The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-27 00:00:00

PRI

OF BREACH OF not then so calm as you are now. I know a Mr. Ed-
ward Walsh, an attorney, anal I met him while I have
been here in the lobby. I niet Mr. Edward Lynch in
Athlone, and all I know!of him is that he lives there.
His father-in-law keeps the house that you attacked
with a mob. I was told there that there was a traffick-
ing in Government patronage to secure your return. It
was continually mentioned that patronage was used to
secure your return. I cannot mention any one living
man who told me that, as I did not know any persons
in Athlone. I heard it stated there, but Ido not know
it of my own knowledge.
Mr. Butt here interposed, and the room was ordered
to be cleared.
On re-admission,
Mr. Dame was recalled—ln_ answer to questions from
Mr. Keogh he said—l received a letter from Mr. John
Malone. Ido not know him or his character, and if he
has the documents, and is mixed up with these corrupt
transactions, I do not wish to know him. Ido not
know his general character from rumour, as that would
be a very unsafe ground to form an opinion upon. If
I were, for instance, to judge of your character from
general rumour, I might be doing you very great in-
justice. (A. laugh.) Malone wrote to Lynch, and
that letter was forwarded to another person, but who
that person is I will not tell, as I promised him
that I would not, and as the mention of his name
would do him great injury in his business. If you
will have it, I will tell you what I did hear. I heard
it spoken of you that you were so reckless that you in-
duced a gentleman to accept bills for you on the eve of
your late contests for 1,0001. that you allowed those
bills to be protested, and that you afterwards obtained
for his son an appointment in the Excise. The name of
the gentleman was Smith. The bills were protested ;
and the books of the National Bank, if they were pro-
duced here, would show that fact. It was said that
you had reduced the man to ruin, and had driven him
out of the country to a foreign land. It was said that
this gentleman was engaged in canvassing for you. The
conversation arose in this way ; that it was strange that
persons could be got to vote against Mr. Norton, and
could be found to vote for you. You want to convey to
the public that I desired to injure you, but it is not so,
for I only pitied you. I cannot give the names of per-
sons who stated the conversations that I have spoken of.
I cannot charge my memory with the names of the per-
sons who were present. Mr. Edward Johnstone was
with me in Athlone ; but I do not know whether he was
present at the conversation. Mr. Edward Lynch was
with me at the hotel at the time you smashed the door.
I state as distinctly as if on my oath that you headed
the mob of 2,000, and that the landlady said it was you
smashed the door. On that occasion I remember, in
the presence of Mr. Henderson, putting my hand
on your shoulder, telling you that it was a serious
thing for a Solicitor-General to head a mob, and I told
the police at the time to take cognisance of it. I have
made allusion to this subject, but I have never said
to any member that I was in possession of a document
that would establish the charge against you. My im-
pression is I never stated this subject to a member of
Parliament. I did say this, while I was just now in the
lobby, seeing two or three members of Parliament stand-
ing about, that I thought it was very wrong for Mr.
Keogh to subject roe to such a harrassing examination,
for if he compelled me to answer such questions, some-
thing would come out that would not serve you.
The witness having intimated that he thought he
might have the letter in his possession in his portman-
teau (he having come to London on some private
busi-
ness) he was requested to go to his hotel and search
'Or it.

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 27, 1854,

ments from the territorial revenue, 1,8841. 12s. 4d.
Total charge on the territorial revenue, 269,9461. ls. 2d.
Total expenditure, 734,961/. 18s. 2d.
These returns, as we formerly mentioned, are fifty-two
in number. They are ably compiled ; they do credit to
Mr. Archer, the acting registrar-general, and form a
document of great value in illustrating the progress and
history of this young nation.

NAVIGATION OF THE RIVER MURRAY.

A glance at the map of the south-eastern portion of
Australia is sufficient to show the great importance of
ascertaining the course and character of the rivers that
water the inland plains. The colonies of New South
Wales, Victoria, and South Australia line the seaboard.
Behind them, or rather behind those parts of these colo-
nies that we can speak of as really occupied by civilised
man, stretches a vast area of table-land, watered by
numberless streams. These streams, some of which are
in the summer nothing more than dried-up brooks, while
others are deep and broad rivers, have in general a south-
westerly direction, and, the lesser feeding the greater,
they all at length pour the volume of their united waters
into the channel of the Murray. This river, which
finds an exit into the sea through the Lake Alexandrina,
in South Australia, is thus the highway of the water
communication of our Australian colonies, and it may
be considered a very important incident in their his-
tory that in the autumn of last year Sir Henry Young,
the governor of South Australia, himself ascended in the
Lady Augusta steamer to a point 1,500 miles from the
mouth of the river. An account of his expedition, contained
in two letters addressed to the Colonial Secretary, has re-
cently been laid on the table of the House of Commons ;
and the narrative of his investigation suggests abundant
matter for speculation on the future destinies of Aus-
tralia. The basin of the Murray and its tributaries gives
to Australia what the valley of the Upper Mississippi
gives to America—a field where the energies of the
young country may be profitably absorbed for centuries.
The portions of a colonial district that skirt the sea assume
inevitably within a certain space of time something of the
character of an old country. The land is all occupied,
every advantageous situation is guarded by the jealousy
of vested interests, all the resources of the country are
appropriated to public or private uses, and it becomes as
difficult, or nearly so, for rude energy to find a vent as
it is in England itself.! But if an unoccupied territory,
rich in varied natural wealth, lies behind, and yet is con-
nected with the settled district by a network of great
streams and rivers, the growth of the whole colony can-
not approach its limit under a period of time too great to
estimate. And in Australia the Murray and its depend-
ent streams not only water a territory capable of sustain-
ing to an indefinite amount the surplus population of
each of the Australian provinces, but supply a natural
band by which the different provinces are linked toge-
ther. The remote sources of the Darling and Murrim-
bidgee may be traced to the great mountain chain of
New South Wales, the Upper Murray flows through
Victoria, and the Murray enters the sea in South Aus-
tralia. Nature seems thus to point to the formation of a
great and expansive whole, andto give a warning and to
provide a safeguard against the establishment of petty
and disjointed societies.
The Lady Augusta had on board about forty-five per-
sons, and the number was composed of men sufficiently
different in birth, education, and local associations, to
make the survey impartial, accurate, and serviceable.
And as they all agreed in bearing testimony to the capa-
bilities of the Murray, their opinions may perhaps be
considered conclusive. There are three members of the
Legislative Council of South Australia, two reporters of
Adelaide newspapers, several persons acquainted with
the river navigation of the United States and California,
and others who had acquired experience in the rivers of
Europe. The main result of their investigations is that
the Murray Proper may be considered navigable from the
Goolwa, where it enters the sea, to Albury—that is, for
a space of 1,900 miles ; while the Murrimbidgee, from
its junction with the Murray, has a navigable course of
700 miles to Gondagai, Albury is within 400 miles of
Sydney, and the Loddon, a stream of some importance
flowing into the Murray, will conduct the gold-digger
within thirty miles of Bendigo. Thus the Murray offers
a means of transport for the whole district to the con-
fines of New South Wales, and also a ready access to
gold-fie ,ds--one that will hereafter be probably much
preferred to the dangerous navigation of Bass's Straits
and Port Philip Heads, and the tedious land journey
from Melbourne. _
Sir Henry Young estimates that on the banks of the 1
Murray and its tributaries there cannot, even at the
present time, be less than one million and a half of
sheep, while the heads of cattle and horses are also
numerous. But the runs are in all cases inadequately
stocked, and a vast portion of the whole district, espe-
cially on the Darling, is not yet stocked at all. The
timber and soil along the banks of the Murray are pro-
nounced to be of two distinct kinds. The land is either
alluvial, requiring embankments to bring it into perfect
cultivation, but affording pasture of the finest descrip-
tion, or it is a mixture of sand and red loam. On the
alluvial soils are to be found gum timber and the varie-
ties known as box and peppermint, while the red loam
is covered with pines. The gum timber is said to be fit
for the heavier parts of ship-building, and for dwelling
and store houses. " Saw-mills may, therefore," as Sir
H. Young remarks, "be soon expected to convert this
timber into boats and rafts adapted to the river naviga-
tion, and into vessels, to be decked and sparred at the
river terminus, for disposal in the neighbouring colonies ;
while the timber of rafts broken up at the Goolwa would
meet with a ready sale."
Unfortunately, the passage through the sea-mouth of
the Murray is beset with so many dangers as to be prac-
tically impossible. Sir Henry Young and the local Le-
gislature are using every exertion to remedy this im-
portant defect. There is excellent anchorage for the
river boats at the Goolwa, between the north shore of
the Murray and Hiudmarsh Island, in a capacious and
perfectly land-locked basin, with a depth of 16 feet
water. A jetty has been constructed, and this jetty is
connected with another jetty at Port Elliot, in Encounter
Bay, by an iron tram of seven mil... nnur,....nleted, or
(on the prbief. .f ..mplotion, over A dead level country.
fort Elliot itself offers a remarkably safe anchorage,
being sheltered from every wind except the south-east,
from which direction there is little cause to apprehend
the inconvenience of a heavy sea, as the great length of
beach, extending to a distance of eight miles, must ope-
rate as a check. It cannot be denied that the want of a
direct communication with the sea is a very serious
drawback to the navigation of the Murray, but as art
has connected the Goolwa and Port Elliot, and as Port
Elliot has advantages superior to almost any harbour on
the southern coast of Australia, the tide of commerce
will probably be in no degree prevented from finding this
inlet into the interior.
In order to promote the settlement on the banks of
the Murray of persons whose industry would be directed
towards facilitating the passage of the produce to the
coast and of the supplies which the stockewners need in
return, and in expectation of large numbers of immi-
grants being attracted to the route of the Murray when
its advantages are more fully known, the Governor
and the local Legislature have decided on proclaiming
the lands on both sides of South Australia, to the extent
of two miles, to be the "Hundred of the Murray." The
effect of this will be that no squatting leases will be
issued within the hundred. Surveys of allotments of
land in blocks of 10, 80, and 640 acres are to be made,
so as to suit the wants and purses of different purchasers ;
and the purchasers of These allotments will have a pro-
portionate amount of commonage of pasture assigned
them within the hundred of the Murray. The runs of
the lessees of waste lands will thus undergo an insigni-
ficant diminution ; but this will be amply compensated
for by the greater facility of procuring labour, the for-
mation of villages, and the ease of communication. The
flat land immediately adjacent to the banks of the Mur-
ray is evidently destined to be at some future period of
very great value ; and it needs wise precautionary
measures at the outset to guard against a great public
resource being frittered and jobbed away by speculators.
Whether the plan of thus reserving the land in the vici-
nity of the Murray is to be considered a permanent, or,
as is perhaps more probable, only a temporary measure,
it shows that the local authorities are in some measure
alive to the exigencies of their position. And it is but
due to Sir Henry Young to remark, that the zeal and•
judgment he has shown in exploring the Murray, and
the appreciation he has displayed of the real interests of
the province committed to his care, reflect the highest
credit on himself personally.

STATE OF TRADE.