NELSON [From the Nelson Examiner, April 22.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 292, 17 May 1848, Page 3

NELSON [From the Nelson Examiner, April 22.]

We hear on the authority of a letter from Wellington, that the Steam Fund of this settlement is likely to be shortly sent out by the Company with a view to immediate steps being taken for the promotion of the useful object for which it is provided. It is of all the funds of the settlement by far the most important for the promotion of our welfare. We trust that the settlers will exercise due vigilance in seeing that it is expended in the manner most likely to secure that communication with the other settlements which is becoming daily more essential. The expenditure of this fund does not concern any particular class ; all are equally interested in ; it who have staked their properly or industry in the settlement, looking as they no doubt did to the existence of such a fund when they made Nelson the home of their adoption. The monotony of our homely colonial life was broken in upon on Tuesday last, by a very unusual and gay occurrence. It had been thought that previous to the removal of the Hon. C. A. Dillon and Mr. Fox from Nelson, now daily expected, to undertake the duties of their respective appointments, some mark of respect should be paid to Mrs. Dillon and Mrs. Fox ; and, as the gentlemen had been complimented by a public dinner, it wai proposed to give a ball to the ladies. Accordingly, arrangements were made at the Wikatu Hotel for a private subscription ball, and neither trouble nor expense was spared to render the entertainment complete, and, what does not always follow, these efforts were crowned with complete success. The company assembled shortly after nine o'clock, numbering above sixty persons, and we have seldom seem dancing carried on with the spirit which animated all who partook in the enjoyment on this occasion. About one o'clock the party tat down to « most sump-

tuous sapper table, such • one, we will undertake to say, as never before was seen in New Zealand. In addition to all the other good things, the display of grapes, apples, melons, &c, was most profuse, so that, literally, the table groaned beneath the weight which was heaped upon it. On the retirement of the ladies, the healths of Mrs. Dillon and Mrs. Fox were proposed by Mr. Cautley in a neat speech, which of course was responded to by the two gentlemen. Dancing was then resumed, and kept up with unabated vigour until " The grey-ey'd morn smiled on the frowning night. Checkering the eastern cloud with streaks of light." Too much praise cannot be given to Mr. Harley for the very complete manner in which the whole thing was got up, nor should the stewards be forgotten who superintended the arrangements. This ball having given very general satisfaction, it has been proposed to get up subscription assemblies at stated periods — say four times a year. It is not intended that these should be of so expensive a nature as the one we have just had, and probably a sub- .. scription of a guinea-and-a-balf a year would be sufficient. We should like much to see something of the kind done, as it wonld bV . the means of bringing people together occasionally, and thereby, strengthen greatly our social ties. The Comet arrived from Newcastle with 700 hundred ewes, on Wednesday last, after * run of fourteen days. Only ten were lost on the passage, and the remainder were landed in very excellent condition. The Brightman arrived from Sydney on Thursday, with about 1,200 ewes, and six mare?, after a run of twelve days. Captain Cowley has also been fortunate with his cargo, having lost only thirty of the sheep. In addition to these importations, we may also mention that the brig Bee has landed a cargo of sheep and cattle at Port Underwood, which have been driven into the Wairau for Mr. Gouland, and has returned to Sydney for another. During the • present year, there have already b^en seven cargoes of breeding stock landed in this settlement, and there will probably be several more within the next few months, so that by the end of the year our stock will be considerably augmented.

'English News. — We learn from Captain, -Wood that the overland mail, with news to tht Yth January, arrived at Calcutta two daya tiefore the Gazelle sailed ; that the interest had been reduced still further to four per cent,, while the brokers were eagerly doing good bills at a nd I under the Bank minimum. Money was declared to be overabundant, and the bullion in the Bank of England double what it was two months before. This determination on the part of the Bank to lower the rate of interest had had a most salutary effect upon the mercantile and manufacturing interests throughout the United Kingdom, and fully justified the anticipations formed, and the course adopted by the directors in making money easier. Deep interest was ' excited in the commercial world by the meeting of creditors of some of the principal houses that had succumbed to the " pressure." The results of the deliberations on the affairs of Messrs. Truman & Cook, of Mincing-lane, Colonial Brokers, had, from the vast magnitude of their transactions, excited the deepest anxiety. A confidential accountant from the Bank of England was directed to inspect the books "of the firm, and, after a searching enquiry, the report was most satisfactory, announcing that the firm would pay 20s. in the pound by instalments. The investigations of the*firms of Messrs. Sanderson & Co., whose liabilities at the time of stoppage were £1,725,000, and of Scott, Bell & Co., £327,000, terminated equally satisfactory, with this additional advantage to the creditors, that the instalments bear interest at five per cent. Altogether the meetings of the creditors of the failed hMses had turned out more favourable than was an-ticipated.—-Hobart Town Courier. I Steam jo England. — Extract of a private letter, dated Jersey, 13th Dec, 1847.~ " The India and Australia Royal Mail Steam. Packet Company via Egypt, has its agent here — Lieut. R. J. Fayrer, who expects, he tells me, to set it going in the spring. He goes overland via Suez, and then is "to"command the steamer going to New South. Wales. &c. He has established the American «n<T West Indian steamers, and when he has done the Pacific, retires." — Byd. Mor. H«r.