Late Australian News.

Hastings Standard, Issue 303, 22 April 1897, Page 4

Late Australian News.

[N.Z. Times.] Tho Women's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (N.S.W.) is seeking to induce 'bus proprietors to place notices in their vehicles drawing attention to the effects of constant stoppages on the horses. " A sum of £2OO a year is a miserable stipend for a minister. How anyone in the position of a minister can keep a wife a family on such a stipend without being scandalously dressed and housed, I do not know."—The Rev A. Stewart, at the Melbourne Presbytery. The Rev D. Fraser urged that the General Assembly should protest against the miserable, shabby gentility to which many of its ministers were reduced. It was no encouragement to young men foxenter the ministry when such salaries were offered. A 14-months-old child, son of -John Gillies, Collingwood (Vic.), while sleeping in its cot, slipped between the side bars, and was caught by the neck, and as its feet did not reach the floor, the child was suffocated. Mr Percy Taylor Faviell, a retired sugar planter, fell overboard from the steamer Albert in the Lower Yarra on the night of April 3rd, and was drowned immediately. He was for many years a sugar planter in Queensland. He was sitting on the gunwale lighting his pipe when he fell overboard, and it is supposed that he was the victim of some sudden heart attack. A man named Edward Augustus Donnelly was killed by lightning at Bathurst (N.S.W.) on Sunday, 4th inst. He was walking down the street with a man named Marks, when a vivid flash of lightning, followed by a terrific clap of thunder, occurred. The lightning struck Donnelly on the head, passed down his body, tearing his clothes to ribbons, and forcing one of his boots off. Marks, who was walking on the outside of the footpath, was also struck, but not fatally injured. He was thrown to the ground, and for a time his lower limbs were paralysed, but eventually he recovered. Donnelly, who was a young man, only recently passed the matriculation examination. A stylishly - dressed young man named John Henry Swales was charged at the Melbourne City Court with obtaining £3O by false pretences from a young lady named Julia McKewon. The evidence given disclosed a heartless case of swindling. While travelling pn board the mail steamer Oruba, Swales won the affections of the young woman, and promised to marry her. He then set to work to systematically obtain her money by false representations. He obtained £BO altogether, and asked for another £2O, when her suspicions were aroused. Swales has been living in high style at the St. Kilda Coffee Palace, but when arrested only had 5d on him, having, he says, lost the young lady's money at the races. He is a married man, and the police described him as a ne'er-do-well, who had been sent away from England by his father. The chairman told the accused that he was a cowardly and impudent blackguard, and sentenced him to 12 months' imprisonment. Improved supervision of the fruitgrowing iudustry is to be inaugurated in Victoria on the 14th May, When an election is to be held throughout the colony of 10 district boards of advice, to assist inspectors for the Agricultural Department in detecting and treating fruit diseases. Each board will consist of seven members, and will be elected by the fruit-growers. Another effort is being made at Mildura (South Australia) to establish a municipal hotel on the Gothenberg system. The applications to the Victorian Minister of Agriculture for phylloxeraproof vine cuttings already far exceed the full number proposed to be procured, and more requests are coming to hand every day. Signor Bragato reports that the Minister will probably require to order from France about 1,000,000 cuttings. The attention of Government officers in Victoria charged with the ordering of stores has been particularly drawn by the Acting-Premier to the importance of securing supplies of local production in all cases where this can be done without detriment to public interests. A youth of 18, employed in a Melbourne warehouse, is charged with fraudulently obtaining soft goods by an ingenious ruse. It is stated that on purchasing some trivial article, he would get the head of the department to initial the wrapper of his purchase, and on exhibiting this at the door he would be permitted to carry his parcel away. Later on, however, he would bring the same wrapping-paper back, and use it as a cover to the goods misappropriated. The young man, who has admitted his offence, says he has been spending all his earnings in tote shops. Six members of a family of nine, named Wailes, are at present in the Homoeopathic Hospital, Melbourne, suffering from typhoid fever, the origin of which has been traced to the drinking of water from an underground tank. A lad driving a baker's cart was - stuck up at AxeJaie, near Bendigo, by a swagman, who tied him to the splashboard and relieved him of his day's takings. The high irayiuan was afterwards arrested. Under the new Companies Act in Victoria all accountants and auditors who wish to continue in practice must obtain licenses before the 21th June. Applications must be submitted to the Board of Audr.or-. and :Lt board will notify Candida*. - t--> at:< tiJ ■ >.amiiiatiou, if ;h« y ci: inc. r.<-: u> t-\t •" A new L-.ji.i' :■ r d--tiiute y. men i- -hortiy to !•<. o!»-ned in M I bourne. Importers in Victoria of nursery tree- or n m will be required after May to rt por' their arrival to the chairman ci Central Board, i

whereupon, at tho expense of the consignee, they will be tajken to quarantine in the Horticultural Gardens at Burnley. From that establishment j they will be re-issued when it has been ascertained that they are entirely free from disense.