SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 659, 7 August 1852, Page 2

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.

I [Fiom the Sydney Herald, July 27.] A very extraordinary correspondence appeared in the j Times of tbe 14th April, So long since as April, 1851, the captain of a brig saw two ships, one larger than the other, shelved on au icebeig, floating off New Zealand. We give tbo substance of tbe .statement, winch the Admiralty were enquiring into, and which had caused much excitement and uneasiness among the friends of Sir John Fianklm. It appeared in the Limerick Chronicle, and it is very singular that at the tune it attracted no attention. "Limaick Chronicle, May 28, 1851. Extract from a letter from a passenger who sailed from this port to Quebec in the Renovation, on the 6th of Apiil last: — Quebec, May 9, 1831. We arrived here yesterday, after a passage which, for the first thirteen days, promised to be one of the speediest almost on record, having been two miles to the west of the Bird Island in the Gulf at the time we met the ice, and having bepn for sixteen days coasting along it, with a fair windeit-r since ; it has been very rough, and a number of ships have suffeied severely; indeed, to attempt to give any description of the ice would be useless. We have sailed for 60 miles of a stretch, seeking- an opening, without being able to effect one, which was most vexatious, as had we not met with it we should have made tbe pas- ] sage in )5£ days. The icebergs we met with weie frightful in size, as the bases of some of them would cover three times over the area of Limerick, and I do not at all exaggerate when I say that the steeple of the Cathedral would have appealed but a small pinnacle compared to the spires on some of them ; and most to be regretted is that we met, or rather saw at a distance, one with two ships on it, which I am almost sure belonged to Frank] in 'a exploiing squadron, as, fiom the latitude and longitude we met them in, they were drifting from the direction of Darib's Straits. Was there but a single one, it ought have been a deserted whaler; but two so near each other, they must have beea consorts. They were to windward of us, and a heavy sea running at the time, with thick weather coming on, so that we could not board them." It ia suggested that tbe ships might have been secured to the icebeig, thinking it was fast to the shoie, and that when the ice moved, the men escaped to the shore. It is a painful mystery that may never be cleared up.

(From the Sydney Herald nf July 25.) We mentioned yesterday that the Times of the 14th April contained ft long correspondence respecting two vessels which had been seen oil an icebeig off Newfoundland (not New^ Zealand, as printed by mistake), and which were supposed to be the ships belonging to Sir John franklin's expedition. It appears that on the '20th March a naval officer reported to the Admiralty that a passenger, who was on board the brig Renovation in April, 1851, bad seen two ships on the ice. The Admiralty then sent despatches to various parties to endeavour to find the captain of the Renovation. It was found that he bad sailed a few days before for Venice — but the chief officer, who had charge of the deck when the vessels were seen, was found on board a ship in the Shannon, about to sail for America, and to the Coast Guard Officer he made the following statement: — (Copy.) " 6-30 p.m., 4th April, 1852. " About the 20lh of April, 1851, Mr. Simpson, then mate of the Renovation, saw two full rigged ships (about 6 a.m., one larger than the other) on an iceberg about ten or twelve feet high, and about five miles long. The largest vessel was on her beamends, head to the westward ; the smaller one head south, and upright, with topmast on end, and no topgallantmast. The Renovation was then abont 30 miles west of Capo Race, and the iceberg about five miles north-west. The master was very sick at the time, and the mate could not take it upon himself to bear up for tho iceberg. A Mr. Joseph Lynch also saw the vessels, besides all the mates. 'I he Renovation at that time was under doublereefed fore and main topsails and fprecourse, blowing very strong. The morning was very clear, and the mate cannot recollect any further particulars, and cannot tell whether the log is on board the Renovation, or whether the owners have it. The owner is Emanuel Young, a large ship owner in North Shields, Northumberlandsquare." There seems no reason for doubting tbis statement, and the vessels may have been those of the unfortunate expedition.

Mining Companies. — By the ship Asiatic, from London, several gentlemen connected with the British Australian, the British Australasian, and the Australian Mutual Gold Mining Association 1 !, Lave arrived. The latter Company bas taken the lead in the efficiency of its arrangements, as the Chairman and Deputy Chairman have brought out with them a complete staff, with some thirty experienced miners and ore-washers. Besides all the recent inventions in the new corrugated galvanic iron washing machines, they have on hoard two powetful patent stamping and crushing engines, which can reduce to dust 100 tons of quaitz rock per diem, so that the real valup of the matrix of the gold will he speedily ascertained. We have not yet 1. atned the exact locality where they purpose to commence opeiations. lha Australian Gold Mining Association is on the cost book principle, with a capital of £20,000, in 20,000 shares, of £1 each, of which 4000 shares (or one-fifth of the capital) have been reserved for Austtnlia. On board the Mount Stuart Elphmston, which went into Poit Phillip a few days since, there are fifty miners for the British Australian Company. — Sydney Ho aid, July 12 The Tartar arrived yesterday, after a good run of 100 days. She had a fine weather passage until Fucfay evening last, when she waB caught in a westerly squall off Cape Howe, which canied away her mainmast close to the deck, and her niizpri topmast. During the voyage three seamen, named Green, Kenhausen, and Davidson, fell overboard and were di owned. A passenger named Finely died in the Bay of Bibcny. Mr Davis, the Commissioner of the British Australian Gold Comp.iny is among the passengers. She also brings out fifty women selected by IYIr. Sydney Ileibert's Committee. There are also six llomtm Catholic pripsts, intended wo believe, for a mission to one of the South Sea Island.—//;. July '27. Suhvev orSouui Sea Islands. — The Herald, Captain Den ham, 11. N., has been commitqionud for a suivey of the Feejee Islands and New Caledonia, which it is supposed will occupy four or five years, the object being to fix the most eligible station for stopp-ige of steameis in crossing the Pacific Ocean, and to assert the right of Great lintian over certain groups of Islands discovered by Captain Cook. Captain Dunham's order will also comprise a report relative to harbomsand s\tet, for occupation, A untill stenmer accompanies the Herald, and both ships are abundantly supplied with axes, knives, bead-!, tomahawks, s,nvs, mid other aiticlos calculated for tialhc wiih tho natives of the several is lands. — UlustiuCed Neva, March 13,

Her Majesty's ship Herald, Captain Denham, fitting 1 at Cbatlian, for the suivey of the is'ands of the Pacific, will leave the Thames (luring the present week, and finally sail for her destination in the early part of next month. 7 he newly appointed Consul, Mr. T. Nicholas (son of the late, Captain T. Nicholas, R. N ) will take a passnn m her. The Herald takes out as interpreter Smee Peah ; a native of one of 'lie inlands in the Pacific who cnme to this country about two yeare ago, and who is considered a very intelligent young man. He *\ill have charge of the seeds which ate to be planted in some of thp islands. Among the impottint objects entrusted o Captain Denham will be the suivey of the islands of the Pacific, so as to form achait, fallowing the be-U navigation through them from the Isthmus of Panama to Sydney, to select a point for the establishment of a coal depot, and an island for a penal settlement. A number of piesent for the islandets to the value of some bundled pounds, will be taken out in the Herald. — Times, Jpiilli. The Duke of Northumberland has, it is understood, duected a ship of war 'o call at the group of Pacific Islands, known as the Solomons, foi the purpose of investigating the alleged murder of Mr. Jjenjamin Boyd by the natives, and their subsequeut act of cannibalism on his remains, and if established, ot chastising them. As yet, however, the authority for this termination of Mr. Boyds extraordinary career rests only on the statement of the cvew of the ship Wanderer ; and there are not wanting dreadful suspicions that the unfortunate gentleman was made away with in the vessel itself, which was afterwards wrecked in Macquane Hay, all hands getting safely on shore. The npxt arrivals fiom Sydney will piobably thiow light on the affair, at present shiouded in mystery and terrible doubts. Mr. Boyed was formerly a stock broker in London, and was subsequently the representative in New South Wales of n thsastious banking institution, which though established for legitimate purposes he turned, to its utter ruin, into a great sheep-grazing speculation. Its affairs are now being " wound up." — Alias.