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West Coast Times, Issue 606, 3 September 1867, Page 4

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Frauds ok Emigrants.— At the Mansion-house, on June 25, Captain M'Lean, the Government emigration officer of the port of London, attended before the Lord Mayor and Mr Alderman Rose, to prefer a complaint against Messrs Edward West, of 27 Leadenhallstreet; John Course, of Buxton-house, Highbury-hill; "and John Robinson, of 61 Cornhill, shipping agents, for a breach of the Passengers' Act, in receiving the half of the passage-money, by way of deposit, from a number of intending emigrants to Canterbury, New Zealand, by the ship Devonshire, and neglecting to find them passages. Since a previous hearing, Mr William Rufus Powell, the registered owner of the vessel, had been summoned at the instance of Captain M'ELean on the same complants, but, owing to his being from home when the summons was served, the hearing was adjourned, at the request of Mr Miller, his solicitor, until the 28th of June. Captain M'Lean was accompanied by the complainants, several of whom were respectable-looking young women, who had come from the country to emigrate, and who had paid half their passagemoney to the defendant West — one of them as much as L4O, but who had not had any passage assigned them, nor had they received any redress, and they had been in consequence detained in London for nearly a month, exhausting their little savings in keeping themselves. The Lord Mayor said it was a serious case, and it was to Mr Powell the poor people had to look for the restitution of their passage-money. Mr Miller said his client Mr Powell had nothing whatever to disguise, and would do what he' believed to be right in the matter. The Lord Mayor said however Mr Powell might absolve himself from moral turpitude he was legally liable under the circumstances, and and the sooner he faced the liability the better. He (the Lord Mayor) himself had, out of commisseration for the poor people, fiven tiiem a little money from the poorox to enable them to subsist, but he could not be expected to do that. On June 28 the -case was resumed, when it was proved that in the case of Charles Morgan a sum of L4O had been paid. In the cases of Isabella Stevens and Ellen Peacock, L2B had been paid. A man named John Savageproved that he had paid LlO. Two persons, named Rachael Stokes and Charles Stokes, mother and son, appeared to have paid L 56;5 6; and in the case of Edwin Williams, the sum of L 7 had been paid — making a total of LI4L The Lord Mayor said that a most gross and cruel fraud appeared to him to have been committed upon the complainants, and he should exercise the power given him by the Act of Parliament of ordering the defendant to refund the whole amount that had been received, and he should further inflict apenalty of L 5 in each case, and in default of payment of the whole amount he should order the defendant to be imprisoned and kept to hard labor for two months.

A Baj> Babg-ain. — At the Liverpool Bankruptcy Court recently, before Mr Commissioner Perry, the case "In re Henry Redding" was heard." The indebtedness of the bankrupt amounted to L 1382, while the assets were L 3984, showing a surplus of L 2602. The circumstances -were peculiar. Mr Redding, it appeared from the statement of Mr Evans, his solicitor, belonged to one of the first families in North Wales. He was not in business, and resided at Menaibridge, in January, 1867, when he married his present wife, Mrs De Burgh, a widow, with a annuity of L2OO, and considerable expectancies. She was a young person moving in good society, and apparently with ample means at the time the bankrupt made her acquaintance. Before marriage the bankrupt made no impertinent inquiries, nor did she, possessing that intuitive feeling of delicacy which belongs to her sex, make any remark as to her pecuniary position. The parties were married and proceeded on their wedding tour, and returned in due course, when the husband, to his surprise, was welcomed by a process-server, who was the bearer of no less than five messages from the Queen in the shape of writs for L 1283, being for debts contracted by his wife during her widowhood. The bankrupt, Mr Evans stated, had endeavored to make an arrangement with these creditors by allowing them LIOO ayear, but had failed, and had since offered that the whole of his wife's property should be applied in liquidation of her debts, but. from this arrangement she withheld her assent. Under these circumstances the bankrupt, who owed no debts on his own account, was, to the humiliation of his family and himself, obliged to resort to the Bankruptcy Court, where he now appeared for the purpose of passing his examination and applying for his discharge. Mr Alfred Kent, on the part of the assignees, made no objection to the application, and the bankrupt accordingly passed and obtained the desired discharge.