POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 47, 28 January 1843, Page 187

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

Mr. J. H. TJiomson was yesterday summoned before the Police Magistrate for the sum of £5 for wages, by a young man named Fryetchild, who had been some time in his service. It appeared that a proper understanding had never taken place between the parties as to the amount of remuneration to be given, and Mr. Thomson stated that, as Fryetchild boarded and lodged in his house, he considered no wages due to him. The Police Magistrate thought the complainant entitled to the sum claimed, and ordered it to be paid accordingly .-

The Navy of the United States. — The injunction of secrecy having been removed from the proceedings of the United States' Senate in regard to the increase of the navy and naval promotions, the reports of the majority and minority of the committee to whom these subjects were referred have been given to the public. The majority of the committee concur in the view of the President on both points. The minority consists of Messrs. Manguim, of North Carolina, and Williams, of Maine. These gentlemen profess to be warm friends of the navy, but think the increase of the navy recommended by the President is too large and the promotions too numerous. The force in commission, should the President's suggestions be carried out, would comprise 7 ships of the line, 16 frigates, 23 sloops and brigs, and 8 steamers. Even this force is small compared to that of England, which has in commission 259 vessels of war, although her mercantile tonnage is not much greater than ours. The tonnage of the United Kingdom on the Ist of January last, counting all merchant vessels above 50 tons, was 2,668,732 tons. The American tonnage on the 30th September last, counting all above 20 tons burden, was, 2,180,764. Excess of British tonnage over American only 487,968. The British tonnage is 115,029 tons less than it was in 1835 ! The American tonnage, on the other hand, has increased about 400,000 tons. The President's recommendation in regard to promotions is, that hereafter there shall be 105 captains, now 67 ; commanders 96, as at present ; 323 lieutenants, now 320 ; 63 passed midshipmen, now 103 ; midshipmen 450, as at present. The majority of the committee calculate that these various promotions would not increase the expenses of the navy more than 72,000 dollars — a sum which they deem of little importance compared with the advantages which would result from It. — American paper. PREVENTION OF SHIPWRECK ON A LeE-ShORE. — A notice has been received at Lloyd's, from a Mr. Jones, of Sheffield, who states that during a period of twenty years he has made it his study to discover a plan to prevent ships being driven on a lee-shore, and he has at length discovered, in his opinion, a plan to surmount the danger. The principle which he has adopted to further his object he takes from the article known on board ship as the " ship's log," aa angular piece of wood used for ascertaining the speed at which a vessel is sailing. This is not, however, any new principle. In Falconer's Nautical Dictionary the same principle has been acted upon, and similar apparatus to this of Mr. Jones' is found in most of the works, English and foreign, on navigation. The peculiarity in the construction of Mr. Jones' floating anchor,- or, as he terms them, "waterkites," consists in the clfcse resemblance to this article of boyish amusement. He, however, has evidently improved upon the old floating anchors, and therefore deserves attention. The " waterkite" is made of wood, and approaches nearly to the shape of a kite with a tail attached, having a buoy at the end. The anchor itself has lour ropes fastened to it joining in one ; three at its lower end placed triangularly, and one at the upper end ; this keeps it perpendicular when placed in the water ; the lower end being heavy sinks to some distance. Two of these are used to hold a vessel, and are fastened on board near the gangway, and, running forward along the bends, keep her head to the waves and wind. To haul the floating kites on board, aline is fastened to the extreme upper part, which, on being hauled upon, brings the kite in a horizontal position, or flat with the surface of the water, and this, like a " log," takes the power of resistance from it. Effect of Transplanting. — The late Edward Bellamy, Esq., who had a most excellent garden at Starcross, in Devonshire, productive of every kind of fruit in abundance, and a most highly-favoured situation and soil, could never succeed in green gages. Mr. Bellamy, in a freak, we suppose, took up three of ; his trees, and conveyed them to his estate in Dorsetshire, a cold, bleak, chalky, mountainous district, exposed to north, north-west, and easterly winds. It is remarkable that these trees the second year, under this cold transportation, bore abundantly rthe finest fruit imaginable for three years, when they ceased bearing again, and grew like willows. Mr. Bellamy had them removed again, and again they bore abundantly ; ever after he planted out ten every year, keeping up a stock of forty, but always moving ten of them yearly in twins, and never after wanted for an abundant crop of green gages in a spot where scarcely any other fruit would grow. It is evidently the case that the check of the root produced fruit instead of wood. — Gardener's Chronicle. Startling, as well as Strange. — Virginia is divided by the Blue Ridge into two distinct sections, one occupied by planters, with slaves, and the other mostly by an intelligent white farming population. A Washington correspondent says, among the wonders of the day at Washington, is the novel and extraordinary phenomenon presented in the notice of a petition from Virginia, for the abolition of slavery in the district of Columbia! It is signed by ninety-three men in Lewis county, which is the northern part of the interior of the state ; a free-labouring, graingrowing district, which has been much filled up lately with the sturdy northern farmers, who have been emigrating thither from Pennsylvania. — Philadelphia Gazette. A letter from St. Peterborough states that the Emperor of Russia has resolved to allow several more Poles who took part in the revolution to return home : among them is Prince Oginski, who, for several year* past, has subsisted in France aa a bookbinder.