Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-18 00:00:00

A MEI'ING OF CREDITOR' IN AUSTRALIA.

The following is an extract from a letter dated Mel.
bourne, March 24, 1857 :—" 1 will endeavour to give you
an account of a meeting of creditors of a Yanke house held
here 14 days ago." [We shall call the firm A. and B
" They issued circulars calling a meeting of their credi-
tors. As the creditors appeared in the room, A.. shook
hands with each most courteously, and seated them at a
long table accor'ling to the amount of their debts—the
highest creditors at the top on the right hand, and so on.
When all met, A. said—' I guess, gentlemen, this you
may rather consider a disagreeable meeting, but I will
shorten it as much as possible. I propose, therefore, to
take the chair, as I can at once let you each understand
the position you are in with our house. Mr. B. will take
the other end of the table, to explain to the smaller credi-
tors anything, whilst I shall no doubt manage well the
larger ones at my end." The chairs being taken, A., o►►
his leas, said—" Gentlemen, before each of you there is a
list of our liabilities, assets and losses, which all of you
gentlemen (whom I have no doubt have been at a great
many meetings of this nature) will, on looking over, un—
derstand at a glance ; but to shorten, I will go over :
Liabilitios . .•.
Assets
Expense at the mines ...... 3,292 16 3
A. and B.'s personal expenses
for 14 months ............ 0 0
Losses in trade 9,375 14 9
Sundries . 35 0 0
- • -

-----X23,395_ 14 9

Now, gentlemen, there are many houses in this 'ere Mel-
bourne who keep a double set of books, but we do no such
things ; I calculate we only keep ours by double entry,
and balanced to the sixteenth part of a cent, the
amount of which few of you will likely know. It is,
however, and must be, very satisfactory to all that you
know where your money has gone. We propose 7s Gtl net
cash, which is rather over the estate ; and to save time, if
you agree, I will wait upon you individually and give you
cheques for your several amounts : so that this business
may at once be over and we resume, and give von all
a fair share again of our patronage and support." The
meeting was so taken by surprise that silence was the
order of the day. Upon this, A. rose and said—' Gentle-
men, I thank you sincerely for your kindness on this occa-
sion, as silence betokens consent. I will wait upon you
to-morrow, with your cheques all cut and dry for you.'
Upon this, C., my friend, rose in anger and said How is
it that you, Mr. A.'s personal expenses should be so great,
and so much greater than the large number of persons
employed at your mining establishments ?" Nothing is so
easy to answer as the question put by the hon. gentleman.
I guess these folks at the mines belonging to us do their
own cooking, I have even heard their owa washing—
things I have never been accustomed to. I assure
you, 'pon honour. Any more qustious, as it is getting
near dinner time? Mr. C , still in a rage—` In what
consists £35 sundries ? A.—l am astonished that a gen-
tleman should challenge such a paltry sum; but this
account is wrong headed—it should have been headed
" Charity," as No. 4 Memorandum Book will show that
£35, I calculate, was given to poor people whom we con-
sidered at the time in a much worse position than our-
selves. Having thus satisfied all I hope, I dissolve this
first and last meeting of creditors of A. & B.' A creditor,
however, rose at this and said they would not take less
than Bs. Upon which A., looking down the table, said
---` I suppose, 8., we must give them 8s ;' but, turning
round, said—' Gentlemen, this is rather a hard case, as
we shall have to pay it out of our own pockets.' The
meeting closed, and A. & B. have got a clear discharge."

BOY ATTACKED BY WEASELS.—On Saturday last, a boy,
while amusing himself by the side of the Auldeern Road,
and about three-quarters of a mile from the town, obser.-ed
emerging from under one of the remaining piles of wood
there, what he imagined to be a number of rats. He
instantly gave chase, little suspecting any opp ;sition, but
was quickly surrounded by upwards of a dczen antagonists.
some of them staring him in the face, and others fixing on
his trouurs one of the number, more forward than the
others, sprung up, and seizing him by the vest, obliged
him to beat it tlf; thin stunning it, he then killed it
with a stone. By this time he began to suspect he
had mistaken the kind of his assailan's, and retreated,
but carrying with him his fallen enemy—a full-grown
weasel.—Nairnshire Telegraph.
Liz ARNIY.—A return to the House of Couloons, on
the notice of Mr. Sidney Herbert, shows that in the years
1856-7 the gross number of men borne on the army esti-
mates was 273,079, including the British-Foreign Corps ;
and that of these 26,363 were for service in India ; 76,787
for service at home ; 133,784 for service nt the seat of war
in the East. The total number voted was, however, Only
246,716. The gro,s sum in the original estimate was
£34,998,504, reduced, on revision, to a vote of £20,249,08.1.
In the same year a total of men, bays, and marines, for the
navy of 76,000 for three months, and 56,000 for nine months
was voted. The money vo`e amounted to £15,812,127,
making with that for the army a gross total of £36,061,211 .
SLAVE TRADE IN CUBA.—According to a return to
the House of Commons, there were, at the dates last
reeeiyed, two British vessels on their respective cruising
stations on the coast of Cuba for the suppression of the
slave trade—the Arab (sailing) and the Falcon (steam.)
Since January, 1854, there seem to have been eighteen or
twenty vessels employed on this service. The time they
remain upon their respective cruising stations varies from
three or four days to two or three months.