INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

West Coast Times, Issue 357, 14 November 1866, Page 2

INTERCOLONIAL NEWS.

VICTORIA. (from the melboukne papers.) A meeting of the committee of the new hospital took place at Scott's Hotel on the 20th ult. The chairman intimated that a sum of LI 100 had been subscribed in the course of a few hours, for the purpose of providing any increased hospital accommodation that might be required by means of a new building on another site, rather than by adding to the present building in Lonsdale street. It is the intention of the committee, we understand, to apply to the Government for the usual Parliamentary grant in aid to such institutions as soon as the sum of L3OOO shall have been collected ; and, from the success already attending the movement, and the decided feeling among the public, there appears to be no doubt whatever that that sum will be obtained without difficulty. It was stated that several hundreds of pounds additional have been already premised. The brethern of the Loyal Emerald Hill Lodge, No. 4549, M.U.1.0.0.F., met on Wednesday evening last, for the pui'pose of presenting a testimonial to one of their officers, Mr Charles James Durham. P.G. of the lodge. Past Secretary Lord occupied the chair, and after reminding the brethren of the occasion for which they met, addressed the worthy recipient in a highly laudatory speech, commenting on the advantages of Oddfellowship and the necessity for mutual aid in a newly-settled country such as Victoria. He then handed to P.G. Durham the testimonial, consisting of a handsome silver tea and coffee service, suitably inscribed. Mr Durham, in a neat and appropriate speech, returned his warmest thanks to the brethren for the kindness they had thus shown him. A fire was discovered at half-past 12 o'clock on the 30th ult., inthe rear of the premises of Messrs Langwill, Craig and Co., ironmongers, 12 Collins street west. The portion of the premises where the fire commenced is used as an oil store, and at the time contained a large quantity of kerosene and other oils. A number of empty wooden cases were lying on the roof of the place. The fire when first seen was burning amongst these boxes and the oil cases in the store. The alarm was rapidly conveyed to the fire-brigade station, at the Town Hall, and the members of the brigade, under Superintendent Hoad, promptly hastened to the spot. Owing to their timely arrival, the work of extinction was a comparatively easy matter, and the fire was got under before it had obtained much hold of the place. It is most fortunate that such was the case, as if so large a quantity of oil had become thoroughly ignited in the midst of that block of valuable buildings, great destruction of property would most probably have resulted. The origin of the fire has not been ascertained, but from the appearance of the place it seemed very probable that it had arisen from the spontaneous ignition of some sawdust moistened with oil, which was observed lying about the place. The Church Assembly of Victoria met on the 30th ult., in the Mechanics' Institute, for the purpose of considering the desirability of taking steps to petition the Queen, in connection with Mr Cardwell's Colonial Bishops Bill, that nothing might be done to prevent members of the Church of England in this colony voluntarily adhering to the Church of England, so that the colonial church might benefit by the machinery of the parent church. A series of resolutions having this object in view were submitted ( His Excellency the Governor paid a short visit to Castlemaine on the 30th ult., for the purpose of opening the Spring Show of the Castlemaine Dis-

trict Agricultural and Horticultural Society. The show was poor, but the welcome to His Excellency was singularly warm and enthusiastic. He was°entertained at a handsome banquet, the only drawback to the success of which was the eager desire of some of the speakers to eulogise the Ministry. J n furtherance of this idea, the fine band of the Castlemaine Rifles, which was in attendance, was instructed to play the air of " Hard times come again no more," after the health of the Ministry had been proposed. A somewhat amusing notice may be seen on a small hut in the bush, at the rear of Nuggety Gully, Talbot. It reads thus :—": — " I hereby caution all persons against talcing any food from within this hut, as portions of it contain poison." On enquiry, it transpired that the owner, who hails from Yankee land, has lately been the victim of several robberies, and that this notice is placed on the door to prevent the thieves troubling him again. The Castlemaine "Daily News" of the 31st ult. thas the following :—": — " "We deeply regret that the pleasure of a day so happily got through as Tuesday was should have been marred at the last moment by the, misconduct of the police. As the Governor was returning to the railway station, escorted, aecordling to rule, by the Light Horse, five or six mounted policemen attempted to force their way through to the carnage — in fact, to assume the duties of an escort. This a&tounding assumption of course could not be allowed, but in spite of Captain Anderson's indignant remonstrances the men persisted, until it was almost necessary to resort to violent means. His Excellency was visibly annoyed, and called on the mayor to order the police away from the escort. Lieutenant Roth well also rose in the carriage and ordered the police away ; but in spite of all this, nothing but Captain Anderson's evident determination to enforce discipline at all hazards induced the men at last to withdraw. We believe the affair mil be enquired into. This is one version of the occurrence, but we believe that several others are in circulation." Several deputations waited on various departments of the Government on the 31st ult., to bring under the notice of the Cabinet the disastrous consequences likely to follow the decision of Judge Rogers, judge of the Court of Mines, Ballarat, to the effect that the proclamation of roads, reserves, or residence areas, precluded the Court from dealing with any questions arising out of their being mined upon. In each case it was decided that nothing should be done till •the Supreme Court had expressed an opinion upon the subject. The inconvenience occasioned to traffic on the footway in Collins street west, by the throng of brokers and others who assemble and loiter there as at a kind of exchange, still continues unabated ; and on Thursday and Friday of last week the police took the names of several persons who were so obstructing the footpath, and summoned six of them to appear on the Ist instant before the District Court. In the absence of Mr F. Stephen, corporation solicitor, Mr Read represented the prosecution. A difficulty occurred at the first step in the hearing of the cases, as it seemed that the defendants had been summoned under a clause of the Police Offences Statute, which, being referred to, was found to contain no provision applicable to the case. The clause in question specified several obstructions to foot and carriage ways which were made punishable, such as " rolling any cask, beating any carpet, breaking-iu any horse, flying any kite, using any bows and arrows,'' &c , but made no reference to obstructions caused by loitering. Some allusion was • attempted to the strange kites no doubt often set flying among the assemblage, and the " longbow" archery occasionally indulged in, but Mr Read owned that he found himself unable to proceed with the cases. Mr Hackett suggested that they should be postponed till Mr Stephen could be present, and ultimately it was decided to withdraw all of the cases except the one first on the list, that against Mr Thomas Brown, who was directed to appear next Thursday, that the case might be heard and the law in reference to the matter decided. Mr Hackett remarked to the police inspector that the suppression of the nuisance complained of was a very simple matter ; it was only necessary to station a constable at the place, whose duty it would be to insist that the persons assembled there should " move on," and to arrest such as might refuse to do so. The crowded state of the road between Melbourne and the racecourse, on the Ist instant, and the recklessness displayed by many of the drivers and riders, led to various accidents. A buggy was smashed and a horse killed, at the intersection of Elizabeth and Latrobe streets. Between the entrance gate and the course, at the bottom of the hill, a horse suddenly threw its rider with great force, and the latter, falling flat on his face, a loaded cab which was close behind could not be stopped till the wheel had passed over both his legs, breaking them between the knee and the ankle. The horse was caught, after endangering numerous vehicles amongst which it ran. John Young, the second man concerned in the case of shooting at Constable O'Shaughnessy the other day, at Creswick, was arrested on the Ist inst., at M'Callum's Creek. Four charges of horse-stealing are pending against him. That no attempt to pilfer any of the articles on. view at the Exhibition should have been discovered was almost too good to be true, and consequently those on guard were nearly beginning to think that their task would be something like a sinecure. On the 2nd inst, however, proved the value of their watchfulness, and one visitor out of some hundreds attracted attention almost from the moment he entered the building. Without his being allowed to observe it, he was put under surveillance, and in the end, was caught stealing a paltry fig t of 4 Wangaratta tobacco

from the Beechworth court. He was arrested, and on his person was found a cheque for L3OO, and some L 3 15s in cash. A gentleman of Geelong, desirous of beiug present at the Flemington Racecourse, engaged a special train, by which he arrived at the Footscray Station at about one o'clock. Having spent the afternoon as a spectator of the races, he went to the Spencer street Station just prior to the departure of the evening train for Geelong. However, he preferred to travel alone, as in the morning, and engaged ariother special train for his return. The day's travelling thus cost about L 35. In the Supreme Court, before Chief Justice Stawell and a jury of twelve, on thq 2nd inst., the trial of the action of Lewis v. M'Mullen (inspector, &c.) was finished. Tn it the Union Bank was sued for the value of L 10,450 worth of Victorian debentures, which were stolen from the bank by Augustus George Fletcher, in 1864. Fletcher was cashier of the bank, and had unbounded confidence placed in him. He was aware of the deposit of the debentures in the bank for safe custody by Mr Lewis, of Tasmania, are old and wealthy customer of the bank. Mr Lewis used to come over periodically to cut off his coupons and receive the interest. Iv October, 1863, being aged, and shunning the frequent journey, he cut off the coupons both for April and for October, 1864, and gave them to Fletcher to collect forhim,and deposit thecash to his credit. He took receipts for the coupons. But in June, 1864, coming over again, he found his debentures gone from the box in which they had hitherto rested, in the " customers' vault" of the Union Bank. * Fletcher had gone home to England in August, 1863, "on leave," and without a suspicion on his honesty. It is now known that he had defrauded Dr. Playne, a resident here in 1854, who went to England and left Fletcher his agent here ; and that Fletcher stole Lewis's debentures, and sold them here and in Eugland, and paid his debt to Dr. Playne with part of the proceeds. The questions fought in the case were, firstly, whether the deposit with the bank was a merely gratuitous one, or one in respect of i which the bank received any " hire" — j any sort of necessary benefit, either direct or indirect — because the duty of a " bailee for hire" is stricter than that of a mere "gratuitous bailee;" and, secondly, if the deposit were not for hire, but purely gratuitous, whether or not the bank had been guilty of " gross negligence," as distinguished from the less degree of negligence which would make it liable if the deposit had been a bailment for hire. The jury were discharged, having been unable to agree to a verdict.

Medical.