IMPORTANT TO NEW ZEALAND.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 41, 10 April 1862, Page 3

IMPORTANT TO NEW ZEALAND.

The whole of the naval squadron had left Sydney for Auckland. The Sydney Empire , of March 15, says:—

“ 11.M.5. Harrier left Sydney for Auckland on Thursday last, as we had anouuccd in our issue of last Tuesday, 11.M.5. Miranda will leave port for the same destination immediately after the arrival of the English mail this evening, and 11.M.5. Eelorus, bearing the flag of Commodore Seymour, will take her departure in the 'early part of next week. The three vessels will rendezvous at Auckland on the 25th instant.”

Either events of importance are anticipated in the North, or the Commodore had determined, now all danger from an imperial war is for the present removed, not to allow Ilia Excellency an opportnuity of again complaining of not having a steam vessel at his disposal. One of our American contemporaries observes that a man, whistle may to any extent defy his wife. “ What under the dome of heaven, is more vexatious to her than to hear an irreverent whistle she is intent on vocally estimating the moral deficiencies of her husband ? Not alone docs it close the summary, but it vanquishes the summarian. Husbands ? try it. You’ll hear a curtain lecture ever more. Thatwbistlingwascontemplated by a benignant Nature in the soberest of moods, is apparent from the fact that it is equally undisturbed. It is a gift ; an endowment ; and afterthought ; a kind of codicil added after she had made her bequests.”

New Zealand Gazette.—A Gazette was pubon the 22nd ult. It contains among other announcements, the appointment of Thos. Hi Smith Esq., to be Civil Commissioner for the district of the Bay of Plenty, and of Lieut.-Colonel Bussell to be Civil Commissioner for the Hawke’s Bay district. The Attorney-General notifies that any of the natives who were concerned in causing the deaths of Harry Passmore, Samuel Shaw, Samuel Ford, James Pote, and Wm. Parker, at Taranaki, on the 27th March, 1860. would be

by the civil authorities, and brought totvial before the supreme court, should it be found on inquiry that they have rendered themselves liable to be prosecuted for murder. Melancholy Accident at Hackteoene. —lt is with feelings of the deepest regret that we have to announce to our readers the melancholy death of Captain Tennant, K.N., of Needwood-house, Burtnn-upon-Trent, which happened yesterday (Thursday), under circumstances of a most painful nature. It appears that while out pheasant-shoot-ing, at Ilaekthrone, in company with his brother-in-law, Captain P. Cracroft, K.N., whose gallant services in New Zealaed, while commanding the Niger, have been so frequently mentioned in thedespatches, the latter accidentally shot him. We understand that he died almost instantaneously. Information was at once conveyed to Major Amcotts, the high-sheriif of the county, brother of Captain Cracroft, who undertook the painful task of breaking the sad intelligence to his sister (Mrs. Tennant). Mr. Coroner Hitchins was, in the course of the afternoon, acquainted with the particulars of the accident, and he at once proceeded to Ilackthorne for the purpose of holding an inquest on the body.— Times, Jan. 2. H.M.S.S. Pelorus, 21 guns. Commodore Seymour, was about to Start from Sydney with Ilia Excellency Sir John Young, K.C.8., who goes on an official visit to Norfolk Island. — Hid. The Wae in the South. — The following is an extract from a private letter which has been received in Liverpool. It is dated: —“ Charleston Nov. 29, 1861. —They (the enemy) have done little or nothing since the taking of the Forts Beauregard and Walker. They have landed a few troops on the islands, and are gathering all the cotton they can find, which is known to be very little. They keep the negroes hard at work during the day, and chain them at night, to keep them from running away. The soldiers take possesion of everything that looks like a woman. This has a good effect upon the negro men. It has exasperated them very much, and induced them to keep away and return to their masters. Our planters have destroyed, and continue to destroy, all their crops of corn, cotton, and rice, and also their dwellings—in fact, everything that is in the least danger of falling into the hands of the Yankees. The possession of our Sea Islands will avail them but little. We have no fear of the result whenever they meet us on the land—can take care of them with and kind of odds against us, but we are not as yet to meet their navy.”— Times, Jan. 24. Piunce Leopold. —The following letter appears in th e[lndependance JBelge of Monday evening : “ Cannes, Dec. 18.—The news of the death of Prince Albert reached the young Prince Leopold his son, in the midst of circumstances so melancholy and sad that they could not fail to increase the horrors of that catastrophe. Taking advantage of a charming morning, the young Prince had gone out to sea to indulge in his favourite pastime of fishing. In returning to his villa he observed that the countenance of his principal servant was overcast, and that there were tears in his eyes. The cause of this grief was not the death of Prince Albert, which was then unknown, but the death of his governor, General Bowater. who had just died in the chamber adjoining Prince Leopold’s. At the news of this loss the poor boy wept bitterly. Almost at the same moment there appeared at the end of the hall a commissioner of telegraph, bringing a telegraphic despatch. It was addresed to the General, who was then lying dead. The evclope was opened ; it contained the fatal news —Prince Albert was dead. His Koval Highnosss was at once taken into his room, and I assure you that it is impossible to give any idea of the desolation of this young child, thus smitten in his tendcrcst affections. ‘My mother! 1 must go to my mother,’ he cried in sobs ; ‘ my mother will bring back him whom you say has been taken from me; 1 want my mother.’ Some seconds afterwards they took him away altogetherfrom the mournful and desolate-looking house to the nearest hotel, the Hotel de Bellevue, which is ordinarily patronized by the English and French aristocracy. Shortly after an English officer arrived from England, charged, it is said, with the duty of taking the unfortunate orphan back to England.”