WELLINGTON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 496, 5 August 1857, Page 5

WELLINGTON.

We have one or two later papers from Wellington by the Emerald Isle and Mary Thomson, the latest being the 29th ult. The " Independent " of that date contains a summary for the Marchioness, fwhicli, however, is rather comment than news. We select from it and other papers the following short paragraphs, reserving a longer article or two for another opportunity : — The Wonga Wonga is now at Lyttelton, and on her return from thence will in a few days proceed to Auckland for the last time. On her arrival there she will become the property of her Wellington purchasers, and return to this port, when she will be employed in a trade between Wellington, Wanganui, Ahuriri, and possibly Canterbury and Nelson, calling we presume off the Wairau and the other numerous minor rivers in Cook's Strait. With the aid of Government subsidy there can be little doubt that she will prove a satisfactory investment to her owners. But be that as it may, the benefit which she will confer on Wellington as a postal vessel, by sweeping the coast trade into her ports, and as a rapid means of transit between the places named, cannot be over-rated. Land Purchases and Sales.—Mr. Cooper has at last been aided in his land purchasing operations by the arrival of Mr. M'Lean. A portion of the Porangahau block has been purchased. The particulars have not yet been made known but the price given hap been a very lar^e one, some two or three times the amount of that required a year or two ago. The natives are becoming every day more exorbitant in their demands and more reluctant to sell, and yet when opportunity offers of acquiring districts of vast importance, no advantage is taken of it. The Manawatu district on the Western Coast has been for some time in the market—the native mind has long been prepared to make a sale, and>nless negotiations are opened speedily, a district of incalculable value may be shut up for years, and the £b,UUU now asked may be, like that for the Porangahau Block, enormously increased. We re-ret; the , non-publication of returns of land sales later than the end of May prevents us from showing the quantities sold during the past quarter, but

from the sale of some £3,000 worth in the township of Clive, (Ahuriri), we have reason to believe the amount will be a respectable one. As we obtain quicker postal communication by means of steam we shall no doubt have returns which depend upon the receipt of information from other districts, prepared and published with greater despatch.— lbid.

The schooner Lady Grey, Captain Kennedy, arrived on Tuesday afternoon last, from Oamaru. and Stoneyhurst, with a cargo of wool and 150 fat weathers. After leaving Wellington, she experienced great" difficulty in getting to the southward, in consequence of prevalence of southerly winds; and had to slip her cahle several times while discharging cargo at Stoneyhurst, She has brought up the remains of Mr. Henry Lawson, who was unfortunately drowned some^ months since while endeavouring to save the life of one of his shepherds during sheep washing in the Waitangi River,for interment in the Catholic Cemetery here. Captain Kennedy reports whales to be very numerous on the coast having seen a great number of them during his trip. Fyfe's shore whaling party at theKai Koras, consisting of two seven-pared boats, were doing remarkably well. They had caught about 16 tons of oil, were in chase after whales nearly every day, and expected to make a good season. Mr. Pyfe had found a Moa's egg, at the Kai Kora's, while digging the foundation for his store. It is a foot long, about 6 inches in diamater, and 27 inches in circumference. The shell is the 16th part of an inch in thickness. A hole is drilled in the end of it, and the egg must have been considered of great value by the natives, as it was-found deposited at the head of a skeleton, with a number of very large poenamu axes. Mr. Fyfe, we understand, is going to send them home to the British Museum.