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New Zealander, Volume 10, Issue 890, 25 October 1854, Page 3

The Kate Kearney's mail has only placed ns in possession of two days' later news from Sydney, (viz., to the 9th inst.) There hud been no arrival from England in that interval, and the last English intelligence was ninety days old. The Empire remarks, —“ This suspense in our intercourse with the mother country, at a time when events in Europe are fraught with so much interest, tends in some degree to produce a further depression in the operations of trade, which continues, from a variety of causes, very dull and unsatisfactory.” There had been arrivals, however, from several other places, bringing news—from which we proceed to compile some particulars which may be of interest to our readers. Melbourne papers, to the 4th inst, had been received. The first days of the Session of the Legislative Council seem to have been much occupied, (as the early part of a Session so frequently is,) in threatenings of future motions on all sorts of subjects. The most important questions practically considered were a proposition to address his Excellency, praying that a sum of £200,000, from the proposed vote for roads and bridges during the year 1855, should be placed at I tie disposal of t)ie Central Road Board,

which, after some discussion, was carried; and a Bill to increase the Lieut.-Governor’s salary from £b,0()0 to .i‘lo,ooo. The principal opponent of tins Bill was the speaker, who “considered it ill-timed, seeing that the colony was in debt, and that the new Governor's cjpacity for Government had not been tested. Ue deprecated it also on the ground that it would enable the Go vtrior to perpetuate despotism in the colony, and would deprive him of a powerful motive to hasten the advent of the New Constitution.” Notwithstanding the Speaker’s opposition, and what the Argus calls “ a growl” from Mr. O’Brien, the Bill passed through Committee. According to the Argus, “ the feeling seemed to be that, now it was proposed, acquiescence was expedient.” The prediction we hazarded a short time since—that it would be rash to augur too conhdently'for Sir Charles Gotham a continuance of the popularity which, by a few democratic after-dinner speeches, he had called into clamorous expression—is already receiving verification from the tone and spirit of the above passage, as wel 1 as of others which we lately quoted. As a further indication, we subjoin the conclusion of a long and strikng article in the Melbourne Express, referring to his Excellency’s speech on opening the Session:—

The procedings of his Excellency on the many occasions he has appeared before the public have been too suggestive of distrust to escape ordinary observation. The eagerness with which he threw the odium of his disapproval on the policy of his predecessor, discovered a want of that delicacy of feeling which usually guards the tongues of men in his position ; whilst there was no ordinary vanity in the boast which he stood between the past and the present. The past is gone with all its errors, and if the present exhibition of his Excellency is to ho regarded as an indication of the future, the people must bestir themselves, and release their feelings once more to an independent judgment of the claims of his Excellency to rule over them. The Government must be taught that there is an element in the spirit of colonisation which will not long brook systematic deception, and that the habits of self-reliance on which the progress of the colony depends, will vapidly developc agencies that weak and vacillating governors will not dare to neglect or regard with indifference. Sir Charles Hotham has uttered words which, like the tidal waters, will again appear, and which to him, as Lieutenant-Governor, may be an accumulated and whelming wave.

A Public Meeting of the “ Unemployed” was held in Melbourne on the Ist instant,—the claims of the Sabbath having apparently been set aside in the expectation that Sunday would be a favourable day for a large attendance. If such was the object, however, it was not fully attained as not more than about two hundred persons w'ere present. Resolutions were adopted to the effect,—that a memorial be presented to the Lieutenant-Governor praying his Excellency to throw open the lands of the Colony at moderate fixed prices, or to allow the people to take land on lease at moderate rental, with the right of purchase within a stated period of time.’' [lt thus appears that the operatives and labourers in Victoria are anxiously desiring to obtain there, advantages which J\ ! eiv Zealand (at all events, the Province of Auckland) would sooner and better place within their reach, —Cheap Land having been already provided by Sir George Grey’s Regulations, and it being highly probable that, before the termination of the Session of the Auckland Provincial Council which this day commences, arrangements will bo agreed to which will enable working settlers to obtain Land on terms as easy, if not easier,than those for which these memorialists ask.] It was resolved also tomemorialize the Executive Government to establish a Public Registry Office for the unemployed in every trade and calling. A Committee was appointed to carry out these Resolutions. and the meeting adjourned until the next Sunday morning. The Registrar-General’s Returns, published in the Government Gazette, showed that the registered deaths in Melbourne for the six months ending on the 30th of June last, amounted to 2394, viz., —I4f>6 males, and 938 females.

There was no improvement in trade generally; “in fact,” says the Ar;jus of the 3rd, “it is rather worse.” Still, the Mclbournites were keeping up their spirits if we may judge from an account of a “ Tradesman’s Ball,” on the night of the 3rd, at which His Excellency and Lady Hotham were present, and three or four hundred persons “ danced with true colonial spirit until an advanced hour,” although, as another part of the account states, “ the room was very dusty, and required frequent watering to keep the atmosphere at all tolerable.” The gay were also laughing at their Theatre, at a farce called “The Kettle of Melbourne,” founded on the panic which seized the citizens when they mistook the firing of the Great Britain s guns, on her release from quarantine, for a Russian invasion. There was, moreover, an expection that “The Swan of Erin,” —Miss Catherine Hayes—would visit Melbourne at the close of her engagement in Sydney, where her singing has created an unprecedented sensation.

Intelligence from California to the 17th of July had been received. Yet another destructive conflagation in *an Francisco! On the morning l of the 11th of July, a lire broke out which extended its ravages until the space between Washington, Jackson, an! Front-street, nearly to Drum-street, was entirely consumed. Between seventy and eighty buildings were destroyed, and many more damaged. The total loss of property was estimated at 200,000 dollars. It was asserted that of flour alone about 60,000 dollars worth was lost, although other accounts reduced the loss in this article to 1)000 dollars. Several serious accidents, — and several infamous acts of plunder—are reported to have taken place during the fire. From Stockton there were accounts of another dreadful conflagration, by which the town of Columbia was almost totally destroyed on the 10th of July The loss was estimated at about 500,000 dollars. The fire was supposed to be the work of an incendiary, and a man named Babe, —who had shortly before been heard to declare that he would burn the town—was in custody charged with the crime. A third, but less widely disastrous fire, is stated in the same papers to have occurred on the Sonoma Road, on the loth of July, by which nbsut 2000 dollars worth of property was destroyed. Commercial affairs in San Francisco were dull, and the stock of merchandize on hand was very large. The wheat crop in California was stated to be remarkably good, and likely to yield much more than the average of past years.

It will be seen by an announcement in our advertising columns that a Soiree will take place this evening at, the Odd Fellows H i i, the special object of which will be to “ acknowledge the services, more immediately connected with the interests of this Province, which Mr. E. G. Wakffibld, “as a Member of the General Assembly, and in other respects as a public man, has been prominent in xvnde big.” That Mr. Waki- FiKLn fins devoted his great abilities and unflagging energy to objects promotive of the welfare of the Province of Auckland on various important matters, since his arrival here in May last, is a fact which, we apprehend, will be denied by none hut those whose judgments are blinded by party prejudice, or by the personal hostility which has, from some quarters, been recen-ly 30 bitterly directed against that gentleman. It is scarcely necessary to refer again to his exertions in bringing before the House of Representatives the righteous claim of Auckland to an entire exemption from the New Zealand Company’s Debt. We are not forgetful or ungrateful enough to lose sight of the disposition which the Southern members generally manifested to act generously and justly in that case ; hut we would not, on the other hand, he unmindful that Mr. Wakefield was the mem ber who most actively moved in the matter, or that his mlents and intimate acquaintance wi hj the subject, taken in connection with the circumstance of his being a Southern representative, enabled him to give an effectiveness to the movement, which, it is not too much to say, it c mid scarcely have derived from the advoc cy of any other member of the House. His exertions abo on what is now familiarly known to our readers as the “ Working Settlers’ Land Quest on” have dorm much to win for him a luge amount of popularity. So again, the friends of the newly formed “ League of Temperance” will be ready to acknowledge the zealous and able co-opeiation he has afforded them in their preliminary arrangements, at the public meetings, and in the subsequent deliberations of their Council. On a general question of politics, moreover, we cannot hut remember to his credit—(to use the woids of the Address to Mr. Wakefield adopted at a Public Meeting of the inhabitants of Howick) —“his strenuous support of the Officer Administering the Government, during the mini - tend crisis” of August last, —a crisis which issued in a total discomfiture of the unwonhy attempt to cooree His Kxcelleucy into a course inconsistent with his c nvictions and his sense of honour and loyal duly. These and other services have undoubtedly obtained for Mr. Wakefield the kindly and grateful feelings of not a few who—it is not to be denied—at first thought and felt differently with regard to him and his views, especially in relation to tie interests of Auckland. We anticipate that there will he a numerous and influential company assembled in the Odd Fellows’ Hall this evening; some, perhaps, on account of some one of the services to which we have alluded, some on account of another,many on account of the who e, taken collectively. Persons who act upon the practical businesslike principle of taking pu' lie men as they find them, will not be deterred by recollections of past, differences of opinion or even of present differences on some points,—still less by an anlicipaion of future differences (which may not arise, and which, if they should arise, they will be as much as ever at liberty to deal with aslhey may think fitting)—from tendering to Mr. Wakefield, now on the eve of his departure for Wellington, an expression of their appreciation of the value of his services to this Province during his stay in Auckland.