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convicted. Funds were subscribed, a "Thieves' Solicitor" appointed, and several Police Office A thieves' census was taken by the summary convictions were quashed for technical shortcomings. police, which returned the number of professed plunderers at 100, i.e., 70 males and 30 females, exclusive of 50 outsiders, or sub rosa aiders and abettors. T h e Association was at times both conciliatory and considerate, for a Mrs. Pitman having been robbed of a well-lined pocketbook, advertised for its return, even empty, as it was a family souvenir, and in a week after she was the recipient of a parcel through the Post Office, consisting of the denuded relic, and a polite letter bearing the initials of the " Honorary Secretary of the Thieves' Association." A public acknowledgment of the receipt of the parcel was asked for and given. On the 30th January, 1849, Mr- William Pender occupied a station on the Bass River, Western Port. James Gleeson's wife, Mary, acted as general servant. O n e day as she was passing barefoot from the homestead to the dairy, she trod on a diamond snake about seven feet long, and was bitten on the heel. T h e reptile sought refuge in the hut, where there were three young children running about. T h e w o m a n , apprehensive for the safety of the youngsters, half frantically followed, and seizing the coulter of a plough, she promptly despatched the snake. T h e poison in a short time began to work, and a handy m a n of a shepherd exsiccated some of the flesh in the heel, and applied an embrocation of tobacco leaf, but Mrs. Gleeson died after intense suffering about 8 o'clock next morning, in her 33rd year. In February, 1849, a shocking case of inter se cannibalism was reported from Main Creek, Mollison's station, at M o u n t Macedon. S o m e blackfellows of the Sugar Loaf and Devil's River tribes captured an unfortunate Campaspe Aboriginal, employed on the station of a M r . Bennett. H e was killed, skinned, and disjointed, some choice portions were roasted and devoured, and the rest of the remains buried in a water-hole, where they were found. George Hudson, a Yorkshireman, and widower with five children, arrived in Port Phillip in a ship which also brought out two brothers and four sisters n a m e d Ellis, of one of w h o m (Mary) H u d s o n during the voyage became enamoured, but the affection was not reciprocated. A brickmaker by calling, he established himself on a brick-field, then between the Yarra and Emerald Hill, and the Misses Ellis being dressmakers rented one of what were k n o w n as Drummond's Cottages, near the Mechanics' Institute, in Collins Street. H u d s o n several times renewed his suit, without effect, and becoming discontented and moody, was at length driven to such desperation that about 4 o'clock on the afternoon of the 21st February, 1849, n e appeared m u c h excited at the girl's place, and asked to see Mary. H e was told to go away, when insisting on an interview she came to him, and in reply to a question if she were willing to marry him, as she had promised, the girl peremptorily ordered him off. At this he drew a butcher's knife from inside his coat, and stabbed her three times. Jane hastened to her sister's assistance and she was stabbed twice, near the region of the heart. Flinging the bloody knife away the maniac rushed from the house. On reaching the cottage then occupied by M r . (now the Hon.) James Graham, he pulled from a pocket the lower portion of a loaded percussion gun-barrel, capped the nipple, and getting a stone, after turning the muzzle towards his heart, struck the cap, when the piece went off and he received the charge, which laid him prostrate. H e explained at the hospital that what he had done was in consequence of the falsehood towards him of Mary Ellis. H e expired about seven o'clock. Both the girls were seriously injured, though they after a time recovered. In May, 1849, two enterprising colonists, known as Barbour and Lowe, erected a flour mill at Campbellfield, on the Sydney Road, which was a great convenience to the neighbourhood until after the gold discoveries. In the early part of June, Mr. Walter Glass Chiene, a settler near Belfast, blew his brains out H e had given way to intemperance, and the day with a pistol, leaving a wife and four children.