The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-29 00:00:00

ALLEGED PECULATIONS IN A CON
VICT .ESTABLISHMENT.

We learn from a file of-the Perth (Western Aus-
tralia) Gazette, that an unpleasant sensation has been
caused, in that colony by the discovery orextensive
defalcations in the accounts of Mr. T. H. Dixon, super-
intendent of the convict establishment. On the 18th
of April a jury was impanelled to ascertain whether
Mr. Dixon was not a debtor to the Crown in
the sum of £442 Os. 5d., for monys received by
him . for the wages of persons employed in the
establishment. The jury found the issue in the
affirmative ; and the acting Crown solicitor then
stated that the Government would hold itself liable
for the wages which Mr. Dixon (who it is unneces-
sary to state had in the meantime been suspended
from his office) had neglected to pay over. On the
next day an application was made for a writ in
extent against Mr. Dixon's person and estate ; but
the civil commissioner, after postponing judgment
till the 10th of May, ultimately refused the motion
on the ground of some informality in the proceed-
ings. On the 11th of August the first meeting of
Dixon's creditors was held under an insolvency
petition. The insolvent handed in a schedule of
receipts and expenditure for the last twelve months,
and also a list by which it appeared his private
debts were £673 18s. 2d. ; and, upon examination,
lie stated that upon the first day of his coming into
the colony he was in debt between £3OO and £4OO.
His salary of late bad been £420 with allowances,
which he valued at £BO. His account at the bank
had always been a general one ; he had made no
distinction there between the sums received and
paid by him on public or private
account. In the
past twelve months he had paid £144 into the
bank and drawn £484 12s. 6d. Of his drawings
£B9 19s. 3d. was for his pers
of debts.onaluse I
use, and t
wasthe
balance was applied in payment
subsequently announced that hl3 estate would pay
7s. 3d. in the pound.
On the oth of July Dixon was charged at the
quarter sessions with embezzling £B9 of the public,
service moneys of her Majesty the Queen; and by
a second count with fraudulently applying the
same to his own use ; a third count charged him
with stealing certain coins the property of the
Queen, and a fourth with stealing the same, the
property of James Masters. Mr. Howell, on behalf
of the prisoner, demurred to the indictment. He
contended that the two first counts were bad
because they did not aver that the money had been
issued to the prisoner, and it might therefore have
come lawfully into his possession. The Advocate-
General having been heard in reply, the court
allowed the demurrer, but gave leave to the Crown
to file a fresh indictment either for misdemeanor
or for larceny.

At the same sessions several other persons were
indicted for various thefts at the same model refor-
matory institution, viz.:—Corporal Newton, for
stealing bookbinders' materials, and selling them.
to a ticket-of-leave man named Spencer ; Corporal
Scott for stealing and selling Chubb's locks and
files ; Private Cameron, for selling government
timber, and employing convicts,m cutting and saw-
ing it ; Private Davis, for conveying out of the
.
establishment, and aiding the disposal of, a
handsome turning lathe, which had been manufac-
tured in the blacksmith's shop there ; Private
Gogan, for selling to a ticket-holder named Bains,
a complete set of tininan's tools, worth about £10;
and Private M'Nic
01, for having work-boxes made
by convict labour in the carpenters' shop, and sell-
ing the same in a public-house in Fremantle. All
the prisoners were acquitted, and the Gazette of
the 15th of July thus comments on the affair :
" Our present and last week's issue contain as
extraordinary a record of crown prosecutions and
their results as, perhaps., the annals of any of her
Majesty's colonies exhibit. The juries have upon
one and all returned a verdict of 'Not guilty'
against the defendants, and whether those verdicts
were arrived at from a doubt.e of the guilt of the ac-
cused,we shall not offer an
opinion or
upon.fron oother o
point,s
however, all agree—
that a large amount of peculation in many ways
has been committed at the convict establishment,
and that an attempt at punishment of some sus-
pended delinquents has been made, with a result
that can leave no doubt of the general feeling of
the corairunity as to the spirit in which the hives-
tigations into the affairs of the convict establish-
ment have been carried on, in secrecy, seeking out
one class of offenders, while, it is believed, anothfr
has been allowed opportunities to gloss over their
irregularities, and to escape their consequences."

[A.DvEuTismir.NT.] —Mr. Benson, Ludgate-hill, has
just published a new illustrated pamphlet on watches (free
by post for two stamps). It should be read by all who aro
about buying a watch, as it contains prices and important
information as to—What watch to buy 1 where to buy it 1
and how to use it 1