LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume VI, Issue 399, 4 August 1868, Page 3

LATEST INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

A Camperdown correspondent of a Geelong journal communicates some addi- < tional particulars connected with a recent murder and suicide : — " I sent you by yeiterday's mail information concerning the murder of a young woman named Lucretia Buckingham by a man named William Ferry, and also that he had committed suicide. I have just returned from attending the inquest on the bodies. | jßkving only about half an hour till post time, I can but send you an outline and will give you the evidence taken before the coroner by next mail. About four o'clock yesterday afternoon, just as a prolonged sitting of the police court was over, hearing that Mr. Wm. H. Hinchcliff, the coroner, was about to start for Cobden, to which place the bodies had been removed, I at once started, and at half-past six o'clock a jury was empanelled to consider the evidence as to the death of Lucretia Buckingham. On proceeding to view the body, such a sight met the eye that I, for myself, would never wish to see again. The murderer had evidently been close to his victim ; the muzzle of the gun must have been close to the girl's face. The ball had entered the eye, and the powder had burnt and blackened the face. On the opposite side of the room lay the body of the man who committed suicide, and who was supposed to have murdered the girl He had evidently been determined ; the muzzle of the gun must have been close to his breast „ when he fired off the charge. The examination of the witnesses in the first case was concluded at a quarter-past ten, and in a quarter of an hour the jury brought jn a verdict that the deceased, Lucretia Buckingham, had been murdered by some person unknown, there being no evidence before them sufficient to fix the charge on a particular party, but a very strong suspicion was attached to the deceased Wm. Ferry. The second inquest began at eleven o'clock, and was not concluded till half-past two o'clock yesterday morning. Several witnesses were examined. The verdict was that the deceased, Wm.' Perry, had killed himself by shooting himself with a gun, being so closely pursued by the police. The deceased Wm. Perry was A man of about 32 years of age, and it appears was desirous of paying his addresses to the girl Lucretia Buckingham, and it is supposed that the fact of the girl being more partial to a young man who resides in Cobden has led to this atrocious murder and determined suicide." — Herald. A poor girl, named Kate Doherty, appeared before Mr Sturt on the 16th nit, charged with deserting her infant at a cottagp near Mr S. Ramsden's papermill. Dr M'Gaurin, of the Industrial Schools, said that the child died from want of nourishment, and not from exposure. Under these circumstances the girl was discharged, and is for the present

at the Immigrants' Home. The girl came out to the colony in the ship Canterbury, and, we believe, is one of the females sent from England by Miss llye. It seems that the girl could not be kept «at the' Immigration Hospital after the child was born ; Mr Sturt could not send her to the charitable institutions, and she took a situation as wet-nurse, whilst she promised to pay a small sum to a woman to feed her newly-born infant with a bottle. The recompense the girl Doherty received was bo small that she could not maintain herself and her child, and had to wander about the city without food or shelter. It was then— and not till then — she was compelled to part with her child, and left it at the cottage because she thought she was saving its life. The history is a painful one, and shows that whilst the strictest inquiries should be made in granting admissions to the Industrial Schools, something ought to be done to meet a heartrending case like this one. — Herald. "An act of unheard of atrocity," says the Kilmwe Examiner, " has been perpetrated here. While Mr Matthew Nunan, a member of the Bylands and Glenburnie Road Board, was attending his duties at the last meeting of that board, he left his horse outside the board's office, with saddle and bridle on. When the business was concluded, he came out, but the horse had vanished. A few days afterwards it was found upon the common, minus the saddle and bridle, and with both eyes gouged out. It is believed that the horse was taken away by a man who has a petty spite against Mr Nunan, and then subjected to the barbarous treatment detailed above. In a case of this sort the Government ought to offer a large reward for the apprehension of the scoundrel." A number of Orangemen residing at Pennant-hills, are to be prosecuted under the Party Processions Act, for marching together to church, although in doing so they had neither banners nor insignia of any description. Hiß Excellency the Governor has forwarded to the trustees of the Public Library a donation of books from Her Majesty. His Excellency's letter accompanying the graceful gift is as follows : — "Government Offices, Melbourne, 14th July, 1868.— Sir— The Right Honorable the Secretary of State has, by command of Her Majesty the Queen, transmitted to my care the accompanying copies of ' The Early Years of his Royal Highness the Prince Consort,' and 'Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands,' each bearing Her Majesty's autograph signature. Her Majesty desires that these books may be placed in the Melbourne Public Library, to which institution they are presented by the Queen both as tokens of the interest with which Her Majesty regards the development of institutions which tend to the spread of knowledge and intelligence in her colonial possessions, and because she believes that these records of the earlier days of their Sovereign and the Prince Consort will not fail to be valued by her subjects in this colony. — I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient servant (Signed), J. H. T. Manners Sutton." A sudden accession to fortune has occurred lately to a well-known resident of Majorca, named Louis Scomortaji, a native of Hungary, and who with a number of others was exiled from his country on account of his partnership with Kossuth over twenty years ago. We understand that at that time he held the title of count, and was possessed of estates equal in value to L45,0<30 per annum, which, however, were confiscated by the Austrian Government. By a recent amnesty granted in his favor, and that of other exiled nobles, he has again become owner of his fortune and title. Our informant is one on whose veracity we have every dependence, and who informs us that he had seen the documents proving the noble exile's right to the titles and estates in question. — Talbot Leader, July 10. An accident occurred on board the ship Sir William" Wallace, at Williamstown, about eight o'clock on Thursday morning, 16th inst, to Henry W. Brookes, an ordinary seaman, who lost his life by falling from the foretopgallant yard on to the deck. He was sent aloft by the mate to reeve the fore-signal-halyards, for the purpose of hoistiTig a flag for the pflot, the ship being ready for sea, and it is supposed that in coming down he lost his balance, and fell backwards. The poor ! fellow was killed on the spot, a portion of his skull having been driven in upon the brain. An inquest was held on the body at Williamstown on the same afternoon, before Dr Maclean, when the jury returned a verdict that the lad was accidentally killed by falling from aloft. The deceased was sixteen years old, and was born in London.