The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 417, 13 April 1850, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

Be jju t and fear not : let all the ends thou airai't at, be thy Country 1 ! , Thy God'i, and Truth*.

SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 1850.

Intelligence from India to so late a date as the 25th of December had been received at Melbourne ; it was not of much importance however. In the military world all was. com* paratively quiet. Colonel Lawrence, with a body of troops, was engaged in endeavouring to coerce the Fashawar people into complete subjection, and an abandonment of their thiev* ing propensities. Drs. Campbell and Hoqker, who had ventured into the territory of Sekim Rajah had been made prisoners, and the Rajah declared that he would not release them until he received an answer to some letter which he says he addressed two year* ago to the Governor-General. It was apprehended that the authorities at Nepaul encouraged him

to this insolent aggression ; but troops were on the move to bring him to his senses. The health of the Governor-General had so much improved, that it was thought he would give up his intended sea trip, and pass the Christmas at Mooltan. The barque Lady Sale, from Madras to Calcutta, had been wrecked near the mouth of the Calangpatam river. The crew and a part of the cargo were saved. Considerable interest was excited by the ! opening of a Steam Laundry at Calcutta. ' The object of the pioprieter, (next, of course to j making money for himself,) is "to save the clothes of the community from being thrashed to pieces by the native ' Dobies/ who have no ' idea of washing clothes but by beating the dirt j out of them, according to the practice which prevailed in the golden age of Munoo." Tigers were exceedingly troublesome in many of the localities, nightly carrying off the cattle ■ of the settlers, who, however, found some re- J quital in the exciting sport of successfully hunting these " terrors of the jungle." Sir Charles Napier was instituting searching inquiries into alleged abuses. Considerable anxiety was expressed for the completion of the project for connecting Aus- , tralia with India and England, by steam communication. It was stated, that if steamers were established, many officers, both of the military and civil service, would pass their leave of absence in these colonies, rather than in Europe. The Medical and Physical Society of Bombay was pursuing its scientific researches with increased zeal and intelligence. It reported interesting cases of the treatment of tetanus and hydrophobia by the inhalation of chloroform. A committee had been appointed to draw up a topographical report of the causes of disease at Bombay. The most recently received intelligence from China was chiefly devoted to copious details of the destruction of the piratical fleets under the direction of the notorious Chinese pirates Shap-ng-tsai and Chui-a-poo by British vessels. Captain Lockyer, of the steamer Medea, and Captain Hay of the Columbine, had especially distinguished themselves in this exploit. The Fury, the Phlegethon, and the Hastings had also done good service. Fifty-eight piratical vessels, mounting about twelve hundred guns, and with crews of about three thousand men, had been totally destroyed by fire. Seventeen hundred were killed, and more than a thousand escaped among the mangrove bushes, where, however, they would probably be huuted upland destroyed by the natives ; so that — as it was expressed by Su, the Imperial High Commissioner, in an official communication of grateful acknowledgment to Governor Bonham — " no sprout however small which might again flourish should be left."

More Wonders in "the Land of Gold." We frankly confess that two or three years ago we should have been disposed to regard a statement which has just come into our hands, and which we subjoin, either as the visionaryrepresentation of some morbidly excited imagination, or as one of those ingenious hoaxes which our " smart " American contemporaries occasionally elaborate, with more cleverness than honesty, to impose upon the gullibility of an over-credulous public. But the realization of many of the marvels announced respecting the wealth of California, has so habituated us to anticipate the development of new wonders in that wonderful country, that it has become the part of prudence to hesitate before we reject any statement on the subject,however much it may at first view seem like a page from the Arabian Nights, Entertainments. While therefore we cannot but be startled at the assertion that all the gold that has been gathered hitherto has been only the washings and comparatively trifling accidental depositions from mountains of the precious metal yet to be explored and possessed in the vastness of their incalculable treasures, we cannot feel ourselves warranted to treat the following statement, astonishing though it be, with contempt or absolute scepticism. The calm and rational tone in which it is told certainly gives it a claim to our attentive consideration, and to a suspension of our judgment until further investigation shall verify or confute its promises for the future.

■teatner of Ist December, They comiit, for the most part, of small peiceg of quartz rock, generally of a brownish tinge, and, in Home instances, preienting th appearance of a slight incipient decaf, or decomposition, of the rock formation. In all theae specimen* the gold points, or particles, are very slightly, if at all, visible to the naked eye. The microscope, howerer, reveali tbe gold more clearly. Betides theie pieces, which Mr. Wright has himself selected with great care, as the fairest average samples of the general appearance I of enormous and very numerous veins or quarries of 1 quartz, there is also one larger fragment of the aame | rock, weighing, \re should suppoie, some ten or twelre pounds, from all parts of which the gold protrudes plainly, in a state almost pure. This single fragment of qimrtz, which Mr. Wright by no means regards a* an average sample of the quarries, but which he pronounces to be the richest rock • pecimen he has teeu, it found, by the most careful specific gravity test at applied to it by Mr. Wright, it contains pure gold to the amount of about six hundred dollar*. This piece I of rock, we understand from Mr. Wright, is destined to be laid (as » Memorial from the Cahfornian mountains, we suppose) upon the table of the speaker of the house of representatives. Its appeal, we think, will be hreJed. But the interest or importance attaching to this or to any other single or insolated fragment specimen, however peculiar and curious and rich in itself, is very slight and even inconsiderable, in comparison to that which belongs to the more numerous fragments at quartz, in which very little gold, or none, can be discerned by the naked eye, and which have been cautiously selected by Mr. Wright on the spot as the fairest average specimens of whole veins and quarries, said to owerp visibly in sinuous and bioken lines through tbe whole western slope of the Sierra Nevada, aud to form Vitst masses of mountain rock large enough aud uumerous enough to freight many times over all the navies and commercial marine of the world The astonishing results brought out by these inwstigntions is, that in a particular and very extensive" vein four pounds of this rock yielded upon the average eleven dollars worth of pure gold, valued at sixteen dollars to the ounce. That is to say tbe yield of gold fiom tlie-e average sample** of tbe rock in this particular vein is ueariy three dollars for each pound of quarti. Mr. Wright exhibited to u» two small masses of gold, each about the size and shape of a large tnus* Vet bal, and both presenting the granulated appearattre of gold extracted and collected by the aid of quicksilver. One of these contain abont twelve dollars ef pure gold, and is the largest yield that has been obtained from four pounds of the rock from the vein in question* The other contaius about ten dollars, and is the smallest yield which has bsen obtained frosn any of the experimen s upon the rock of this vein* We understand that the tests applied have been sometimes the operation of quicksilver, and sometimes the test of the comparative specific gravity of the purs quaitz and the gold-bearing quartz. The samples of the rock which Mr. Wright lias tested have been taken from many different veins. In no sample tested has the yield been less than one dollar to the pound of quartz. The average yield of the differ* n f veins has been, as determined by the samples, from one dollar and a half to two dollars to the pound of rock. A single fact will show tbe unheard-of and astonishing cha-acter of the results which have been thus arrived at. Mr. Wright informs us that he has recently conversed with an intelligent gentlemen, now in this country, who has been long conversant, in tha capacity of an overseer, with mining operations, as curried on in the quartz veins of Georgia, From this source Mr. Wright learus that a 15 -horse steam power working twelve stamps, will stamp about a thousand bushels of quartz rock in a day, each bushel of quarts weighing about eighty pounds. If 25 cents' worth of gold is yielded from each bushel of eighty pouuds, th© business is considered a good one in Georgia. If the yield be 50 cents to the bushel, the profit is large. Now the yield ot the lock which Mr. Wright has collected, and tested, instead of being a quarter of a dollar, or half a dollar to the seventy five pounds, is in one great vein nearly three dollars to one pound ! Abate this, in view of possible or prooable mistake, or in view of the superior yield of a single richer vein, to an average of two dollars, or of one dollar, or of half a dollar, to the pound, and the result still remains, la every point of view, almost equally unexampled and momentous. In conclusion, we have only to add that we put forth such statement* as these under a full sense of our own responsibility to the public. We aver nothing of. our own knowledge, for to us this information is as new and as surprising as we nre persuaded that it will be to moat of our readers, both here and in the Atlantic states: We would say nothmg inconsiderately to I aggravate the gold mania anywhere. It has already produced in the gold region of California, and on the routes to it, terrible scenes of individual suffering, d lease and death—scenes before which the boldest spirit may wall quail, and from which the hardiest frame may well shrink away. But our information comes to us at first hand, from sources of unquestion* able integrity and intelligence, and appears to be the result of very thorough and deliberate investigation. In its general outlines it has had the full sanction of the most eminent minds among us. It apprises u« of a state of facts of the highest importance to California, to the mining interest everywhere, and, in a word, to the whole commercial and financial world. If these facts turn Out to have been accurately investigated, and accurately stated, it seems to us that neither iv the wet diggings nor yet in the dry diggings, are the future mining operations of this state to go on; but, on tke contrary, m those primeval masses of rook in which it still lies embedded and inexhaustible, of which all the gold in all its forms, scattered through tbe ravines and bars of the rivers, it on j the inconsiderable chance washings or abrasions, and which the hand even of th* most adventurous and intrepid uever, among us, Hit yet sctrcely touched. Such information, so derived, and so vouched fur, we have deemed it our duty to Uy before the public without delay. Should what is here predicted — or a tithe of it*— come to pass, the introduction of such enormous quantities of a metal which must then cease to be precious, cannot fail to effect revolutions in the ordinary affairs of the world the extent and ultimate operation of which it would now he the height of presumption to attempt to calculate, but the general momentousness of which must already be obvious to the politician, the economist, the financier, the philosopher, and the moralist. At the same time, no thoughtful and benevolent mau can | altogether restrain his mind from some speculation as to their probable bearing on the social condition and happiness of the human family at large* Arguing from the measure \of experience accumulated up to the present, we confess, for our own parti we are anything rath'erihan sanguine in our anticipations on tb>'fubjßct. Ifc u lftrWr- delilwrite conviction

that, — balancing one result against another — the discovery of Californian gold has hitherto rather augmented than diminished the sum of human suffering ;-— in other words, that it has produced evil which greatly outweighs any good that may have accrued from it. We ask the intelligent reader, before he discards this view as untenable or prejudiced, to compare in his own judgment the undeniable facts which from time to time have appeared in our columns. We can truly affirm that we have selected those facts in a spirit of honest impartiality ; for, while it would have been incompatible with our sense of responsibility to the public to suppress a broad and unequivocal declaration of our own conclusions in a matter of such paramount importance, it has been our uniform endeavour to supply our readers with abundant materials to test for themselves the justice and worth of those conclusions. To come back for a moment however, to a matter more immediately practical, — we find in the Sydney Herald of the 7th instant, the following statement, the interest of which need not be pointed out to our comujercjial readers : — " The seizure* of British goods made by the United States Customs' officers, in California, have been numerous, and of considerable value. What amouut has been forfeited we hsve not been able to ascertain } buf it is certain that at least £20,000 was realized by the •ale of forfeited goods from Sydney alone, in the months of October} November, and December last. The principal articles seized have been beer and spirits. By the United States, law the importation of beer in casks containing lest than forty galloni, or if in bottle* J in packages of less than six dozen, is forbidden under penalty of forfeiture of the goods, and the ship in which they are imported. Brandy can only be imported in casks containing not leas than fifteen gallons, and other spiriti in oaiks containing not leas than ninety gallons, under the sime penalties. We h*ve heard of one ship that had a thnuiand cues, each containing one dozen botles of brandy, seizsdand the captain was told lie ought to be very thankful hii shid w«i not also forfeited. Thelawi are undoubtedly very«evere, but they were well known, and have been in existence for many years, and persons shipping to a foreign country ought to make themselves acquainted with the laws of that country. So long as May las', when we found that • large trade was springing up between Sydney and California, we publMied (see Herald, 4ih May,) the American Tariff Act, and also an abstract of the United States' Customs' Regulations, containing these very provisions, the infraction of which ban cauaed biich serious losses. In August, Mr. Williams' the United Slates' Consul, handed to us for publication a circular from General Smith, the commanding officer in California, stilting that vessels viMttag that country must count upon the '• strictest construction of the law both as regards cargoes and toss els." Under these , circumstaucef, it appears to us that j erioiu have negligently, and in some inrtiinpes wilfully' placed their goods and ships in peril, and that tb» y have no light t complain of the result. We are iu formed that nearly nil the spirit* and beer (and the quuutity is large) ■hipped from Sydney for California within the last ■ix months hai been shipped without any reference to (be regulations." In the papers lately received there are numerous articles respecting California, which, although not of so recent date as some of the intelligence which we have already published, are yet 'instructive as (illustrating the general condition and prospects of the country and its immigrants. Should there be no fresh arrival* to demand precedence, we shall in our next copy several of the most interesting of these.

Recent Deaths of Notable Persons. — Our summaries under this heading continue to receive ample accessions upon each arrival of news. In the papers last come to hand, we find the following in the obituary lists : — at London, of apoplexy, in his 77th year, Sir Charles Forbes, Bart., one of the most eminent merchants of the East, whose name, we are assured will long be remembered at home, as well as in India, " not only for his honest zeal foi the public good, but for his private worth and noble munificence ": — in his 72nd year, Thomas Dick, L.L.D., author of " The Christian Philosopher," « The Philosophy of Religion," " The Philosophy of a Future State," and numerous t other works, which although very verbose often, superficial in their science, and disfigured by some of the worst faults of mere " book-making," had the greatly redeeming quality of uniform and reverential deference to the teachings of Revelation ; we regret to learn that an author so industrious, and, on the whole, so useful, died in circumstances little laised above positive destitution : — William Etty, R. A., perhaps the richest and purest colorist in the British school of painting ; he was born at York in 1787, where his father was a miller ; William was designed to be a printer, and it was not until his apprenticeship had nearly expired that he devoted himself to the art of which he Jias long been so bright an ornament : — at Boston, where he had fixed his residence for two or three,y ears previously, Charles E. Horn, the musician, whose graceful melodies are familiar to all the lovers of English song : — in Hobart "town, of brain fever, aged only 32, James Eccleston, Esq., Rector of the High School, to which office, it will be remembered, he was appointed in place of Mr. Froude, whose semi-infidel work " The Nemesis of Faith," excluded him from it ; Mr. Eccleston was one of the eminent amongst the numerous able alumni of Trinity College, Dublin, and his early death cannot but be regarded as a calamity to a colony the educational progress of which he was so well qualified to advance :— Samuel Stocks, jun., Esq., a well known and generally respected merchant of i^dej^ide, and the first Managing Director of the Burra Mining Company -.—Captain Ross, if alter Attendant at the fart of Bombay :~Mr.

Burge, Q. C, known to Colonial readers as having at one time enjoyed extensive practice hefore the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on Colonial matters ; formerly agent for Jamaica, and more recently a Commissioner in Bankiuptcy : — Mr. Lyell, of Kinordy, father of the celebrated geologist, Sir Charles, who inherits from him considerable estates ; the deceased was himself a zealous naturalist, particularly in the field of botany, and also cultivated literary tastes, having beei one of the many translators of Dante : — Dr. French, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge : — Henry Willoughby, Esq., brother to Lord Middleton, and formerly for many years member of Parliament for Newark : — Lady Jane Macxoughin, sister of the Earl of Essex : — M. Rosas, the curious collector of the Revolutionary Museum at Lyons, which comprises a singular history of that city from 1789 to 1830, including a complete collection of all the medals, pamphlets, journals, posting bills, &c, which that stormy period produced : — Dudley Fereimy, Esq., of Ettinghall Park, County of Stafford, formerly High Sheriff of Van Diemen's Land ; he has bequeathed £20,000 to Magdalen College, for the purpose of founding four fellowships to be called by his name ; a preference to be given primarily to the donor's kindred, and afterwards to natives of Staffordshire.

In a Supplement to this day's New Zealander we publish (as promised in our last) a complete and accurate Report of the valuable Introductory Lecture delivered by the AttorneyGeneral in the Hall of our Mechanics 1 Institute on Monday evening last. We davote the remaining portion of the Supplement to matter of a kindred character, extracted from the recently arrived papers. The outline of Professor Wilson's Introductory Address at the opening of the current session of the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution will especially repay perusal. It is worthy in every respect of " the old man eloquent," the renouned " Christopher North" of Blockwood.

Namei. Sign of House. Streets, &c. Dennett, William Duke of Marlborough Queen-street Dignan, Patrick Clanrlcarde Hotel Lower Albert-streel Foley, Edward Sir George Grey Inn Otahuhu Seorße, Edward Royal Hotel Onohunga (fardington, Henry Exchange Hotel Shortland street rlunt, Richard J. Maionic Hotel Princes-Street foy, Alfred C. Mason* Home Official Bay rolmson, Thomas Windsor Castle Parnell Lery, Solomon H. Victoria Hotel Fort-street [ioehead, James Union Hotel Queen-street Vt'Garvey, Wm. Trafalgar Inn Queen-street \athan, Henry Russell Wine Vaulti Shortland-street Norman, Samuel New Leith Inn Onehunga Partington, George Queen* Arms Inn Queen-street Rogeri, W. L. Greyhound Queen-street Robertson, Peter Blue Bell Queen-itreet Sheehan, David Crown and Anchor West Queen-itroet Smith, Geoige Half-way House Epsom Hoiey, Samuel T. Auckland Hotel Queen-street rhompson, Robert Osprey Inn High street Punier, B. E. The Royal Georgo Remuera Pye, William Prince Albert Inn Epsom fercoe, Bryant Caledonia Hotel Fort-street NEW APPLICANTS. 3acon William, Odd Fellowi' Arms Chancery-street Jellingham, Wm. Canterbury Inn Wyndham-street Hoop, John Royal Arch Hotel Queen street telly, Edward Waterloo Hotel Onehunga Vlatthcwi, James The Gun Queen-street Partington, Edwd. White Hart Hotel Queen-street Putty, William London Tavern Shortland-street Webb, Joseph' Mount Eden Inn Mount Eden

The following is the List of Applications for Publicans' Licenses which will come before the Bench of Magistrates on Tuesday next. On comparing it with the list of last year we find the fact — gratifying to the friends of morality and good order — that there are nine fewer applicants than in 1849. Of the total number twenty -three are for houses already in the trade, and eight for newly proposed establishments.