NEW ZEALAND FLAX.

New Zealander, Volume 2, Issue 73, 24 October 1846, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND FLAX.

We extract the following from the European Times relative to European flax grown in New Zealand, and are happy to perceive that a spirited experiment lias turned out successful. There is no question, but that New Zealand is admirably suited to the growth of this valuable aiticle, for which we are now paying vast sums to foreign states. This experiment is in the right direction and will no doubt in the end be turned to better account than the very precarious shipment of spars, gum and other indigenous articles, which are by no means appreciated in the home market at present. There aie two spots in New Zealand which will always be worth attention, viz., the surface of the ocean, and the surface of the land ; these will always be a mine of mines of wealth to every one who gives attention to them— far superior to mines of a more questionable nature. Mi. Joshua Wordsworth, of the firm of Messrs Taylor Wordsworth and Co., machine makers Leeds, has received a sample of Anglo-New Zealand flax, grown at Mangaraka, New Plymouth, New Zealand, from European seed as an experiment, by Mr. Josiah Flight, late of Bridport, Doisetshirc. Its value is estimated at £40 to £45 per ton ; and it h thought it wonld be mfelior to none, if water rated instead ot dew rated. Australian Oct. 1.

The following paragraph, under the bead of South Australia, is extracted from the Colonial Gazette, March 26th :— " The new Governor had appointed Mr. Godfrey John Thomas as his Private Secretary, and is said to have begun his work well. The South Australian Gazette specially praises the annoucement of a resolution to put the colonial officers in their right places, and to make them do their proper work :—: — "The intimation that for the future all communications which are not of strictly private character, must be made through the Colonial Secretary, and that no official communication whatever will be received by the Piivate Secretary, is a most proper one, and, at the same time, rather significant commentary on the mode in which the public business of the Colony was conducted by bis predecessor. Indeed, it is well known that Captain Grey — alone and undivided — was not merely the Governor, the Executive and Legislative Councils, the Colonial Secretary, the Advocate General, the Collector of Customs, but that he filled, more or less, all the other offices of his Government. He would have been Surveyor General too, had Capt. Frome permitted him, and might, perhaps, have looked after Capt. Sturt in the desert, had that been possible. As it was, his direct interference in every depattment was constant, and it is to the unremittiug and commendable vigilance he personally exercised that Major Rote is indebted for the order and efficiency , w hich now pievails in the public offices.'*

Naval Intelligence. *-H. M. Sloop Haxard arrived at Penang on the 18th April from Borneo, in search of the Admiral, insurrection having broken out at Sarawick (Borneo). The Rajah the British ally, had blown Jiiinself and family up, dreading the Sultan. Mr. Brookes, besieged by\he Sultan, shut himself up in his fort. H. C. steamer Phlegethon has gone to his assistance from Singapore. Kear Admiral Sir Thomas Cochran, C. 8., at Madras, proceeds to the Straits immediately. H. M. steamer Spiteful ordered to join his Excellency at Penang. H. M. 1 brig Cruzier returns from Madras to Moul jnein to relieve the SpHtful,— Calcutta Star, Maj 4,

TRIBUTARY VERSES TO THE MEMORY OF D. COATES, Esq., For 27 Years Lay Secretary to the C. M. Society, who died April 23, 1846. (Composed in New Zealand on receiving intelligence there of his death). Lyre of my youth— my pleasure once and pride, And still the solace of my vacant hours, Wlien ills surroiuid me down life* ebbing tideWhen thorns I gather where 1 hoped for flowers; Once more I raise thee in my hands— once more Invoke thy aid, and all the Muse can lend, To sound ray sorrows on this Heathen shore, And tell its Natives how they lost a friend. Their friend the boldest, and the best was he,— Foes great and little were alike to him; And fi iends whom int'rest friends were led to be He still could tell from what they wished to seem !— • Ay j clear his head was, and his heart how warm I — There glowed a sympathy for all — for each : 'T was his to strengthen, as 't was his to charm The young to gloiy, and the path to teach. But, who lived stranger to his worth, and who — Of all his brethren — hath no tear to shed 1 Ah! crowds do mourn! and crowds he never knew Weep o'er the Mem'ry oi the honoured dead! Most cruel death I— so partial to the bad ! Weie none of all their hosts more iit for thee, That thou must reave us of the best we had ?— Yet, why complain, since it was Heaven's decree. Say, why complain ? — alas ! ask Nature why, | And she will point thee to the field of Death, Where, though the spuit have gone up on high, She still must grieve for what lies cold beneath. Then— be it mine, since he hath gone, to trace, With equal zeal, the path of life lie troa ;— Fight lurd for Truth, but light through strength of grace ;—; — Die to the world betimes, and live to God, — That, when it comes the hour, as come it must, Destined to sever eaith and me apait, My soul with joy may leave its lifelebs dust, And find that Heaven, dear Coates, where now thou art. Farewell till then:— a few shoit summers more, And stormy winters, on the shoies of Time, Will bring the vessel that 's to watt us o'er Death's deep dark waters to thy halcyon clime. A SOJOURNER.

Intestacy. —Seldom have we to lecord an instance of so latge an estate, amounting to nearly £200,000, being left, where an individual has not taken the precaution to make a will, as that of the late Mr. Thomas Baldwin, who recent!)' died at Birmingham, possessed of a personal estate alone which has been valued foi stamp duty at little short of £10,000, and hab been just administered to under that amount by Mr. William Baldwin, a cousin of the deceased, and one of his nearest relations. The deceased was a bachelor. The Government in this case realises a large sum both by stamp and legacy duty, as the latter is termed, the administration stamp on the grant being £3,600, and the duty in addition thereto, which is to be paid at the Legacy Office by the relations, who are entitled in distribution, being upwards of making altogether nearly £12,000, in duty.— Post. President Polk "Prisoner of War" to England.-— lt is a curious fact that the President of the United States, the warlike and pugnacious Polk, was a prisoner of war in the year 1812 to the "Brilisheis." Mr. Polk was then a subaltern in the United States' army, and was captured on the ice near Detroit, by a party of the 4lst regt., of Foot, under the command of Captain Bullock. General Cass, the bellicose military orator in the American legislature, also fell by the fortune of war into the hands of the British forces in the same year,