AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 277, 28 August 1872, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Some very ugly rumors are current as to the extent to which certain members of the healing art lend themselves to the commission of a crime, which, if not necessarily a capital felony, is the next thing to it. Embryotsmy, as it is euphemistically termed, is stated to be very much upon the increase in Melbourne and the larger towns, and the'names of two or three professional men are coupled most unpleasantly with the commission of the crime. lam not a believer in capital punishment, hut I should like to hear of one of these offenders being hung, just pour encourager les autres. Justice, though slow, is sure, and when she does strike she hits pretty hard.— Leader. A DESPERATE WIFE. At the City Court on Aug., 2, before Mr Call, P.M., a case of maintenance was heard which revealed acts of atrocious cruelty on the part of the appellant against her husband. The summons was issued by Mary Anne Solomon, a fruithawker, and was to compel her husband, William Henry Solomon, storeekeeper, Seymour, to show cause why he should not be called upon to support her. MiFrank Stephen defended. Complainant, in her evidence in chief, said she was marliod to the defendant, who was then a sailor, some time in the year 1862 ; aud she did not wish him to go back to sea, she gave him money to set him up in business. For a time they lived pretty comfortable together, but defendant had latterly left her, and gone to Seymour, where he had a store worth £SOO, and was living with another woman. She was left penniless by him, and had to fight for her livelihood in the best way she could, fruit hawking. Mr Frank Stephen said the property which the defendant had was covered by a bill of sale, aud that complainant was not making a truthful statement when she said she was penniless. She had made a living for years past by selling fruit, whereas her husband was not able to do anything for himself, having been rendered blind through the acts of his wife. Mr Stephen crossexamined the woman, when she admitted that her husband was blind, and that she had knocked out both his eyes. He one day threw a cup of tea at her, and in retaliation she threw a fork at him, which happened to hit him on the eye. Defendant thereupon ran to her, and threw her down, and, while she was in that position, put his knees on her chest, and held an axe in a threatening way over her head. She managed to get hold of a fire-stick, and with it succeeded in poking out his other eye. Sir Stephen submitted that, after hearing such evidence as had been given by the complainant, no magistrate would make an order on a blind man, hut he would call the defendant so that the bench might have his version of tlie story also. Defendant was examined, aud said that when lie married tiie complainant she had only £BO, and the whole money was invested in her name, and for her benefit, and what little money he had was very hard earned. He then explained tlio cause of their quarrels, and said that he saw his wife one day cutting the shaft out of his cart, and he, by way of teasing her, took up an axe and beat it against the roof of the verandah. She got exasperated, and, taking up a fire-stick, poked out one of his eyes with it; and when ho struggled to get the stick out of her hands, she planted a pair of scissors in the other eye, and destroyed that, also. In fact, he was now totally blind. The bench, having heard some evidence in corroboration of defendant’s case dismissed the summons, with three guineas costs —lbid. CONFESSION OF SCOTT. The Ballarat Star, 2nd August, remarks : —“ It would appear as if Scott (who may now be justly designated as the Egerton Bank robber) is determined upon beingsensational to the last. At ten o’clock yesterday morning he made a statement which, if it could be believed, would render the whole affair far more mysterious than at any previous time, and would show that justice is as yet some little distance from being satisfied. lie admitted that he had got all the money and all the gold taken from the bank, but persists in saying that at the time of the robbery he was eight miles away from Egerton, listening to a lady singing— Love not Love not, The thing you love may die. Jt is more than probable that this story has been invented only for the purpose of attempting to justify his solemn declaration in the box, before his God, that he was not guilty of stealing the property in question.” AN UNFORTUNATE LOVER. Love, it is said, is fickle ; it is somewhat desperate. In the City Police Court, on Saturday, an illustration of this was furnished to the motley crowd that generally frequent that place. Peter Lowe, a quietlooking young fellow, was charged witli attempting to stab one Wm. Hatfield, a greengrocer. It appeared that a short time ago Lowe began to love Hatfield’s niece, and his attentions being reciprocated, the happy couple managed to steal a few secret interviews. Hatfield noticed that they were on rather intimate terms, and though lie did not object to the connection, lie was anxious to know that the intentions of the modest Lothario were pure. He kept a dose watch over them, and eventually ventured to question Lowe as to the extent or limit of his love. Lowe got annoyed at this intrusion, said he knew how to love without instructions, and poured forth a volley of abuse on the head of the incautious counsellor. He then left the house, and when he came back again about teatime he was particularly gallant, and announced himself ready to do battle for his intended bride. Mr Hatfield requested him to go home and sleep himself into hip proper senses, hut he refused the advice, and rushing from his seat declared that he was a Lancashire wrestler, and that ho was the best man in the iiouse. Hatfield tried to appease the infuriated lover, but to no purpose, for Lowe took up a tableknife, and several times attempted to plant it in Hatfield’s chest, iiiventually, however, he was overpowered, and a constable coming up, he was given in charge. The prisoner on being placed in the dock looked very crestfallen. He cried like a child, and said that had it not been for his being mad drunk he would not have done what was charged against him. The bench ordered him to find a surety in £lO to keep the peace for three months, in default to be imprisoned for that period.

“ DARING PLOT” AT BALLARAT. From the Star of Saturday we learn the following particulars respecting an attempt made at Ballarat East to reach a gold buyer’s shop by’ a shaft from adjacent premises. It appears that a number of men who bear very’ bad characters some time since rented a brick house a few doors from the shop and gold-buying establishment of Mr Solomon Jacobs, in the Main-street, and having taken the necessary

I precautions to ensure secrecy, such as ' frosting the windows and closing up the 1 keyholes of the doors, lifting the boarding of the floors, sunk a shaft, and commenced to drive under the intervening premises, presumably with the view of reaching the promises of Mr Jacobs for the purpose of robbery. The drive was carried a considerable distance; but the noise caused by the operations of the gang was overheard, and the floor of one of the houses undermined having been lifted, the plot was discovered. A warrant was issued for the arrest of the gang on a charge of vagrancy, and on Friday night a well-known habitue of Esmond-street,namod Zachariah Taylor, was apprehended, he being one of the men implicated in the nefarious transaction. Subsequently the police arrested the other members of the gang, named Tomas Lawson Alfred Smeaton, and John Purcell. (Mr Gaunt summed up the case very summarily when the prisoners was brought up bofore him on Monday. He said the case for the Crown proved that the prisoners were men of bad character working at gold mining. As the drives were simply for the purpose, tiie men wei# discharged.) The Castlemaine Representative reports that on the 31st of July a young girl named Tuite, aged sixteen, left her home at ten o’clock, for the purpose of searching for gold among the old diggings at Lady Gully. Not returning, Bearch was made by the neighbours and police, and next day she was found in a waterhole. The poor girl was subject to fits, and has been delicate for a long time. It is supposed a fit came on while crossing the waterhole.