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VICTORIA.
By the steamer White Swan we have Vic-
torian news to the 30th August.
The journals are filled with notices of elec-
tioneering proceedings.
Election for the Central Province.—
The election for the Central Province took place
yesterday, and, so far as at present can be as
certained, has resulted in the return of Messrs.
Hodgson, Fawkner, Miller, Hood, and Guth-
ridge, the last having a majority over Mr. J.
T. Smith of eleven votes. The detailed returns
of the polling subjoined are those furnished
from the committee-rooms of Messrs. Hodgson
and Fawkner, but we hear that particular care
has been observed in ascertaining their cor
rectness. The returns from Melbourne and
Emerald Hill may, we think, be relied on.
There was little, if any, excitement prevalent
throughout the day, in consequence, of course,
of the uncertainty which existed with regard to
the position of the various candidates on the poll.
The absence of much of the bustle which usually
attends elections was deplored by many who
had evidently been accustomed from experience
to consider that the excitement upon such occa
sions was their principal point of interest, while
the staid advocates of the new mode of voting
hailed the fact as proof triumphant of the su
periority of their system. Among the electors
who voted there was one complaint generally
put forward.. It referred to the attaching by
the poll-clerk of tlie elector's number to his
voting-paper — a process which completely over
sets the principle of secret voting, as by refe
rence it may be ascertained for which candidate
the particular elector voted. Some alteration
will no doubt be effected with reference to this
great defect in the new system, which in most
other respects proved itself yesterday fully
efficient. There was not a single disturbance
throughout the day at any of the city polling
places, and we were informed last evening that
the same tranquillity was* observed at the others.
— Argus, August 28.
The following has been handed to us as a
correct statement of the total number of votes
recorded in favour of the respective candidates :
—Hodgson, 1,204; Fawkner, 1,196; Miller,
863; Hood, 736; Guthridge, 689; Smith,
688; A'Beckett, 598; Fellows, 577; Wilkie,
516 ; Mayne, 439.— Argus, 30th August.
Election fob the South Pbovtkce. — We
are indebted to Mr. Clarke's Committee for
the state of the poll for the South Province
election. Up to the time of our going to press
we had not received returns from Bacchus
Marsh, Whittlesea, and Donnvbrook, but from
the feeling manifested in these districts for or
against the respective candidates, we anticipate
tho following will bo the position the successful
parties will occupy on the list: — Clarke and
Kennedy, first or second j Power, third ; Ben
nett, fourth ; and M'Combie, fifth. With tho
exception of the three polling-places for which
we have not obtained returns, the voting stood
thus for the other eight : — Kennedy, 528 ; Power,
429; Clarke, 417: Bennet, 404; M'Combie,
395; Riddell, 296; Russell, 281; Sherwin,
140 ; Barry, 77.— Age, August 30.
A Cod Bank ts Bass's Stbaits. — We paid
a visit on Saturday ts the small schooner
Pomona, where we had an opportunity of in
specting the codfish caught by Captain Liddle,
on a bank near King's Island, and have no
hesitation in pronouncing them a small variety
of the cod of commerce. We saw one of the
fishes cooked, and a gentleman who has had
much experience on the North American coast,
agreed with us in thinking that there was not
a Bhadow of doubt as to the fish being a
genuine cod. Captain Liddle has several dozen
of these fishes alive in the well with which his
little vessel is provided; and we understand
that some gentlemen who feel an interest in the
matter are making arrangements for getting up
a fish dinner, at 'which our leading merchants
may have an opportunity of judging how far
the quality and character of the fish in question
may hold out the prospect of the discovery off
our coasts of fish-banks as valuable, in a com
mercial point of view, as those of Newfound
land. — Argus, August 25.
The Cod Baxe.— The Argus of the 29th
inst. says : — Several gentlemen, who take an
active interest in the development of the com
mercial resources of the colony, met together
this afternoon, at the Criterion Hotel, for the
purpose of practically testing the value of Mr.
Liddle's recent discovery of a cod-bank, by
dining off some of the proceeds of liis first
capture. The followins description is by Pro
ssor M'Coy, who partook of the fash, and
forwards examined some of those preserved
i the well of Mr. Liddle's vessel :— 'The fish
nder consideration belongs to the family of
ladid-e or coJfishes — a family of more im
ortance to man, as a source of employment
id wholesome food, than all the other
imilics of fishes put together. The family
icludes all the different kinds of codfish,
addock, whiting, ling, &c., forming the
rincipal part of the great fisheries 'of New
mndland, Great Britain, and other northern
?calities ; but few of them extend even into
le Mediterranean, and they aw scarcely known
i the Southern Hemisphere as yet. All of the
tadidee form excellent food, being highly nu
?itious when fresh, with a firm flesh, separating
ito large flakes, and all being well suited for
iring, to form cheap easily-packed food for
te interior of countries remote from the sea.
.nother point of great economic value in the
istory of the fishes of this family is the great
sgularity of their habits, from which, when
leir feeding-grounds are once known, tho
shers may in general count on multitudes of
lie particular kind being found year after year
rithout fail, unlike the fishes of other allied
imilies, which appear in millions one year and
wy not again be seen for many succeeding
sasons. The recently-discovered so-called cod
) superior to the true American and North of
Jurope cod in delicacy of flesh and flavour,
ut it does not truly belong to the same genus
GadusJ, inasmuch as it has only two fins
nstead of three on the back. It there rore
.grees rather with the hake3 and lings in the
lumber of the fins ; and as the latter genus
'Lota) differs from the former, and agrees
nth Gadus and our Australian fish, in having
, barbule at the point of tKe lower jaw, it
rould be more proper to class this valuable
.ddition to our tables with the lings than with
he cods, as a species oiLota, although differ
ng in the thicker form from all the other
pecies of the genus. P.S. — All the Gadkl.ee
hrive exceedingly in ponds or enclosures in
he sea (where the tide can change th3 water
laily),- and in such cases are fed with entrails
-f sheep and other refuse from butchers' yards;
mproving in condition and flavour when thus
tored up near at hand for regular supply to
he market.' The gentleman present at the
linner initiated a subscription, to be restricted
o £2 each, to assist in fitting out Mr. Liddle
or a second trip to the fishing-grounds, and
we are glad to hear that the list was very
?apidly filled.
CHINESE SUIT-AT-LAW.— For the last two
weeks a great number of Chinese may have been
seen hanging about the precincts of the Supreme
Court. They were watching for the case of
Alyun v. Sage, which was on the list for the
present sittings, and which was at length dis
posed of yesterday. Ayun, a Chinese mer
chant residing at Hongkong, chartered the ship
Emma for conveying Chinese passengers to
this port. The charter party was executed
in the month of January last, when the news of
the imposition of the capitation tax had had
barely time to reach China. The charter party
provided for the landing of the passengers in
Melbourne, but bound the charterer, Ayun, to
pay the capitation tax. Mr. Sage, the agent of
the shipowner, who was on board, had the ship
taken into Adelaide, and then chartered a
steamer, into which, against their strong recla
mations as it would appear, and against the
wishes of Ah Mung, the agent of the charterer,
who was also on board, the passengers were
transhipped and conveyed to Guichen Bay,'
there to find their way overland to the mines.
Though from the peculiar circumstances of the
case, the action assumed the form of trover for
goods, it was in fact an action for the breach
of the charter party, committed by landing the
passengers in the sister colony, instead of con
veying them direct to Melbourne. The defence
set up was that after the execution of the
charter party there was a verbal arrangement
between the owner of the ship and the plaintiff
that the destination of the vessel should be
thus changed, and that the change was made
to save the charterer the capitation tax which
he was bound to pay, had the ship brought
her passengers to Melbourne. But it was
admitted on all hands that the act was done in
fraud of the unfortunate Chinese. How the
defence fared may be judged of by the verdict
of the Jury, which was for Ayun, the plaintiff,
with £4,500 damages. The Court yesterday
presented a novel spectacle. The bud of a
strange civilization ripening in the midst of us,
seemed to be unfolding itself. Chinese docu
ments, Chinese bills of lading, Chinese corre
spondences, and Chinese ledgers translated by
Chinese interpreters, and proved by Chinese
merchants, occupied the Court, and long
through the day ; and in the evening a
Chinese crowd left the Court delighted at th«
measure of justice which they conceived they
had obtained from a Jury of Victorian mer
chants.
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