SYDNEY.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 24, 20 August 1842, Page 95

SYDNEY.

Governor Hobbon's Bills. — An incorrect version of the dishonour of some New Zealand Government Bills having been published, we think it necessary to put our readers in possession of a correct statement of the circumstances. The New Zealand Bank of Auckland remitted to the Commercial Bank of Sydney a cheque of the New Zealand Treasury on the Bank of Australasia for £3,000, which cheque was protested for non-payment, and being drawn against, the Commercial Bank could only accept the drafts to the amount of their credit, and, consequently, some of the bills drawn upon them were dishonoured. The cause of the Bank of Australasia refusing the draft of the New Zealand Treasury, is understood to be, that Governor Hobson remitted them his draft on the Lords of the Treasury, without sending] his authority for drawing. — Sydney Herald. \ Overland Letters. — The postmaster of Ceylon has addressed a letter to the postmaster general at Sydney, in which he states that he is compelled to return the loose letters brought by the ship China, in consequence of the postages not being paid. Colonial Manufactures. — It is stated that Mr. Crighton has just finished an imperial double crown printing press, which is admirably executed, and intended for one of the Sydney papers. Shipping. — From Port Nelson, yesterday (July 14), having left the 22d. ultimo, the ship Clifford, Captain Sharp, in ballast. The Clifford did not speak any other vessel on her passage but the Brougham, which arrived on Monday last. She has put in here for water, and also to obtain a convoy through Torres' Straits. Captain Sharp reports that the settlement of Nelson was progressing rapidly. The Clifford will resume her voyage in a day or two. I The Jane Goudie is lying on the east side of the Cove, where she will take in cattle and sheep for Port Nelson. Markets.— Flour, 20s. per 100 lbs. j beef, per cwt., 18s., mutton, 205., pork, 455. to 505.; fat cattle, £5 per head ; sheep, ss. to 7s. 6d. each; oranges, 9d. to Is. 3d. per doz.; lemons, Bd. to Is. do. ; potatoes, £6 to £10 per ton.

Geological Winders in Australia. — We here remarked a singular circumstance. Several acres of land on this elevated position were nearly covered with lofty isolated sandstone pillars of the most grotesque and fantastic shapes, from which the imagination might easily have pictured to itself forms equally singular and amusing. In one place was a regular unroofed aisle, with a row of massive pillars on each side ; and in another there stood upon a pedestal what appeared to be the legs of an ancient statue, from which the body had been knocked away. Some of these timeworn columns were covered with sweet-smelling creepers; while their bases were concealed by a dense vegetation, which added much to their very singular appearance. The height of two or three which I measured was upwards of forty feet ; and as the tops of all of them were nearly upon the same level, that of the surrounding country must at one period have been as high as their present summits, probably much higher. From the top of one of these pillars I surveyed the surrounding country, and saw on every side proofs of the same extensive degradation : so extensive, indeed, that I found it very difficult to account for it : but the gurgling of water, which I heard beneath me, soon put an end to the state of perplexity in which I was involved; for I ascertained that streams were running in the earth beneath my feet; and, on descending and creeping into a fissure in the rocks, I found beneath the surface a cavern precisely resembling the remains that existed above ground, only that this was roofed, whilst through it ran a small stream, which in the rainy season must become a perfect torrent. It was now evident to me, that, ere many years shall have elapsed, the roof will give way, and what now are the buttresses of dark and gloomy caverns will emerge into day, <"*i\ become columns clad in green and resplendent in the bright sunshine. In this state they will gradually waste away beneath the ever-during, influence of atmospheric causes; and the material being then carried down by the streams through a series of caverns resembling those of which they once*tonned a portion, would be swept out into into the ocean, and deposited on sand-banks, to be raised again at some remote epoch a new continent, built up with the ruins of an ancient world. I subsequently, during the season of the heavy rains, remarked the usual character of the mountain • streams to be, that they rose at the foot of some little elevation, which stood upon a lofty tableland composed of sandstone, then flowed in a sandy bed for a short distance, and afterwards mysteriously sunk in the cracks and crevices made in the rocks from atmospheric influence, and did not again reappear until they reached the foot of the precipice which terminated the table-land whence they sprang ; here they came foaming out in a rapid stream, which had undoubtedly worked strange havoc in the porous sandstone rocks, among which it held its subterraneous eourae. What the amount of sand annually carried down from the north-western portion of Australia into the ocean may be, we have no means whatever of ascertaining ; that it is sufficient to form beds of sand of very great magnitude, is attested by the existence of numerous and extensive sand-banks an along the coast. One single heavy tropical shower of only s few hours duration washed down over a plot of ground which was planted with barley, a bed of sand nearly five inches deep, which the succeeding showers again swept off, carrying it farther upon its way towards the sea.