wtrnecke. Sergeant Carrol then moved cautiously round tho gable of the bouse, and rushed the kitchen, and the encounter then terminated as has been already described. There are bullet marks on several trees behind which the police stood, and six in the face of tho front wall of the house. The windows of the kitchen and its front wall are riddled, whilst many bullets are sticking inside tho wall. Tho member of the gang (Logan) who managed to evade the police when Moonlight surrendered was discovered by Mrs McGlsde next morning under her parents’ bod. He had at first concealed himself between tho mattrasees, and during the night want underneath altogether. Finding a hen’s nest with six eggs underneath, ho feasted on them. On his discovery, information was given to tho police, and he was duly arrested. Moonlight is a thorough scoundrel, and has led Iris unfortunate companions into this crime. Wernecke was the son of a hotelkeeper in Melbourne, and Williams is said to bo identical with Frank Johns, of Ballarat. Great sympathy is feit for Constable Bowen, who was tho son of a vicar in Pembrokeshire.

A heavy thunderstorm, with torrents of rain, occurred yesterday. A little boy of nine years named McGuire was killed by lightning when returning from school in Nicholson street, Filzroy. Tho Wylcy defalcations caused much surprise. The amount at the lowest estimate is about £IBCO, extended over a pretty long period. Tho slander action, “ Daily Telegraph" v Graham Berry, resulted in a verdict for plaintiff of £250, but several points were reserved for tho consideration of the full Court. Defendant was not called as a witness. Tho slander was that Mr Berry stated at a public meeting that ho had been told by a large squatter on the voyage to England that the whole of the Opposition Press except the “Argus ” was subsidised. Lystcr’s opera company, numbering over sixty people, and including Signora and Signor Coy, arc passengers aboard the Tararua. The crops generally I hroughout the country are satisfactory, but the prospects are very various, as in some parts the crops look very bad. Tho weather is not very favorable.