WELLINGTON.

Marlborough Press, Volume I, Issue 6, 10 February 1860, Page 3

WELLINGTON.

We have Wellington papers to the Slsfc ultimo.

The twentieth anniversary of the landing of the first settlers in Wellington falling this year on Sunday last, the holiday was observed on Monday. The programme of amusements was more varied than on any other occasion. There was a regatta for the admirers of aquatic sports; steam excursions to Soames Island and the Heads; at Kotermund’s grounds, “ Old English Sports ” attracted a large concourse } tea meetings; and though last, not least, the numerous votaries of Terpsichore found their enjoyment provided for in various temples dedicated to their favourite goddess.— lndependent. From the Independent we copy the following : —Every well-wisher of the province must be sadly grieved that the unprecedentedly fine weather we have had this summer is obliged to be lost, as far as the prosecution of public works is concerned. The reclamation of the beach would have gone on as merrily as a marriage bell, and, by its consequently reduced cost, a very much larger profit than was anticipated would have been the result of its sale. Whatever preliminary operations might have been requisite for the erection of that universally-admitted necessity —a public wharf —could have been undertaken to advantage during the fineness of the present season, and at a proportionate gain to the province. Who is responsible for this? The Government who introduced bills to carry on these public improvements, or the Council who factiously rejected them ? Busii Fires. —During the past month extensive bush fires have been raging in various parts of the province. During January and February it has long been customary to burn off the timber felled in the clearings made during the previous year. There were no objections to this practice formerly, when the country was thinly peopled, and the improvements made by many of them of such a trifling character as to create little alarm for the consequences; but, for the last few years, bush burning has become so dangerous to the large amount of property to which every settled district can lay claim, that measures will have to be taken to restrict it, as soon as a working Provincial Council is in operation. Near Greytown property and crops have been very much damaged, one splendid twelve-acre field of wheat having nearly the whole of it destroyed. In the Upper Hutt there has been much alarm in consequence of the bush being on fire in various directions. A totara bush, from which a large quantity of split materials were supplied to Wellington, is almost entirely destroyed, together with some thousands of posts, rails, palings, shingles, &c. Mr. Plimmer’s saw-mill was discovered to be on fire. One of the neighbours broke open the engine-house door, and saved many valuable circular and other saws, and by pulling down the further end of the building, a steam-engine has been saved from destruction. The mill has been entirely burnt to the ground. At Johnsville, the Episcopal Chapel has been burnt down, and a bridge has also been destroyed.— Independent,