CHAPTER LII.
THE TWELVE APOSTLES.
SYNOPSIS:— A Commercial "Ring." —The Personality of the "Twelve Apostles." —Mr. Rucker Makes an Assignment. —The Bank's Bond. —Rucker Outwits the Bank Manager. —Rucker's Ante-nuptial Settlement. —His Marriage. —"A Man of Straw." —Bank Manager Boyd Puts on "the Screw." —The Apostles "Cornered." —Panegyric on Mr. Were. —His Official Dignities. —Sketch of the "Twelve Apostles." —Mr. Rucker's Letter to Mr. Were.
"RING," in old slang, was synonymous with "whitewashing," or taking the benefit of the Insolvent Act, and in the early commercial traditions of Port Phillip is to be found a curious combination or "ring," which, though not intending it, ultimately terminated in a general daubing of whitewash, either through direct insolvency or by assignment to creditors. Without, perhaps, a single exception, it was a general burst up, though three-fourths of the members afterwards recovered from the shock, did well and lived long in the colony. The "Ring" was known as "The Twelve Apostles," though for any special reason, except that they numbered just the round dozen, I could never ascertain. In 1841 the great commercial depression, which for three years overwhelmed the district, set in. A system of inter-trading and mutual paper accommodation existed of so reticulated a character as to render it not only possible, but something not far from a certainty, that if any of the so-styled principal mercantile or trading houses collapsed, others would be brought down, and there would be a grand smash, and thus the instinct of self-preservation fostered an ardent, and no doubt genuine, feeling of sympathy. It happened that Mr. W. F. A. Rucker, one of the pioneer traders, was indebted to the Union Bank in the sum of £10,000, and the Directory, apprehensive of some of the coming squalls, requested him either to reduce or "secure" this then large liability. Rucker had nominally ample assets, but of an immediately unrealizable nature, except at a ruinous loss; and he went fishing about the commercial waters in quest of any "gulls" who would consent to join him in a bond to the bank. He had formidable difficulties to encounter, for several to whom he applied refused to "bite" through considerations of ordinary prudence, and Mr. D. C. McArthur, the Manager of the Bank of Australasia, fairly warned some of his customers that if they had anything whatever to do with the Rucker imbroglio, they would have to remove their accounts from his money mart, and wipe out overdrafts where they existed. Rucker, however, persisted, and the fear of an approaching panic brought him success, for, after repeated refusals, he contrived to enlist a circle of backers in the following individuals:—
1. William Frederick Augustus Rucker, Merchant.
2. Thomas Herbert Power, Auctioneer.
3. John Pascoe Fawkner, Landholder.
4. Alexander McKillop, Settler.
5. John Moffat Chisholm, Landowner.
6. John Hunter Patterson, Landowner.
7. James Purves, Landowner.
8. John Maude Woolley, Settler.
9. Abraham Abrahams, Merchant.
10. Jonathan Binns Were, Merchant.
11. Horatio Nelson Carrington, Solicitor.
And
12. Patricius William Welsh, Merchant.
