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Southland Times, Volume VII, Issue 523, 20 July 1866, Page 2

Wanted, a Colonial Peabody. — The Age of Saturday says : — " Eor the credit of Victoria, that we may enjoy* the unwonted pleasure of praising the liberality of a rich colonist, let somebody imitate the example of Mr Peabody. We have many richea than he. We take the following anecdote of one from a Portland newspaper : — ' The Hon. W. J. T. Clarke was a passenger by the Penola, and we are happy to say escaped the perils of the passage. On Saturday he put up at Mac's Hotel, We cannot resist the temptation of repeating the following characteristic anecdote of the celebrated millionaire. A gentleman connected with the local benevolent asylum — now almost bankrupt — supposed the arrival of the honorable gentleman a G-od-send, and posted away early on the morning of Mr Clarke's arrival to congratulate him on his escape. After expatiating on the gratitude a safe deliverance from the terrors of ocean claimed from mankind generally, and Mr Clarke in particular, the subject of the asylum was delicately broached, and, to make a long story short, Mr Clarke was asked to, set his name down for .a . sub- . scrip tion. Here was a trap that might ' have caught any maja less firm than the honorable member for the' Southern Pro- | vince, but he was too old a bird to be by chaff or either gratitude or charity ; he refused indignaetly, and said ho would not subscribe a sixpence ! These be thy gods, O Victoria ! Here is a member of the Legislative Council that only a few weeks since brought an action against a squatter in the Western District for not borrowing £20,000 sterling from him, and who, afteJ a narrow escape from shipwreck, refuses a siugle sixpence to the support of an asylum where tie halt and the blind, the naked and half-starved, are compelled to live from day to day on the charity of those not much better off, as regards worldly wealth, than themselves. If large possesssions, countless, flocks, and numberless herds, are to be the concomitants of that want of charity wuich'Mr Clarke is known to possess in a super-eminent degree, let us all pray to be delivered from the temptation of enormous eoloeial wealth, which, in his case at least, seems to deaden the heart to every feeling that Christianity commends and enjoins.' Unfortunately, we have more Clarkes than Peabodys. We have numerous gentlemen who owe all they have to Victoria, and that is a great deal, and who have yet done nothing for her advancement. There is not on record a. realiy munificent gift to any object whatsoever. Pray redeem us from this scandal, and at once earn public approbation, and what Mr Peabody considers the highest possible reward — the approval of conscience."