AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2458, 31 January 1893, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Sydney, January 16. A fatal affray occurred on board the barque Annie Stafford, at Newcastle, today. One of the seamen, named King, a colored man, was sent aloft by the chief officer, Ernest Seel, to make fast the upper topsail yard. Seel attempted to hurry King along with the work, when the latter told the officer that if he did not like it he (King) would go ashore. After a bitter altercation, during which King repeatedly refused to come down, Seel mounted the rigging. As he approached King, the latter attempted to draw his knife, whereupon Seel seized a tail bolt, and struck King with it, knocking the latter on to the deck below, a distance of forty or fifty feet. King’s skull was fractured, and both thighs and an arm were broken. He died an hour afterwards at the hospital. Seel has been arrested.

An inquest was held to-day on the body of a woman named Adelaide Griffiths Montgomery, aged thirty-two, whose death was surrounded with peculiar circumstances. Deceased had been ill for nine months, but her mother refused to have medical advice, as she belongs to a religious sect known as “ The True Gospelites,” one of whose tenets is that members shall altogether rely on faith in case of sickness, and decline medical assistance. The woman died on Friday morning, but the mother kept her death a secret until a neighbor found it out on Saturday. On the neighbors asking if her daughter was bad, she said “ No, she has gone to sleep in the Lord, and He will raise her again on the third day.” She repeated the same to the doctor and the police when they were called in. On the authorities taking charge of the body it was in an advanced state of decomposition. At the inquest to-day the mother of the deceased said her daughter had been suffering from liver complaint, the Lord having told her so. She had been taking medicine supplied by a chemist. This medicine was for flatulency. The chemist had told her to get a doctor, but witness did not think it was necessary. She did not report the death, because she thought her daughter ought to be loft for a purpose. She did not know what that purpose was. Mrs Hayward gave evidence as to her and the Montgomerys belonging to a peculiar religious sect. They were known as “ Exclusives.” She did not know deceased had died. She thought she had gone off in a trance, as she had some time previously done. The medical evidence showed that death had resulted from consumption. Deceased had evidently been dead four or five days, but otherwise the body was clean and well cared for. The Jury returned a verdict of death from natural causes.

January 20.

Some five or six mouths ago a man named George Hart, residing at Maclean, was accidentally drowned at Harwood, and tip to a few days ago his widow, who had no children, continued to reside in the house at Maclean previously owned by her husband. From a few days after his death stones and other missiles were, night after night, hurled upon the roof of the house with monotonous regularity, and on one occasion a verandah screen was set on fire. The police and civilians watched regularly to catch the perpetrators of the outrages, but without obtaining the slightest clue. Sometimes stones would strike the roof in almost opposite directions, then knocking would be heard underneath the house, and although those on the look out would rush off in the direction whence it was supposed the stones bad come no sign of anyone could be seen, Since these assaults have been carried on the windows have been time after time smashed to atoms, and the iron roof has been damaged, Mrs Hart has now become insane, and she has been removed to the Grafton Gaol for medical treatment. A few of the residents have offered a reward for the conviction of the offender, but so far not the slightest clue has been obtained. Melbourne, Jan. 14. Earnest George Meadows, who recently came from England, and has been cmploved at the job warehouse of Mr M. Eapken, Bourke street, made a confession early yesterday of having robbed his employer. Accused, who is the son of a clergyman, was arrested on a charge of having stolen £25 on Dec. X. The crime to which he has confessed was recorded as one of the most “ mysterious” ones with which the police had to deal with latterly. On the morning of Dec. 1, when Mr Rapken’s place was opened for business, a ropo was found dangling from a skylight in the roof. A desk containing £25 in cash had been forced* and the money carried away. It had been, and still is, the practice of Mr Bapkeii to remove all cash from the shop at the close of each day’s business, but the evening before the robbery was discovered one of the young women assistants had lost the key of the desk in which the money was, and leather than break the desk open it was decided to allow the money to remain there till the following day, in the hope that the key would then be found. The key was found, but in the interim the robbery had been committed. Meadows was conscience stricken, and at lait he confessed. Ills statement is that when he was drunk he met an acquaintance, to whom he commuw.ieated the fact that the money was in the ,4-rawer ; and this acquaintance perpetrated tfee robbery and gave him half of the plunder Oft the i following day, The actual robber has since, ho adds, gone to England. Mr Rapken has jnisaod a large quantity of goods, principally silk iiSJ]derchiefs and such articles, recently. Adelaide, January 12.

An inquest was held to-day on an old man, C. Wood, who was gored to death by a ball at Reedbed. An open verdict was returned. It appeared that when Wood was found Jifo must have been extinct some time. The £>Jd gentleman’s ribs and several other bones wow broken, : bis cheat was crushed, and not an clothing was found on him except bu otg, His coat was on the neck of the ich \ vas » mu “ n g itself by tossing v' 6 lipny- A ponce trooper fired tlnce bu’^ B hiw nW _ beast, and Mr Stanford, a spectator, tbbffbjg that it could not do any more proceeded with an axe to give it the coup dc ijrace, but it r0.,0 to its feet, rushed at Jiim and toi’e with its horns some of his clothes. He escaped not much hurt, and the bull was despatched. Jan. 20, A girl aged seventeen, residing with. 1 her parents in Adelaide, has been in a trance since Thursday. She has not been well for about two years, suffering slightly at times from attacks of hysteria. On October 20th the girl went to bed and fell into a trance, which lasted until October 31st. On November 17th she had a relapse, and slept continuously until November 24th. Last Thursday the third of these strange attacks took possession of her. Luring these periods of sleep it is impossible to wake her by applying the strongest stimulants. Pins and needles stuck into her have no efiectj and, ordinary means to arouse the

patient prove futile. A strong electrical current applied to the soles of the girl’s feet takes some minutes to effect any change, in one case three and in another six minutes elapsing before the patient gave signs of feeling. By means of electricity alone is the medical attendant able to sufficiently arouse the girl for a little while so that she may with great difficulty force her to take nourishment in a liquid form. Having swallowed her food she again sinks into sleep. Last night, after the lapse of a week since the third seizure, she was awakened. She has no memory of the time she was in the trance.

Brisbane, Jan. II

A well-known pastoralist, who has just returned from the west, states that the country is in a very bad condition. The reports from the West of Charleville and the Paroo river are heartrending. Cattle are dying on all sides for want of water. Some stationholders and managers in these districts, as well as in the Lower Barcoo, have been reluctantly compelled to discharge their hands and abandon the cattle to their fate. Unless the drought breaks up in a week or two the losses of cattle will be enormous. The temperature on one day last week, between Morven and Charleville, rose to HGdeg in the shade, and hot winds like the blast of a furnace have been blowing; but, singular to relate, the nights have been cold, so cold that blankets were necessary.