Extracts. IMPORTANT FROM CHINA.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 118, 17 July 1847, Page 3

Extracts. IMPORTANT FROM CHINA.

Intelligence from China to the middle or April came to liand )eslerday. Thereliad been a misunderstanding between the Chinese and the British, which had at one time a veiy serious expect It has long been a question in dispute whether British tesidents ut the Canton Factories had a right to enter the city or to walk beyond the boundaries of the space set apart for them. The Chinese commissioner Keying contended, that under the words of the treat) of peace, the British had no claim to do inoie, than reside at, not enter the cities of Canton, &.<*., and persisted in his refusal to allow any other inleiprctatiou to be put upon the words of the treat), whici are as follows : — His Majesty the Emperor of China agrees tint the British subjects, with their families, and establishments shall be allowed to reside, for the purpose of carrying on their mercantile pursuits, without [molestation or restraint, at the cities and towns of Canton, Atnoy, Foochowfoo, Ningpo, and Shanghai. Finding remonstiance was useless, Sir John Day.s and General D'Aquilar determined to proceed to Canton with all the available force, and practically enforce the treaty by entering the city. We do not find any return of the force employed, but it was but small, and was convened from Hongkong by three steamers. As the steamers passed the celebrated Bogue forts a few guns were fired j but a small detachment being landed the men at the forts immediately sunendeied, and the guns being spiked, the expedition proceeded up the river. On the 4th of April, the day after the arrival of the troops at C niton, Keying arrived, and after some delay, finding that Sir John Davis was resolute, a new treaty uas entered into, by which the British are expressly pel milled to lake exercise in the country without molestation; ate promised permission to lease some laud o,n the opposite side of the river, and at the expiration of two years are to have free and unrestricted access to Can*,

ton. This treaty being concluded, the troopi were withdrawn, and u congratulatory notification to the British residents having been issued by the Governor, the expedition returned to Hongkong in safety. Mr. Crawford, formerly Resident at Singapore, it was said would be the new Governor of Hongkong. Steam to Australia. — The importance of securing a sure and expeditious communication for our colonial dependencies with the mother country, cannot be exaggerated. We are therefore delighted to find that Lieutenant Waghorn, to whose genius, courage and enterprise, the nation is already so much indebted, has addressed a letter to Earl Grey, calling his lordship's attention to the plan for establishing a regular steam communication with our Australian colonies, which has now been for some time before the public. To that letter we would direct the especial attention of our readers. It is a document not only to be read, but to be studied, by all who have the interest of the country at heart. We will not here repeat (to our minds) incontrovertible arguments, which have been so well put by Lieut. Waghorn ; but we will add that the impoitance of establishing a regular steam communication with Australia is vastly increased by the discovery, since the plan was first proposed, of the great mineral riches of those colonies,— riches so vast that the tira^ cannot be far distant when the price of metallic ores in the Australian market, will produce a great effect on the metal markets of the world, and when it will be as important to our commercial interest to obtain speedy intelligence of the state of the Australian metal market, as of the state of the metal market in Cornwall. In a political point of view, also it is more important than ever, to open a speedy communication with our Australian colonies. A new constitution has just been given to New Zealand, and the success or failure of the great political experiment which is about to be tried in that- colony, must depend in a great measure upon the closeness with which the home authorities can watch its vi 01 kings. By the proposal of Lieut. "Waghorn, New Zealand will be brought as near to England as Jamaica was thirty years ago. Is it going to far to aflirm, that if steam communication hid been established between England and her Austaalian colonies six years ago, we should have been saved the los>s, liv pain, and the humiliation which the blunders of successive Governors of New Zealand have caused us, and that the colony, instead of being in its present miserable condition, would have been one of the most flourishing dependencies of the British crown 1 A sum of £100,000 per annum is all that is required by Lieut. Waghorn, fiom the government to carry out his plan ; so that even in an economical point of view, its immediate adoption is desirable. It will cost the nation more than jSo'oo,ooo to remedy the disasters which have occurred during the last six years in New Zealand— disasters the occurrence of which would have been prevented, had the home government possrssed the means of speedy communication with the colonial authorities. — Sun.