SYDNEY.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 41, 19 July 1845, Page 3

SYDNEY.

We have received files of Sydney papers to the 4th inst. The squatting question is the subject that principally occupies the attention of our Sydney contemporaries. Sir George Gipps' squatting regulations, the subject of such fierce contention, have been confirmed by the Home Government. A Government Gazette Extiaordinary was published on Saturday evening, containing various despatches to and from the Governor on the subject of the New SquattiDg Regulations. Lord Stanley, it will be seen, is as imperious and arbitrary as ever ; and a strong battle has

yet to be fought respecting the management of* the Crown Lands, which must be vested in the Legislative Council, or else it will be mere folly to pretend that our Legislature has any control in' the goverritnent of the country. The main point, the fixity of tenure.- will be granted ; a lease" for eight years will be proposed ; make it twelve or fourteen, and on that point we think the graziers should be satisfied. Lord Stanley approves of all that the Gover - nor has done respecting the Squatting Regulations,- and holds the most arbitrary and unconstitutional opinions as to the absolute right of the Crown to raise a 1a 1 revenue from, and treats as intruders all persons' upon unalienated lands. The squatters are to have a lease of at least eight years, probably longer, of the stations they occupy. Five years is to be allowed for the payment of the £320, for the half section of land which every squatter will be called on to purchase. A board is to be appointed for the management of the Crown Lands generally, which will, of course, have the supervision of the squatting regulations . — Herald.

Hob art Town Markets. — As we haVe for some time predicted, the grain market is daily improving, the standing 1 p.rice being this day 55.. per bushel ; but our settlers must not be too greedy, for if they hold out too loug, we shall be inundated with grain by our neighbours. A most extraoidinary circumstance has been mentioned to us by Captain Thome of the Ann troop ship ; he was offered a full cargo of British merchandize, by a first rate house, to take to these' colonies, on condition that he should load his vessel at Sydney with wheat to take to Valparaiso, at a freight of £± : 10s. per ton, and there exchange it for a' cargo of Guano, for England. Let our merchants ponder upon this, and deduce their own conclusions. — Colonial Timet.

Sheep. — We understand that wether sheep by the Swan, from Melbourne, weighing on an average 50fib, have realized- 30s. each. — Launceston Examiner.

Trade and Commbroe. —^Extract from private letters, dated London, 18th and 25th January : " The Renown's wheat, about 1,000 quarters, sold at 545. and 565., the Amwell's at 555. The Gazette's is not out yet. I- have some reason to believethat the representations made to Government of the injustice of ss. duty on your grain, have produced an effect, and it is highly probable the ministry will themselves place your grain and Canadian on the same duty (Is.) at a very early day in the next session. Our wool sale commences on the 30th inst. ; the quantity" will be about 10,000 balescolonial, and 1,500 Cape. Prices are sure to go well, the manufacturers being short- of wool, and advices having reached us of additional rise in German wool, they are contracting for next clip at 10 to 15 per cent', above last fair's' grides, and they are working up then* own wools. Oil is a shade down, but good southern is" still worth £32, and sperm £82 :>los. to £83 : 10s., whalebone commands just now a high price, £260 per ton. General business is good, and money cheap. The banks are discounting at 1\ per cent. — Ibid.

The Great Bank Case.— The dial at bar in the case of the Bank of Australasia v. the Bank of Australia, has occupied the Supreme Court during the present week, and offers to la«t during the whole of next week at least. Let us hope, for the sake of justice, and the honour o# the country, that it will terminate satisfactorily this time.

Squatting Regulations. — At length we have the satisfaction of announcing to our readers the important and gratifying intelligence that her Majesty the Queeu has given her entire approbation,- through her Secretary of State, to the new regulations for subdividing and equalizing the ruos> occupied by the tenants of the crown in this colony. The despatch received on this subject is of a more solemn nature than such documents generally are. The regulations themselves, together with the protest of the Pastoral Association, were duly considered in the Colonial Office ; the matter was referred to the Commissioners of Crown Lands for their report ; and not satisfied with this, Lord Stanley laid ihe subject before the Queen in person, who made his lordship the medium of conveying her Majesty's entire approbation of the _new Regulations, so that unlike other despatches, the present has the force and authority of aroyal mandate. His Lordship, we are informed, enters very fully into the discussion of the question. He first adverts to the right of the crown to the ownership of the lands ; which right he maintains in the fullest and completest sense, including the right to sell, lease, or otherwise alienate them r as may seem best calculated to answer the end for which such ownership exists. Having entered -at length into this branch of the subject, his Lordship proceeds to notice the new regulations promulgated by Sir George Gipps, with which he finds but one fault (the same that we have found throughout), namely, that they are too favourable to the present race of squatters, and do not afford sufficient protection to the public and to posterity against their encroachments. The Commissioners also had suggested some slight alteration in the details, but,, throwing objections aside, his Lordship, is so fully satisfied with the spirit and principle of the Regulations, and feels^ such perfect confidence in his Excellency's judgment, that he has left the matter entirely in the Governor's hands. In discussing the merits of the. Squatting Regulations, the noble Secretary notices the speeches delivered at the meeting held aJKhe Royal Hotel, which he handles in such a way as to leave the orators — the Boyds and Wentwovths — in- a 5a 5 very sorry position indeed \ and he takes occasion to commend the Governor's firmness amid such overpowering opposition, for which unshaken propriety of bearing he exprejsse^the? most unqualified admiration./Syrf. W. Reg: ,