VICTORIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XI, Issue 656, 19 February 1859, Page 5

VICTORIA.

> »->, nil J 'm)otei&, l'3m2\T&H L •' Y s ou -will nqt ;f requijfe'to/i'UH6ld-/th^tt^ea^'bC: -gold'in Victoria is riot'tKaf golden age orhihocence of which the pbets prate, and that our condition of society is more Alsatian than Arcadian.' Deeds of violence are anything* bnt_ phenomenal 1 occurrences, and murders are not sufficiently rare to create "mucii attention, or anything more than a passing exclamation of horror. Within the 'last fortnight three have been perpetrated; and the cir-

oumstancea connected with each were ..somewhat, of a* remarkable' character. The victim of the' h'rstwas a thrifty and industrious German, in the service of Dr. Jewerell, of Beech worth, named1 Hartwig, who had been to the new Indigo diggings for the purpose of disposing of a cart-load of vegetables, and the murder appears to >have been committed with no other object than that of enabling the guilty parties' to. possess themselves of thefew pounds the poor fellow had about mm. Within eight-andaforty hours of the. commission of this deed of violence, a man named Ryan gave himself to the officers of justice as implicated in the crime, but denied having acted as a principal in the mat- ■ ter. He indicated two men named Williams and, Lusan, as the actual murderers, one of whom is! enabled to prove an incontrovertible alibi, while the charge against the other is supposed..to be equally false. • , ' The perpetrator of the second murder was a man named Rodda, a shoemaker, at Collingwood, who had been drunk for three weeks, his reckless indulgence culminating in a fit of delirium tremens, under a fit of which he nearly severed his wife!s , head from her body, and afterwards ..cut his own throat. Her death must have been immediate, but ■ hid did not occur for nearly twelve "hours afterwards.

The third murder was that of Mr. Green, a commission agent, who was conveying 500 ounces from the Omeo diggings to Port Albert; in Gipps Land, accompanied by a trooper, when he was shot dead by bushrangers. The trooper was likewise wounded, but managed to escape and to take "with him the lcd-horse which conveyed the gold, so that the villains wero baffled of their prize. The tragedy created great excitement in the district, and the diggers turned out in a body and scoured the country for the purpose of hunting down the miscreants, whose capture was effected under the following circumstances :—Seven days after the murder, a man named ,'Gibbs was working at a place called Gibbo, when he saw two- men answering the description of the murderers enter a store, for the purpose of purchasing rations. Cautiously waiting until nightfall, he then proceeded a distance of 30 miles to Livingstone, the head-quarters of the police, where the superintendent of police immediately organized a party for the pursuit, including an Omeo black fellow. They repaired to Gibbo, where the black was soon placed upon the scent. He followed it up with the wonderful instinct of his race, over a wild and mountainous country, never at fault and never faltering, for a" distance of 86 miles, when he suddenly halted and appeared to have lost it; but retracing his steps, he cast his eyes upwards and exclaimed' "Oh, see ; white fellow up along a top a tree." He was .rig Hi. The miscreants were perched high up among the branches, but were speedily dislodged,'secured, conveyed to Livingstone, and by this time are on their way to Melbourne gaol. • Mr. John Thomas Smith, the Australian Whittington,' has been disappointed of his expected knighthood, and is now on'his* way out. I understand that very strong representations were made at the; Colonial Office by various old colonists now in England, as to the impropriety of conferring such an honour on the son of a convict, and these representations have had their full weight. ' The result has given general satisfaction. I shallnot be surprised if her Majesty knights Mr. Haines, who is now in England. He well deserves the honor, and worthily represents the colony. I have also heard it surmised that Mr. Childers (who is the bearer of a congratulatory address on the marriage of the Princess Royal from the Parliament of Victoria) may receive the royal accolade. A great sensation has been created here by the republication of a letter to the Dublin ' Nation ' by its Melbourne correspondent, at a time the prospect of a visit from the French fleet at New Caledonia and the question of National defences were being actively, discussed.. -It^is., generally understood' that Mr. Duffy's private secretary (formerly associated with him on - the ' Nation') is the correspondent aforesaid, and that he speaks his employer's sentiments and those of. his colleague Mr. O'Shanassy, both of whom have been indicated by the Dublin ' Nation ' as the future Presidents of a Celtic Republic to be established in' Victoria. The purport of the letter refered'to was "to represent to the French Ruler our utterly defenceless position and the,splendid prize Mcl bourne .would present to the1 army of the Imperial Protector of-the Pope. "Our • national defences," -writes the correspondent, " are singularly weak—Heaven help us—and in the event of a war" we would prove frightfully easy of spoliation. The proclamation of a Republic would be our only preventative." <, In the present temper of the public mind, irritated as it is by the one-sided system of distributing Government patronage adopted by the Chief Secretary, these republican predilections of himself and Mr." Duffy have greatly embittered the hostility of- their opponents, and are likely to be remembered by all English and Scotch, as well as North of Ireland loyalists at the next election. Great preparations are making for the celebration of to-morrow's festival in honour of th& hundreth anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, and some of our best orators' are, likely to combine in paying a tribute or homage to that great and true poet. , ■