MULTUM IN PARVO. [From the late Australasian Papers.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 50, 20 September 1845, Page 3

MULTUM IN PARVO. [From the late Australasian Papers.]

The sum of £3,900 was paid into the Melbourne Treasury for publicans' licenses on the Ist instant. The blacks in the district of Port Phillip have stolen large numbers of sheep lately. — The general revenue for Port Phillip for the past quarter was £19,000. — The fees received in the Port Phillip Insolvent Court during the past quarter amounted to £7:4: 10, which was divided between the. Commissioner, clerk, and messenger* — A Board is sitting at Melbourne to enquire into a charge preferred against Mr. Rattenbury, the clerk of the works, for allowing the con-

tractors for the new Government offices to deviate from their plans and specifications. — The Corporation of Melbourne have passed a resolution for an address to the Governor, urging the establishment of an overland post to Adelaide.,-— The Rev. Peter Gunn has been elected minister of the Presbyterian Church, at Campbellfield, on the Merri Merri Creek, vacant by the translation of the Rev. T. Mowbray, A.M., to Sydney. — A society for the encouragement of immigration has been established at Port Phillip. — Wekweki, a native black, condemned at Adelaide for murder, was reprieved on the morning appointed for his execution. — Eleven whales have been captured by the shore parties at Portland Bay during the present season. — A starch manufactory has beeu established in Van Diemen's Land. — Mrs. Clark, so many years manageress of the Hobart Town Theatre, is about to leave Van Diemen's Land from the failure of theatrical speculations. — A temperance newspaper is about to be established in Launceston. — D. A. C G. Yeolard, for many years in the Commissariat in Van Diemen's Land, has been ordered to proceed to Baibadoes. — Slate of a superior quality is said to have been discovered about sixty miles from Melbourne. — The Orange Lodges of Melbourne dined together on the 12th instant ; they were presided over by the Provincial Grand Master. — The ordinary revenue of Van Diemen's Land for the first quarter of the present year, was £18,900, a deficiency of £1,500 compared with the corresponding quarter of 1844. — The demand for coals in Van Diemen's Land is rapidly increasing. — Illicit distillation is said to he extremely prevalent in Van Diemen's Land. — The imports to the port of Launceston for the quarter ended sth July, amounted to £53,232, of which £23,650 was to this colony. — A little boy, named Parker, residing at Launceston, during play drunk sulpliuric acid from a phial thoughtlessly presentedHo him, and expired in consequence. — A self-supporting hospital is about to be established at Launceston. — A Bethel Cbapel is being erected at Launceston. — Archdeacon Mariott is said to have obtained funds in England for the erection of a College in Van Diemen's Land. Sir John Franklin gave £500. — A board has heen appointed to enquire into the mode in which the accounts in the Melbourne Treasury are kept. — Mr. Wilkinson, the printer and publisher of the Portland Guardian, has been committed to take his trial for a libel on Mr. Blair, the Police Magistrate of that district. — The Rev. Mr. Saunders delivered a lecture on Temperance in Hobart Town on Wednesday last. — Mr. Reginald M'Donald, a resident of Melbourne, third son of Sir R. M'Donald, of Staffa, was drowned a few days &ince, when endeavouring to cross the Merri Creek, during a fresh. — A pure opal, which is a most valuable stone, is said to have been found in Flaxman's Valley, South Australia. — The overland mail from Sydney to Melbourne arrives very regularly. — The attorneys of Melbourne are forming themselves into a law association for the protection of their interests. — The creeks and rivers to the southward have all been overflowing their banks within the last week or two, doing considerable damage. — The action of Richardson v. Armytage, for slander, which has been so long before the Supreme Court of Van Diemen's Land, is at length settled, the defendant having paid £300 damages. — The Legislative Council of Van Diemen's Land was to assemble on Wednesday last — A new paper called the Herald of Tasmania has been started at Hobart Town : it declares itself to be the organ of the Bishop of Tasmania and his clergy. — The Commissariat in Van Diemen's Land are paying £13 : 10s. to £14 : 10s. a ton flour.

Beche-le-mer.— On the coasts of the islands to the northwrad of New Holland there is a sea-slug, known in commerce as beche-le-mer, which is extensively used in China, and, according to M'Culloch, realizes from £24 to £150 a ton, according to variety and care. The Dutch merchants at Batavia, and the English at the Mauritius, have, it is said, entered into the beche-le-mer trade ; and our object in now writing is to ask, whether we have no merchants who have the capital (the amount required cannot be large) and the skill and enterprise to fit out a couple of vessels from Sydney, and give the speculation a trial ? Sydney must become the centre of the trade between the Australian and Polynesian settlements and Chiua ; and if we could procure an article of such general consumption as the seaslug is in China, in return for the large quantities of tea we are constantly importing, [it strikes us that it would be beneficial to both countries. We shall be glad to hear that this .hint has been taken advantage of.

Trade in China.— ln the China Mail, of the 20th Maicn, we find some official tablet, from which we gather the following particulars :—ln": — In" the year 1844, forty-'.une American vessels, burthen 20,292 tons, entered the port of Canton, having on board merchandize to the value of 2,445,170 dols. : in the sanie

period forty-three American vessels sailed from Canton, with large cargoes valued at 6,680,171 dols. Of the imports one-half consisted of treasure : of the exports five-sixths was tea. Two French vessels, burthen 751 tons, entered at Canton with cargoes valued at 33,823 dols., and two sailed with cargoes estimated at 37,130d015. Nine Dutch vessels, burthen 3,040 tons, entered the port with cargoes valued at 231,078d015., and nine sailed, having on board cargoes valued at 572,188d015.

Withdrawal of an obnoxious Postoffice order. — The recent Post-office order having reference to the transit of letters through the East India territories to Australia, New Zealand, the Manritius, and other places beyond the boundary of the possessions of the East India Company, has been withdrawn. It will be remembered that by this regulation, parties posting letters directed to the British colonies lying beyond the aforesaid limits, were lequired to address their correspondence to persons resident in India — otherwise such letter would not be forwardtd. Much dissatisfaction and disgust were evinced by the most influential of jthe city merchants by the above announcement ; and the morning papers published some justly severe' strictures upon the arbitary nature of the new regulation. This had its due effect ; — by the authority of the noble lord at the head of the Post-office department the order was, on Saturday last, cancelled, — Times.

i Colonial Exports. — Flax. — We are ! pleased to learn that a general opinion prevails among our scientific agriculturists that the culture of flax in Australia would amply remunerate the grower, and prove a source of colonial wealth. That it contributes largely to the financial prosperity of Flanders and many other parts of the northern hemisphere is unquestionable ; and that it is suited to most of our soils and climates is affirmed by competent judges, who are acquainted with its cultivation in Ireland. We would therefore again recommend our settlers to lose no time in instituting experiments, with the view of determining how far their respective localities would or would not afford them a reasonable chance of success. The cultivator who, in his preliminary essay, at least, adopts the Flemish plan of intermixing flax with forage seed, could incur no risk, inasmuch as the associate plants might be expected to yield a sufficient return to detray the whole expense of cultuie. In < Flanders it is sown with carrots and turnips, which being employed iv the fattening ot swine, realize an abundant profit of themselves. M. Yvart, the professor of agriculture at the \ etermary College of Allort, near Paris, who, in common with the most distinguished French agriculturists, recommends mixed crops, adduces the case of a farmer at Neufchateau who intermingled flax, carrots, turnips, cole, and chicory. The flax supported by the cole was pulled at the end of the third month (July); a forthnight afterwatds the cole was cut; in September the turnips were gathered ; in October the cat rots ; and iv the spring, the chicory afforded an abundance of ! milk to dairy cows. Yon Thaer, the director of the Royal Agri- i cultural School at Meglin, in Germany, says that long experience has convinced him that lucerne in every case grows more equally, and stronger, when sown with flax, or with buckwheat, than with any other Jrind of grain. This grass, in conjunction with edible roots and a small portion of corn, may be turned to pfofit in the production of lard and salt pork for exportation. The fattening of swine, and in fact the system of alternate cultures with forage plants, would also improve the qualities of our wheat and increase its quantity. This, at least, has been found to be the case in every country where the plan has been adopted. Let it be, however, remarked that we make these suggestions merely as experimental hints ; but as flax is known to produce a stem of finer quality and greater length when densely sown, it is not unreasonable to expect that the crowding of it with certain plants might contribute to a similar result. If, on the other hand, the production of seed be more desirable than that of the filament, it must be thinly sown, and by preference iv drills. These intermingled cultures are also recommended by " the Farm Book" for the purpose of keeping down weeds, which supersedes the necessity of extirpating them with the hoe. This fact should be borne in mind, inasmuch as some might be disposed to ascribe to the associate plants the noxious qualities which are found in weeds. Decandole, in his observations on this sub*ject, gives the title ot social to plants which grow together with mutual benefit. Weeds are unsocial; but clover, although ranked amongst I social plants, is considered by some to he injurious to flax, from the rapidity of its growth. Fine bone-dust manure to the extent of ten or twelve bushels an acre is said by " the Farm Book" to produce a finer quality of flax. It is recommended to be applied in August or early spring, instead of dung, which should be aroi-

ded near the time of sowing. Dung, in fact, produces weeds, which bone manure does not. The best account of the culture of flax and hemp, with its probable returns, appeared some time since from the pen of Dr. , Campbell. We perceive from an advertisement, that this excellent little work is again in the press, and may be had at the office of the Australian, at the price of Is. 6d. ; but as it is announced that no more copies will be pulled off than are previously engaged, an early application may be required to secure them. We learn irom Macculloch's dictionary, that the quantity of flax imported by Great Britain, according to the tables of 1831, was 936,411 cwt., of which 15,275 cwt. is said to have been from New South Wales, but this was probably New Zealand flax. The quantity of seed imported was 2,759,103 bushels.