New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, October 24, 1846.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 129, 24 October 1846, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, October 24, 1846.

Thb Ariel which arrived on Thursday from Sydney, brings English dates to June 2nd. Through the kindness of Mr. Bannatyne who has obligingly furnished us with a Sydney Morning Herald, of Oct. 9, we are enabled to give the latest English news. We have also received from the Company's Principal Agent, the Twentieth Report of the New Zealand Company, recommending to the Proprietors to wind up their affairs and dissolve the Company, unless the Government would, during the present session of' Parliament, bring forward such measures as would insure the restoration of tranquil-

lity and the prosperity of New Zealand, and enable the Company to renew their colonizing operations. As it is of unusual importance we have printed the Report entire. The account of the proceedings at the annual general Court of Proprietors of the Company, (for which we are also indebted to Col. Wakeneld) at which the report was unanimously adopted, is of great interest, and.will be published in our next number. In order to make room for the Report we have been obliged to defer other subjects of local interest.

Several rumours are in circulation respecting Rangihaeata's movements, but as we are not able to ascertain their authority, for the present we refrain from doing more than alluding to them generally. It is said that Puaha has openly joined Rangihaeata, and declared his intention ■of obtaining uiu for the imprisonment of Rauparaha, and his -brothers Charley and Kanae.

The Hon. A. Petre, son of Lord Petre, was a passenger by the Trafalgar to Sydney.

We are informed that there is a good demand for New Zealand Flax in the SydneyMarket, and that sawn timber is also much wanted.

From private letters we learn the Clara would not sail from Sydney before the Ist November, so that our informant must have been in error in stating she was chartered to convey troops to "Wellington.

Private letters state that Messrs. Rothschild are speculating largely in tobacco, and are endeavouring to secure a monopoly of that article. They have 'employed agents in the different States in America to make extensive purchases on their account.

Stjicide. — On Thursday morning, at eight o'clock, John Ross, an artilleryman, aged 27, committed suicide in the Military Hospital, Te Aro, by cutting his throat with a razor. Assistance was promptly rendered, but it was unavailing, as he died within twenty minutes after the perpetration of the rash act. The deceased was labouring at the time under an affection of the heart. An inquest was held on the body on Thursday afternoon, when a verdict was returned of " Temporary insanity." The body was interred in the public cemetery yesterday afternoon.

Wellington Savings Bank. — Mr . Tfeomas Waters, James Wilson, Rev. J. Watkins, and Mr. Henry St. Hill, the Managers in rotation, will attend to receive deposits at Mr. Ross's office, from seven to eight o'clock on Saturday evening, the 24th Oct., and at the Union Bank of Australia, from twelve to one o'clock on Monday forenoon, the 26th October.

We have been requested to direct attention to the following conviction under the Merchant Seaman's Act, for trafficking in Register Tickets. It Is important that it should be generally known, as the provisions of this Act, which are strictly enforced in England, extend to all British colonies :—: — "At the Sessions held at the Central Criminal Court, London, on the 6th April, 1846, William Brown, a Sailor's Lodging House Keeper, in Shadwell, was convicted of purchasing for 2s. the Register Ticket of Thomas Hartley, and transferring it for the same sum to Adolph Mueller, a Prussian seaman, and thereby violating the 21st clause of the Merchant Seaman's Act, which provides that any person who shall alter or destroy, counterfeit, transfer, or traffic in, for gain or otherwise, or even attempt to transfer or traffic in a Register Ticket, is guilty of a Misdemeanour, and the latter part of the same clause imposes a penalty of Twenty Pounds, upon any person who may have in his possession a Register Ticket other than that issued to him, and does not forthwith transmit the same to the Registrar of Seamen. " The Judge, ia passing sentence, observed that the proceedings were instituted by the Board of Admiralty, their Lordships being determined to prosecute in every case of this description brought under their notice ; and his Lordship further remarked, that the Act was intended for the protection of British seamen, ani that the prisoner, in his business of a lodging-house keeper, having frequent opportunities of embarking in transactions of this description, it became the duty of the Court to pass such a sentence as would operate as an example to him and to others of his calling, so that they might clearly understand that the law should not be evaded with impunity. In consideration of its being the first offence of this kind, the Court had taken his case into their favourable consideration, and therefore only sentenced him to be imprisoned for the term of two calendar months in Westminster Bridewell"