A CHAPTER OF CRIME.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2016, 21 October 1869, Page 3

A CHAPTER OF CRIME.

(From the Pastoral Times.) Deniliquin has been pretty full for the week, consequent upon the assizes, which commenced on Monday morning. The criminal business was somewhat exciting, as several of the cases were of unusual public interest. In the first place, there were two brothers, Grovenor Flood, and Edward J. Flood, of the free selector class, both of whom reside near Narandera. The former was charged with committing, or being an accomplice in, a fraud on a living man ; the secondwas indicted for robbing a dead man. Both pascs are deserving of comment at our hands, though our space is necessarily contracted. In Grovenor Flood’s case the verdict of the jury was justified. Perhaps Flood intended to “do” the prosecutor Lee ; if he did, he succeeded skilfully and neatly, worthy of a Joseph A dye. Flood nearly put himself within the meshes of the criminal law. Had the prosecutor sworn that Flood heard the representations of his fellow prisoner, Letts, or Hunter, or Sullivan, a promising youth of about 20 years’ of age, Grovenor Flood would now be safe in the care of the Deniliquin gaoler. We hope that the narrow escape he has just had will be a

warning to him. Letts’, with his many aliases is, we hear, the son of the infamous Snllivan, the murderer, of New Zealand. Now, mark how one criminal act brought about a series of “troubles,” as being convicted is designated. Edward J. Flood is an innkeeper near Narandera, and on the 28th August Mr Joshua Sugden, the well known wool-classer, stopped at Flood s inn, and left the next morning, Sugden had three cheques on him, one for L2O, a second for L 4, and a third for L 6 17s 6d. After having been a little jolly over night (when he changed the cheque for L 6 17s 6d at Flood’s) he left in the morning, having partaken of four or five drinks or more. Soon after leaving Flood’s, Sugden met with an accident his horse carried him against a tree and the rider was killed. He was found lying dead, and near to him was found one of the small cheques, for L4—eventually the L2O cheque was traced to Edward John Flood, who was committed at Hay for robbing the dead body of Sugden. Sullivan (or whatever is his name) was despatched to Hay to make inquiries as to what had become of Edward J. Flood, and finding that the latter had been forwarded to Deniliquin Gaol, Sullivan or Letts followed Flood on the latter’s horse. Sullivan or Letts swindled as he travelled along in the name of Flood, Sullivan or Letts representing himself to be one of the Floods. Sullivan or I.etts committed no less than six frauds at Deniliquin in one day. At Deniliquin he met with Grovenor Flood, then on his way, with his team, taking wool to Echuca. Sullivan, nde Letts, &c., with Grovenor Flood, set to work to get Edward John Flood out on bail, and eventually found themselves both in gaol at Deniliquin. The three committals all occurred within a very brief period. The two last were the result of E. J. Flood’s crime. Here is ample food for the reflective mind, and the writer, viewing crime pathologically, may here find materials for an interesting chapter, concluding, if he should like, with ample illustrations of “wise saws and modern instances.” Neither of these accused had any pretext for their conduct —they were not short of means, no difficulties, no pressing creditors, no wives in distress, no children clamouring for bread, but they all trifled apparently with their liberty. It will cost the Floods at least five times the amount of the L2O cheque to extricate themselves from this “trouble.” So here is evidence of the fact that “honesty is the best policy”—a lesson which we would like to see our native youth in particular always keeping in view and acting upon, to the letter, if they can. Calms have always been a source of great perplexity to those who go down to the sea in snips, and they have also been productive of much inconvenience and loss to shippers, especially in cases where it was an advantage to have a certain description of cargo delivered at a certain port within a certain time. By means of an ingenious contrivance there are hopes that henceforth shipbuilders will be able to guard against this source of hindrance in regard to sailing vessels. The Galatea (an iron sailing vessel of 600 tons, recently launched by Messrs Brown and Simpson, and at present undergoing equipment in Victoria Dock, Dundee), is to be supplied, amongst the rest of her stores, with a four-bladed screw, four feet in diameter. When overtaken by a calm, a screw is fixed to her rudder, and is propelled by a skilful arrangement of pulleys leading over the stem of the vessel to a winch, which is used in the loading and discharging, The most ingenious part of the mechanism in connection with this contrivance is the manner in which this minature propeller is securely fixed in its place on the rudder, and the ease with which it can be shipped or unshipped. It can only be put in operation in the event of a calm, and it is calculated that the vessel will then be propelled at the speed of between two and three knots an hour. This is no small desideratum, when it is borne in mind that oftentimes in certain parts the ocean is in this tranquil state for a lengthened period. Shippers will fully appreciate the benefits to be derived from this additional power ; and sailors, to whom there is nothing more detestable than a calm, in vessels fitted up with such an appliance, will leave the quay with more spirit, inasmuch as they will have no terror of their vessel lying for an indefinite period while passing the equatorial regions under a broiling sun, “ idle as a painted ship on a painted ocean. ”