VICTORIA.

Southland Times, Issue 1226, 22 March 1870, Page 3

VICTORIA.

Business generally is very dull, owing to unpleasant rumors regarding the stability of several firms. A well-known firm are said to be unable to meet their bills and cheques. The amount of their liabilities is estimated at £300,000. Negotiations are pending with the banks to prevent the suspension of payment by the firm, as the surplus of assets over liabilities is estimated at £100,000. Mr J. King, grocer, Ballarat, has called a meeting of his creditors. J. C. Mark Q-owan, a soldier belonging to the 14fch Regiment, has been apprehended on a charge of rape, accompanied by an assault, on a woman named Parsons, at the St. Kilda swamp. Victoria won the intercolonial cricket match by 260 runs. Draper's light sentence continues to cause great dissatisfaction. The Directors of the Commercial Bank propose to institute a fresh prosecution. The suspension of Pilots Gannson and Singleton by the Navigation Board has been reversed, on the ground that that body has no legal standing as long as the post of Chief Harbor Master is vacant. The shareholders of the Australasian Insurance Company are agitating for the removal of the ofliciais at present in the employ of the Company. The Commercial Bank has made a call of £1 per share. Great stagnation prevails in mining matters. Mr Macrae was buried on the oth inst. The races between Hewitt and Harris for the championship began on the sth, in the presence of 20,000 spectators. Harris won the first two events, and the third resulted in a dead heat. On the second day the attendance was estimated at about 10,000 persons, and the quarter mile flat race was won by Hewitt in 51i seconds, being fully eight yards ahead of his competitor. The fifth champion event, the 100 yards flat race, is said to have been a splendid race. Hewitt got off" with a slight start in advance, but it was a very close thing throughout, and_ even to those standing close to the tape it was doubtful which touched it first. The question had to be decided by the umpires who gave Hewitt as the winner by a few inches. The dead heat of the first day's match is to be run off on a future day. Lieutenant Gordon has been presented with a cup by the members of the Cricket Club. Mr Fellows has tabled a motion that the question of the payment of members be decided by a vote of the whole colony. The ship Eliza, which arrived on Jan. 12 from Quebec, Captain Patching, has been burned in the Bay. The cause of the fire is unknown. Williams, the chief witness against Studman, arrested at Talbot on a charge of murdering his wife, bas absconded. Mr Charles Turner M'Lachlan, late of the firm of M'Lachlan and Garton, has committed suicide at Scott's Hotel. Louis Marren, of the Detective Police Force, has absconded. £100 reward has been offered for the apprehension of the Glenluce murderer. The Intercolonial Conference will meet in May next. Mr Thomas Taylor, preacher, Sandhurst, has been committed on a charge of embezzlement. Two seamen belonging to the lately wrecked vessel Marie Gabrielle, are supposed to have been lost on the Cape Otway ranges, and a party is in search of them. Mr W. Hull has been appointed Under Treasurer, trice Mr Symonds, who has obtained leave of absence. The nominations for the representation of the South Western Province in the Legislative Council were received on the llth. Mr Thomas Cowan, of Ballarat, and Mr John Cumming, of Lerinallum, were nominated. Gold has been struck at the High Plains, between Harrietville and Crooked Biver. The prospectors got a quart pot full of gold from their claim. A young man named George Bichard Dilo Thompson, aged 26, assistant to Mr Wragge, chemist, of Collins-street, poisoned himself on the 7th inst. in a, most determined manner, owing to his* mind having become unsettled in consequence of a belief in spiritualism. A movement has been set on foot in Melbourne to present Professor Halford with some testimonial for the services he has rendered in discovering an antidote for^lood poisoning. Mary Jane Le Capelaine, a good-look-ing young woman who had given her portrait and marriage certificate to a constable at Princes-bridge, and had then run towards the Yarra for the purpose of drowning herself, was brought before the City Court, on remand, on the 10th. She said she was sorry for what she had done, and Mr Panton, P.M., stated that, having made inquiries, he regretted to find that the woman had by her conduct disgraced a respectable family. The woman replied that her husband had treated her very badly, and bad not given her means of support. Mr Panton said the Bench would discharge her this time, and hoped she would behave better in future. The young man, Henry James Edwards, who was charged with the murder of Susan Egan, alios Louey Brown, but who was discharged by the coroner on account of the jury finding that there was not sufficient evidence to justify them in committing him for trial, was brought before the City Bench on the 9th, having been re-arrested immediately after leaving the juryroom, by the detectives, on the same charge of murder. Mr Inspector Kabat said that in this case he would ask for a remand until Tuesday next, when he would be prepared to go on. The remand was granted. Mr Bead applied for bail, which was allowed in two sureties of £500 each. Lite autumn meeting of the Victoria Bating Club was commenced on the llth inst., when the Hurdle Handicap was won by Victor, by a length and a half, .seven horses having started. The, St.

Leger Stakes were won by Lamplighter ; the Handicap Plate, of 100 soys. by Kestrel, 12 horses ran ; the Ascot Vale Stakes, by the Roe, seven horses starting ; the Australian Cup, of 200 soys, by Norma, 7 horses running ; and a Plate of £50 by Austral. The Treasurer, Mr Graham Berry, made his financial statement on the Bth inst. The balance from 1869 is £169,807 ; estimated revenue for 1870, £3,529,100 ; re-payments to credit of expenditure accounts, police and penal departments, £5,500; to be recouped from railway loan, £7,179; from waterworks loan, £48,332 ; making a total of £3,759,918, The estimated, expenditure is as follows :— Under special appropriations, £1,348,156; under votes, £2,402,696; balance to 1871, £9,066. H.M.S.S. Pharos made a cruise on the Bth inst. towards Cape Otway, looking for traces of the reported castaways from ; the wrecked Marie Gabrielle. Daring daylight a close observation was kept up along the coast, and after dark rockets were sent up and bluelights were burned, but no response was received from the shore. The Pharos returned this morning after an unsuccessful trip. No report has yet been received from the police searching party which went out from Camperdown. . .A The commercial uneasiness which has been enhanced by # the . stoppage-,. 0f . pay-; ment of a large milling firm mi Melbourne, Messrs W. Degraves and Co., has been increased by the promulgation of rumours of a kind detrimental to other houses. The Age says—" The probability is that for their existence these injurious reports are, many of them, indebted to fertile imaginations, and we regret to say, in some instances, to private malice. In the case of the Flinders-lane milling firm wildly exaggerated reports have been circulated as to the indebtedness, which is quite large enough without making it worse. The liabilities have been thus classified, and the statement may be accepted as approximately accurate :— Due to relatives (secured in various ways), £140,000; due to bankers (do do), £120,000; indebtednessto Australian creditors (unsecured), £60,000; toopencreditors abroad (under), £30,000; total (about), £350,000. . Negotiations are still pending which may prevent the' stoppage being more than temporary, as the/wealthy relatives of the principal of the firm; are ! understood to hold good securities show-^ ! ing a large surplus beyond their claim for advances, and some aid from them would speedily set matters straight. , In # the worst contingency the estate will, it is stated on good authority, realise the full amount of the indebtedness, and a more sanguine valuation places the surplus at. £100,000 beyond twenty shillings in the pound. The chief concern of the Victorian public is with the open debts, and as these do not exceed £60,000, the gigantic character of the failure dwindles down considerably from the sensational point of view in whicn it has been hitherto regarded. From a later date we observe' that arrangements have been made to carry on. The great little General Tom Thumb has purchased an elegant miniature barouche from the Port Phillip Carriage Company, in Melbourne, for use in his daily drives through the city. He intends to take it with him to America as a specimen of Australian manufacture. The racehorse Charon, by Ferryman, 3 yrs., the property of Mr Hurtle Fisher, died on the afternoon of the llth, at 4 o'clock, from injuries received whilst exercising on Wednesday morning last.. We have not been able to obtain any particulars as to the exact nature of the injuries received. By this accident a great number of doubles will be lost by the public, as Charon was heavily supported for the Victorian St. Leger and the Sydney Gold Cup and Leger, besides^ other races. Mr Miscamble, .the veterinary surgeon made a post-mortems examination next day. The . intern^ portions of the body were- found -to ; "Be' healthy, but slightly congested, probably, from the struggling of the animal after \i the injury was received. After the vertebra had been laidbare, by clearing away the muscles covering it, it was discovered that the fourth or fifth lumbar, vertebras was fractured into small pieces* The general opinion of those present, and-, which was concurred in by Mr Miscamble,was that Charon must have over-stretched? himself by his feet slipping on the tan,' 1 and thus, through the pace he was going, producing the fracture. The Echuca Meat-Preserving Company:; is in full operation. The consumption of * sheep at these works is estimated at from 8,000 to 10,000 weekly. ■ *. ;,' Mr W. J. T. Clarke is reported as being dangerously ill. Mr Robert Gladstone, nephew of the Premier of England, has been killed by _ fall from his horse at the station .of -.the*' hon. Neil Black, Glenormiston. The accident happened on the 3rd iust. The unfortunate gentleman lingered in great pain until Saturday morning, when deathterminated his sufferings. The deceased gentleman was universally respected. The Melbourne bakers have reduced the price of the 41b loaf from 7d to 6di