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Auckland Times, Volume 2, Issue 57, 13 February 1844, Page 4

Australia.— By John Hood. Murray, London. —This is the journal of a Scotch farmer, who, finding it impossible to live upon the high-rented lands in Scotland, at length made up his mind to the difficulties of his situation, and quitted England for Australia in May, 1841. We have seldom seen a better account of the voyage from London to Sydney. The cabin party consisted of the captain, an Irish surgeon, a young English barrister going to Sydney to establish himself;

two gentlemen, and three farmers going out as emigrant settlers. The steerage was filled with Irish, Scotch, and English emigrants, and their families ; the whole crew consisted of 249 persons, and ihe tonnage of the vessel was less than 600 tons. Mr. Hood, the author, complains with just reason that the officers of the Customs should allow such a vessel to take such a number of persons; the ship also was not water-tight, and therefore very ill suited to perform so long a voyage with any safety. The vessel was four months upon its passage, leaving England the ilih of June, and reaching Sydney the 29th of October, 1841. Mr, Hood found Sydney suffering under the same condition of trade which prevailed at the same time in the United States of America. There was no money and no credit, the banking system having been carried too far* and speculation overstraining itself. He Was much struck with the enormous rent of the houses, some of the rents in Sydney ranging from £350 to £SOO per annum. The streets look very gay ; the women dress well, and many of them are good looking. There are several theatres, which appear to thrive ; the convicts, as might be expected, seem to be in great misery ; they are guided to and from their their work, and wear prison uniform. Mr. Hood met several gangs in the streets; their appearance gave an air of sadness to the town, though government is compelled to treat them with this severity. Many of these men, when they have ontserved their time, settle in Sydney in trades, and a very great portion of the population of Sydney is composed of them and their families—some of them very rich. Owing to the severity of the laws, there is not so much open vice and so many great crimes in Sydney as might be expected from this condition of its inhabitants ; “ but l fear,” says Mr, Hood, “ that the state of private morality is dreadful indeed, where there is no sentiment of honour and no feeling of shame in such a large portion of the lower class of Sydney.” Mr. Hood attended the Supreme Court whilst at Sydney; it has three judges, (he chief and two puisne; the first has £2OOO a-year, the latter £ISOO each. The tees of the barristers are very high, many of them making as much as £3OOO to £4OOO a-year. Nothing can be more beautiful than the gardens and vil as around Sydney, Mr. Hood saw the almond, the fig, and the citron ; the orange, the pomegranate, the grape, apricot, and nectarine; the date, the alloe, the sugarcane—all flourishing in the same place, and at the same time; the climate is that of the south of France. From Sydney Mr. Hood proceeds up the country, and gives a very particular account of the mode of settlement on an Australian farm. In conclusion, we can recommend this work to our readers, as in a small compass it appears to contain a great variety of matter which may be useful to emigrants. Such men have no concern with the state of trade and banking at Sydney —their object is to find cheap and fertile land, and happily there is still an abundance of them for industrious settlers. — Bell's Messenger .

Seventeenth Regiment.—The following order respecting this Regiment will be interesting to many of oar readers :— ■' 17th. Deputy-Adjutant-General’s Office, H. M.’s Forces, Bombay.—-It is with much concern that the Commander in-chief feels called upon to bring to the notice of H. M.’s regiments serving in this Presidency the circumstances which have transpired in the winding-np of the affairs of the late Quartermaster Sarson, 17th Foot, the documents connected with which exhibit perhaps the most extraordinary case of defalcation in accounts which has ever been brought to light in any corps. The total liabilities of the estate of the late Quartermaster amount to the enormous sum of 47001., and the credit said to be probably recoverable about 330/. Two items of the demands against the Quartermaster require special notice, and painful as it is to the Commander-in-chief, he cannot but refer to them as illustrative of the culpable neglect on the part of tile superior Officers of the Regiment in question, to matters of regimental, finance. The items alluded to are, 1340/ due*to the regimental clothiers for necessa : ries sent out from England by order of the Commanding Officer, and 2300/. due to a native merchant at Bombay, for supplies to die canteen. The Commander-in-chief considers it a most extraordinary neglect of duty on the part ot the Commanding Officer, and to a ceitain extent the Captains of Companies, and the Paymaster also, to allow the Quartermaster to receive periodically from the Paymaster, as sloppagts for necessaries delivered over to the men, sums amounting in the aggregate to upwards of 1300/. without an inquiry as to when it was to be remitted to the tradesmen who supplied the articles; and, further, the Com-mander-in-cluef cannot conceive how the committee who manage the affails of the canteen cut

recnocjlie it to their doty to hare allowed the same individual! "o receive as the produce of sales in the canteen, 23001., without ascertaining whether the anfortnnafe per«on who furnished the supplies h&tl been paid. The temissness of the creditors afs laded t«». in not complaining ot the want of regularity in making remittances on the part of the late Quartermaster Sar-on, although they knew he was the person authorised to Settle with them, does not, in the C«mroander-in chiefs opinion, at all extenuate the Commanding Officer’s neglect, in not exerci-inj; that vigilance in regard to an important doty which hi* position at the head of the regiment rendered imperative. Several of the officers who hare hern members of the canteen committees appear to have signed requisitions and accounts periodically, without »ny knowledge of the pectin niary matters connected therewith, and in the consideratinu that the settlement of everything rested with the who, they were awaie. was not even a member of the committee, •nd could onlv he considered as their clerk, u circumstance which rendered their conduct more surprising. The canteen accounts it seem* have been submitted quarterly to Lieutenant colonel Croker, who, seeing everything right upon paper; approved the account, and appointed a new committee. but neither the committee nor the Lientenanisrolonel ever thought of enquiring whether the balance appearing in these accounts had been duly appropriated in payment of the supplies for which the stoppages had been made, nor did they make any call for the bills and receipts of the merchants who supplied the articles for the general consumption of the regiment to so large an amount, a precaution so simple and effective »s to render the omission of it absolutely incomprehensible. The varions claims against the late Quartermaster Sarson which remain outstanding at Bombay are a painful consideration. Honesty and good t»ith in regimental transactions are as essential points tor the British Military character to maiutnin in the East, as bravery and discipline in the field ; and the Commander-in-chief cannot but view the proceedings of the Quartermaster Sarson as tending to affect the good name of Her Majesty’s troops in the mind < f the Natives—not only those who have become severe sufferers by the unlimited extent to which they have given credit to the late qnartermaster, but a vast number of other native tradesmen to whom this defalcation has become known. It is, unfortunately, too evident that a blind confidence was reposed through the 17lh Regiment in the late quartermaster Sarson, not only by Lieutenant colonel Croker, but hv the officers composing the different canteen committees ; hence a systematic neglect of duty on their part ensned, and the evils herein detailed have resulted, the sertous Consequences of which the Commander-in-chief is desirous of fnllv impressing upon the officers of the regiment who were concerned in the matters under notice, and upon whose conduct, in the non-performance of what was cleat ly and most distinctly their duty, the Com-mander-in-chief hereby wishes in the strorgest mann r to animadvert. The merits arid di*iinguished service of L'. ntenanf-rolonel Croker have been repeatedly acknowledged, and the 17th regiment, under the Lieutenant-colonel’s control and management, has earned the highest reputatiou from Ihe different general officers under whom it has served both in the field and in quarters; this, accompanied by what the Commander in-chief has personally seen of the corps, could not fail to establish in his mind that it had attained the summit of excellence. Until the unexampled defalcation ot quartermaster Sarson was brought to light, the Coremander-in-chief could not have believtd that noth a laxity in managing the financial concerns of the I7tli regiment could have existed, and it is truly vexatious to him to think that the regiment should in the slightest degree have impaired its high character, and that he should find himself compelled to make this unfavourable record of a corps in Other respects so admirable. The Com-mander-in-chief takes this opportunity to call the attention of officers commanding Her Majesty’s regiment* in this Presidency to the circular letter of ttie* 11 th July last, laying down regulations for the provision and payment of regimental supplies, and which were issued in consequence of these transactions in the 17th regiment; and he desires it may be understood for the future, that they will be held responsible that the canteen committee call for, and obtain, the receipts of the persons who furnish supplies for the use of the canteen, and thus ensure payment of the whole amount due to them. In the reprehension conveyed in this order, of the negligence of the Commanding Officer of the 17tb regiment, as well as all the other officers of that corps who at any time have been members of the canteen committee, the Commander-in-chief hopes that it will operate as a useful caution to the whole of the. Queen’s troops in this Presidency ; and that, with due attention on the part of Commanding Officers, it will effectually tend to prevent a recuirence of any case so discreditable to the Ser* vice —By order of His Excellency the Commander-in-Cliief. R. R. Macdonald, Lieut.-Col., Dep.-Adj.-Gen., Her Majesty’s Forces, Bombay.”

The East India Company's fine new steamer, the Memnon, struck on a reef of rocks off Cape Guaniifoi, near Aden, on the coast of Africa. The overland mails from Bombay, Madras, and Ceylon, which were on hoard, were all lost, but fortunately the crew, passengers, and treasure were saved. The wreck of this magnificent steamer, and the loss of the important India mails had caused a painful sensation and serious inconvenience in commercial circles*

A dreadful fire had occurred at Kingston, in Jamaica,., which destroyed 409 houses, and property to the estimated value of nearly half-a-mi'lion sterling One life only is reported as lost.