AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2620, 13 February 1894, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

At an inquest held at Newcastle on the body of Thomas Hyde, who was shot by his wife, the evidence showed that the deceased had systematically illused his wife since his marriage in, 1881. Recently last he came home drunk, dragged his wife out of bed by the hair, and tried to choke her. She got hold of a revolver from under the pillow and fired, not intending to kill him. Hyde had been twice in gaol for assaulting her, and he had brought women to his house for immoral purposes. She had to support herself and family. The jury returned a verdict of death from a gun-shot wound, inflicted by Martha Jane Hyde in selfdefence.

Much interest is being manifested in the inquest on the body of Mr J. W. Unwin, wood and coal merchant, who died at the Glebe, Sydney, after a week’s illness. The evidence showed that on December 22 the deceased went to Tom’s Ugly Point fishing. He found a flask of whisky under the seat of his trap, and drank from it, as did a friend of his. Both of them were afterwards extremely ill, and Unwin died, after displaying all the symptoms of being poisoned by irritant poison. Unwin had said that the flask had been planted under the seat. His wife deposed that her husband and herself had always lived happily. Since these facts were disclosed the police had found a flask in a watercloset at the deceased’s house containing several grains of white arsenic. At this stage Dr Rennie said he was sure that the deceased had died from arsenical poisoning, and the coroner adjourned the inquest to enable Unwin’s body to be exhumed to ascertain if traces of poison could be found in it. Joe Goddard, the Australian champion, and Harry Laing, the heavy - weight champion of New Zealand, fought for £l5O in Melbourne ou New Year’s Night. Goddard’s condition failed him, and it is thought that he is done so far as the ring is concerned. It was all over after the seventh round, after which Laing began to stand up to his man and give him quite as much punishment as he received. In the middle of the twelfth round Goddard held out his hand in token that the fight was over. A sad case of drowning has occurred near Wedderburn, in Victoria. A young married woman named Mrs Stevens, wife of a farmer in the neighbourhood, was fishing in company with some friends. She was about 100 yards higher up the creek than her husband, when the latter heard her scream for help, and when he reached the spot found her struggling in the water. He plunged in, but his wife clutched hold of him, and had it not been for the breaking away of his collar he would have been drowned. As it was he struggled to land, while the poor woman sank. The body was recovered some time afterwards, with that of her child, about 2 years old. It is supposed that the infant fell into the water, which is about Bft deep, and that the mother had endeavored to rescue it.

Some time ago a rev. gentleman laid a serious charge against young Victoria of an alarming increase in its criminal instincts. The rev. gentleman’s statistics, however, have been shattered to pieces by Mr Hayter, the Government statist. But another charge is now brought against the Victorian youth, this time by Sir John Madden, the Chief Justice, who has a grievance against his pronunciation of the Queen’s English. A lively correspondence has followed in the press. The chief complaint is the twang given to the sound « ai.” Thus “ daisy ” is “ disee,” the “bay’’the “by” and so on, “cow” is “ke-ow” and “town” is “fb-owu ” also. One correspondent has brought down showers of ridicule upon himself by maintaining that the Victorian youth’s pronunciation is of “ singular beauty,” but that he is too prone to inherit the faults of his Cockney ancestors.