WELLINGTON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 460, 1 April 1857, Page 4

WELLINGTON.

We have papers' by the Rose of Sharon to the 21st ultimo. The first stonefof the building to comprise Provincial and General Government Offices was laid by the Superintendent on the 9th of March. It will be remembered that Dr. Featherston, in the House of Representatives, guaranteed that the Province of Wellington should bear the expense of providing accommodation for the Government if removed.to that province, In pursuance'of this guarantee, though no removal is now promised, the above building has been undertaken, of which the 'Independent' gives the following interesting particulars :— The site for the General Assembly and Provincial Government offices is, without exception, one of the most' picturesque and commanding in Wellington. Some conception of its elevated position may be formed when we state that the ground on which these buildings are to stand is on a level with the ridge boards of Government House —the highest part of Clay Point, and the ventilator fixed in the roof of the Church of England School, Thorndon Flat. The building itself will be forty feet high, and if we include the height to the highest point of the principal gable finials, the extreme highest point will be nearly fifty feet above the levels before mentioned.

The plan of the building may be divided into three portions, comprising two "wings connected with a central two-storied building. The central part recedes from the front line of the two wings about six feet, and contains all the offices of the Provincial Government. The two wings are devoted to the .use of the General Assembly. There are twenty-seven rooms in all. - The style of the building is Gothio, but not the gothic of any, particular- period, tbe different styles having been"blended. Thegable of the principal wings are pierced for large and noble lancet windows, in tbe perpendicular style: while the porch, with.. its handsome- traceried window in its gable is entered by a doorway in the Tudor style. The upper rooms are lighted by means of Dormers, and all the gables are provided witli ornamental barge boarding, surmounted with finials. The rooms on .the Ground Floor receive their light through double mullioned and transomed windows containing six lights. The internal finishings are red pine and mai, varnished, which will display the beauty of these New Zealand woods. The external "timber is totara. The ceilings of the two chambers are divided into compartments, and the ribs forming them are, at their intersection, ornamented with pendant centre pieces. _ The foundation is constructed of brick and piles, and the roof covered in with slate. The estimate is £6,688, and the contractor is bound to fhiish the building within nine months. The site, which comprises two acres, cost £700, the levelling about £150 or £200, and the furniture is estimated at about £500J inakinp- a total of about.'£B,loo. The Land Office axd Surveys.—We understand that the Chief-Commissioner, Mr. Fox, starts to morrow for Ahuriri, where business _ will probably detain him ten days or a fortnight. He will then cross the country by the Manawatu route, and visit Wanganui and the Rangitikei surveys. He will probably be absent five or six weeks. In the meantime, the Compensation Scrip awarded by the Commissioners, Messrs. Rennal, Haiiison, and Nixon, will be in preparation, and be issued immediately on Mr. "Fox's return. Mr. Park has just gone to Pawh.aita.nui, to make an examination of the reserved district, and will then prepare a specification for. the survey, including a line to the Hutt, which will immediately.^be offered for contract, and we hope that this district will be thrown open for small farmers in five or six months at latest, Mr. Park, then we are informed, intends spending the remainder of the summer in tbe Wanganui and ftahgitikei districts, completing the surveys there, which under Messrs. Porter and Swainson are already far advanced. On Mr. Fox's return, we believe, the_ monthly sales by auction of the reserved' agricultural blocks . will commence, and now that the Upset price of rural land at Featherston and in the other blocks of the same class has been reducer! to 10s., we hope to see th,e market fully supplied witli cheap and good land

ready surveyed In blocks to suit purchasers, and" these are precisely the locations to suit them.— lndependent, March 11. ' .'■ ' ' We understand by late advices from England, that the Directors of the' Oriental Bank have resolved upon establishing a branch ■of that Bank in Wellington.— lbid. ' - Whirlwind and Waterspout in Cook's Strait.—We are informed by a correspondent from, the West Coast, that a few days back, when riding along the beach near the mouth of the river Manawatu, he was an eye-witness of one of those beautiful but somewhat terrible phenomena, called waterspouts'. Our informant writes, —"The clouds gathered, and Mr. thought there was going to be a thunder-storm, and he watched the cloud. At last the two winds met, and made a whirl; then Mr. ■—. saw the water thrown up about the height of a large ship's mast, and a white pillar rose above this to the clouds; the size of the pillar was about twice the. size of the sun's (apparent) diameter. It moved inland for a mile, tearing logs, sand and grass. It first began about two miles out at sea."— Spectator, March 18. The statement of some reports from Wellington about the discontent of the late immigrants by the Oliver Lang and Indian Queen, as given in the columns of our paper of the 7th March last, is denied by the 'Independent.' Though we, of course, placed dependence upon the general authenticity of these reports when we published them,'still we are bound, to accept the refutation and explanation of the facts publicly given by that paper. We need not add that we are very glad to find that these unpleasant reports are capable of explicit contradiction. A SLIGHT MISTAKE. ' j .The extract reprinted from the ' Lyttelton ! Times' of the 7th March,:would be highly ] amusing were it not calculated to mislead and injure. We notice the paragraph not only to contradict it, but to impress on our contemporaries in the sister provinces, the grave errors into ,which we are all likely to be led, if'the press publishes the gossip of every old woman who chooses to report the proceedings which take place in any of these little Pedlingtons of ours. The facts of the case are simply these . When the Gil Bias was under weigh for Sydney ' about a month -ago, a man was found stowed away" in. the hold,, and turned ashore. He proved to be an immigrant by the Oliver Lang, and a debtor to the Provincial Government for the cost of his passage, viz : £20. The promissory notes are given by immigrants '' on demand," with the understanding that they wiil not be enforced except the immigrants attempt to leave the province, but that if they remained in it, one half would only be required to be paid during the first twelvemonth, and the remaining half during; the next. Rees, the stowaway abovementioned,was accordingly summoned before the Eesident Magistrate, and not having means to meet the demand was sentenced to four months imprisonment. Mr. King, the defendant's solicitor, took an objection against the Promissory Note because it'had no stamp. But the objection was overruled. The case elicited no more notice than any ordinary one, and the moh outside the Police Court whose violent language the Superintendent had some difficulty in quelling, is pure fiction, without the slightest circumstance for a foundation. The wages on the roads have not been reduced from ss. to 4s. Average men get full wages, but those who cannot or will not do a fair day's work get paid only in proportion, nor-is a constable stationed on boar.d the vessels in harbour; but in carrying out the provisions /pf the "Passenger Regulation Act," all vessels, after weighing anchor, are' searched with a view to prevent persons who owe money from leaving the province clandestinely. This^, however, is a part of usual police duties and in no way arises out of the transaction in question. We*believe the ' Lyttelton Times' to be, thoroughly sincere in its regr.e,ts at the mess its veracious correspondent"had led it to belieye we were in, and we trust it will give prominence to this plnin contradiction of the gross fabrication which has been palmed upon its credulity,