CALIFORNIA.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 407, 9 March 1850, Page 2

CALIFORNIA.

We have "been favoured with the loan of a few Californian papers of dates from the 24th November to the 6th of December inclusive. As these are the latest journals actually published on the spot which have come into our hands, we condense, or extract, the principal items of information contained in them. If we are not mistaken, some of these will be found as interesting and instructive as many of those to which we have on former occasions called attention. The Placer Times (Sacramento City) of November 24, commences a proposed series of articles on mining and the mines by one which is headed" Wintering in the Mines." In this it is stated — " There are miners at the present time in this city who are anxiously waiting for an opportunity to get provisions high up on the Yuba and Feather rivers ; while, at the same, we learn from gentlemen direct from those streams that it requires man's greatest effort to ' enable him to get along without any incumhrance, so swollen are the streams and in such condition <;he roads. Among those from that quarter whom we have conveised with, there is hut one opinion, and that is, that there is not half enough provision there to supply the people during tVe winter, and that if the great body of the miners continue to entertain the opinion that opportunities will yet offer for them to supply themselves with provision, there must be an unparalleled 'amount of suffering before the rainy season is over, because after a time it will be impossible for them to retreat. Many are now in the mines with a supply of provisions for two or three weeks, who intend, at the expiration of that time, to return to the settlements, and remain during the winter. * * * We learn from those direct from the diggings of the North Fork, that the roads are altogether impassable for teams, and for packing, it requires all the vigilance of the drivers to keep the animals on ! their feet. To get up and down the high hills j which are always found in close proximity to i the streams, it is altogether impossible for | four-legged animals to ' propel' at all. In the Southern mines, the same unfortunate state of things exists. The deduction to be drawn from all the information we have at present, is i that few miners are making more than their daily bread, and thcyt, aa a mattci. uf COUrse, new beginners will form unfavourable opinions of mining, before they have fairly applied the spade to the earth." After some further statements df a similar bearing, it is added, — " The effect ! the state of things we have briefly alluded to above will have upon flour and pork — the two most important articles for the miner—is simply this : while the former may maintain its present standard in price, the latter will come down; because, if the miners winter in the cities and towns, there will be little or no consumption of pork, as every one knows it is used in very limited quantities both here and in San Francisco. And as to flour, many vessels have already been despatched down the coast for the article, and we hay* no doubt that within three months the market will be abundantly supplied." We shall give in connexion with the foregoing extracts the following, which the Pacific News of December 1. gives as " Latest News from Stockton and the Mines ;" " The roads have been rendered absolutely impassable for the last two weeks from Stackton to the mines, in consequence of the continued rains. The communication is now open again, and the first train of mules went up to the ' diggins 1 on Wednesday. Business, which has been very dull at Stockton for the past ten days, is now brisk, aad every article of food commands the highest price. Lumber also is very scarce, and selling as high as 800 and 1000 dollars per thousand feet. Common ' packing boxes have been broken up, and sold at 80 cts. per superficial foot. Traders are j I coming in from all directions to purchase goods, and every mule in the town has been i hired to take provisions to the mines at 50 cts. per Ib. Every kind of food is selling at the diggings for one dollar per Ib., and many of the miners have come in, anticipating a I scarcity of provisions." I The high price of timber as here mentioned no doubt became yet higher, if, according to the report noticed in our last, there has since been | a destructive conflagration at Stockton. [ Political feeling had already laid strong hold on many minds. There had been much party spirit manifested respecting the elections to Congress. The citizens of the Sacramento j 1 district had been agitating for a representation , proportionate to their position and numerical strength.... A question respecting the rights of Church property was exciting considerable I attention. We gather from the articles on the subject that a number of American citizens had taken possession of certain, lands connected with the " Mission of Dq]qx&," over which the

Priest claimed to have entire control. Thai case was to be brought before the law courts! Meanwhile, at a public meeting, it was! declared that " the Padre had no right whatever! to lease or sell those lands ;" that all American citizens who had settled on them deserved the thanks of the public ; and—" That we form ourselves into a club for our mutual protect tion, in the prosecution of our rights as settlers on the public domain, and we pledge our lives and fortunes in defence of the same." An official notification, dated December 6th, had been issued by Mr. Collier, Collector of Customs at San 'Francisco, declaring that the law would be strictly enforced which prohibits the importation of any distilled spirits, (excepting arrack, and sweet cordials), in vessels of less capacity than ninety gallons. The penalty is forfeiture, not only of the spirit, but also of the ship in which it is imported. A special exemption however is made as relates to Brandy, which may be imported in casks of a capacity of fifteen gallons. Several robberies had occurred at San Francisco. The Pacific News says, " Robberies are getting so frequent of late, that we feaK j the people will adopt the severe custom, formerly so successful here in deterring from crime, of hanging for stealing." An article extracted from the Boston Journal of Oct. Ist, represents the quantity of lumber exported from the Atlantic States to California during the year as little short of forty million feet, and observes, " during the last ten or twelve weeks, several vessels have cleared at this and other northern ports for Bangor, to load lumber for California, and we hear of several vessels being fitted out at those ports with like cargoes." This however, need not discourage the exporters of timber from this colony. There can be no reasonable doubt that a remunerative market will be found for all ; and now that New Zealand timber is becoming better known, it commands a decided preference. An Ordinance of the San Francisco City Council had directed that gambling houses should be closed on the Sabbath ; some o£ them were, however, kept open in spite of this. i We also notice an announcement of public i concerts on the Sunday evenings. I A call for a public meeting to provide for destitute persons who had already, or who might afterwards arrive, had received the sig- \ natures of several hundred of the principal in- ! habitants. The meeting was fixed for the 7th [of December. Destitution sounds strangely in connection with the land of gold ; and yet it is certain that not a few have died there in squalid want. But a few weeks before (Oct. 4) the Pacific News had powerfully urged upon the prosper* ous the duty of attending to the sufferings of the wretched around them, pleading thus *.—. — " Are we not too deeply absorbed in self to hear the groans or listen to the complaints of our suffering brethren? Among the thousands who visit our shores in ptarsuit of golden treasures, hundreds are prostrated by disease, and their slender means exhausted, long before returning health enables them to provide for: themselves ; and there are hundreds more who live upon the cold ground and yield up their lives to the disease and destitution that has overtaken them. Life to them is a ?nockery t and human sympathy a shadow. In our prosperity we forget them, and we realize nott their presence amongst us." We trust that — for the sake not only of the sick and needy [ themselves, but of the charactel of our common humanity, — the deep reproach of allowing hundreds to perish of privation and neglect in ihe midst of heaps of gold, has ere now been rumoved at least from San Francisco. Amongst the minor paragraphs of San Francisco news> we find that a lump of gold weighing thirty-two ounces had just been shown ; and that a curious specimen weighing 250 dollars had been sold for nine hundred dollars : — the careless manner in which gunpowder was kept in the centre of the city, and the practice of leaving dead mules to decay in the public streets were complained of : — a rich snuff box, valued at 800 dollars, was to be presented by the members of the Convention which framed the State Constitution, to General Riley, on the 13th of January, being the day on which he would resign his seals of offiee'to his successor. Its outside was composed of natural specimens of virgin gold, having the appearance of one solid mass of rough metal as it was taken from the mines, while the inside was brightly burnished. The Pacific News says, the whole is peculiarly appropriate to the General, — " if somewhat rough outside, possessing great intrinsic value, and smooth and polished within :" — the style of building in the city was improving, all the new erections in Portsmouth square being large and substantial, and intended to be finished in an ornamental manner ; the Miner's Bank is described as " a noble structure."

We are informed that Alexander White, (the sailor on whom Captain Winter, of the Eagle, committed the brutal assault of which an account appeared in our last) is progressing favourably, and may, not improbably, ultimately recover ; but, as he is still wholly unable to attend in the Polic Court, the case stands over for the present, Winter having been remanded by the Resident M^gisfrato who, homer, took

White's information in the Military Hospital where he lies. Yesterday, Captain Winter was brought up to answer the second charge against him, for assaulting Mr. John Robertson, the supercargo of the vessel. Mr. Robertson detailed the circumstances of the quarrel between the prisoner and Mrs. Winter, in which, according to his deposition, he interfered for the protection of the woman only when her husband, after striking her with his hands several times, took up a large knife. He states that Winter then attacked him with outrageous violence, and, besides beating him, tried to stab him with a carving-fork across the table. After examination of this witness, Mr. Beckham postponed the further hearing of the case in order that additional evidence may be produced.