THE GAROTTING PANIC.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 78, 4 August 1863, Page 3

THE GA ROTTING PANIC.

The excitement which pervades the Australian colonies on the subject of transportation is natural, but not well founded. Some i'ew months ago our newspapers were full of terrible reports of tho outrages committed in our streets by tieket-of-leave men, and it must have been evident to our friends in tlie colonies that great alarm prevailed in the mother country on tlie subject. There is no doubt of the fact. For two or three months considerable trepidation prevailed in the metropolis nnd the large towns. As is usual on such occasions, the stories of garrotting in the streets and highways lost nothing on their passa^o from mou'h lo moutb, arid tlie aelual evil was highly exaggerated. Then people hethought themselves of remedies. Some were for whipping ; others for solitary confinement, and many hard-headed and well-meaning per ons advocated the revival of transportation. Weave not surprised that the colonies should be thrown into consternation at the possibility of being again invaded byshiploads of convicts. They have suffered already so much, that, h tying. for the most part, outgrown the want of that kind of labor, they regard with horror the return of the convict element to their shores. It is not enough that the3 r are assured that transportation, in any case, would be limited to a particular spot where labour is needed, and where the convict might be turned to good account. Victoria declares that the range of the convict cannot be limited to any special place, and that once he is again ad.mitted upon the Australian contiuent, he will inevitably penetrate into Melbourne. Our object in noticing the subject is to allay the fears, as far as we can, which it has created. The ticket-o'-leaVe man has subsided into oblivion. No one goes out now in London, or elsewhere, under the slightest apprehension ; and transportation is talked of no longer. Should there ever be any legislation in reference to it, there can be no hesitation in saying that the just scr-nples of the Australian colonies will be respected by the Imperial Parliament. — Home News, May 26 th.

A very serious crime has been committed in Sooth wark. Mr Ledbitter, a tradesman in the Borough Road, murdered his wife, and attempted to murder his son, on May 25. A preliminary examination into the affaii has been made, and the prisoner is now confined in HorseniongerJane Gaol. . . General Hooker, Commadder-in-Chief of the Federal army of the Rappahannock, is said by a Cornish gentleman to have been formerly a resident in that county, and to have kept a beer-sbop, rr, as it is called in that neighborhood, a " kidleywink," at Helston. The same authority states that General Morgan is a Torquay man. . It is said the cost to the Egyptian Government of ihe Sultan's visit will amount to upwards of one million sterling. A frightful accident is reported from a paper-mill near Preston. A workman was, against the rules of the mill, denning the machinery whilst in motion. He was drawn behind the fly-wheel, and literally torn in pieces.