THE MTSSING SCHOONER JUBILEE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1308, 25 April 1872, Page 2

THE MTSSING SCHOONER JUBILEE.

We extract the following paragraph from the Auckland Evening Star of the 13th inst. : A. most disgraceful case of barratry has just come to light, by which a firm in this city have been made the sufferers. Three years ago, within, a few days, a well-found topsail schooner named the Jubilee left this port for Napier with a load of firewood. She was owned by Messrs Henderson & Spraggon, and placed in command of Captain Harry Hill, a seaman in whom that firm had every confidence, having retained him in their service for six years previously. She arrived at Napier in due course, and again cleared at that port for Auckland, since which time nothing has ever been heard of either vessel or crew. After waiting anxiously for some time, the vessel was supposed to to have been wrecked, andaU hands drowned, and she was reported in the newspapers as lost. She had only recently been launched, was well found and provided with every requisite, and everything on board was new when she left Auckland. Her value was estimated at £BOO by the owners. We now have received information that Mrs Moller, the wife of thecaptain and owner of the Dauntless, while on a visit to her friends in the old country, met Captain. Harry Hill in the streets of Belfast looking hale and well. A mutual recognition took place, and Captain Hill stated, in reply to her enquiries, that he had not returned to Auckland owing to.a "little delicate affair in which a lady was concerned." He avoided all reference to the schooner when asked concerning its fate. This abuse of confidence is highly reprehensible, and it is to be regretted that the fellow is out of reach of that punishment his dirty conduct so richly deserves. Great indignation is expressed by all masters of vessels who have been made acquainted with the affair, and sympathy is. felt for the owners, whose confidence has Been so greatly abused. It is to be hoped that Captain Harry Hill will yet get his deserts. —Circumstantial as the above narrative appears, we consider that there is good reason to doubt its correctness and we do so for vaiious reasons. The fore-and-aft schooner Jubilee left Napier for Auckland on the 18th of June, 1869, with a cargo consisting of 40 ox hides—not with sheep, as generally supposed—in company with the schooner Hero and cutter Grayling, the two latter vessels being bound for Wairoa. On the night of the 19th a fearful S.E. gale arose, with thick weather; the Hero was stranded on the Wairoa beach, and the Grayling was wrecked with all hands, the bodies of the unfortunate crew, with fragments of the vessel and portions of the cargo, being afterwards picked up on the beach. Nothing further was ever heard of the Jubilee, and it was concluded that she perished in the gale—a conclusion which, so far as we know, has never been disputed up to the present time. Captain Hill, (as stated in the Auckland Star), had been long in the service of his employers: he bore a good character, and enjoyed their confidence. The cargo of the vessel was not of such a valuable nature as would be likely to tempt him to commit a crime attended with such serious risk, and for the perpetration of which the connivance of his crew would be necessary; and, on the other hand, he possessed a stake in the country, owning landed property, which it is very unlikely he would lightly abandon. Taking these circumstances into consideration, we cannot but look upon this story with discredit, which we doubt not will be shared by our readers; and unless some further evidence that Captain Hill i< still in the land of the living is produced, we see no reason to alter our belief that he was lost vsith his vessel in the fatal gale of the 19th and 20th of June, 18G9.

Mr. Karslake, M.H.E. for Goloiidge (Canterbury), has resigned his seat. A Cromwell (Otago) publican has been lined £b and costs for being intoxicated on his licensed premises. The Otago Daily Times speaks of the delay in the arrival of the San Francisco steamer as having been disgusting. At latest dates, 4,000 cases of preserved meat were on the wharf at the Bluif, awaiting shipment to England via Port Chalmers. The owners of one timber mill in Southland have arranged, it is said, to ship 30,000 feet timber per month by steamer to. Melbourne. The number of sheep shorn in the Southland district during the season that has just now come to a close, amounts to 679,400, which is an increase of 52,440 over that of the previous year. The London correspondent of the Melbourne Age says ■ —" tt is proposed to start privately a fund for sending to Australia a couple of hundred repentant Magdalenes from the vicinity of the Hay market,. Strand, and similar thoroughfares. The idea is kindly meant, but it is doubtful whether the colonists will feel ui.uch flattered by it."

Eight pence an Lour is the rate of wages paid on the railway works in Auckland. The Tuapeka Times says ;—<< The, General Government seem to be in a state of irapecuniosity. We have been informed that the witnesses from this, district at the criminal tattings, were: given cheques, for their expenses* which the banks they were drawn on refused to honor. The only way the recipients of the cheques could get cash for them was by paying a handsome percentage to the money lenders." The Southern Cross, April 19, t says :. —■An act of gross recklessness was perpetrated yesterday morning, which verified an old adage that " A miss is as good as a mile." A carter, while his dray was. in rapid motion as it passed near to the mills of Thornton, Smith, and Firth, attempted to gain a seat on the> near shaft, by placing one hand on the horse's quarter and the other on th«-. rail of the dray. In raking himself by the muscular action of his arm», thehorse swerved and the man fell to the ground, and the near wheel passed, within an inch of his head. Any calculations the drayman may havemade as to. the thickness of his skull. oi" its density to resist extreme pressure,, would have been put to a severe tesr, had the wheel of the diay, which, was. heavily laden, passed over it.

The Dunedin Evening Star says:. —We notice in a Bendigo paper that a, man named Thomas Hayes was brought, before the City Police Court and on his own witlv the murder of Yorkey, at Miller's Flat, Otago, in the year 1863. The magistrate seems to have dealt in a very oflLhand way with the matter, as instead' of making further- inquiries, he dis* charged Hayes,, after his explaining that when under Ihe influence of drink hewas in. habit of making,all sovts. ofi ridiculous statements. A very different, course was pursued under similar circumstances by a London magistrate, who remanded a prisoner from time to> time until the authorities in Melbourne* could be communicated with, the result, being that the man was convicted andi executed. It is, we understand, supposed by some persons, in. town that the* convict Fratson is undergoing punishment for ' u he crime of which Hayes accused himself. Such, is not the case, Fratson was convicted of the murder of Mr Andrew Wilson,, at the Molyneux, in July, 1862, while the murderer of Yorkey has never yet been discovered. The unfortunate Job. Johnston was tried for the-offence, b«t acquitted on the clearest possible- evidence. Under the heading "Social Pro.blems," the Australasian of the 30th: March, remarks :—" It seems to- belaid down as an elementary principle by all human associations for political purposes, that one portion of the population of a new settlement is necessarily depraved, and must he consistently and? persistently treated as such. The next conclusion tacitly armed at is that the innate tendencies to depravity on the part of such persons, ought to be encouraged and stimulated by throwing temptations in their way. Accordingly the State, or whatever governing body,, municipal or otherwise, stands in it* place, in consideration of the pitiful revenue derivable from licence fees, anihorises the opening of houses in which, the 'lower classes' may fortify their passions, stupefy their reason and brutalise themselves, by indulging in intoxicating liquors; these being frequently adulterated so as to give thein a maddening influence. Having done this, the governing body for the timebeing, which usually consists of men who have been successfully selfish,, and with whom the acquisition and preservation of property are the chief aims of their lives, legislate with a special regard to their own interests." And* concludes by asking—" In view of these things the question naturally arises, 'Are the constitution of society and thespirit of our legislation such as to prevent crime and to allure men of evil, propensities, lo a reputable mode of life>. by showing them that honest industry i& more pleasant and profitable than «... life of social outlawry ; or is there not something radically defective in the very foundation of our political and municipal system ß l'"