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Captain had the case immediately opened, when a horrible spectacle was presented. There was the once good-looking face of the gay Mrs. Robertson twisted into a frightful state of distortion. She was dead, with a bottle of gin placed near her head; and as the corpse was in a state of incipient decomposition it was brought up and thrown overboard. T h e matter was reported on the steamer's arrival to the water police at Williamstown, and though the " flying pieman" was apprehended, nothing further came of the shocking event. T h e following appeared in the New Zealand Public Opinion of the 24th October, 1885 :— " A writer of the C H R O N I C L E S O F E A R L Y M E L B O U R N E gave an account in one of his chapters of the way in which females were smuggled from Tasmania during the early days of this colony. T h e rule seems to have been very strict, and captains of vessels were afraid to take females of the penal class. ' Garryowen' asserted that m a n y were brought over in boxes specially provided for the purpose, and an account was given of the shocking death of one w h o had been unwillingly compelled by her husband to undertake the passage in one of the boxes. T o many this would appear like romancing. However, from Adelaide comes an account by wire of a stowaway having been confined seven days in a box 3ft. 6in. by 2ft. iin. O n the arrival of the 'South Australian ' from Western Australia, a box addressed ' Mr. Walter Bills, passenger,' was found to contain a m a n w h o gave the n a m e of Alderson, although papers upon him led it to be supposed that his n a m e was William Burnside. H e had been stowed in the hold of the-steamer, and was in a fearfully emaciated condition when released, having been without water the whole voyage. Last accounts were that he was recovering with careful treatment." The following incident is narrated of a Melbourne Pioneer, for many years removed from all worldly strife:—"On the Queen's Birthday, 1847, Mr. George Say, landlord of the St. George and Dragon Hotel in Lonsdale Street, was so overpowered by his loyalty that he resolved to let off steam by the roasting of a bullock in honour of the Queen, in front of his house, n o w forming the southern portion of the Melbourne Hospital grounds, where he constructed a queer kind of furnace, over which the carcase was suspended. T h e " Boniface" pocket had, however, more ' Say' in the demonstration than intense allegiance; for it was a clever ruse to secure a day's large till-takings. A brass band of three or four instrumentalists was perched on empty beer casks near the bar door, whence the most 'stunning' of music was performed. T h e 'rule of the roast' for the distribution of the bullock was that anyone could bring his or her o w n knife, and slice off any particular portion fancied. T h e beef, however, did not turn out very enjoyable eating. That night the two Georges (and the Dragon, no doubt) closed their eyes amidst a haze of self-congratulation at the profitable way in which the loyalty dodge had been worked." In September there was turned out of Langland's foundry, in Flinders Street West, a machine capable of making 40 bricks per minute, 2,400 per hour, or a daily average of 30,000. In September another triple birth occurred, but this time at Portland, where a Mrs. Quinn became the mother of two boys and a girl. Little more than nine months before she had twins, and a year previous a son, i.e., not quite three years married and producing at the rate of two babies per annum ! ! ! T h e unusual take of a fine turtle was effected at the beach near Williamstown, on ioth October, by two boatmen, who, ignorant of what it was, killed it, and brought it to town, when it was found to weigh about 300 lbs. It was sold to Peter Perkins, an oyster-selling celebrity, at the rear of the present Theatre Royal. Several of the hotel-keepers refused to have anything to do with it. This was thefirstknown instance of a turtle visit to Port Phillip Bay. In November, 1847, a Melbourne newspaper chronicled as something like an indication of a wonderful postal progression, that an answer to a letter posted in town, for London, had been received in seven months and four days from the date of the original mailing.