Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), Thursday 24 June 1841, page 3


Port Phillip.

The Ball.—This private entertainment took place at Mr. Davies' long room, on Tuesday evening, and went off with much spirit. There were forty-four ladies and sixty seven gentlemen present, His Honor, Mr. La Trobe, and Lady, amongst the number, who seemed highly delighted with the evening's festivities. The Stewards had provided a most magnificent supper, which was done ample justice to by the guests. The party did not finally separate till five

o'clock.—P. P. Herald.

Mounted Police.—Ensign Riley, 80th regi-ment, has arrived in the Australasian Packet, to take charge of the Mounted Police, Lieut. Russell having resigned the command some weeks since. Mr. Russell returns to Sydney by the Australasian Packet.—Ibid.

Special Surveys.—Those gentleman who have been fortunate enough to obtain special surveys in our pro- vince, have had ample reason to be thankful. Mr. Rutledge has disposed of one acre of his special survey on the Sydney road (which cost him £1) for £100, and he has refused an offer of £2 per acre for the whole. Mr. Elgar, who holds another special survey near the Yarra Yarra, about 7 miles from Melbourne, has refused £8 an acre for one hundred acres. Mr. Unwin of Sydney is asking £30 an acre for his selection, and has been made a very liberal offer for the whole. Mr. Jamieson, who took his special survey on the margin of our magnificent bay near Mount Barker, has been offered a handsome price for a large portion of his estate. Verily the time for speculating in land has not yet

gone by.—Patriot.

Mechanics' Institution.— The second Annual General Meeting of the Members of the Mechanics' Institu- tion was held yesterday evening. A letter was read from His Honor Mr. La Trobe, resigning the situation of Patron; the Annual Report was read, and the Office Bearers for the ensuing session appointed, but no discussion was permitted. We shall give particulars and make our comments in our

next publication.— Patriot.

Coal.—The committee of the Coal Mining Company have received a very favorable letter from the expedition, which was some time past despatched to Western Port. A shaft had been commenced about eighty yards from high water mark, and it was expected that, after sinking about fifty or sixty yards, large quantities of excellent coal would be procured. Should the result prove equal to the sanguine expectations already formed, the advantages of the discovery will be incalculable, not only to the mercantile

portion of the cummuniiy, but to the colony at large.—

Patriot.

The Police Magistrate.—Captain Smyth late of the Mounted Police, it is generally believed, will succeed Mr. Simpson as Police Magistrate. Captain S. is well suited for the appointment.—Patriot.

The Wreck of the Clonmel.—The more we consider the loss itself and the circumstances attending it, the more room we find for imputing blame, serious, if not wilful, to some parties connected with her navigation and management. Who these parties are, it is a duty incumbent on conductors of the Press, as guardians of the country's mercantile interests, to discover, and if possible to expose. In any case, we imagine where suspicion of wilful mismanagement or fraudulent collision exists it is obviously the affair of every honest man to seek and mature thorough investigation. In the particular instance before us, the interests of colonial steam navigation, in its widest scene, became involved. Every colonist, and especially every merchant, is bound to call upon their legitimate organs, the local journals for a fuller and more satisfactory expla- nation than has hitherto been afforded of this unfortunate wreck. It will be fresh in the recollection of the inhabi-tants of Melbourne and Sydney. That notwithstanding the extreme excitement which existed at the time of her loss, little or no information could be arrived at elucidative, of the singular event. The English mercantile public acquainted with the fact of her having been the first boat in the trade, that from her splendid build and power the most flattering earnest had been drawn of a favourable result to the commerce of Port Phillip and that an unparalleled enthusiasm was elicited on the prospects and success of her operations will easily appreciate the anxiety of public feeling on account of her unexpected destruction. We remember, at the time, that although her agents made a great bustle about her loss, yet the investigation was secret, and the explanation afforded both inconsistent and incredible. We are not prepared indeed to charge the commander with wilful dereliction, but we have asserted, and now repeat, that the grossest negligence was displayed in her navigation, and a somewhat cogent reason left for supposing that intential carelessness was the true cause of the catastrophe. We have not reverted to this distressing subject for the desire of raking up a bad feeling towards an irreparable event, but solely in accordance with the principle that natu-rally animates every commercial community in making its disapprobation of negligence in matters which require public integrity and professional ingeniousness. The injury to the colony has been both practical and prospective, while a favourable prospect of speedy communication has been blighted. The capitalists of Great Britain will have a dread of embarking their means in an investment which they may fairly deem liable to similar fate, and the underwriters will be cautious in granting policies to steamers plying on the southern coast. Admitting that the commander and the crew are acquitted of even the inferior charge of negligence, it still remans a matter of interest to the insurance offices, and through them to the mercantile community, how such little attention could have been paid to the recovery of the vessel after she had run ashore. Competent persons, it was said, were sent down to survey the wreck, whose gloomy reports, together with a rumour that she was uninsured except to a trifling amount were industriously circulated. The result, however, proves that the lucky purchasers are obtaining somewhere about fifteen thousand pounds for their bargain of one hundred and fifty. For having adopted prompt measures, they will not only succeed in rescuing the greater part of her cargo, but out of the material of the

Clonmel will build another vessel, besides saving the expen-sive and admirable engines. At this stage of the pro-ceedings it comes out that the vessel was insured to the amount of thirty five thousand pounds, every shilling of which is claimed by the proprietors. To any party who has suffered by the loss of goods in the Clonmel, it must be evident that the gain to the owners has been allowed to supercede their individual interests, and a civil action insti-tuted by all or any of them might have the effect of reveal-ing much that is now inexplicable to the public, as well as of restoring tardy justice to themselves,—Gazette.

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