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New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 1, 2 August 1842, Page 4

The Author of " Rattlin the Reefer.” —The death of Edward Howard, Esq., the la-* mented author of “ Rattlin the Reefer,” and several other popular productions, has been already noticed with much regret. —The last act of his literary career was a nautical romance of' a highly interesting nature, founded on the ex-: traordinary: history of Sir Henry Morgan, the, celebrated buccaneer. It has been spoken of

in tlie literary circles as replete with romantic incident and daring adventure, and as forming; a most singular and vivid picture of the sort of warfare pursued at that time by the .lawless rovers of the sea, of which Morgan commanded very extensiv<? armaments. Its publication has just taken place, and there can be little doubt that as the last production of the lamented author, it will be eagerly perused. Release of Mr* Elton. —This gentleman, recently Midshipman of the Implacable , whose case has excited s»uch general and such indignant commiseration, was, yesterday morning, released from his imprisonment in the Marshalsea Prison, by order of the Lords of the Admiralty.—[Of course, the whole sentence falls to the ground, and he is still a Naval Officer.— Ed.'] — Hampshire Telegraph. Waterloo • Model. —This is one of the

most extraordinary productions of art that has

been brought before the public. At first sight you perceive nothing but a shaded surface; but on a closer inspection, you are struck with the beauty of the workmanship, which conveys the most accurate representation of every thing there, the same as on the 18th of June; the fields of corn, the trees, the farm houses, the undulation of the land, the extended British line, and the frowning masses of the French; Ilougomont in flames, and La Belle Alliance; and you would fancy you see the very columns in motion. The figures number above 190,000. This beautiful model has cost Captain Siborn many valuable years of his life, and a sum not far short of £SOOO. — Scotch Paper , It is wonderful how shallow and short-sighted are the speculations respecting the future destinies of the i Maories, or Aboriginals of New Zealand, under their [new circumstances. Hope and fear are alone consulted •oA the question, but no reference is made either to natural laws or to the pages of history. Let us then endeavour to trace their future progress according to principles derived from reason and experience, apart from all anomalous or precautionary interference. The New Zealanders may be expected to make a sudden start in civilisation so far as it administers to their animal wants; they will cultivate more potatoes, feed more pigs, and feeling more secure, they will, as a necessary consequence of this improvement, multiply faster; the advantages of cheap labour, in a growing country, will close the eyes of the community to the dangers of such increase, which, though at first called a proof of prosperity, will be (eventually deemed to be a misfortune. But, from .civilisation whatever advantages are compatible with their habits, it must not be supposed that the New Zealanders will materially change their habits. Such a metamorphosis is morally impossible ; the manners of nations are traditional, and undergo but slow change, even where civilisation exerts its full influence. It is with mankind as with the souls in Orcus, where above a thousand years in Lethe or Elysium were required to efface the stains ot' primitive habits :

“ Donee longa dies, pevfecto temporis orbe, Concretam exemit labem ; purumquc rcliqnit yTitberium sciisum.” Hence it will ensile* that in a century or two, New Zealand will exhibit a redundant aboriginal population in extreme poverty, co-existing with wealth and mercantile prosperity in comparatively few hands, the poor being separated from the rich not only by their lot, but also by many traditional marks, so as to consider themselves as a distinct body in the state. If the New Zealanders be 1 then called on to exercise the functions of citizens according to English laws, these having grown up with, and being fitted for civilisation, will prove unserviceable in the hands of men who are still barbarous. Law will be habitually set at defiance; juries, inquests, and magisterial authority, will be perverted to the worst ends. Eveiy attempt made by the one party to remedy these evils, will be resented by the other as a departure from equal-justice. A perpetual jarring will thus subsist between the aboriginal and English races; the one being unable to rise to the harmonising point of civilisation, the other unwilling to make terns by sinking to, barbarism ; while yet it is plain that the two parties cannot go "on together with mutual satisfaction under the same free institutions. Discussion will increase the discord, and as those who fish in troubled waters will be foremost in the turiiult,' petty differences will at last grow into deadly animosity . To this it must be added, that the aboriginals will gradually acquire a consciousness of their own miserable habits. What they now- deem comfort and affluence will hereafter appear to them to be squalid wretchedness.' They will grow ashamed of sharing their cabin with their pigs.. The contrast of their own state with that of their'foreign neighbours, will convince them of their lowness. And not contrast shone, but keen criticism, and the contemptuous animadversions of those who hate the sight of every thing symptomatic of poverwill open their minds to thai painful knowBdge. .- Though really undergoing ho change, Bey will seem to sink deeper in squalid misery, me'more closely the %hlt of surrounding civili-

out compromising their pride and. self-esteem ?], The mere truth would serve no party purposes, * nor be. sligwy enough to please the multitude. They will cry that they sank under oppression ; that tyranny and misgovemment reduced them to the lowest state of degradation. Appeals will be made to national spirit, in support of this view of the case. Much will be said of the ancient greatness of the kingdom of the Maories {which indeed has never existed, New Zealand being divided among numerous petty chiefs). Poets will sing the glories of Shongi the brave, who exterminated a score of tribes in the northern island, and but no, he did not eat them, for the cannabilism of the New Zealanders, it will be asserted, is a base fabrication of English historians, who let no opportunity escape of defaming and vilifying their superiors, the Maories. But our prophetic vision grows dark and troubled; we therefore gladly resume our soberer faculties to remark, that unless the education of the natives, and the improvement of their habits, be made an especial object of care; they will multiply without improving, and the new resources learned by them from civilisation will resemble manure spread alike on tares and wheat.

Medical Success . —The following paragraph from the “ {Canterbury Journal ,” -on Medical deserving of a place in our with; that feeling we present it to Medical ability does not, of we talented practitioner in a neighbourhood 'the most neglected. Good luck does not insure medical success ; for as frequently, we observe, the oftener the bell tolls the more the medical attendant is talked of and sought after! In what, then, does medical success consist ? In tact ? In impudence ? In making every case an extreme one ? In paying an early and late visit where one would be sufficient ? In being- too busy to make out bills, or to send in medicines ? Certainly in none of these ; for if a medical- practitioner should by any such means get a name above his fellow-labourers, he must inevitably go down again. Medical success in a country town is dependent upon a general knowledge of the irksome and arduous duties of the profession; regular habits, temperance, and sobriety, upon hard, work, kindness to the poor, and above all, upon having, for at least twenty years, attended with success a large number of women in their accouchment, from the poorest to the richest in the parish. This then is the “ Key to Practice,” and this only will insure medical success in the long run. It is a hard hill to climb up, but once there, it is the medical man’s own fault if he loses his rightful position by the machinations of a schemer or a charlatan.” — The Lancet, Jan. 22, 1842.

Thu North-West Passage. —The subject of the north-west passage is likely to be renewed, through the exertions of Mr. Richard King, one of two officers dispatched by the government in 1833, in search of Sir John Ross and his companions. Mr. King has submitted to the government the following plan, at an estimated expense of £IOOO. That an expedition, consisting of one officer and six men, should proceed from Montreal, in Lower Canada, to the Athelasca Lake then due north to the source of a river called the Fish River,

in about lat. 64 deg. N., and long. 104 deg. W.; and after wintering there, reach the Great Fish River bv one of its tributaries. By following the course of that stream to the sea, and then the eastern boundary of the Great Fish River estuary to the north or east, as the case may be, either the Fury and Hecla Strait will be reached, or, as Mr. King thinks more probable, the north-western termination of the land of North Somerset. In the former case, f a passage will have been discovered, but one that is not practicable for commercial purposes; hut if the latter should prove to be. as Sir John Ross has described, and a broad sea should he discovered, washing the western coast of Boothia, the grand problem of a practicable north-west passage is at once solved!

The Heiress and Her Friends.— A curious case has occurred at the Bedford Hotel, in Paris, arising out of the designs of an adventurer to obtain possession of the person and property of a young English lady of nigh -family and large fortune. The initial of the lady’s surname is 8., that of the adventurer C., and a Mr. and Mrs. D. are immediately concerned, as having invited the young lady, their neighbour in Devonshire, to join them and C. in a trip to Paris, to which she consented, when she knew - that Lord and Lady- W. P. were to be of the party. On the 15th of January the travellers left England with a Mr. and Mrs. H. (old friends of the D.’s) and a Miss S., and they-all resided at the Bedford Hotel in Paris ; three sons of Lord W. P. joined, and the brilliant party lived ‘in great style, C. being appointed' caterer and paymaster of accounts. On the 28th of January Mr. C. treated the servants of Miss B. to the opera and to a supper j afterward, for which last treat Charlotte, her jmaid, had sense enough to refuse- staying... She came directly home from the theatre, and] slept with her mistress, It was half-past they weht to bed, and very soon Miss Pp heard a ijj6ise, then saw by the dying a man in the room, whom, the maid recoffftisfid../ and

called to him by his name. He replied, “ Hold your tongues; hdd you! noise; no diie will hear you or come to your assistance, whatever noise yoh may make.” Upon this Miss 8., in a tone of extreme indignation, said “ Where am I, that lam to be thus treated ?” Both Miss B. and her maid, with great courage and presence of mind, flew to the bell and rang it, but C. immediately broke down the-rope, and said, “ I only wish to speak to you, Miss B.” She replied, “ You can have nothing to say to me here in such-a place, and at such an, hour; you must be a villain thus to'enter a gentlewoman’s chamber, and I command ybu instantly to leave my presence.” tie coolly added, “I will not leave, neither shall you;” and Miss B. said, “ Then I’ll throw myself out at the window, fpr I will not remain in the same room with such a wretch as you!” At this moment the maid broke a pane of glass in the window, and both screamed “ Murder!” which alarmed the house. The lady, with great spirit, resisted the entreaties of the party to see Mr. C., remarking that the man must be a villain who would endeavour to obtain a woman for his wife without her consent. Miss B. declared that she had never given, and never would give, Mr. C. the slightest encouragement as a suitor. She then placed herself under the protection of Mrs. Lawson, the wife of the proprietor of the hotel, and quitted Paris for London the next day, attended bv her servants. She is now in town.

"Will of Mr. Ducrow. —Mr. Ducrow, by his will, appointed Mr. Oscar Byrne, Mr. Searle, boat-builder, and Mr. Anderson, common councilman, his executors, bequeathing to each £IOO. Amid the legacies are—to D. W. Broadfoot, his brother-in-law, £300.; to Mr. Joseph Hillier, £300.; to Margaret and Louisa, his sisters, £2OO. each; to Master Chafe (commonly called Le Petit Ducrow, £200.; there are a few other and smaller bequests. The residue of his property, consisting of £47,5G0. 3y per cents., his household furniture, fixtures, articles of vertu, and his stud and paraphernalia, to Mrs. Ducrow for life; after her death to his son and daughter, Peter Andrew and Louisa. The sum of £BOO. is left for the decoration of the family tomb at Kensal-green; £2OO. in the per cents, is to remain, the interest being dedicated to the purchasing flowers to adorn his monument.

From the description given of the portions of a wrecked vessel, together with the appearance of several barrels of flour and dead cattle, washed ashore at Kapiti, we have every reason to fear that she may prove to be the Brig “ Patriot,” bound to this port from Hobart Town, as letters have been received by a merchant here, stating her having sailed on or about the 27th of May last. We understand there was only one passenger on board. Test for Tea. —A good test for the genuineness in tea, is a grain and a half of sulphate of iron. Genuine green tea gives a blueish tint; Bohea, a blackish blue. Adulterated, it is of all colors.

Mr. Dickens is quite the lion of the day in America. All parties seem desirous of expressing their delight at the occasion of his arriving amongst them. At Boston, a public hall has been given in honour of him, and a similar testimony of esteem was about to be offered at the Park Theatre, New York.

We have omitted hitherto to give the result of the Census taken on the 6th of June, 1841. The totals for Great Britain, including the islands in the British seas, are —males, 9,077,436, females, 9,557,325, making a population of 18,564,761. The population in 1831 was ascertained to he 16,366,011; the increase per cent., therefore, in the ten years is 14. The number of persons ascertained to have been travelling by railways and canals during the night of the 6tli of June, 1841,. is 4,896, of whom 4,003 were males and 893 females. The houses inhabited are 3,464,007, uninhabited 198,061, being built 30,631. This does not include soldiers and sailors on foreign service or at sea. — 2 } imes. % A decision has been' given in the Court of Queen’s Bench, Ireland, which will carry alarm into many a family. All marriages in Ireland celebrated by Presbyterian ministers, are declared invalid where both parties are not Presbyterians. The Prebyterians in Ulster amount to upwards of 600,000, and we understand that nothing was more common than the celebration of marriages between Presbyterians and the members of other communities by Presbyterian ministers.

Brief Rules for Newspaper Correspondents.— Write legibly. Make as few erasures and interlineations as possible. In writing names of persons and places be more particular than usual to make every letter distinct and clear—also in using words not English. Write only on one side of the paper. Employ no abbreviations whatever, but write out every word in full. Finally, when you sit down to write, don’t be in a hurry. Consider that hurried writing makes slow printing.. i

Ironing in America.. —-It is said that, in the town of Maidenhead, United Stktes, the girls have made an improvement in. ironing which beats the steam-engine on common roads all hollow.. They spread out all the clothes on a smooth platform, and fasten hot flat-irons to* their' feet, and skate over them. This is combinincr the recreative with the useful and; . ,P.: ornamental. .