WELLINGTON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 44, 8 November 1851, Page 6

WELLINGTON.

We have received the Wellington Spectator to the Ist inst. The usual files of the Independent have not come to hand.

An adjourned general meeting of the members of the Wellington Horticultural and Botanic Society was held on Monday evening last, at Barrett's Hotel. The President, H. St. Hill, took the chair. The chairman, in opening the business of the meeting, read the report of the Committee appointed to examine and revise the rules of the Society. In this report the Committee state that they conceive that the Society should; avail itself of the earliest opportunity of communicating with kindred associations in Van Dieman's Land, and in the neighbouring colonies, soliciting information upon their constitution, rules and regulations, and proposing a reciprocation of interest by exchanges of plants, seeds, &c.

They propose that the annual subscription of members should be 10s. 6d., and that a donation often guineas should constitute a life member.

That the list of prizes for the exhibition of subjects should be remodelled or revised, chiefly with the view of abolishing " second prizes," at the same time they would suggest that, where any article of competition so closely approximates in merit as to create a difference in opinion with the Judges as to the choicest, an extra prize should be awarded to the one of such article as may be adjudged to be a mere shade in inferiority to the other. That the Judges should be invested with a discretionary power to award prizes to such subjects as they might deem worthy of consideration ; no such prize, iii any case, to exceed in value the maximum limit in* the list for similar articles.

The Committee endeavour to impress upon the subscribers the necessity of the most strenuous exertions being made to carry out and to support the objects of the Society. Two or three annual exhibitions appear to them to be but an insignificant part of its duty. They conclude the report by saying that it must be acknowledged tlv-it the Society can scarcely, at this moment, boast of vitality ; and it is self-evident that unless the most vigorous measures be speedily adopted, an association that has existed, through evil report and good report, for a period of nearly ten years, must at once sink into oblivion.

The Secretary read the Colonial Secretary's reply to an application (made in accordance with the resolution passed at the previous meeting) for a Crown grant for the land appropriated to the Society in the Karori road : Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington, Oct. 21, 1851. Sib, —I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 15th inst., enclosing a resolution of the members of the Wellington Horticultural and Botanic Society to the effect that application should be made for a Grown Grant of the land in the Karori Road, reserved for a Botanical Garden, to trustees named in the resolution.

In reply, I am directed by his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief to state that he regrets it is out of his power to grant a public reserve to a private society, unless some special reason for so doing be advanced. But his Excellency will immediately proclaim the land in question a reserve for a Botanical Garden, and place it

in the hands of the trustees named in your letter, to he held (if such a course shall meet the views of the Society,) by them in trust, for any Municipal Corporation to be hereafter established in Wellington.

I have the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient, humble Servant, Alfred DOiMExr, Colonial Secretary.

A meeting of the New Zealand Society was held in the Council Chamber on Wednesday eveningl, the 22nd instant, his Excellency Sir George Grey presiding. The attendance, members was quite as numerous as on the last occasion. The following gentlemen were elected members :—Mr. J. Telford, Dr. Logan, R. N., Mr. J. Varnham, and Mr. P. M. Hervey. Dr. Man tell, F. R. S. and Professor Owen, F. R. S., were also unanimously elected honorary members of the Society. The following donations to the library and museum were announced by the Secretary:— Several pamphlets and a copy of Dr. Mantell's Wonders of Geology, by Mr. W. Man tell; specimens of fossils, &c, by Mr. W. Lyon ; specimens of minerals from South Australia, by Mr. J. H. Wallace; specimens of minerals from South Australia and fossil shells from Wairarapa, by Mr. S. E. Grimstone; two specimens of Ornithorhyncus paradoxus from Bathurst, New South Wales, by Mr. E. Catchpool; and specimens of the flax cotton in various stages of preparation, by Mr. V. Smith. Three quarto volumes of magnetical observations were deposited in the library of the Society by order of his Excellency. A paper on the comparative strength of New Zealand and Australian woods, by Mr. Carter, was read by Mr. Fitzherbert, in which the details were given of several interesting experiments, the results of which were not unfavourable to the woods of New Zealand. A paper was also read by Mr. Mantell on the various deposits in which the bones of the Dinornis and kindred genera have been discovered. A very fine living specimen of the Kakapo (Strygops) of New Zealand, from the South extremity of the Middle Island, was also exhibited by the President of the Society. NELSON. The " Mary" brings us Nelson papers to the 25th ultimo. The anniversary of the Nelson Branch of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, was held on the sth and 6th instant. The* ministers of the Presbyterian and Baptist churches in Nelson kindly lent their aid. The Rev. D. Dolamore preached to an attentive audience with his usual ability in the morning, from Gal. vi. 14. After explaining the passage, he adduced several reasons for the Apostle's high estimate of " the Cross of Christ." The sermon in the evening, by the Rev. T. D. Nicholson, was particularly appropriate. Psalm Ixii. 1 and 2 verses, was the subject on which the preacher founded kis discourse, eloquently shewing the connexion between the reception and communication of mercy and blessing by the Church. It was clearly shewn in the course of the sermon, that if a Church cease to be evangelistic, or missionary, it will soon cease to be evangelical, or sound in the faith of the Gospel. The chair of the public meeting was well and worthily tilled by D. Sclanders, Esq. A lengthened Report, sketching the principal Missions in Europe, Asia, Polynesia, Africa, and America, under the care of the Society, was read by the Rev. S. Ironside, and then the obligation of Christians to support the holy cause of Missions was, by every variety of remark, brought before the^ meeting, by the ministers and several lay-officers from the Churches present. It was gratifying *. to see the catholic fraternity exhibited on the occasion by the various sections of the evangelical Church. One very pleasing- feature of the meeting was the presence on the platform of some natives from the coast, the fruit of the Wesleyan Mission. Their simple statements, contrasting what they were, and what they might have been but for Missions, with what they are—and their unaffected display of good feeling towards the pakeha, and loyalty to the Queen, told well upon the audience, who testified their pleasure by rounds of applause. A missionary box from the Sunday scholars, containing upwards of a guinea, was handed to the Chairman, several annual subscriptions were announced, which, with the liberal collections of Sunday and Monday, make the total raised by the Nelson Auxiliary for the year about thirly-one pounds.— Nelson Examiner.