VICTORIA.

Grey River Argus, Volume V, Issue 311, 11 January 1868, Page 2

VICTORIA.

We take the, following from the letter of the Melbourne correspondent of the. Qtayo Daily Times : — ■ _ ■ x December 1 27. Our Royal Visitor is; still amongst us* • and it is' now certain that he will not, leave Hobson's Bay until after the coin-, mencenient of the New Year. Notwithr. standing tike length of his stay in. Victoria, the time of his Royal Highness, has been' very f uHy occupied, and his in-. tervals of. rest during the last month have. ; been few and far be.twe.en. Since hist return from Ballarat, he. has paid a visit to Castlemaine and Sanijhfitrs^ spending '. one day at the former town and two at, the latter. At each of; those places, his. : Royal Highness, wap- rejeeived with en- ' thusiastic demonstrations of Royalty ; : but. , I very much regret to h/vye. to add that at, •Sandhurst a, very melancholy and fata\ • accident occurred, tending considerably t$ mar the pleasure of the recollection of the. Royal visit. A torchlight procession at, night formed a portion of the programme, laid down for the entertainment of the. Prince by the inhabitants of that town, t and the Fire Brigade, in taking part inj the ceremony, had prepared a large model of the Galatea, which was hoisted upon their engine, and manned with a crew op little fellows of about seven or eight years, of age. On board the miniature man-of-. war were a number of rockets and Roman candles, for firing off at intervals ; but unfortunately, by an accident, the cause. of which has n,ot been very clearly ex-. plained, but which is supposed to have been the alighting of a Chinese crackeramongst the fireworks, an explosion took place, by which, several of the poor little., boys on board were so dreadfully injured that they had to be carried to the hospital once. Three of them, named M'Grath, Cahill, and Walters, died a few hours! afterwards, and a fourth lay in a precarious state for some time, but it is now hoped that he may recover. Great sympathy was expressed for the bereaved parents of the poor children, by the inhabitants of the district, and the funeral was very largely attended. Another accident which occurred at Sandhurst during the Prince's short stay there, was a fire at, the new Hall, erected for a ball, at which > his Royal Highness was to be present. It was so far fortunate, that the fire broke.. ! out a short time before the hour appointed t for the company to assemble, and not after they had arrived. The building was. constructed of galvanised iron outside, and wood within. The woodwork and decorations were entirely destroyed, and; what had been a very beautifully de-^ corated ballroom was turned into a mere, blackened shell. It is supposed that in lighting up the hall Boirie of .the decorations caught fire, and that the flames, rapidly spread over the interior of tfis

whole building. The intended ball and supper were held in the Town Hall, which was hastily prepared for the occasion. Since his return from Sandhurst and Castleinaine, the Prince has paid a second visit to Ballarat, in order to be present at the races there. IJis Royal Highness has paid several visits to the Melbourne theatres, and on each occasion has been very warmly received by the audience. On Monday night last, he attended a Grand Fancy Ball, given in his honor by the Mayor and Corporation of this city, at the new Exhibition Building. About 3000 guests were present, and the immense variety pf costumes worn in that large assemblage formed a sight as beautiful as it was bewildering. The Prince, who wore his naval uniform, opened the ball with Mrs Butters, the wife of the Mayor of Melbourne, as his partner. That lady appeared as "The Mirror," and was most singularly dressed to represent the character. According to the description of her costume, which appeared in this morning's papers, she wore " a dress of rich corded silk, trimmed and striped with blue and pink ribbons, and covered with glittering mirrors, numbers boing suspended round the skirt. In her hand was held an ornamental lookingglass. The necklaces, bracelets, and earrings were also composed of mirrors. Later in the evening, Mrs Butters changed this fantastic dress for one in which she represented "The Press," in which character she had appeared in a former fancy ball. The whole affair was upon a very graud scale, and passed off moat successfully. The amount of local interest created respecting it may bo judged of, frqm the fact that the Argus, of the following morning, thought it worth while to devote no less than eighteen columns and a half of its space to a description of the ball, and a list of the names of the guests and their dresses. Yesterday (Boxing Day), was very generally observed as a public holiday, and notwithstanding the numerous interruptions to ordinary business which had been experienced since the Prince's arrival, the various atnuqements of the day wpre patronised by the public with as much zest as if no holiday had been kept for a year previously. The Oddfellows had a very capital fete at the Zoological Gardens, at which several thousands were present ; but the great centre of attraction was the grand Volunteer Review on the Melbourne Racecourse at. Flemington. About 3000 troops of all arms were on the ground, and, 'after executing a number of manoeuvres with great precision, they inarched past his Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, his Excellency the Governor and their respective suites. The Duke, who wore the uniform of a General of Saxe Coburg Gotha, decorated with a variety of orders, looked well on horseback, and was loudly cheered by the troops and the public. The recent Criminal sessions have excited more than the usual amount of interest. The trial of Richard Bellemey, » chemist, who was charged with the murder of his wife by slow poisoning, lasted three days, and ended in a verdict of acquittal. The case endeavored to be proved by the prosecution was that the prisoner, in order to become the sole possessor of four or five hundred pounds which had been the property of his wife previoua to her marriage with him, had administered to her repeated small doses of antimony, and thus eventually caused her death. For the defence, it was shown that the woman was a confirmed drunkard, and that she was in the constant habit of sending out for brandy without the knowledge of her husband. After the jury had returned their verdict,, the prisoner requested leave to address the Court, and having obtained it, he solemnly asserted his perfect innocence of the crime which had been laid to his charge. Just after leaving the dock, he fainted, and did not recover from the fit for more than ten minutes.. The charge against four rather notorious members of the betting ring," of having cheated a butcher named Ashton, of about L 340, at a game, called " three-up," also came on for trial at the same sessions. According to the evidence of one Aldeison, the principal witness for the prosecution, the four prisoners — Josh. Thompson, Austin Taqui, Mm. Blanch, and Wm. Anderson — conspired to cheat the prosecutor, by tossing with a false coin, with two heads upon it instead of a "Head and a Tail." The jury* however, weye of opinion that Alderson was not to be believed upon his oath, and acquitted the prisoners. The whole of the parties concerned in the affair appeared in fact to be "birds, of a feather," and it is ink possible to say whether- prisoners, prosecutor, or- witness are the worst. The forthcoming is likely to be one of most hotly contested general elections that has ever taken place in the colony. The Ministry are sure of a majority ; but whether they wil} come back to the House with a larger following than they number at present, is exceedingly doubtful. It is uncertain, too, whether, in the event of such increase, the Council will give way on the question of the Darling Grant, on. that account ; but it is rumored that, if, in reply to the address of that branch of the, Legislature lately sent to England, the Home Government should distintly saction the grant, the Council will no longer- stand in the way, either of its pajr ment, or of the inclusion of the vote in the Appropriation Bill. Speaking of the Intercolonial Cricket and Riflle Matches, the Australasian says : — * { Victoria has won the cricket match with sqven wickets to gpare. Sydney has the shield hy sixty-seven points. It was, however, tolerably close running on both pides. The bowling of Wills and Allan, however, was too good, and on Saturday Victoria, wanted only eighty runs to win.. Fortunate in our cricket, we have been, unfortunate in our rifle shooting. This is the third time that Sydney h,as gained the; phield. Indeed, to speak without prejudice, it would seem that Sydney is too strong for us everywhere. On the Turf phe has proved herself unpleasantly victorious of late. Victorian racing men and Victorian riflemen will have to be. careful, Melbourne was visited on the 2Tth ult, by a storm of wind which, for suddenness and fierceness, has not been equalled by any for the last fifteen years. Great damage was done. Ships were driven from their moorings, walla were blown over, roofs lifted off, one life lost, chimneys and flagstaff's were blown down, trees were rooted up, glass was taken clean out of the windows, roofs of houses were stripped of their covering, and sheets pf galvanised iron, zinc, shingles, palings, £c.j,were hurled in every direction.