AUCKLAND. [From the New Zealander.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 312, 26 July 1848, Page 2

AUCKLAND. [From the New Zealander.]

Yesterday morning, at half past four o'clock the sentry on duty was alarmed by a volume of flame issuing from tbe north wing of Government House, in immediate, contiguity with the kitchen. The alarm., was speedily communicated from sentry ' to sentry, and almost on the instant, the corporal of the Qef neral's guard (whose post is close to the government gate) in conjunction .Wjith the sergeant of the Governor's, hastened with their men to the spot, the corporal having previously despatched a messenger to apprise thejn»ia< guard at the barracks ot the impendiug catas^ trophe. These united guards, numbering seventeen men, displayed the greatest promptitude and decision, their leaders forcing the westerndoors of the mansion, and rousing its inmates,, who, unconscious of danger, were buried in' profound repose. His Excellency the Governor immediately conveyed Mrs., Grey from the burning pile, whence she was forthwith conducted to the residence of General Pitt, where his Excellency has been necessitated ; toseek a temporary shelter. The guests and domestics of the i establishment narrowly escaped, with scarcely a vestige vf clothing. The soldiers of the two guards meanwhile, were assiduously employed, removing books, papers, and furniture ; and although the fire spread throughout tht building -with extraor-

dinary rapdity^sucb. was their activity and zeal that nearly all the records of the Private »nd Native Secretary's -offices,; (situate in the southern wing), most of the Governor's library, and a good deal of the household furniture, were through their meritorious exertions saved. The 58th regiment, headed by Colonel Wynyard ; the ipolice, under the supervision of their inspector, Captain Atkyns ; together with a party of royal artillery, were shortly on the ground ;' not with any idea of preserving the. .mansion, because Auckland, alas, possesses but one of those essentials to the extinction of fire, — an engine, — but with a view to the maintenance of order, and the rescuing as. much property as possible from the flames. The Governor in person superintended the whole of the operations,' and the soldiery and police laboured amid the blazing: walls with untiring ardour, until his Excellency, fearful lest the roof should fall and engulph them, directed their retiring from the perilous undertaking;—thankful, as he himself expressed it, — that no life was lost. The Colonial and Private Secretaries were present, the latter gentleman being particularly active. The bugles of the 58th having sounded the general turn out, the inhabitants were quickly aroused, the vast concourse which hastened to render assistance being witnesses of the grand but destructive spectacle. Within .an hour the entire structure, with the exception of the chimneys, was burnt to the ground. During the day parties were employed searching amidst the debris in discovery of any fusion of plate, none of that valuable article having been removed. The fire is supposed to have originated in the butler's apartments. This is the second vice regal hall which has beeu burned down since the establishment of the ccrlony ; that at Russell having been consumed on the sth of May, 1842. The late edifice was constructed, of Norway and American pine, by Mr. Manning, of High Holborn, London, at a cost of about two thousand guineas ; however, with alterations, additions, and embellishments since its erection here, it has entailed an expenditure (as we have been credibly informed) bordering upon £1 6,000. It was but a shell at best, and we hope it will be replaced by a fabric of a more substantial and s. cure description. In the meanwhile, (in a town where, from the influx of immigrants, even the humblest individual finds it a matter of difficulty to procute a house to shelter in,) the inconvenience and discomfort to which the Governor has been reduced, is matter of general and unfeigned regret. We recommend our fellow townsmen to improve this warning by a renewed carefulness in respect to fire ; for had that subtle enemy broke forth in any of our crowded streets, with the string breeze of Friday morning, we might probably have had to deplore the conflagration of scores of wooden houses, instead of simply recording the destruction of one. — June 24. The Governor issued a supplementary Gt - zette on Saturday, for the express purpose of ! thanking the inhabitants of Auckland for their active endeavours' to 'assist iv saving his Excellency's and the public property on the unfortunate occasion of the recent fire. Rumour assigns many dwellings as the temporary resting • place of his Excellency, but we believe we are correct in stating the domicile of the Private Secretary as the shelter determined on. An address of sympathy is in progress, which, we have no doubt, will be universally responded to. Whilst on this topic we hasten to make the amende to the Royal Sappers and Miners, whose commendable exertions we inadvertently passed by in our hasty notic? of the luckless conflagration. The following is the Gazette notice alluded to :— — Colonial Secretary's Office, Auckland, 24th June, 1848. Many of the inhabitants of Auckland having, from the very commencement of the fire at Government House, on the 23rd instant, until its conclusion, rendered themselves conspicuous by the most prompt and zealous exertions to save both public and private pioperty, tnd having- by those exertions greatly contributed to save the large amount of property which was rescued from the fire, his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief avails himself of this mode of thanking them in his public capacity for their ass. stance iv saving the public property, and of returning them his own most graceful thanks for tbe benefit he received, as a private individual, from their exertions, and most admirable conduct upon this unfortunate occasion. By his Excellency's command, Andrew Sinclair, ■Colonial Secretary.

The letter of September, 1846, addressed by the Port Nicholson settlers to the New Zealand Company, demanding redress of grievances^ and compensation for declared wrongs, hag led 'to ah acri^ojattrat deputation, which,

however much it 'may expose the Company's malversation, will, we fear, lead to no profitable result to the not unnaturally excited writers. To that letter Mr. Cowell, a functionary appointed by the Colonial-office, but puid by the Company, has replied, and, to our thinking, much more in the spirit of a special pleader, than that of a statesman earnest to elicit truth, and eager to' render justice to the denouncers of a real or imaginary wrong. The allegations and inferential deductions of Mr. Cowell's report, have thrown oil upon fire, and, for their own sakes, we grieve that the settlers should have given way to fiery recrimination rather than to the exercise of a sober, reflective, and chastened judgment. Sympathizing in their cause, and, from personal knowledge, convinced of the delusions and, deceptions uuder which they were first seduced to emigrate, we cannot but deplore the hot haste with which they have given to the world their bitter replication to Mr. Cowell's unreasonably stigmatized opinion. They have played the losing gamester to the life, and having thrown for the last stake, have, at the same time, thrown away the temper so necessary to insure them a chance of the game. That the injuries inflicted have merited consideration we are well aware ; but, in this world, the meie fact of being aggrieved, is of itself an indication of the comparative dependence of the sufferer upon the wrong doer. Under such circumstances, how would the prudent — they who entertain a hope (however faint) of re iress comport themselves ? Surely not by taking the oppressor by the throat? Such indulgence, however congenial to the bitterness of the heart, is far from complimentary to the sagacity of the head. Into this error of excitability our southern fellow colonists have unhappily fallen, and we doubt they have, in consequence, given their opponents the best of the" game. - It is not to be supposed that * lattle of such magnitude could be waged betwixt the " ftesideut Land Purchasers" and the Crown Commissioner, without ca'ling into the field a host of auxiliaries on either side. Far from it — a cloud of skirmishers have taken extended order in the columns of " Original Correspondence" of the Wellington journals, whence they have delivered sundry very effective shots — shots which, if they do not impair the efficiency of the grand details of the " Resident Land Purchasers," nevertheless do considerable damage to many of their statements. It is tiue that their main position has neither been shaken nor turned. They have not received the. consideration for which they parted with their coin, and for which they sundered the ties dearest to the human heart — the abandonment of home and kindred, the severance of friendships, and the braving of all the perils of a rude and savage land. A residence of years softens, if it does not wholly obliterate, the memory of the pangs which almost every early colonist has experienced, when removed from the sustaining fellowship of the voyager with whom, (through the months of the outward passage) he has indulged in pleasing anticipations of a fanciful £1 Dorado. Absurd as these day dreams questionless are, it is still nevertheless not one of the least of the settlers' penalties to tear them from the heart, and in parting with those who sympathized in their indulgence, to fall at once into the dull, drear, realities of the emigrant's arduous and, frequently, lonely lot. Having felt all this, we can make ample allowance for the " Resident Land Purchasers," in adverting to it as an aggravation of grievance in the non-fulfilment of their reasonable expectations. It is futile of their opponents to allege, that because some of their body may have realised 40 or 400 per cent, profit by sale of part of their lands, that the fact is a sufficient answer to their honest demand to be put in possession of the whole for which they covenanted. As a set off agaiust the plea of " ruin," it may in many cases hold good, but when the New Zealand Company's sections were bought, it formed no contingent clause that the purchaser should be restricted by comparative success with a few acres, from insisting on the full tide of fortune he would be likely to enjoy if put in possession of his land in its entirety. We leave the further consideration of this subject to those more deeply interested in its investigation than we. That the "Resident Land Purchasers" have been grievously wronged we are fully convinced. That a large instalment of justice is due to them from the New Zealand Company we imagine to be in* disputable. That they have urged their claims in too impatient a spirit we admit, but we also conceive that it would be as dishonest as derogatory to the character of. the Company were they to make the impetuosity of their victims the apology for their blunder. — Ib., June 10.

, H. M.Ship Calliope, Captain Edward Stanley, came into harbour from the Bay of Islands, on Sunday evening, after a harrassing cruise of six and twenty days, during which' tun* iht ' •ncounttred a succewiqi^ -of g«l'e§ '

and tempestuous weather. On the outward passage, whilst endeavouring to fetch into Kororarika,~ she was blown eightly miles to seaward, off Cape Brett, making a protracted passage of nearly eight days. All was in a state of perfect quietude at the Bay of Islands ; the recent tour, of his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief, to that quarter, having been productive ot the most advantageous consequences — tending, as it has done, to conciliate'the native mind, — to disabuse it of false impressions,' and to give a salutary check to indirect and undue influences. ' There is a whisper that some of the chiefs of the "Northern Confederacy," have .been revising certain ancient accounts, of our old Europeans, who dwell in our midst, upon places that have been given them," — not without " a consideration" — such consideration, being inter alia, certain pounds weight of tobacco, meted out to the givers, at the rate, it is alleged, of from ten to twelve figs to the pound. Now this astute confederacy, it is said, having gone over the accounts current of- the good old days, have, by the aid of modern illumination, detected one or two trivial inaccuracies ; such for example, as from four to six Sgs minus the covenanted pound, and upon which they demand the customary commercial privilege of E. and O.E. :— a deficit involving no inconsiderable amount of native claim has thus accrued, but whether entailing a further claim of interest until paid, we have yet to learn. Time, however, will no doubt fully •'pluck out the heart of mystery," to which we can only as yet thus cursorily advert. The Calliope, on her return passage, was at one time, in imminent jeopardy. On Monday the 19th instant, at 9 p.m., when a short distance from the Hen and Chickens, the frigate was struck by a heavy squall, which split her main-topsail, and compelled her to reduce her canvas. At 4, 50, a.m., of the 20th, the ship had been driven to the northward, the Poor Knights being in sight ; and at daybreak she was discovered to be completely embayed. To weather Cape Tewara, (or Bream Head) became a matter of extreme anxiety, as upon the success of that rnanctuvre the salvation of the ship and crew depended, there being no room to wear and attempt to claw off shore on the opposite tack: It was a moment to try the nerve and demand the skill of the accomplished seaman ; and fortunately, in neither quality is Captain Stanley in the slightest degree deficient. The gallant little frigate was made to carry the heaviest press of sail, beneath which she could safely stagger, until with indomitable perseverance, and favoured by the tide, the difficulty was happily surmounted, and Cape Tewara passed. Captain Stanley then bore up for Wangari, a beautiful and capacious harbour, with excellent holding ground, perfect shelter, and a fine and fertile neighbouring country. In running in, the ship tailed on a shoal of mud and sand, (not laid down in the chart) but so gently — the water being smooth as that of a mill pond — that her grounding was unknown until her way was perceived to be stopped. It was about half ebb when the frigate grounded so that at low water she heeled over at an angle of 23deg., and had in consequence to be be shored up with rough spars and top-gallant masts, previously sent on deck. In this emergency, 40 tons cf water were started, and her port guns run in, and shot shifted to windward. A stream cable and anchor having been laid out astern, at 7 50, the ship was hove off, and ran in safety up the harbour, bringing to with her best bower, in twelve fathoms, at 8 p.m. During these trying operations the beautiful little ship behaved admirably, and did she only possess two feet more of beam, she would, in the opinion of her gallant captain, be perfection. During the stay of the Calliope at the Bay of Islands, Captain Stanley brought a claim for salvage of the stores and cargo of the American whaler Hope, before the Resident Magistrate, who declined to n ake* an award, — tho case therefore, will be brought under the consideration of the Supreme Court during its next sittings. — Ib. f June 28.

The Undine, with the Bishop of New Zealand on board, arrived yesterday from the south, haying visited the Chatham Islands while away. — lb., July 5. The Court Circular, of the 15th February, informs us that three seals, namely, . for the provinces of New, Ulster, New Munster, and the general government of New Zealand ; together with a like instrument for the island of Labunn, had been prepared by Mr. Benjamin Wyon, chief engraver of her Majesty's seals, by whom they were submitted to the Queen in council, where they were approved of. -Visit of H. B. M. Ship Dido, Captain Maxwell, and the Right Rev.'the Lord i Blsaop of New Zealand. — Since our last we have been visited by another British ship of war, the Dido, Captain Maxwell. She came from New Zealaud, and brought us from that island another and "quite unexpected visitor, the Bishop. They 'had "previously called at tht Tonga group. Th»capt»ih h«d to Ttnder

assistance here to Mr. Consul Pritchard. B at he took occasion also to show the native* much kindness and good will, and before leaving, made handsome presents to some of the chiefs. We had previously beard f of the activity and zeal of Dr. Selwyn as Bishop of New Zealand, and his visits to several of our stations*on Tutuila and Upola, including the institutions for education, printing office, &c. f and the brief intercourse thus'afforded to several of the brethren, have left a very favourable impression. He is clearly a working missionary, and understands both the character of the natives of Polynesia, and the best methods of promoting their mental and moral improvement. He is also a friend of the natives, in reference to their relations- with foreigners. He also avows himself anxious to • promote the evangelization of some of the islands to the westward. The captain had instructions to inquire after the natives of Uea, who lately took refuge on Rotuma, as reported in another column, and the bishop appeared highly pleased with the prospect of being able to show kindness to those poor creatures, and obtaining an introduction to their countrymen. The Dido having previously called at Tutuilt, anchored at Apia on the 21st of January, and left on the 10th February. — Samoan Reporter. We hear that Captain Atkins, of the Police establishment, has been appointed to a new station on the Waikato, and Inspector White has been appointed Collector of Customs and Resident Magistrate at Monganui. The already overpaid Survey Department has been increased by the addition of G. O. Ormsby, Esq., as Deputy Surveyor General, with a salary of £300 per annum, an officer altogether unnecessary in the present state' of the colony. — Southern Cross, April 29. Mining Royalty. — The London Gazette of 28th Dec. last, contains additional instructions under the Royal Sign Manual and Signet to the Governor-in-Chief of New Zealand, for altering the Royalty to be reserved on Minerals raised from Waste Lands in the colony, so as to be in future 15 per cent, of said minerals. — Ibid, July 8.

The Sydney and Auckland Cattlx Trade.— "As might have been anticipated from the recent arrivals of so many vessels, namely, the William, Ralph Bernal, Hyderabad, Marchioness of Douglas, Palmyra, Tasmanian, and Eleanor Lancaster, together with those expected, namely, the Fanny, Hyderabad, Ralph Bernal, and Lord Hobart, tht stock market has ruled so' law as scarcely to pay importers. At first, the heifers per William, sold, by private sale, at £5 : 10s.; her wethers, at 9s. 78 head of cattle per Ralph Bernal, sold, partly at auction and partly at private sale, at about £4: 155., the males of which the contractors got at £4 : 2s. 104 head, per Hyderabad, averaged at auction, £4: 10s. to £4: 155., and the result induced the importers per Marchioness of Douglas to withdraw from public sale their cargo, consisting chiefly of cows and large cattle, which were delivered to the contractors at Motutapu for a sum which must have left the adventure a losing one. The Palmyra's stock, being a smal' and well selected lot, sold at auction at fair prices ; cows averaged £6 : 10s. ; heifers, £5 : 10s. ; calves, £3 : 155. ; and 16 bullocks were taken by the contractors at £8. The Eleanor Lancaster managed to land, in prime order, 278 head of really good cattle, and they were at once sold to Mr. Buckland for £4 : 10s. all round — the importers preferring a wholesale transaction to the risk of public auction at present. The Tasmania's stock landed also in good order, and were put up to auction yesterday, but after the disposal of 10, the sale was stopped by the importers. The William, London, and Robtrt Syers, which were expected here, we learn, from private advices, have gone to Cook's Strait. — Communicated to the New Zealandcr, May 13.