New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, May 22, 1850.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 501, 22 May 1850, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, May 22, 1850.

By the Perseverance we have received files of Sydney papers containing English intelligence to the sth January. The news was brought to Sydney by the Bangalore, bound to Moreton Bay with convicts, which left Portsmouth on the 6th January. Extracts of the most interesting news will be found in our present number. H. M. S. Meander arrived in harbour last night from Sydney and remains until Saturday, when we believe she sails for Auckland on her way to Valparaiso. It appears that a dispute had arisen between Captain Keppel and Captain Erskine as to the right of appointing an officer to the command of H. M. S. Rattlesnake, vacant by the death of Captain Owen Stanley. We give the particulars as they are related in the Sydney Morning Herald^ which adds that the .matter in dispute has been referred to the decision of the Lords of the Admiralty. The Louis and Miriam was loading for Port Nicholson, and was advertized to sail shortly after the Perseverance. In the list of English shipping the Poictiers, a vessel of 754 tons, was advertized to sail for the Southern settlements of New Zealand early in February.

We have received the second number of the New Zealand Magazine which on a cursory perusal we think maintains the character established by the first number. The first paper " on the Geology of New Zealand," by the Rev. R. Taylor, contains many interesting particulars in connection with the volcanoes in the Northern Island, and the gradual changes from natural causes conti nually taking place in this country, There is also another paper by the same author on the Ignis Fatuus, as seen by him near Waimate at the Northern part of this island. In the concluding portion of his Review of Mr. Wakefield's Art of Colonization, Mr. Swainson enters at length into the question of the best mode of disposing of land in a new colony, and attacks the system of Absenteeism introduced into this colony by the New Zealand Company, which he condemns as being worse than the system of Crown Reserves formerly acted upon in the North American Colonies. At the conclusion of the article Mr. Swainson proposes a plan for the appropriation of land to the early settlers of a New Colony, in which he effectually separates the resident from the absentee holder of land. This is followed by a brief sketch by the Editor, of the Southern Colonies, " gleaned," as we are informed in a note, from Montgomery Martin's History of the British Colonies. An article on "the progress of Experiments on the New Zealand Flax" gives an account of the different efforts made to discover an easy and cheap process for preparing flax as an article of export. These articles are intermingled with others of a lighter kind to suit different tastes and render the Magazine acceptable to readers of all classes.

The Artemisia sailed on Sunday for San Francisco with a cargo of timber, potatoes, and other produce of this settlement. This is the third vessel which has loaded for California from this port. She will be followed shortly by two other vessels which are laid on from this port for San Francisco. There were very few passengers from Wellington by the Artemisia.