The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 20, 1858.

been working honestly for a livelihood since his
discharge.
Sentence was deferred.
Mr. T. Salter prosecuted.
Henry Williams, 25, was convicted on Monday of
stealing a mantle, value 55., the property of Martha
Packhorse, from a shop-door in High-street, Poplar.
The prisoner had only just served a sentence of 12
months when he committed this theft. There were
four other convictious against him, and he had been
transported for seven years.
He was now sentenced to eight years' penal ser-
vitude.

Maria Hart, 48, pleaded guilty to a charge of
having stolen 211bs. of meat, the property of Francis
Ravenshear. She had been three times convicted
summarily of stealing meat.
A respectable-looking elderly man stated that the
prisoner was his wife. He had been in a far better
position in life than he was at present, and the pri-
soner had been a good wife to him until she got con-
nected with parties who led her into habits of
drinking, and when they had got her to spend all
her money, and she was under the influence of
drink, she committed these acts of larceny. It was
invariably meat that she took, not because she was
in want; it was all through drink. He yet had
hope of making her a bright woman, and at the
expiration of the sentence the court might pro-
nounce, and he hoped it would be a lenient one, he
would send her to Canterbury, as he had an oppor-
tunity of doing, and so break off her acquaintance
with those persons whose evil counsel and advice
had been the cause of her intemperate habits and
her present position at the bar. She never did any-
thing wrong except when in a state of inebriety.
The Assistant-Judge sentenced her to six months'
hard labour.

Waterloo, on 15th August last. He had been con-
victed at the Southwark Police-court for stealing a
pair of trousers, and was sent toWandsworth House
of Correction. The prisoner's name appears in the
Gazette as a deserter. _

Mr. Ingham—How do you know that the pri-
soner is the same boy mentioned in the Gazette
Witness—Mr. Lay-land, the superintendent of the
Reformatory School at Wandsworth, is present,
and will speak to that fact.
Mr. Lay-land—The boy was bound from our
school.

Mr. Ingham—Does the captain of the Waterloo
wish to have him back ?. _ _

Mr. Layland—Yes, sir. I have communicated
with him, and he expressed a wish to have him
back.
Mr. Ingham—Some time ago I received a letter
from Captain Greet, stating that I should in future
not send the worthless deserters back to him again.
Mr. Layland—The captain of the Waterloo is
perfectly well aware of the boy having been con-
victed.

Sergeant Bocking—Your worship, if the autho-
rities did not wish to have him back again, they
would not have placed his name in the Gazette.
Mr. Ingham—Yes, I remember there was some
arrangement that I should not send back those
deserters who were not mentioned in the Gazette.
Well, boy, have you anything to say ?
Prisoner—Nothing, sir.
Mr. Ingham—Then you will be taken to the
Crocodile receiving ship, lying off the Tower.
Mr. Layland—This is the only boy out of be-
tween 30 and 40 others who have been bound to the
navy from our school that has deserted.
The prisoner was then removed.

bring me authentic news of these little song-
sters or their descendants, and I soon received
satisfactory information that they had been
seen and heard. And since then, it being
known that I was taking some interest in such
experiments, people have frequently volunteered
such information as leads me to feel convinced that
the English skylark is established among us—
whether as yet in sufficient numbers to guard
against casualties I cannot say.
The summer before last we set free in the Bo-
tanical Gardens, near Melbourne, four nightin-
gales, purchased of a bird dealer, at a high rate, of
course. Two we found could not fly. We had to
' recatch them, and they afterwards died, perhaps
being injured in the process of recatching. One of
those set free was seen and heard still in the gar-
dens by a gentleman well acquainted both with the
song and appearance of the bird several months
after they had been set fat liberty, and within a
few days of the time I left the colony Dr. Mueller,
the superintendent and Government botanist, had
been assured by a respectable gentleman that he
had just heard the note of the nightingale while
rowing up the river past the gardens.
So much for successes from very small begin-
nings ; now for the very encouraging form which
these successes are apt to take.
Past the city of Melbourne flows the river Yarra.
It is rather a fine river, always flowing, even in the
driest season, generally about 20 or 30 feet deep,
quite fresh at the city, although, of course, a little
" Thamesy" after it has received the washings. of
that crowded place. Along the banks of the river
upon highdays and holy days and upon our fine
mornings and evenings spreads that patient and
reflective portion of our population, young and old,
which takes delight in the placid joys of fishing.
While witnessing the zeal of these brethren of the
angle I always felt grieved to think that they had
not the slightest chance of catching anything of
above a pound weight ; the only fish in the river,
except eels, being a little " Mack fish," rarely
reaching that weight, and a fish we call " herring,'
which does not attain anything like the size of its
saltwater namesake. After some little cogitation I
determined to try to introduce into the Yarra the
Murray River cod, described by Major Mitchell and
others, and soon came to the conclusion that b
tracing up the tributaries of both rivers
should find a practicable road by which this little
experiment could be worked out. There was no
difficulty in the way. I sent up a couple of men
and a horse and cart, and in a month I had about
60 cod and 40 of another fish, called " bream,"
turned alive and healthy into the Plenty River,
which runs into the Yarra several miles above the
town. Last summer these fish were seen in various
directions, nearly as low as Melbonrne itself, and,
better still, in the Yarra Yarra reservoir, a lake of
10 miles in circumference and 20 feet deep, just
formed to supply the city with water—till now
unsupplied with fish of any sort, and probably one
of the finest nurseries in the world. Experienced
anglers in the Yarra are already catching a small
fish which has never been seen there before, and
which, although the professor of natural history at
our university pronounces it not the Murray cod, I
am inclined to think may turn out to be the young
of one of the kinds of fish I introduced.

This little experiment being a good deal discussed
in the colony, other people began to ask themselves
whether the waters of their several localities were
being turned to the best possible advantage. The
municipal council of the great central diggings of
Ballarat remembered that the great Lake Burrum-
beet, at the back of their township, was utterly un-
stocked. They secured the assistance of adjacent
settlers—Mr. Learmonth and others—and had the •
same fish carted across the ranges and turned into
the lake. And soon after the inhabitants of the
town of Colac, several score miles further to the
southward, were stimulated to similar action, assem-
bled in public meeting, and subscribed £lOO to
bring the Murray cod into the beautiful lake from
which their township takes its name.
Thus, it is the tendency of these experiments ever
to ramify,-till the results exceed our most sanguine
expectations, When I set about introducing the
Murray cod into the Yarra, I confess that I never
had a thought of Colac and Burrumbeet. I was
perfectly satisfied with the success of my own expe-
riment, and have these all extra fel: my pains.
If I can induce a few people here to do anything
of this kind, the colony will be found quite prepared
to do full justice to the effort. Upon the occasion
of my having the honour of reading to the members
of the Philosophical Institute of Melbourne a brief
paper upon the introduction of the British song
bird, an intelligent committee was appointed to co-
, operate with me, and to watch over such experi-
ments. The Council of the Institute placed a sums
of money at our disposal, and the Government im-
mediately built a large aviary, enclosing several
trees, in the Botanical Gardens, for the furtherance
of our objects. This has become one of the princi-
pal attractions of these beautiful gardens, and
against the wires of this aviary our colonial chil-
dren flatten their little noses, with a delight, alas,
known only to the child, as they make their first
acquaintance with the lark, linnet, thrush, black-
bird, goldfinch, and nightingale, known to them as
household words among their parents, but till now
never known by sight.
At the same time an association of a wider range
has been formed for the prosecution of such experi-
ments, under the title of a Zoological Society. It has
received the grant of a valuable track of land from
Government, and has been voted £3,000 by the
Legislature, with a special intimation that its prin-
cipal function is to be the introduction of new
animals, not simply the provision of an agreeable
and instructive promenade for the colonists.

Now, if it were possible to depend upon success
in these efforts from doings so small as those I have
described, it would be unnecessary to trouble you
upon the subject, or to appeal through you to that
enormously wide circle which you have the privi-
lege of addressing daily. But in handling such
subjects I have always enlarged most energetically
upon the necessity for the amplest provision against
all casualties, for the patient and persevering ela-
boration of an experiment-till either it is successful
or till the end aimed at be proved to be literally
impossible, so that we may dismiss the subject from
our thoughts and devote our attention to some-
thing else. It is of no use to turn adrift a
dozen pheasants in the woods, and to call that
trying an experiment in the propor acceptation of
the term. If we set deliberately about a task of
supplementing Nature, we must imitate her in
one of the most remarkable and beautiful of her
attributes—profusion. If she desires to keep a par-
ticular fish in existence, she provides each several
female with a roe of 10,000 eggs. As the swallow
is not to become extinct, their gathering for their
autumnal trip darkens the very sky, as your
columns have lately informed us.' And so with us.
If we are seriously desirous of extending among
our fellow creatures the good -things furnished us
by a benevolent Creator, we . must not only be
thoughtful, painstaking, and enterprising, but per-
sistent, undaunted, and profuse. I feel sure that I
need but give the hint I have given to secure the
offer of assistance from many a wealthy landowner
whose well-stocked preserves would easily afford
even liberal drains for such a purpose as this, and
to inoculate many with something of the same sen-
sations with which I see our beautiful game birds
ranged upon a poulterer's 'shelves, apostrophising
each one as I pass, " Ah, my fine fellow, would that
you were strutting at this' moment in some snug
galley of Australia, in the fulfilment of the duties
of a graceful paternity, the noble founder of an aris-
tocracy of birds ! "
Having last week brought this matter under the
notice of the Colonial-office, I am happy to say that
it was received in a style encouraging in the ex-
treme. Lord Carnarvon promises me not only to
lend any assistance in his power in his official
capacity, but to lay his private estates under con-
tribution to the cause. With but a few imitators,
and a careful eye to variety, in our shipments, we
might really do something effective in a very short
time, and, still better, generate a movement which
should rapidly populate even the most waste places
of the earth. If I receive any encouragement, it will
be easy to secure some place in London or the
neighbourhood for the reception of birds or other
animals till opportunities of shipment offer, and I
can say from experience that the shipowners trading
with the colonies will be found liberal enough in
tenders of assistance.

In what I have said I may haie laid myself open
to the suspicion of being an enthusiastic sportsman
who is desirous of furnishing himself with amuse-
ment at the expense of others, or a landed proprie-
tor whose property would be improved by the
abundance of game on his estate. In justice to
myself, therefore, I must be allowed to say that, not
owning an acre of land in Australia, I could not
supply a breakfast to a partridge ; I have not a tree
upon which I could ask a pheasant to perch. I
have not touched a fishing-rod for 20 years, and
never shot a head of game in my life, except one
quail, which flew away from me immediately after,
rather refreshed, apparently, than injured by the
slight stimulant which I had administered. I have
no interest in the matter, except that of wishing
to see the good things of the earth spread as
rapidly as possible over every portion of its surface,
and to find every reasonable effort made to multiply
as far as can be the legitimate enjoyments of man-
kind.—l am, sir, your obedient servant,
EDWARD WILSON.
1, Southwick-crescent, Oct. 18.

PENALTY OF SELLING A CIGAR ON A SUNDAY.
At Wakefield, on Monday, Joseph Holdsworth, a grocer
was fined 17s. fdr his wife selling a cigar in his shop on
Sunday evening, though it was urged that he had an tm_
limited license to cell tobacco.