SYDNEY.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 169, 13 March 1847, Page 2

SYDNEY.

The " Rookery." — Copper Ore. — In the Australian, of the 16th instant, it will be remembered we stated that the barque Roojtery, hence from London, via Portland Bay, had been compelled to put into Launceston, to discharge the copper ore, she had taken oh board as dead weight, at this port, fears of ignition being ' entertained by the captain. By our Launceston files, received yesterday, .we perceive, that by the request of Messrs. Reed and Jennings, the agents for the vessel, the state of the ore had been examined by Dr. Pugh, who found that at two feet below the surface the thermometer rose to 130°, and a little lower to 150°. The men employed in the hold could only work for a quarter of an hour at a time, and were subject to profuse bleeding at the nose. In a letter from Dr. Pugh to Met*

srs. Reed and Jennings, communicating the result of bis examination, that gentelman thus writes — " lam perfectly satisfied, from the opportunities afforded me in the course of this enquiry, that no vessel can with propriety proceed to England with this ore as a portion of her cargo; if she reach her destination, it must be from a happy concurrence of circumstances rarely to be looked for in so lengthened a voyage. The quality of the ore makes its transmission the more difficult, containing as it does nearly a third of its weight of sulphur, exposed to decomposition from a great variety of agencies, and every change through which it may pass, giving origin to heat sufficient to prove the focus of a destructive fire." The ore had also been examined by Dr. Grant, who came to the same conclusion as Dr. Pugh. — Australian.

The First Fall. — The Melbourne Patriot states that "Advices from Adelaide inform us that the celebrated Burra Burra mine shares have fallen 50 per cent. This is owing to the scarcity of money now felt in South Australia, a very natural result to have been expected. The depreciation is sadden and extreme — other property will quickly follow in its wake.

The Tasmanian Press. — The Launceston Advertiser, after a separte existence of 16 years has been incorporated with the Launceston Examiner. — Australian, Feb. 2.