AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7959, 9 February 1906, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

A STRANGE CASE,

Received February 8, 11.54 p.m. SYDNEY, February 8,

A fifteen year-old boy, named Hembrow, on the pretence of wanting to effect tbe exchage of a sulky for a bicycle, lured the owner of the sulky, a rabbiter, to a lonely spot, near Young, and shot the man in tbe head three times and in the arm ouca, with a pea rifle. The boy then broke the ritie, clubbing the victim. The latter subsequently found his way to a hotel. His dying depositions weie taken, and the boy was arrested. PLANS OF SYDNEY FORTIFICATIONS. THE ALLEGED SEIZURE. RIDICULED BY THE JAPANESE CONSUL. Reoeived February 8, 11.54 p.m.| SYDNEY, February 8. The Japanese Consul-General states that be has reoeived no information, official o? otherwise, about the seizure of the plans. He is, however, able to surmise that the passengers referred to wereM. Nishi kama and M. Kanematsu. The former visited Australia as the representee of the Foreign Trade Association at Kobe, to make enquiries about the harbour administration of Sydney, with a view to applying their experiences to improving the administration of the Kobe harbour. M. Kanematsu is a well known merchant with a branch house at Sydney. M. Nishikama was given every facility by the Sydney Har bour Trust to inspect their methods, and received plans, which may have occasioned the mistake made by tbe Customs officials. Tbe Consul ridicules the idea of fortification plans having been discovered. On the other band, tbe Harbour Trust officials are emphatic that no plans wero supplied except a sketch of the shed on the wharf, which it is quite impossible to have mistaken for defence plans. :