ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 84, 16 May 1846, Page 4

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Earl St. Germains has been appointed Postmaster-General. Several other changes in the ministry were spoken of. Among the rumours is one that-Lcrd Ellenborough is to be appointed Secretary of State for the Gclonies.

Handsome Legacy to Lord Brougham. — The late Miss Mary Flaherty, has appointed the Right Hon. Henry Lord Brougham and Vaux her residuary legatee, " out of-re-spect and admiration for his unequalled abilities, public conduct, and principles." The amount coming to his lordship, from the funded and personal prope. ty alone, will considerably exceed £20,000, the personal estate being valued for probate duty, at £30,000. The obituary records the decease among others, of the Dowager Lady Holland, Viscountess Canterbury, the Earl of Verulam, Lord Stuart de Roths ly, Lord Hartland, the Right Hon. William Dundas, Sir W. Foulis, Sir S. May, Professor Badham, Mr. Irving, M.P M M. Reinhardt, and the .political -Dr. Wade.

Sale of the Lownsdown Tower Property. — The tower and its remaining collection of articles or art and vertu, the property of the late W. Beckfor^, Esq., have been sold by auction during the last few days, and formed the subject of extraordinary competition. China plates, for example, sold at 36 guineas the dozen, similar to what, on ordinary occasions might be purchased at five shillings each. Cups and saucers, perfectly useless from their delicacy, brought three and four guineas each. In this way, for china which could be matched for £50, there has been realised 590 guineas ! The tower alone was sold on Monday for £4,400, and, with the gardens, brought 8415 guineas. It was however, rumoured that the tower was bought in The gardens cost £15,000 and the land £3,000 ; so that at the very lowest calculation the property must have cost Mr. Beckford £22,000. The pictures, amongst which were some truly admirable works of art, brought in all nearly £3,000. Large subscriptions were bejgg raised for the purpose of buying provisions for the Irish in those districts where the potatoe disease had been most virulent. Dickens is said to have a serial work of a facetious kind, and two volumes of " Letters from Italy," from which country he has lately returned, ready for the press. Should the various railways now projected for the midland counties be carried into effect, Birmingham will become the centre of three and twenty lines. Advertisements follow each other in succession in the Morning Chronicle, beseeching surveyors to appear. One wants sixty, aud offers £5 a day and all expenses. Every mile of railway takes eight acres of land. The 1800 miles already existing, and 20,000 miles impending, will require the snug quantity of 114,000 acres, without reclaiming any from other roads or canals.

The Oregon territory derives its name from oregano, a Spanish word for wild marjoram (the oreganum vulgare of Linrmus), which grows abundantly in the western coasts of the American continent. M. Persigny is of opinion that the pyramids were creeled tOgdefend the valley of the Nile against the encroachment of the sand, and demonstrates his conclusion by experiments on a small scale. The word Budget is derived from the French Bougette, a little bag-; and by a common figure of speech, the name of that which incloses is made to signify the thjfg contained. A gentleman of the press, who writes not a very legible hand, sent to the compositors the following announcement : — " the Harpy* another of the six iron steam-vessels, built by Messrs. Ditchburn and More, is now ready for commissioning." The printer composed the paragraph as follows : — " The happy mother of the six iron steam-vessels, built by Messrs. Ditchburn and Mare, is ready for commissioning."

China. — The portion of the indemnity money, due by the Chinese in January, under the Pottinger treaty, was duly paid and shipped on board H.M.S. Vestal, ior England. Coal, in large quantities and good quality, had been found on the island of Formosa. The American treaty with the Chinese had been ratified.

Copy of award ot the Commissioner for investigating and determining Titles and Claimsto Land in New Zealand. Auckland, 31st March, 1845. Taranaki. I William Spain, her Majesty's Commissioner for investigating and determining Titles and .Claims to Land in New Zealand, do hereby determine and award, that upon payment by the New Zealand Company of the sum of Two Hundred pounds sterling to his Excellency the Governor of New Zealand, to be applied for the benefit of the resident natives of the district of New Plymouth, in any way his Excellency may think best calculated to promote their in i ere its, the Directors of the New Zealand Company of London, and their successors are entitled to a Crown .Grant of a block of sixty thousand acres of land, situate, lying, and being in the district or settlement '-of New Plymouth or Taranaki, in the northern division of New Zealand ; which said -block of land commences on the north side of th£ Sugar Loaf Islands and extends in a northerly direction to a place called Taniwa, and which said block of land is more particularly delineated and set forth upon the accompanying plan* No. 9, saving and always excepting as follows, all the pas, burying places, and grounds actually in cultivation by the natives, situate within any | art of the before described block of land hereby awardedto the New Zealand Compony as aforesaid, the limits of the pas to be the ground fenced in around their native houses, including the ground in cultivation or occupation around the adjoining houses without the fence, and cultivations as those tracts ef country which are now used by the natives for vegetable productions, or which have been so used by the aboriginal natives of New Zealand since the establishment of the colony ; and also excepting all the Native Reserves equal to one tenth of the sixty thousand acres hereby awarded to the said Company, part of which said Native Reserves ha.ye already been chosen, and are marked yellow upon the said plan of the district hereinbefore referred to, and the remainder of such Reserves are to be chosen according to the rate of one choice in ten, as fully explained to the Resident Agent of the New Zealand Company in my letter to him under the 13th June, 1844, forming enclosure No. 7, of this report, and also excepting all that piece of land containing one hundred acres reserved by *the natives at the time of the sale to the New Zealand Company for the Wesleyan Mission Station, which said piece of land is delineated and set forth upon the said plan of the district, and also upon the plan t herewith enclosed No. 10 ; and also excepting all that piece of laud containing eighty acres, and all that piece of land containing one hundred acres, being sections 23 and 37, which have been reserved for Richard Barrett, his wife, and children, which said two pieces of land are delineated and set forth upon the said plan of the district, and also upon the plan,J herewith enclosed No. Tl : and also excepting any portions of land within any part of the block of land hereinbefore described and hereby awarded to the said Company, to which private claimants have already or may hereafter prove before the Commissioner of Land Claims, a title prior to the purchase by the New Zealand Company. And I further determine and award, that the Wesleyan Missionary Society is entitled to a Crown Grant of the said piece of land hereinbefore described, containing one hundred acres. And 1 further determine and award, that the said Richard Barrett, his wife, and children, are entitled to a Crown Grant of the said two pieces of land hereinbefore described containing together, one hundred and eighty acres, and I recommend that such grant should be made to the trustees of Native Reserves in trust for the said Richard Barrett, his wife, and children. I have, &c, (Signed) Willm. Spain, Commissioner. Time Copy, S. E. Grimstone.

* No. 9, Plan of Deed. This ii the exception agreed upon at Major Richmond'! on Monday, 29th January 1844, Copyof minutes of which conference forms Enclosure No. 1 in Fin.il Report on Case No. 374. t No. 10, Plan of Wetleyan Reierve. j No. 11, Plan of Reserre for .Richard Barrett 1 ! wife and children.