AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MARITIME REPORT.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume V, Issue 17, 15 October 1858, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, AND MARITIME REPORT.

From the Ist to the 15th October. The latest intelligence received from

Australia is to the 23rd September. At that date, a slight advance had taken place in flour, first quality selling at 221. seconds at 201. per ton. Wheat sold freely at from Bs. to 95.; Bran 2s, per bushel; Po'.atoes from 421, to 131, per lon. The markets* however, were in a very uncertain state, and the general fabric of society was likely to ex perience another of those extraordinary derangements, the consequence of the discovery of another attractive gold-field which liad created a sort of frenzy in Sydney, and to which the population of Australia were flocking in thousands, about 1500 persons having sailed from Sydney in the course of one week. This new gold-field is in a diametrically opposite direction from lliose of Victoria, being situated near the Fitzroy River, about 950 miles to the North-east of Sydney, on j the line of the Southern tropic, "and in a burning and unhealthy locality. The intelligence as yet received is exceedingly imperfect, and as uot more than a hundred ounces of gold had reached Sydney, it is difficult to account for the universal anxiety which pervaded the public iu their eagerness to rush to these diggings. If the Fitzroy mines shall turn out to be but a quarter as valuable as they were believed to be, they will have the effect of creating flourishing settlements on the North Eastern and heretofore uninhabited shores of tropical Australia. The importance of such settlements to New Zealand, above all to Northern New Zealand, it would be impossible to over-es-timate. There, a ready market would be found for all the produce which New Zealand, for many years, would be able to raise; to the Fitzroy New Zealand would be the nearest country of export, there she would be before both Tasmania and South Australia, for the passage from Auckland thither would be very little further and more readily made than ti Sydney, besides which its tropical situation would prevent it from growing the many articles of human consumption with which Victoria and South Australia have been able to supply themselves. From the \eiy first moment of ibis season's seed time, we have been urging our Native farmers to plant—plant - plant; and now that a new and powerful additional motive has presented itself, we again recommend them to cultivate maize and every other article that can yet be sown. They cannot have forgotten the number of ships that thronged Auckland harbour for supplies soon after the golden discoveries in Victoria ; and they may rest

assured lhat if those of ibe Filzroy are at all of a similar character we shall find numbers of ships before ihe autumn closes again visiting our shores. the arrivals, since onr last, have been, the barque Bredalbane, 224 ions, Captain Philip Jones, from Sydney, with a general cargo or merchandise, and 21 passengers; Ihe brig Sarah, 421 tons, Captain Firth, with 3 officers, 46 men, 17 women, and 20 Children 65th regt.: the brigMoa, 237 tons, Captain Bowden, with Colonel Gold and family, 4 officers, iOl men, 18 women, and 36 children 6oth rrgt.; and the barque City of Melbourne, 176 tons, Captain McClemens, with 5 officers and MO men: 65 th regiment, all from Wellington; the' schooner Eliezer, 16 tons. Captain Kean, j with sundry merchandise,and 6 passengers;' the ketch Pegasus, 43 tons. Captain Brier, j with 60 kegs gunpowder, 1 officer, and 4 men 6oth regt., both from Napier; the brigamine Spray, 1015 tons, Captain Anderson, from LyHelton, with a quantity of personal baggage and 10 passengers;' the screw steam-ship Lord Ashley, 287 tons, Captain Stewart, from Loudon, with a general cargo of merchandise, and about 100 passengers; this is the first of four steam-ships belonging < to the New Zealand Royal Mail Company, | and which are to be employed carrying] mails, goods, and passengers between New 1 Zealand and Australia, as well as between the Northern and Southern ports of New Zealand; the brig Gil Bias, 175 tons. Captain Wedgwood, from Otago, with 29 bags oats. The departures are the brig Sporting Lass, 160 tons, Captain Cellum, for New Plymouth* with goods, and 34 passengers transshipped from the Mary Ann from London; the brig Moa, 257 tons, Captain Bowden, for Sydney, with 13| tons flax, 846 lbs. tow, 40 cwt. wool lashing, 23 tons kauri gum, 1150 bushels wheat, 33 cwt. potatoes, I t passengers; the cutter Surprise. 50 tons, Captain Braund, for Napier, with 25 tuns casks, 20 cwt. flour; the barque Breadalbane, 224 tons, Captain Philip Jones, for Sydney, with 5 tuns oil, 23 tons flour, 21 passengers; the schooner Ann, 37 tons. Captain Wallace, for Napier* with 10,000 bricks, 15 tons firewood, and sundry merchandise. The departures lor the coast were 48 vessels of. 1137 tons, with 63 passengers, and customary trading cargoes.