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the ship was actually in the middle of Bass's Straits without its being known (in consequence of foul weather) where she was, until the situation was ascertained from a Port Phillip vessel, which, providentially, came near. T h e Legislature voted a s u m of money for a lighthouse on Cape Schanck in 1842. T h e V a n Diemen's Land Government, also, the same year voted a lighthouse on S w a n Island, and another on Goose Island—the route from Port Phillip to Hobart T o w n . Both these latter works are nearly completed, and but for the wreck of the vessel at the Cape of G o o d H o p e , which was bringing out the lanterns, they would n o v be illuminated. But nothing had been done for the Port Phillip lighthouse on Cape Schanck. Yet that place was the main route to Sydney and Launceston, and N e w Zealand, as well as Port Phillip—in fact the high road to the South Seas. T h e resolution proposed to relieve the survivors, and others he expected would refer to the claims of Mr. Howie on their grateful feelings. H e was aware that some persons were of opinion that the promoters of the meeting were doing too m u c h ; but really he thought that the people, of Port Phillip had a great duty to perform—independent of all money considerations— to mitigate the feelings of relatives and friends of the sufferers at h o m e by displaying their generous sympathy in the fullest possible way. But even in a pounds, shillings, and pence view of the case, a considerable s u m was required There was M r . Howie, to whose judgment and forethought the nine persons saved unquestionably owed the preservation of their lives. If he had neglected to seek them for a few hours after the first shocking token of a wreck was seen by h i m ; if he had not divided his party into two, or had not taken food with them, or not left a notice of the matter on his door, the great probability is the whole nine would have perished of starvation. Besides which the whole nine were maintained by him for five weeks. There was, further, his o w n time, and the time of his m e n , and the loss of a portion of the sealing season. Therefore, he said, that even in a pecuniary point of view the claims of all the parties upon the public liberality were large. H e thought they ought not to take a narrow view of a case like this. W e should measure less the wants of the sufferers than the extent of our sympathy; w e should calculate less the amount of M r . Howie's claims than the greatness of our approbation of the whole of his conduct. M r . Edward Curr felt great pleasure in seconding the resolution. T h e motion submitted related to the living, with w h o m he deeply sympathized, but he must say that his thoughts were not so m u c h about the living as the dead—the corpses that n o w lie unburied at King's Island. H e had attended the present meeting with the intention of making some apt and perhaps severe observations upon the neglect of the Government, but he had heard since his arrival in town to-day, that it was the intention of the Superintendent to provide means for the sepulture of those' corpses which were now a prey to the crows and eagles on King's Island, and that they were to be interred in one c o m m o n sepulchre, with some distinguishing mark over them. H e would therefore m a k e no further allusion to the subject, than to regret that some such announcement of the intention of the Government had not gone abroad at the same time as the announcement of the calamity, in order that the people of Great Britain might receive the intelligence of both at once. With reference to the second part of the resolution, "as to the means of preventing similar calamities," which he conceived to be the erection of lighthouses in Bass's Straits, he would ask the present meeting were H e had no hesitation in answering, N o ; for he had always been guided they going to get them ? as to the future of a Government by its past, and he would refer them to a case which would prove the truth of his conviction. H e (Mr. Curr) happened to visit the colony in the year 1839, and was at the time stopping at the Old Club House, one of the windows of which looked out upon a building erected by a colonist w h o m he saw present. In this there was half a ton of gunpowder, and at that time the people of Melbourne were devising means for securing themselves from the consequences of an explosion. A gunsmith lived in the house referred to; an explosion did take place, and the unfortunate m a n , his wife, and five children were blown into eternity. H e (Mr. Curr) was present at the time, and saw the ill-fated Mrs. Blanch carried forth, her person blacker than the hat before him, with nothing on but her stays, and the child that was likely to be born in one week was still alive. (Sensation.) H e then said to the gentlemen near him, " Y o u are sure to get a powder magazine