NEW SOUTH WALES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XI, Issue 643, 5 January 1859, Page 3

NEW SOUTH WALES.

Our news from Sydney by late arrivals extends to the 13th ult. From the summary for the English mail we clip the following paragraphs, explanatory of the position of. affairs- in the colony and of the questions then engaging public attention.

Tub Church op England Conference.—The long-expected Church'of England Conference commenced on the 25th of November. There was a visitation, with accompanying services; at the temporary cathedral of St. Andrew, together with a long and eloquent address" from the Bishop of Sydney. Several gentlemen whose return had not been duly certified claimed to have a legal or equitable right to sit and vote at this Conference, but their claims were overruled, and even their petitions rejected. It was agreed on all. hands that synodical action in some shape or another, was necessary. The first question discussed was whether this action should be taken without invokingithe aid of the Legislature at all. A large majority held that legislation was necessary. The' next question was whether there should be simply an enabling bill, leaving all details to be settled by the Synod itself; or, whether the powers and action of the Bishop and the Synod should l)e,-by. legislative enactment, more clearly defined. It was determined to go into the consideration of a draft bill, which .was prepared with the latter view, but there seemed to be a great difference of opinion as to how much of it should be adopted. The bill was for several days under debate. Upon the clause which .gave a veto to the Bishop there was a spirited discussion, but it was adopted by a considerable.majority. In the Conference, as elsewhere, great inconvenience was found to result from prolonged speaking, and. a resolution was adopted limiting each speaker to fifteen minutes as a maximum. The proceedings were brought to a close-on the 7th Dec. The question last.discussed was whether there should be any_definite adjourn-wwt-wr-wtiic'r"nximgcnucarirroi-^;enewed"sittin'gs, in" the event of the draft bill, which has been now adopted not passing through the ordeal of Parliament. A majority of.the Conference, however, would not contemplate any such contingency, and held it sufficient to appoint a committee to watch the progress of the bill. The Conference, having thus completed the business for which'it had been held, was closed by religious services and an address from the Bishop of Sydney.

The Fejees.—The most important piece of news which has been made public is that of the Fejeean Archipelago having been ceded to Great Britain. The cession was made so long ago as the llthof September, but it did not transpire until several days after the arrival of the John Wesley, by'which vessel the treaty of cession is reported to have been brought on to Sydney by the Consul, Mr. Pritchard, en route for London. This archipelago is decidedly the most extensive and .valuable in Polynesia. It contains an estimated area of i, more than 20,000 square miles. Its climate, although tropical, is salubrious. Its soil most fertile. Already it.produces • spontaneously and abundantly riiany of the most valuable of the plants of commerce. But not a hundredth part of its available land is yet under cultivation. For a cotton country; it is peculiarly adapted; and there are over 200,000 Feejeeans, who, if they could once be made to feel certain of enjoying the produce of their labour, would speedily send forth a large supply of vegetable fleece. The growth of cotton, and its first preparation as a raw export, require very little manual labour and no agricultural or mechanical siill. It is singularly suited, therefore, to the capacity of such a people as those islanders. Over anil oyer again, and for years past, has the' Herald'urged upon the British authorities, imperial and local, the importance of establishing: some, protectorate authority over the archipelago in question. It is to be hoped that they will not now suffer it to slip through their fingers.

The Junior.—The American whaling ship Junior, it has been ascertained! has reached her destination in safety, and the murderers and mutineers sent home by her have been deposited in the hands of the proper authorities, to await their trial. It seems that during the voyage, an attempt- at communication was made among the • prisoners, and a note from one prisoner to another was detected, in which a new insurrection, and the murder of the officers, was proposed. But the arrangements made here for the safe keeping of the prisoners were too good to be easily frustrated.

Port Curtis Diggers.—The subscription so promptly entered into for the relief of the many diggers whom the failure of the Canoona gold-fields had left destitute,, has done its work. Numbers of stalwart and industrious men have been rescued from temporary distress, and scattered throughout the various' gold-fields of the interior, where their labour is already-beginning to tell sensibly upon the amount of our weekly products of the precious metal. A 'party of threei men, who were among the number of jthose thus scattered, have taken 81 ounces out Of a gully nearthe Turon. All appear to be doing pretty well, for we hear of no complaints upon this score. ' There was, however, a complaint, and apparently a very well founded one, against the Government, by a party of men who had been sent to Fairfield. On arriving there they found a tract of country which appeared to be highly auriferous and-capable of profitably employing a large number;of miners; but it was all taken up by the. comparative few who were first on the spot; and there was no Commissioner or other officer of the Government there, to prevent this monopoly. After having been sent from Sydney, therefore, at the expense of the relief fund, these men were compelled to turn their backs upon a paying gold-field, and to .bend their steps to the westward. The business of the Relief Committee will shortly be brought to a close, as the applications for such relief have now almost wholly ceased;

A large number of the celebrated camel sheep of South America arrived at the end of November by the Salvadora, from the port of Caldeira. There are no less than 280 of them, embracing not only the three classes of llama, alpacca, and vicuna, but other varieties produced by cross' breeding. The whole Hock may at present be seen grazing in the

Outer'iomiun, in thai pnrt usually known as the cricketers ground." At length, then, there is a sufficient number of these animals in the country to have it tried whether or not they win 1 )W acclimatised. • I«ew, if any, doubt the practicability of this with due care. Efforts have been made, 'and will doubtless be repeated, to buy them up for Victoria* but we hope tlicro will he found spirit unouuli among the people of New South Wales to retain them at any cost. The Ahsiomhlv.—Parliament was re-opened on the 9th, by the Governor-General in person, and with the usual formalities. According to the opening' speech, tho only matter to bo brought-under discussion by the present Assembly is the estimates for 1859. Everything else is to be left to the NewElectoral Act. Hut «* honorable members "do not seem quite disposed to submit to this arrangement. Already some notices of motion have heon given, relating to matters which have nothing to do with tho estimates, and other movements of the same kind talked of. In the Upper House indications of this spirit were given by calling for a ballot on the formation of a committee to prepare the address,and by the adoption of an address, which, although sufficiently formal, pledges the house to nothing. In the Assembly there was the-cxtraordinary result of "no quorum " when the chair was taken in the afternoon, for the purpose of considering the opening speech. There was consequently an adjournment until to-day, without anything being done. Cotton.—A cotton-growing company is in the course of formation, or at all events, initiatory steps for the construction of such a company have been taken. With the nature of its proposed organization, and the intended plan of its operations, we are not acquainted,,b.ut it is estimated, we know, that the profits of such an undertaking would be very great;, and most assuredly the creation of a new export must largely benefit the country. In such an undertaking, however, it will be necessary to take into consideration the possible effect of the late cession of Fecjee, one of the first cotton growing countries in the world. Even if this cession be not confirmed, it might be well to consider- whether highly profitable investments might not bo made in this direction.

Thk Appropriation Act.—Tho Appropriation Act which has just been assented to, and which is tho result of many months' legislation, is a document of great value, We should recommend it to the study of people who take an interest in public affairs. It will lead to some enquiry, and will probably enforce the necessity of some important changes. It presents in'a much more perfect form the position of colonial society—and the organization of our social and political system than a thousand popular speeches. To some of the leading and more striking items, we would just direct our readers. The Constitution Act has reserved certain sums over which the Assembly has not immediate control. Those sums can indeed be altered by bill, but until the consent of the entire Legislature be obtained, they Can neither be augmented nor reduced.. Thus, in schedule A, we have a provision properly made for the Governor, the Judges, and the members of the Cabinet, amounting to £23,600, of Avhich the Governor receives £7000, the Chief Justice £2600, and the three judges £2000 each. The Colonial Secretary has £2000, the Colonial Treasurer, £1250 ; the Auditor-General, £900 ; the Attorney-General, £1500; and the Solicitor-General, £1000. Byschedule B, a provision is made for officers of the Government retiring upon political grounds. These divide £5900 per annum among them. £3500 is also divided by various persons who have become entitled to pensions for length of service. Schedule C devotes £28,000 to the various religious denominations, to which our Assembly has made the addition of £15,000. These.sums are thus enjoyed—£2o,ooo by the Church of England; £2,300 by the Presbyterian Church; £2,500 by the Wesleyari Methodists; £11,000 by the Roman Catholics;• and further, £3,000 is set down for clergymen on the gold-fields. Besides this, provision for the Governor, the Ministers and the Clergy, the Assembly has devoted nearly £19,000 to the primary machinery of Government, chieflyjin its. legislative action. Passing on to the various establishments, we find that our postal service costs £98,000 per annum; our common education, £49,000 per annum; our penal establishments, £37,000 per annum; our port establishments, £25,000; the administration of justice, £41,000 per annum; the public works, £363,000 per annum. In this last item is comprehended all sorts of things. The formation of roads, of bridges, and streets, the construction of punts—the improvement of the navigation of the Murray—the defences of Port Jackson—the improvement of our parks and gardens— the erection of lunatic asylums, watchhouses, courthouses, abattoirs, infirmaries, and lighthouses. The total amount appropriated by the Act is £1,300,136 4s. Among the items are-included maiiy expenses which mark the! particular position of the colony at the time when they have been incurred, such as money voted for the relief of persons out of employment.—the cost of the Port Curtis excursion —the special provision'for the development of the gold-fields, and such like.—' S. M. Herald,' Dec. 7.