The New-Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 533, 24 May 1851, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

Be just nnd fear not : Let all the ends thou aims't at, bo thy Country s, Thy God's, and Truth's.

SATURDAY, MAY 24, 1851.

Tins day, being the Anniversary of Her Majesty's Birth-day, will be celebrated with the usual honours, and will awaken anew, we doubt not, in the breasts of her loyal subjects, those emotions of dutiful affection which are deeply felt here, as well as at home, towards as deservedly popular a Sovereign as ever sat on the British Throne. A Government Gazette, issued on Wednesday, contains a direction by the Lieutenant - Governor that the day shall be observed as a holiday at the public offices:— also an announcement that, at two o'clock, immediately after the parade of the troops in Albert Barracks, his Excellency will hold a Levee at the Council Chamber. The Native Feast, to which we have already called attention, will take place at about half-past two o'clock, in Mr. Robertsons Rope walk, Mechanics' bay. In addition to the announcements connected with the Birth-day celebration, the Gazette contains notifications of the appointment of W. Halse, Esq., to be Commissioner of Crown Lands for the District of New Plymouth ; and of the Rev. Horatio G-roube, of New Plymouth, to be a Deputy-Registrar of Births, Marriages, and Deaths,

The Sarah, sixteen days from Newcastle, arrived at Kawau on Thursday. She has brought no mail, but by the kindness of W. S. Grahame, Esq., we have a few New South Wales papers to the 3rd inst. There was no later English news at Sydney ; there is a paragraph, however, extracted from the Daily News of Dec. 20, in which it is announced, apparently on authority, that a new Company of Merchants, of high character, had been formed for the purpose of establishing steam communication with India, China, and the Australian colonies ; and that powerful vessels would be placed on the greater portion of the line at a very early period. The Session of the Legislative Council terminated on the 2nd of May. As a matter of form, the Council was prorogued to the first of July, but the Governor in his Prorogation speech stated that it was not probable that he should call it together again. His Excellency took occasion to pronounce a high eulogy on the new colony of Victoria, and to express his trust that the two colonies, though politically separated, would always maintain a spirit of mutual good will, and co-operate for their reciprocal advantage in inter-colonial matters Five Bills were passed during this special Session, viz.— l. The Victoria Public Officers Jurisdiction Bill ; 2, The City Rates Bill ; 3. The Victoria Electoral Bill j 4. The New South Wales Electoral Bill ; and 5. The Victoria Revenue aNd other Laws Continuation Bill. A great Meeting of the Australian Anti-

Transportation League was held on the 29th of April, in the Congregational Church, Pittstreet, (Dr. Ross's). On the 2nd of May, the Members of the Sydney branch of the League elected their first Council, fifteen in number. According to the Market Report, in the Herald of the 3rd. Wheat was rather declining in price ; the highest given during the week had been 7s. 10d.; the lowest, 6s. 6d. The best fine flour was firm at £20 per ton ; seconds, £18. It was computed that ai soon as a few lots of imported flour were cleared off, prices would advance considerably. Sugar, Coffee, and Tobacco all continued high. Potatoes were still a glut in the market. An agitation which, in its own way, excited considerable interest, was in progress to obtain a repeal of the duty on the manufacture of paper. Public Meetings in promotion of the object had been held in London, Manchester, and other large towns. There is news of importance from France. The Ministry had, in a body, resigned their offices. This is said to have arisen out of the hostility of the Presidlnt towards General Changernier, and the favourable feeling towards the General manifested by the Assembly. The President found great difficulty in constructing a new Cabinet, M. Odillon Barrot having refused to accept office. After a week's suspense, a Ministry was officially announced, with M. Drouyn de Jhuys for Foreign Affairs, and General Reynard dcs Jeau de Augley for the War Office. A decree had been issued revoking the arrangement by which the National Guards and the troops of the First Division were united under one command. The effect of this was to abolish the post heretofore held by General Ciiangarnier. General Perriot was to take the command of the National Guards, and General Baraguay d'HiLUERs that of the First Division. A motion in the Assembly, the exact nature of which is not stated, but which involved some expression of opinion with regard to these events, had been carried against the active opposition of the Ministry by a majority of 350 to 250. Considering the excitable state of France, fuller and later intelligence will be looked for with much interest.

We have received a number of San Francisco and Sacramento papers, one of the former being so recent as the 18th of March. They do not add much to the intelligence which vre have already published ; we, however in accordance with our habit of keeping our readers as fully informed as our opportunities permit, (respecting the condition and prospects of California,) collect from them such additional particulars as may be in any degree interesting. The principal political occurrence was the adjournment of the Senatorial Convention at San Jose, without its being able to fix upon a Senator to represent the State in Congress. After working at, the question day after day, and dragging the slow length of its proceedings through one hundred and forty ballottings, the " Convention of the Houses " ended its unprofitable labours on the 27th of February, by adjourning until January next, leaving California to remain in the mean time unrepresented in the upper branch of Congress. The conclusion of the report is rather characteristic : " The President announced that the Convention was finally dissolved, and the members took their hats, and quietly left the chamber." The Sacramento papers give very copious details of the murder of Mr. Myers, and the hanging of the murderer Rowe by the " sovereign people j" but they add nothing material as to the facts briefly stated in our last. In a pompous leader headed " The Majesty of the American Mind," the Transcript expatiates with the "profoundest admiration" on the quietness with which the crowd dispersed after •'the scene at the gallows,"— feeling that in executing Lynch law " they had done their duty, and that when it was necessary they would do it again." St. Patrick's day had been celebrated with due honours by the Irish residents in San Francisco. There is still little news from the gold districts. Near Nevada City in Grass Valley, three companies of miners were operating, it was said successfully, with quartz crushing machinery, and ten or twelve machines more were expected immediately. Several hundred men were engaged at the work, at wages of from three to five dollars per day. The quartz in many places was partially decomposed so as to be easily crushed.... At ten new mines on the Klamath River the average earnings of the miners were said to amount to about thirty-five dollars per day, though it was admitted that many did not make half that sum. The Courier has a story about a specimen found there which weighed twenty-eight ounces of pu c gold of the finest quality. Agricultural operations, — which a few had, from the commencement, been sagacious enough to regard as a more certain though less brilliant mode of obtaining a livelihood even, in California than gold hunting— seemed to be engaging increased attention. The following article which we copy from the Sacramento Transcript of the sth March, affords some interesting statements on this subject : The fortunes that hare bsen realized by those who preferred the tilling of the soil, rather than the digging and working it foe the gold which w»s discrimnible, have induced vast number* to locate on Ranchoi, and

turn their attention to the cultivation of the eatth. Although their profit! cannot he anyihin«f like proportionate to the profit* of those who were in market in 1849 and 1800, yet that they will realize handsome returns for ilwir labour and time, is entirely certain. . , We hear almost daily of the extensive operations of farmers in different localities— thousands of acres of land are being plouuhed— and hundreds of bushels of seeds beini? deposited. Our climate is so nearly tropical, that almost every variety of vegetable can be grown, almost every ipecies of grain produced. In a recent article on the subject, the State Journal notices the farm of John Barker, E«q., near the banks of Cayote Creek, in the San Jose Valley, and denominate* it a " model farm, " and Mr. 8., a "model farmer." The farm contains one huudred acres of the finest arable land, the greater portion of which is now uniler cultivation, or in process of bfins broken up, «nd presents a most beautiful view. It is indeed refreshiig to look out on well-tilled fields, and maik the results of industry and energy. The barley on this farm is alrf ady ten inches ii heighr, and new potatoes, peas and other garden vesetables in a forward slate of growth. Friends in the older States, just think of new potaoes in February! The Journal gives a mo.^t satisfactory account of this farm, which we deem highly interesting :— " Mr. 8., has thirty-five ucres of barley that will he ready to haivest in the month of May, which will yifld at lea't 75 bushels to the acre, A bushel of barley will weigh filty pounds, and the whole quantity will be 131,250 pounds, which, «t the proent value of tbataiticle of eleven cents a pound, will ntnount, in round numbeis, to fouilccn thousand five hundied dollars! And this too without any other e\pm^e than that for the labor of harvesting it. The bar'ey is self-towed, being that portion of the ripe seed which fell to the ground during the hai vesting of lost year, and there has heen no labour expended in cultiva'ion. Beside^ the harley, there aie 40 acres planted with potatoes. T:.is vegetable will produce at least 250 bushels to ths acre, winch at 60 pounds to the bushel, will amount to 600,000 pounds! Now, guppoiicgHhis article next lall brings only half ita present price— 'ay five cents per pound— we have for these foity acres of potatoes thirty thousand dollars ! Then there are three ac res of omojia, which will | roduce three hundred bushels to the acre ; here we have nine hundred bushels, which at an average weight of sixty pounds to the bmhel. will make 54,000 pound . We will put the value of this vegetable next fall at hnlf its present price, which have b?en forty cents on nn average, and we hove for those three acres of onions, ten thousand eight hundred dollars ! Mr. Barker has also 20,000 cabbages, which will be worth at least twenty-five dollars per one hundred heads: and we have for the article of cabbages, five thousand dollars. Then we will put the beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips, corn, tomatoes, melons, quashes, cucumbeis, celery, &c, &c M at two thousand dollars more— which is a very moderate calculation— and we have as the value of the products of this farm of one hundred acres, for one year, the very h<m lsome sum of over sixty two thousand dollars ! Mr Barker's whole expenses, for ditching, help, teed, feeding of s-tock, &c, will nof. exceed -B*lo,oo0 — the farm cost him more—so that in one year he will not only have paid for his f t irm, and all his improvements, but will have quietly stowed away in some old stoiking, the comfortable amount of forty thousand dollars, as the reward of his industry, enterprise and forethought." The troubles with the Indians continued to be harassing. The Chiefs of some of the tribes had confened with the Commissioners, who urged them to leave the mountains, and settle in the valliea on amicable terms with the whites ; but the Chiefs withheld their reply until their tribes were consulted, [intimating that the Indians in their fastnesses were not afraid of the white men. Meanwhile, within a few miles of the spot where the Commissioners were encamped on the night of the Ist March, the Indians attacked a party of travellers on their way to the diggings, killing one, and severely wounding others. At Oregon a considerable revival of the desire for gold hunting had taken place. Although many of the farmers had lately been induced to engage more extensively in their proper work by a Land Bill which had set at rest various uncertainties as to titles, — and special attention had been turned to the " raising" of sheep for the San Ftancisco market, — yet the reports of the gold at the Klamath had induced numbeis to forsake agricultural as well as mechanical pusuits, in the hope of getting for themselves " big lumps" such as they were told others had found there. Thus jt has been through the whole progress of the Californian delusion, — a single report of success, however vague or exaggerated it might be, has had power to outweigh a score or a hundred indisputable narratives of disappointment and ruin. The British Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Company had entered into arrangements for the conveyance of passengers from England to California; — the British Company despatching vessels from Southampton on the 2nd and 17th of every month for Chagres, and undertaking to deliver passengers there in time to take the Pacific Company's Steamers at Panama. The cabin passage money was fixed at from £97 to £112. Steerage passengers were to be token from Southampton to Chagres for £20.

We have linglish news, such as it is, to the 11th of January, received at New York, and thence via California. It is, however, made up of the merest " shreds and patches" — a scrap here and a scrap there. We must only collect and arrange it as we best can, and be thankful to get even so much through foreign channels in one of our many dreary intervals between diiect arrivals from home. The Queen and Royal Family had enjoyed the Christmas holidays at Windsor, amidst festivities and amusements, amongst which dramatic performances, under the direction of Mr. Charles Kean, occupied a prominent place. A large number of di&tinguished parties had been the honoured partakers of the Royal hospitality.

The weather had changed to extraordinary mildness, and its general characteristic was a temperature better suited to May than the depth of winter. Christmas appeared to have brought no relaxation of the movement on the Papal Aggression Few places indeed had remained in which the voice of the country had not already been declared against the Intrusion, but those few were then uniting in the general denunciation. At Birkenhead, where the meeting had been interrupted by a violent mob, the Protestant people again assembled, and under the protection of a thousond special constables, and three hundred of the Liverpool police, carried an unanimous address to the Throne, One of the most notable incidents was at the Snrry County Meeting, at which Sir Edward Sugden, one of the most eminent lawyers in England, and legal adviser of the late Sir Robert Peel, gave his opinion distinctly, that Cardinal Wiseman had violated the law, the minor relief afforded by recent legislation, not having affected the penalties declared by former Acts against the introduction of Papal Bulls and denying the Royal Supremacy. . . . Dr. Wiseman had delivered a second lecture on the subject, — (subsequent to that from which we gave extracts in the New Zealander of the 14th instant.) We are only informed that he adverted in " corteous" terms to the moderation of tone in the Queen's replies to the addresses presented to Her Majesty at Windsor ; "it was his pleasing duty to acknowledge publicly his sense of the beauty of this truly wise and royal course, which becomes a Queen, gives protection to the assailed, and secures equal rights to all." To others, the replies seemed as decided as was consistent with constitutional propriety.