AUSTRALIAN. NEWS.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2664, 31 August 1871, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN. NEWS.

An astonishing amount of property lias been stolen from .different ; hotels -in .Melbourne and the suburbs within the last eight weeks. All the robberies- have been of one type, and this led to the belief that they . were all effected by, one man. The custom of the perpetrator was to go into an hotel like an .ordinary customer, and, .when unobserved, penetrate to the private portion of the house, where, with the aid of a “jemmy,” drawers and boxes wore rapidly opened and ransacked, everything in the_ shape of jewellery or money being carriedoff.’ Ip,‘ this way'; money;' And' jewellery to the valhe of about L4OO have "been stolen from different hotels. A ease came before the magistrates in the Footscray poli e court'.lately disclosing a gross state of immorality, feuch as it is hardly possible to conceive, A mart'named GUrncy ■Elwin,' aged about 55 or’ 60 years of age, has for some time past lived with four daughter?-, whose ages vary from 12-to 19, and two small boys, iu a hovel or mia. mia, composed of pieces of zinc arid logs placed against a paling fence. -This habitation - was about 3fc (» in. higli, open at one end; and without any partition. In one'corner there was a kind of bed in which all the family huddle together. • The girls; it was proved* were in the habit of decoying young men and boys : to their dwelling-place at night, and aeopstant scone of riot and debauchery was carried on, to the great annoyance of the residents in the neighbourhood. The father was sometimes employed in the neighbourhood doing a little word, but all his earnings, together with the money obtained by his children, were spent in drink. . , The alleged discovery of Leichhardt’s relics is the subject of a letter to the Geelong Advertiser from Dr Bunco, in which he says : “As a fellow traveller ami companion of poor Leichhardt until his final departure from Rosenthal, Darling Downs, for his last ex? pedition, it may readily be imagined that I read Andrew Hume’s statement in the Sydney Morniny Herald with a considerably degree of interest, aud ■ am induced to make a few remarks. Shortly before starting on the present expedition,-a cousin-and country * man of the doctor arrived ,in tbe colony, as a sailor, and went as second jn cqmmand, His name was Olasson, and I beljevp his Christian name was Louis. 1 In the eveuu of anything occuring to Leichhardt—which was not at all .improbable, seeing .that, he was continiiallypilvalidated—the command would devolve on Olasson, and if there was anything in Hume’s statement, for .the substitution of L C for the usual L, or occasional L L, which distinguished Leichhardt’s encampments, in the event of burying any things, the place would be distinguished with marks similar to those shown by Hume L. C, With the party was a singularly intelligent and gentlemanly fellow named Hentig, who informed me he had been re iding with his brother, who was a doctor, previous to his joining the party. Uqdej - , these circumstances be may have Required q knowledge of meriting, apd by A‘similar parity qf reaqoqirig tqe spryiyor qpay be poor Hentig. At the same titqe jibe ex : pedition started, Captain Macarthur was stationed at Port Essingtou with a detachment of soldiers, but a short time subsequently the station was abandoned. The doctor always expressed his intention, in the event of not being able to penetrate to Western Australia, to fall back upon Port Essingtou. Knowing this, I drew the attention of the public to-the circumstance thtough the columns of .the Anyas and Sydney Herald. Nothing was done at the time, unfortunately. 1 say unfortunately, beeaqae, in all probablity, the great l suffering, loss of life, apd vast expenditure, consequent on the Burke and Wills gigantic’ failure might have b6en avoided.”