AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 314, 14 July 1898, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

(by electric telegraph--copyright). FATAL FIRE. Hobart, July 12. The Criterion Hotel at Gormanston has been destroyed by fire. Six lodgers, Messrs Davie, Mehl, Johnsou, and Henry Powell, and two Assyrian hawkers, who were sleeping 'upstairs, were burned to death. Powell was a New Zealand miner. Lynch, the proprietor of the hotel, with his wife and children, escaped by the balcony in their night clothes. A number of lodgers jumped from the balcony, a distance of 16ft, and several were slightly injured. (Recoived July 13, 9.50 a in.). Hob art, July 13. Johnson, one of the victims of the Gormanston fire, was previously in business in New Zealand, which he left 24 years ago. He was one of the pioneer prospectors of the Mount Lyell mines. JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE. -Brisbane, July 12. A demented swagsman, armed with a gun and knife, stuck up the Claverton station at Leeds. The manager of the station shot him dead in selfdefence. new south wales;elections Sydney, July 12. Mr Barton has issued a manifesto iu which he states that he has decided to contest the Kins division against the Premier, and pledges himself to strenuously oppose any alteration of the colony's policy till federation is secured. He will suggest a conference of Premiers to consider the elimination of " Braddon's Blot," and the substitution of the bare majority for the three-fifths, and that the capital be in New South Wales. The financial clauses of the Constitution, he says, must stand till something better can be devised, He advocates, after federation, the cutting down of the local Parliament from 125 members to G 4, with an efficient scheme of local government.