MELBOURNE.

Otago Witness, Issue 625, 21 November 1863, Page 2

MELBOURNE.

I FROM THE DAILY TIMES CORRESPONDENT.]

November, 10, 1863.

The current of events has run on so smoothly here since the despatch of my last latter, that in commencing my usual summary of news for the Aldinga, to sail this afternoon, I feel very much in the position of the celebrated razor-grinder, who, when asked to relate the story of his life, replied : " Story, sir ? Lor' bless your life, I've no story to tell. ' Everything here is in fact at the lowest point ofdulness, iucluding the weather, which is the coldest, the wettest, and the most disagreeably unseasonable that we have had — at the present season of the year — for the last thirteen years ; about one fine day pr month has been the average during the last three months, and all the rest unseasonable. The hail has seriously injured what was a promising show of | young fruit, although, at least three weeks later I than ordinary ; and the constant rains have re-« duced the up-country roads to such a slushy state that the squatters are beginning to wonder whether they will be able to get their wool down to market at all this year ; while a large number of unfortunate people, after sowing or planting the low lands hcld«by them, a second time have twice seen their labor completely demolished by the floods, and, their land being still under water, have been obliged to give up all idea of raising a Spring crop. By this time, in ordinary seasons, cherries and strawberries are to be had in Melbourne at a reasonable rate, but now, the lucky few who have been able to bring a small quantity of those fruits to market have been able to get for them from three to four shillings a pound ; and with respect to the last-named fruit, such is its scarcity, that at an Horticultural Show which took place at Brighton the other day, none of the exhibitors were able to produce more than one pound of them, although the prize competed for wa3 to be given for the best ♦' three pounds" weight. On the coast the squalls so prevalent lately have done a considerable amount of damage to the small trading craft, and the Vanguard, a fine ship from Liverpool, with two hundred passengers on board was driven on shore at the Heads, fortunately, however, she was got off again without much damage or loss. The out-going mail steamer Bombay too, was detained at the Heads until the 28th ulto., by the violence of the gale which prevailed at the time of her departure. Her Majesty' 8 troop ship Himalaya, a magnificent and well known steamer, purchased by the Imperial Government from the Peninsular and Oriential Company previous to the Crimean war, and which did such good service at that eventful period, in safely conveying British troops to the scene of action, has just paid us a visit, calling here for coal en route for Auckland with the famous "Fighting Fiftieth" regiment on board. The noble ship wa* thrown open to visitors for a couple of days during her short stay at this port, and a great many persons availed themselves of the opportunity thus offered them of visiting her and inspecting her arrangements. The contingent of troops which she now carries from Colombo to the seat of war is 830 strong, an accession to the forces under his command that will, no doubt, be most welcome to General Cameron in his present circumstances, and one that will materially assist htm in prosecuting the war against the rebellious Maoris with vigor and alacrity. The M Fiftieth" has a world-wide fame for bravery and prowess, and it is not likely that & reputation gained in

fuch fields as Vimeira, Ferozeshah, and Inkerinann, will suffer any deterioration in a contest vrita the semi-civilised tribes of New Zealand. In the absence of local topics of discussion the events passing in the sister colony excite a considerable amount of interest amongst us, and the progress of the war in the North on the one hand. and that of your own new gold discoveries on the other, furnish us with ever-recurring subjects for speculation. With respect to the latter, the correspondent of the Argus has, it appears, found reasons to correct his first unfavorable impressions respecting the West Taieri field, as he now states that although "to tlw detriment of some of the Otago diggings on their first discovery they were too readily and strongly puffed through various sources of information, it seems to be very much otherwise with the new diggings at West Taiori,*' and that those at Mount Ida " continue to furnish a fair proportion of the total by escort, and by the reports of the Wardens the area of auriferous ground qpened np seems to be extending." This ought at all events to be welcome intelligence to those thousands of Victorians now in your colony, who, according to a private correspondent of the same journal, are only waiting there for means to enable them to get back again to Melbourne, and who would gladly avail themselves of the opportunity of doing, so if the Victorian Government would but devote the trifling sum of a hundred and fifty thousand pounds or so to the purpose of TB-importing them. I have not heard that there is fee slightest intention on the part of the Government to comply with the waggish suggestion, <ur to look upon the exodus which has taken place, or is likely to take place from' this colony to yours, at all, in. the light of a Port Curtis-rush ; nor do I 'think' that any auch'rash statements as those made by the correspondent alluded to, even when accompaniei -with the assertion that there" is plenty of mad in the ufcreeti of Dunedin, deter the Victorian .digger from visiting r your gold fields if he has the .means to do so, and thinks he can improve his position by ihe change. The man Barrett who was taken into custody on euspicion of beiiig the perpetrator of the murder of Mrs Beckinsale at Woodstock, some particulars of which horrible- business I forwarded to you on a former occasion, has been fully committed for trial ; and Murphy, who was convicted at the- last Geelong pircuit Court' of the murder of Police Constable OrßoyleO r ßoyle at Warnambool, has been' executed. Three unhappy wretches, one of whom is "a woman, aged' only twenty-three years, and*; another a t mere lad of nineteen, brought down from Beech worth under sentence of death, for a murder committed in that district some time since, will' also have been killed by the bands of the hangman long before this reaches you unless a reprieve should annul the death-warrants already issued against them. By way of diversifying the usually tedious and dry proceedings of our Courts of Law a novel, and for the students of " Bell's Life" and finch other chronicles of 'Fistiana,' a very interesting case has been tried here, the plaintiff being William Clarke, irorr-moulder, but better known a« BUI Clarke, the prize fighter, and the defendant Mr William Levy, Editor of " Bell's Life in Victoria/ It, appears that in August last an agreement<was drawn up between the plaintiff and another fighting-man named Roberteon or Robson, according to the terms of which those two persons were to meet for the purpose of doing battle' against each other; on the twenty-, fifth of that month, "down the Bay." The precise spot at which the contest was to take "place being left an open question to be subsequently settled by the high contracting parties. The stakes of a hundred pounds a-side were to be deposited with the defendant Levy, and a reieree or umpire was to , be appointed by the mutual agreement of the two- parties to the contest. After two postponements/ one of which was on account of " magisterial interference," the men went ,to the Little River on the Geelong Railway'; Robson, it appears, with the intention of fighting,' but Clarke, merely as a t matter of form, foron arming at the place of rendezvous, on being challenged, by, Robson refused to fight, because no referee had been appointed. Upon this, Robson having "walked^oufc" a ring, went fafto it, threw up his hat, and claimed a- victory. He afterwards demanded from Mr Levy the two hundred, pounds staked in hia hands, and the Litter, after hearing all the circumstances of the case, complied with' the demand and handed over' to him the money. Clarke denied the right of the stake holder so to dispose of the money, and concluded that as the terms of the agreement under which the sum was deposited, bad not been adhered to; by the appointment of a referee, he (Clarke) ought to have bis stake of LIOO returned to him. To recover that amount, he, therefore, brought his action at law. Mr Fellows and Mr Dawson appeared as counsel for the plaintiff and Messrs Wood and Smyth for the defendant After listening to all the evidence, including that of the two prize -fighters themselves, the Chief Justice told* the jury that in hia opinion any person who deposited money with a stake- • holder for an illegal object was entitled to get ;hia money back-againitt anytime until it was ;4dtnftlly paid .away, by the stakeholder, under -ihe, terms on which, he ljeosiyed it j^and the jury After this very plain direction upon the law as applicable to the case before them, could scarcely eonj« to any other determination than they did, whicfe was to find a veraict for the plaintiff for JLipQ, tfee amount claimed. late Gitj Treasurer, Mr' Farewell, who -" r .

was dismissed by the Melbourne Corporation some months ago, on account of alleged fraudulent manipulation of "the funds entrusted to hi'n," and against whom criminal proceedings were commenced but subsequently abandoned, has brought an action in the Supreme Court against the Corporation for the recovery of substantial damages for the injury thus inflicted upon him, but the jury before whom the case was tried, appearing to think that the defendants had some grounds for their suspicion, found a verdict in their favor.

A very stringent measure known as " Adulteration of Food Bill" has just come into operation here. It prohibits the mixing of foreign substances with articles of food sold or exposed for sale, whether the thing used for adulterating them be deleterious to the human frame or nor, punishing the first offence against its provisions by fine or imprisonment, and on a repetition of the offence authorising the magistrate to publish the name and place of abode of the offender in the public papers.

The Kcans continue to delight the play-going public with their exquisite performances at the Haymarket, and every portion of the house, with the exception of the dress circle, is well filled nightly. It is very doubtful whether the manager of this theatre acted wisely in raising the prices of admission to tha high rate at which they now stand, and it is not improbable that the comparatively bare condition of the dress circle may result from this cause. The pit, the admission to which is two shillings, is always full, while the seats in the dress ciicle would generally hold three times as many persons as are to be tound there, and it would therefore appear that our colonial aristocracy rather than pay seven and sixpence for their tickets prefer to stay away altogether. In Shylock, Kean — much as was expected from him — quite took his audience by surprise, the impersonation was so life-like and so perfect. A friend of mine who had seen him both here and in the mother country in most of his characters, described the effect his Shylock had upon him at tho Haymarket tbe other evening, by saying, "He (quite frightened me!" — an honest expression of real feeling, which says more for the genius of this great actor than all the column and a-half long notices of his performances that appear almost daily in tbe public journals. They take their benefit to-night, the pieces chosen for performance being "The Stranger" and "The Wonder." The house is expected to be crammed in every part.

The Melbourne Eegatta took place on the Saltwater Eiver, at Footscray, yesterday, in the presence of the Governor and some three or four thousand persons. There were a great number of events on the programme, most of which were well contested. The Champion Sculls were won by Mr A. Nichols, a member of the Ariel Club. The Government offices were all closed, and the day was pretty generally observed as a holiday in honor of the Prince of Wales' birthday.

Telegraphic information has reached the Detective office here of a brutal murder in the bush, between Pleasant Creek and Glenorehy, the victims being two hawkers, named respectively William Selby and John Berrell, who were travelling with a spring cart and a dray laden with miscellaneous goods, including some jewellery. The bodies of these unfortunate men were found tied to a tree, their brains having been beaten out with a tomahawk or some such weapon. Nothing was seen of the drays or merchandise, and it is supposed that the murderers made a clean sweep of the whole booty. I hope in my next to be able to inform you that the wretches have been captured.

Captain Rolls, of the Edina steamer, trading to your port has been summoned to the City Police Court, to answer a charge of illegally conveying spirits upon which no duty had been paid, from his ship to his private residence. The Bench, after hearing the evidence of Mr Down, the landing surveyor to the Customs, and that of other witnesses called ia support ot the charge, considered that a case had been made out against the defendant, and he was fined upon that charge in the sum of L 25 ; and upon another information, charging him with making a false return of the spirits remaining on board his ship on his arrival in port, in that of LIOO.