COLONIAL INTELLIGENCE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 10, 14 May 1842, Page 39

COLONIAL INTELLIGENCE.

New Appointment. — His Excellency the Governor has been pleased to appoint William Spain, Esq., commissioner of land claims, to be a magistrate of the territory. — Port Phillip Gazette.

Discovery of Coal and Slate. — A countryman, who describes himself a shepherd, has brought an account of having discovered a mine of slate and another of coal contiguous to each other. The mineral vein is contained on a hill, on the face of which it crops out ; the distance is about thirty-eight miles from town, and the situation is between Melbourne and Geelong, not far from the road to the latter. We have seen no specimen of either, although a sample 'of the latter has been presented to His Honor the Superintendent, who pronounces it to be good. It is much to be feared that, even if the difficulties of working and the outlay could be overcome, the distance of carriage would make any scheme for mining or quarrying either production decidedly unprofitable. — Ibid.

Progress of Immigration. — Some alarm has been expressed by the colonial press, at the probable discontinuance of immigration from home, but the commercial advices received in Melbourne by the lona, announce that in various parts of the kingdom pauper immigration will be advanced by private sources, and that, as soon as the Cabinet consider the revenues in a state to support the expense, a large sum will be voted by the Government for the furtherance of a system at once benevolent to the destitute population of the mother-country, and beneficial to the colonists. Meetings had already been held at Paisley, for immediately carrying out a plan for the relief of a large body of distressed mechanics, resident in that town, and lately employed in its manufactories. — Ibid.

Money Market and Commercial Intelligence. — During the week advices have been recieved from Sydney, Maitland, .Launceston, Hobart Town, and Adelaide. In the capital both the papers and private correspondents report a steady change for the better, and it was daily expected that the banks would give way to the monetary exigency, and public opinion conjoined, by reducing the rate of interest on deposits, after the example of the Commercial Banking Company, which would throw at least half a million of money into circulation. Merchandise of various sorts was called for, and the prospects of supply in grain,- flour, &c. for the ensuing winter was favourable. The destruction of the Lady Raffles by fire, had occasioned much parley and reflection both among the merchants and their organs, the papers, and the necessity of insurance against such risks was strongly as well as wisely insisted on. * * * * The accounts from Van Diemen's Land, according to the papers, continue gloomy, although we have the authority of Mr. Orr, merchant in Melbourne, lately there on a visit, that things were mending there as well as here. Besides, the complaints of the press on the depression arising from the crisis — the want of money— the amount to which the colony was indebted, and the deficiency of labour; the continuation of sixteen weeks dry weather had given rise to the most serious alarm. The potatoe crop, says one of the Hobart Town Journals, is now the only one possible to be affected by the weather, bat it would teem that the hopes of the farmer are to be disappointed even at the eleventh hour. The long-continued drought has deprived the fanner of hope even of the late crop, to which lie looked forward for remuneration for* the bad miccets of the early ones. They, too, have raftered almost beyond the possibility of recovery.— lbid.