AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 8 March 1917, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

H MOCK DUEL. FATHER’S BIRTHDAY. WOMAN CHARGED WITH MURDER MELBOURNE, Feb 27 Stella Hines, a young married woman, who was arrested yesterday, " as brought before the B’runswick Police Court to-day and charged with the murder of Eric Mclntosh, a young blacksmith, in whose house she .was li\ing. The accused was remanded till Wednesday. The story of the tragedy is a pathetic case. The woman and Mclntosh have apparently always been on the best of terms, and the only thing about them noted by the 1 neighbours was that,*- they were intensely fond of practical, joking. Yesterday afternoon, about 3 o’clock, Mrs. Hines was cooking dinner, and Mclntosh was washing the breakfast dishes, when the latter suddenly remembered that it was his father’s birthday. They immediately suspended household duties and’ drank Mclntosh’s father’s health in wine. Then Mrs. Hines went to make) the beds, and Mclntosh assisted hdr, They had got both beds made, when Mclntosh suggested fighting a mock duel, similar to one they had seen at the pictures, and getting an old revolver from a medibine chest and a bright new one from under the pillow from one of the beds, they started on their play. They agreed to stand back to back, to walk three paces away, and then turn and fire. But Mrs. Hines did not wait for the word to walk away. She turned and fired immediately. Mclntosh dropped to the floor. As he fell Hines realised that her revolver had exploded, and that Mclntosh had been injured. She screamed, and the neighbours came in; but as she was hysterical i( was impossible to make her realise that Mclntosh was dead. Mrs. Hines .is 26 years old; An .unfounded report. ! . MELBOURNE, March 7, Mr. Cook officially contradicts a report circulated last evening regarding the sinking of two Australian troopsships. Replying to certain questions in 1 the House, he said neither troopsships nor lives had been,’ lost Mor e could not now be said, but the dangers to Australia in connection with the war were not less than they I were. 1 ’ ■