ROBBERY OF AUSTRALIAN RAILWAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 139, 26 April 1862, Page 3

ROBBERY OF AUSTRALIAN RAILWAY

SHARES.

A person named John Tapplin was charged, in February last, at the Bow-street police court, with stealing from the portmanteau of Mr. Nnttlebury, from Melbourne; .who whs staying at Morley's Hotel, about £6500 uvrji of Australian bunk and railway shares, and two sots of altiri studs. Tapplin was brought up on remand on the 2-ith of February. I'lie following is a report of the proceedings :— ■ Since the last examination the officer had made inquiries with, respect to a duplicate which ho had found in the prisoner's, possession relating to a set of. studs. The pawnbroker now attended and produced the studs, which were identified by Mr. Nuttlebury as one of the two sets stolen from his portmanteau. Mr. Tredinuiek, a stock and shalebroker and dealer in mining shares in Lombard -street, explained the circumstance which led him to send for the police, officer, who consequently apprehended the prisoner." On the 13th Feb. the prisoner called on him and applied for a loan on the security of 10 shares, in the flobson's Bay Railway Company. The witness refused to entertain any such proposal until he had had some prior transaction withthe prisoner. He would only give such accomoclation to customers. It was therefore agreed that the prisoner should purchase from the witness, railway shares to the value pi £250, and that the witness should receive the Hobson's Bay shares which were worth • about £400, as security for the £250, and for £150 which the witness was to advance in cash. The witness required that the certificates of the Hobson's Biy shares should be produced, and that time should be allowed for inquiries. The same afternoon the prisoner called with the certificates, which were in the name of Mr. Nuttlebury. He represented that his own name was Nuttlebury. But at the first step in the transaction, the transfer of the shares which the prisoner had agreed to purchase from Mr. Tredinniok to him, he reversed the initials in the signature, writing " J. W. Nuttlebury'' instead of "W. J. Nuttlebury." This excited Mr. Tredinnick's suspicions, an dhe made inquiries, the result of which convinced him that the shares had been stolen. He then communicated with the police, and the next time the prisoner called at his office he was given into custody. The prisoner, having stated to the officer (though he did not repeat it when confronted with Mr. Nut- j tlebury) that he won the shares at si billiard table from a person whom he supposed ■to be Mr. Nuttle- i bury, the prosecutor said he had neverbeen in a bil-liard-room since he came toEnglaud.and that he never saw the prisoner in his life till the latter was brought to this court in custody. He was unwilling to rest even under an indirect imputation that he went to such places and gambled away large amounts of money or property. ■ • ■ 'i The prisoner, who reserved his defence, was committed for trial.

tention. Not seldom among; these letters is foiucill spelt, mis-shapen, clumsily-folded sheet, sweeter, perhaps, to tiie Christian philanthropist than all beside, from some reformed profligate. Some shepherd lad or small farmer in Australia or New Zealand, once, perhaps, a shoeblack or the inmate if a reformatory ; or some toiling factory, operative has ylclUcil to an iri-eswtiliJuimpii!sc, and sat ilowi), wi;li v heurf full of gratitude, to thank the. noble philanthropist for means and opportunities of grace ami goodness which God had prospered, and of which tho seeds had fallen iv no'ungrateful soil. There is,, perhaps, no living-social and religious reformer who has received a greater number of these epistles than Lord Shaftosbury ; and certainly none who prize them more, or has derived greater encouragement from them to persevere in the noble work to which he has been called. Another class of letters show less consideration than the religious world might be expected to-evince. Persons of rank and influence receive numerous applications for subscriptions to charitable and religious objects, but those which are showered upon Lord tjhaftesbury's table would require an income little less than regal for their favorable consideration. During his father's lifetime his means were very limited ; and it was often matter for surprise that Lord Ashley was nb'e to achieve so much with comparatively restricted means. ' His accession to the family estates' brought him, of course, a very large increase of income, but the appeals to his private benevolence, have ever been out el" proportion to his iu> ruis. Jf a church is to be built or endowed in the remount districts of the country, if a ragged school is to I:; io uided, if a charitable bazaar, or dinner, or testimonial is in agitation, or if money is wanted for any religious purpose ■whatever, Lord Shaftesbury is one of the first to receive a circular and an appeal for pecuniary aid. A Croesus might go distracted in the midst of so many urgent ana '*ewildering calls upon his purse. A glance at the subscription lists of the various metropolitan charities will sliow that he devotes a large proportion of his income to benevolent and religious objects. But there is a limit to the pecuniary ability of auy individual, and cases of private distress and misfortune, and applications for donations to building funds would often be mado with more propriety to the charitable and wealthy residents of the neighborhood in which the parties reside. As soon as the day's correspondence is cleared off, or put in train for reply, the JEarl is ready to receive the deputations or individuals who may have appointments with him. Frequently he has board or committee meetings to attend at the City or West End, in connection'with associations under his patronage. During the " May Meetings" he is frequently called upon to preside over large assemblies in Kxeter Hall. When Parliament is sitting, he is punctual in his attendance; yet lie often leaves their lordships in some less important deliberations in order to take the chair at the anniversary meeting of some benevolent or religious association held at some obscure church or chapel. During a greater portion of the year there is. we understand, scarcely a night when his presence is not claimed for a moral or religious movement in some district or other of the metropolis. Last winter, when the poor law broke down in the metropolis, and the police offices were thronged with the starving and destitute poor, Lord Shaftesbury was foremost among the benevolent persons who sought to alleviate the misery of the houseless and indigent classes. — London Review.

A " Bull's Run."—A company of volunteers when at drill,-the other day, were taken aback, while in the act of skirmishing-, by the threatened attitude of a large Highland Bull which had been grazing near, and no doubt considered his province unfairly invaded. Be this as it may, he soon showed his determination to give battle, and proceeded at once to drive in the skirmishers, which he succeeded in doing. The volunteers retired rather precipitately, but with considerable regularity; but when about to form a rallying square round the officer in command for the time being, the latter was seen ".panting and breathless,' and in a rather undignified position, in the act o' getting over a dyke. Fortunately some one present, had a dog with him, and " Collie," soon put the enraged bull to the right about and the double.—Northern "Ensign. : . Discoveries at Suez. —The excavations for tho Canal, it is said, have led to the discovery of at Gizeh of a religious edifice as vast as the Louvre, and which must have beeu constructed more than 5,000 years ago. At Karnack, also, a temple, thecircuit ofwhich is stated to be four kilometres (two and a half miles) has been discovered, and another at Edfou, containing tfrenty' saloons. The walls of these latter edifices are decorated with sculptures, hieroglypliics, and paintings, still fresh. These must be exceedingly interesting and important; but nothing is said as to their nature.— Builder.

Uncomfortably near a Coincidence. — At the late battle at Bull's Run, a soldier, around whom the cannon shot were flying particularly thick, on seeing one strike and bury itself in a bank near him, spransr to the hole it had scooped out.remarking," Shoot away you can't hit twice in the same place." At the instant, another shot struck at a few feet distant, almost covering the fellow with sand and gravel. Emerging from what had so nearly become his grave, he continued the yet unfinished sentence, "but you can come so pesky near it that the first hole is uncomfortable."

How a Bed op Coai is Formed.—We are- now in a position to comprehend the formation of a bed of coal in olden time. Let us suppose that a certain bed of coal has been completed by the growth of luxuriant plants over a low-lying tract, subject to inundations from the sea. llising ground of granite or schistose rocks in the distance defines the margin of the basin, and tiie boundaries of a continent from which the sedimentary materials of the coal strata are derived. That growth of vegetation marks a period of rest: but now a slow subsidence of the whole tract commences. The brackish waters of the estuary, and the salt waters from the ocean, invade the jungle, carrying dark mud in suspension, with floating stems of trees and fronds Of ferns. Presently the mud subsides, and covers in one uniform sheet the accumulated vegetation of centuries. The process of subsidence goes on, while the sea-currents and rivers pour into the estuary fine sand and mud, in which branches and stems of trees from the uplands _ are included. This process continues until the sinking of the ocean-bed either altogether ceases or is counterbalanced by the rapidity with which the sedimeent is deposited. - The basin becomes gradually shallower, and the plants begin to reappear, commencing perhaps at the coast, and creeping seaward until the whole basin is again overspread by a forest of huge cryptogamic trees, arborescent ferns, and conifers, with a dense undergrowth of giant grasses. These, generation after generation, flourish and die,, their leaves, branches, and trunks falling around and -gradually accumulating, till the pulpy mass attains a thickn&s of 20, 50, or 100 feet. The process concluded, the basin again commences to subside, the waters return and bury the mass for thousands of centuries; stratum after stratum accumulates, till the vegetable pulp is subjected to the pressure of, it may be, thouaands ■of feet of solid matter. Meanwhile chemical as well as mechanical changes ensue, and in process of time what was oncd a forest is changed into a bed of coal. By a repetition of this process, with local variations, we may conceive the formation of any number of coal-seams, amounting, in some districts, to fifty or sixty, and embraced within a vertical thickness of several thousand feet of shales, clays, and sandstones. Ages roll on, the strata are moved from their foundations : upheaved from the sea-bottom, the breakers and currents sweep away a portion of the covering, and the mineral treasures are brought within the reach.of mining industry.— HulVs Coal Fields of Great Britain.

An Admiralty note, issued on the 29th of January, states that intelligence had been received that her Majesty's ship Conqueror had been stranded on a sunken rock on the east of Hum Key, Bahamas, on the 13th of December last; no lives were lost. The Conqueror was on her way from Jamaica to Bermuda, and had taken 1,100 marines on board besides her crew. The marines were transferred to the St. George at Jamaica. '

Southampton was, after all, not gratified with the spectacle of a. naval engagement. The Tuscarora (l^ederal), which had been to the Isle of "Wight, returned on the 4th of February to her station in Sonthampton Water, and thus gave" the Nashville (Confederate) the right to 24 hours start. Accordingly, the captain of the latter signified his intention to leave, and H.M.s frigate Shannon threw open her ports, ready, if need were, to enforce the law. The Tusearora was thus compelled to remain in neutral waters at least for 24 hours after the departure of the Nashville. As she did, not sail for upwards of 60 hours afterwards, it was concluded that her captain had given up hopes of a pursuit. The Tuscarora has since gone to look after the Sumter, at Gibraltar^ i. it Supply op Coppiks.—ln a case before the Civil Tribunal the feet was revealed thai1 the person who contracts with the City of Paris for performing funtrals is bound to have constantly on hand not fewer than 6000 eofiaa. ;