CABLE BRIEFS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3776, 15 October 1907, Page 3

CABLE BRIEFS.

Sydney, October 12. George Tofft was yesterday sentenced to death on a charge of murdering Maud Fletcher at Quirindi on July 29th last. [Evidence given at the inquest regarding the Quirindi tragedy (in which George Tofft shot his sweetheart, Maud Fletcher), disclosed an atrociously cold-blooded crime. The mother’s statement showed that Tofft decoyed the girl to a neighbouring house, and thrashed her severely. The mother with her family, waited outside her residence for her husband’s return, he having gone for the police. Tofft appeared, and the women and children ran into a paddock of wheat. Tofft ran after them, and put his gun on top of a wire fence. The family all got through the fence, and witness hung on to Tofft, and said : “ For God’s sake, don’t shoot my child.” He leant the gun on the top of the wires and fired at witness’s daughter, Maud, who fell, crying out, “Oh mother.” Tofft then rushed through the fence and started belting into Maud with the gun as she was lying down. The girl was only sixteen years of age. London, October 12.

The wife of a collier at Sleehum, in Northumberland, became demented after a long illness and drowned her five children. She then committed suicide. London, October n.

The Right Hon. D. LloydGeorge, interviewed while in Wales, declared that the last Education Bill was the greatest and most drastic measure in the direction of the disestablishment and disendowment of the State Church ever proposed. It would have disestablished 13,000 church seminaries, daily attended by two and a half million children. Belgrade, October 12. M. Jerovics, ex-Prefect of Police in Belgrade, disclaims all responsibility for the murder of M. Novakovics and his companion in the city prison. M. Jerovics declares that M. Pretovitch, Minister for the Interior, was present when both were killed. [On the Ist iust. it was reported that M. Novakovics, the editor of an anti-regicide journal in Belgrade, and an anti-regicide officer, both of whom had been long imprisoned on a minor charge without trial, began firing rifles in the gaol in order to arouse the populace. It was alleged that, after wounding two gendarmes, the prisoners committed suicide, M. Novakovics had been offered his liberty if he would cease attacking the reigning dynasty: but he had refused to agree to these conditions. Subsequently an autopsy on the bodies showed that M. Novakovics and his companion did not commit suicide. Relatives of the dead men charged the Prefect of Police with murder, in ordering the gendarmes to fire on the prisoners. The affair caused great excitement in the city, where it was looked upon as illustrating the Government’s methods of persecuting anti-regicides,] London, October 13.

Mr Andrew Bonar Law, Conservative member for Dulwich, and late Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, speaking at Newcastle, said that within a few months the price of corn had increased eightfold. This was as much as the whole of the suggested corn tax would amount to yet it had not much affected the price of bread. Pretoria, October n. A cable message despatched on October 4th stated that Sir Albert Spicer, Liberal M.P. for Hackney Central, after visiting the compounds, had declared that the Chinese were the spoiled children of the Rand. In another reference to the subject Sir Albert Spicer declares that he is still utterly opposed to Chinese immigration into the Transvaal. EMIGRATION RIVALS. London, October 12. The president of the British Passenger Agents Association complains that religious organisations are competing in the emigrating business, by sending away socalled “whitewashed characters,” who will not compare with the honest artisans and agriculturalists whom the agents wish to ship. BETTER ROADS FOR MOTORS. Paris, October n. France is initiating an international congress for 1908 to discuss the problem of rendering roads suitable for automobile traffic. THE DEADLY PTOMAINE. Adelaide, October 12, Between thirty and forty people are suffering from ptomaine poisoning. The poisoning has been traced to custard eaten in a city restaurant. ORDERED TO QUIT. Pretoria, October 12. The renewal of a temporary permit held by a Hindu priest in Johannesburg was refused, and he was ordered instantly to quit the colony. The Hindu declines to obey the order, on the ground that he has a higher duty to perform. A RIFLE CHAMPION. Brisbane, October 12. Condon, of the Transvaal Scottish, won the King’s Prize at the Rifle Association’s meeting, with 335 points. Lake, South Australia, was second, with 331. Two of the British team secured fifth and sixth places.