The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-09 00:00:00

ROYAL GEOGRAPVICAL SOCIETY.

A crowded meeting of this society was held last
evening,Pir Roderick I, Murchison, vice-president,
in the chair.

The papers read on this occasion were a commu-
nication from Mr. Frank Gregory, who had been
despatched under the auspices of the society for the
purpose of exploring the north-western parts of
Australia ; a despatch from Governor Sir G. Bowen
on the capabilities of the new colony of Queens-
land for the production of cotton, and an account of
the attempt of Sir Richard Macdonald to penetrate
into the interior of Australia by much the same
route as had been previously taken by Mr Stuart and
Mr. Babbage. All these communications partook
more of the nature of short letters than the regu-
lar papers usually read before the society, and the
chief interest in the proceedings lay in the .discus-
sion to follow as to the value of Australia generally,
and Queensland in particular, as a cotton-growing
country. Sir G. Bowen's communication spoke in
the highest terms of the fertility of the land along
the banks of the:river Murray, in Queensland, and
of the immense extent of rich prairie soil capable
of producing cotton of the very finest quality. The
climate, though almost tropical, was remarkably
fine and healthy, and it was found that the wool
even of the sheep did not deteriorate, gaining in
softness and fineness what it lost in weight. In
these parts of North-East Australia the progress of
colonisation was most rapid, and the boundaries of
civilisation and Christianity were extended at the
rate of 200 miles a year. Governor Macaonald's
communication stated that he started into the in-
terior from the south with an escort of mounted
police. He found, as he proceeded inland, that the
want of water was very great ; so much so as to
meke this portion of the interior quite inaccessible
to cattle in the month of January. His party had
suffered much from the heat, thirst, and the hot,
dry, arid nature of the sandy soil over which they
had to travel. After journeying some days into
the interior they determined to equip a lighter
expedition to endeavour to penetrate into
the Warburton track, and also to keep
along the route by which Stuart had en-
tered. The ordinary maps of the country were of
no use whatever, but fortunately they had with
them a small map which had been marked out by
Mr. Stuart, After leaving the Strangeway springs
they found they had no chance of falling in with
water for the next 45 miles. They carried on a
supply with them, much of which was unfortunately
lost, and continued forward till they came in the
tracks of Mr. Stuart's party, but met with no water,
and their privations become so severe that they at
last determined to return. Fortunately, one of their
scouts found a fine spring about two miles a-head of
where they had halted, which restored both the
men and cattle. Had this not been providentially
discovered most of the cattle and many of the men
would have been unable to return to the Strange-
way springs. While at the latter halting place a
man, who had apparently deserted from Mr.
Stuart's party, joined the camp, and stated that Mr.
Stuart was then surveying Mount Charles, and that
for some time past the whole party had been on half
rations. On the return of Sir Richard, however, he
found that supplies of provisions had been sent to
Mr. Stuart, which must have reached him about
that time.

In the discussion which ensued on these papers,
Mr. CRAWFORD said ho sincerely believed from
the number of authentic accounts he had heard that
the colony of Queensland was capable of producing
cotton enough to supply all Manchester. Unfor-
tunately, however, the climate was equally well
adapted for the cultivation of the sugar cane, and
he believed that that would displace the cotton. He
thought that the scientific geographical world had
now received sufficient evidence to show that the
interior of the vast continent of Australia was a
mere wild desert. Different exploring parties had
penetrated so far from the south and from the
north that lud there been a range of mountains
in the interior—mountains of 7,000 or 8,000
feet high—they must have seen them. With-
out such a chain of mountains there would
be no water, and without water there would be
utter sterility. Wherever such ranges existed
there would always be water, and water in the
tropics meant fertility. Without such a range of
mountains India would be a desert. He could not
bring himself to think that Queensland was as good
a place as it was represented for sheep. Queens-
land was in the latitude of Canton, and Canton was
a great deal too hot for sheep. But of all places he
had heard of he believed it was most eminently
fitted for the cultivation of cotton ; and he had
himself seen samples of cotton from there, both
raw and manufactured, and he had rarely seen
better specimens of either. They were quite equal,
in his opinion, to the Sea Island cotton of Georgia
and South Carolina.

The Hon. J. BAKER, a member of the Legislative
Council of Australia, said he differed entirely from
the hasty observation made by the last speaker,
that the centre of Australia was a desert, and he
should not be doing his duty if he allowed such a
remark to go forth uncontradicted. Sir Richard
Macdonald was not an explorer. He had started
with Stuart's maps in his pocket, and yet he lost
his way. (Laughter.) He went round the wrong
side of Lake Tibbs, and missed the Hermit Range,
and what he had called the Denison Range was
only the Hermit-hill of Mr. Babbage. Mr. Stuart
was a light, spare, active man, who could and con-
stantly did ride his 50 and 60 miles a day. Sir
Richard Macdonald was a man of 6ft. 2in., and
weighed some 20 stone. What Sir Richard Mac-
donald, therefore, would call fatigue and privation
would very likely not be noticed at all by Mr.
Stuart, to whose labours he conceived the Geo-
graphical Society could not award too high a meed
of commendation. Now, Mr. Stuart himself had
said that much of the interior of Australia was quite
equal in fertility and in rich picturesque beauty to
the Ohammeran hills, than which it was not pos-
sible to conceive a more lovely country. He
thought that the safety with which the exploring
parties had made and returned from the expeditions
to the interior proved that the country was not a
desert, though he by no means meant to say that
the whole of the vast interior would ever be
profitable to work or hold. The banks of the
river Murray and the whole of the splendid tract
of country which it.passed through were also as
well adapted as the fertile plains of Queensland
for the production of cotton. A few thousand
pounds expended on that river in the erection of
some four or five lock gates would render navigable
an immense extent of water, the banks on either
side of which were equal in rich abundance and
luxuriance of soil to the valley of the Nile.
Lord ALFRED CHURCHILL did not think Mr.
Baker had at all overstated the advantages of Aus-
tralia as a fertile and good cotton-growing country.
Australia was at present essentially a pastoral coun-
try. It now supplied 50,000,000 lb. of wool a year
to the manufacturers of this country, and he had
not the least doubt that if the colonists took up the
question of cotton-growing they would do equally
well with that. He certainly did net think from
what he had heard that Queensland was at all too
hot for sheep. The alpaca or llama of South Ame-
rica had been introduced by Mr. Ledger, and the
animals appeared to thrive very well indeed. If
this important experiment succeeded, as there was
now every reason to believe it would, flocks of these
animals would add another and most profitable
branch to colonial industry. There could be no
doubt from all the evidence they had heard that
immense tracts of country were pre-eminently fitted
for the cultivation of cotton, and, in fact, there was
no' known part of Australia in which it could not
be cultivated. Mr. Stuart had proved that the .
in-
terior of Australia was not a desert, and the and
expanse from which the hot winds came must be
looked for to the west of his new country.
A gentleman whose name we were unable to
catch, said he had been in Calcutta and in QuFens-
land too, so he could judge of the relative merits of
i
the two climates, and the advantages were ncom-
Iparably in favour of the latter colony. The climate

[ ' was unusually healthy, and vegetation was luxuri...
' beyond description. As he had received honourable
mention from the commissioners of the Paris Exhi-
' bition for his samples of Australian cotton, grown
' at Queensland, he knew, what the young colony
te
ould do in respect to that cultivation ; but cotton
quired labour. Sheep (which he thought throve
, lendidly at Queensland) fed themselves, but a
tton plantation required hands to look after it, and
here were the colonists to get them ? For a man
4nd his wife the settler had to pay £7O a year, and
the man expected to be allowed to smoke some
eight or nine hours out of the ten. He lit his pipe
to take out the sheep, and he lit it to smoke while
he lay down and watched them. (Laughter.) If
a settler going up the country wanted servants, he
went to the depot, when he was met by those he
wanted to hire with such questions as, "Are we
allowed to have visitors ?" " Will you have your
washing done out ?" and so on. And to terms like
these they were obliged to agree, and to pay wages
varying from £25 a year to £4O. He was certainly
an advocate for free labour, but in the face of such
facts as these he was obliged to admit that convicts
would do much more work in cotton plantations
than any men whom the settlers could hire in the
colony. He did not agree with the outcry that had
been raised in the colony against the admission of
what they called Sir George Grey's pets—the con-
victs. On principles of morality and humanity
they were bound to give such men a chance of re-
trieving their position by honest labour. That
they did so retrieve it was evidenced by the fact
that nearly all the principal men in South Australia
and New South Wales were the descendants of
those who had been sent out as convicts. He had
lived among them during one time for nearly a
year, and his experience of them was that they
were quiet and generally inoffensive, and, above
all, they were men that would worle4-for they were)
Well aware that their masters hadlhe_pOwerlo
compel them to do so, and that all thir hopes flirr
the future depended on their industry. At the
same time, it would be useless sending out men
only. If women were not sent out with the men,
the men did not settle. If women were sent, the
men married, established their homes, and laid the
foundation of flourishing colonial communities. If,
under proper regulations and arrangements, con-
victs were sent to Queens land for 10 years, there
would be cotton enough coming from that district
alone to supply all Manchester. (Cheers.)
Mr. CHILDERS, M.P., also addressed the meeting
in support of the introduction of cotton plantations
into Australia ; and
Soon after 10 o'clock the proceedings terminated.

EXTRAORDINARY BANK ROBBERY AT NEW

YORK.

About ten o'clock on the morning of the 25th ult.
an extraordinary and ingenious attempt of robbery
was discovered by one of the employees of the New
York Exchange Bank, corner of Greenwich and Dey
streets. One of the porters, it appears, was unable
to unlock the vault door, and reported the trouble
to one of the officers of the bank. A blacksmith was
sent for, but it was only by tearing away a portion
of the brick-work of the massive structure that in-
gress could he obtained. It was evident that some
person had been tampering with the vault, and the
officers commenced an examination of the premises
forthwith.

On opening the inner door of the vault they were
astonished to find a hole in the floor sufficiently
large to admit a medium sized man. A further
examination showed that the cavity extended in
the shape of a tunnel under the entire building, and
ended in the basement of a little frame building
next door to the bank. The tunnel which connected
the frame building with the bank vault was over
seven feet in length, and must have cost en immense
deal of trouble to the miners. _ _

. The safe, which contained between three and four
hundred thousand dollars in notes, specie, and cir-
culation, was found to be intact. An attempt had
been made to bore into the outer work, but the
burglars appeared to have succeeded poorly and
given up the thing in disgust. A tin box, contain-
ing about 1,000 dols. in uncurrent funds, belonging
to a broker named A. L. Peck, was found to be
missing, however. It had been deposited in the
vault merely, and fell an easy prey to the daring
thieves.

Information of the affair was immediately sent to
the General Superintendent's office, when detectives
were despatched to the premises to make all thg
necessary inquiiies. One of the officers, by way of
experiment, entered the frame building adjoining
the bank, and without much trouble crawled through
the subterranean passage until he arrived under-
neath, and actual:y entered the vault; the basement,
upon being examined, was found to be full of rag
carpets, and judgin from the appearance of the
place, it was evident these carpets were manufactured
there. Some 50 or 60 bales of the carpeting had
been piled at the rear of the basement, with the
view, no doubt, of screening the operations of the
burglars while they were engaged in tunnelling
their way into the next building. Behind this
barrier was concealed the earth drawn from the ex-
cavation under the bank ; but, upon close inspection,
it was evident that the great bulk of the rubbish
must have removed to the street and carted off.

In the carpet store was found between five and six
hundred dollars' worth of burglar's tools, besides a
old wearing apparel and a demijohn of whisky.
The police took posse ision of the different articles,
and made the following inventory of the same :
One jack-screw, valued at 50 dols.; one small ditto,
valued at 25 dols. ; one large crowbar, one small
ditto, one compound driver, two jemmies, one iron
bar, one large sledge hammer, three braces, one
hatchet, one foreplate, one hand-vice, three files, one
claw hammer, one screwdriver, one chisel, three
saws, one pivot, 5t drills, two cold chisels, two oil-
cans, one large iron poker, two spades, two shovels,
one carpenter's square, a large number of wedges,
two shirts, two pairs of overalls, a demijohn of
whiskey, and one mallet.
Mr. Peck, who appears to be the only loser by
the transaction, if we except the burglers them-
selves, has attacked the stock of carpets, and hopes
in this way to remunerate himself for the loss of
his uncurrent funds. He states that he came within
an ace of putting 3,300 dols. in city funds in the tin
box on Saturday afternoon, but finally determined
to deposit it in the bank. He had been in the habit
of leaving his box in the bank vault for over ten
years, and oz various occasions it contained property
of much value.

The porter in the bank says he heard a dull,
heavy noise in the basement when he arrived in the
morning, but thought nothing of the circumstance
until he found he was unable to enter the vault. The
suspicion then flashed across his mind that there
was something wrong going on, and he reported to
the president of the bank accordingly. The result
of the president's examination, confirming the
porter's suspicion, is already known. A subsequent
examination showed that in tunnelling.to the vault
the burglars had to pass through a heavy founda-
tion wall of stone, and also a lighter one of brick.
The line of the tunnel was not regular. It was
crooked, and at one point a detoir of eight or ten
feet was made, although for what purpose we can-
not imagine. The way was cut through a mass of
sand and made ground. The tunnel was found to
be carpeted throughout, and strewn with books and
papers, which had been removed from the.vault so
as to facilitate the movements of the daring ope-
rators.

The job was a long and tedious one, but the
burglars worked at it steadily, and had they not
miscalculated a little as to the strength of the safe,
they would have been handsomely rewarded for
their trouble. Besides the cash in the safe, there
was 20,000 dollars worth of railroad bonds belong-
ing to the president of the bank, which could easily
have been converted into gold.
Suspicion rests upon two well-known English
burglars, who were arrested by detective Keefe
about three months ago, and the police are using
every means to ferret out their whereabouts. It
is supposed that they belong to the same gang
who were engaged in the celebrated barge Emily
robbery about fifteen years ago. The ringleader
of the gang is now confined in the Toombs en an-
other charge, but it is supposed that the robbery
of the New York Exchange Bank was concocted
by him, and executed by two of his trustiest fol-
lowers. The detectives are hard at work trying to
unravel the mystery, and expect, in the course of
a few days, to bring all the guilty parties to
justice.

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