CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 503, 29 May 1850, Page 3

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

The South African gives an account of a remarkable occunence which has just taken place in the Supreme Court. When the heavy criminal roll of the sessions was exhausted, it was discovered that an individual had sat as a juror on most of the trials under a wrong name; all the findings were therefore void, and, where sentence had been pronounced, the parties were released, and cannot be again tried for the same crimes. Among these were three men condemned to death for a savage murder* It is understood that the parties indicted for minor offences on whom sentence was not pronounced will not be again put on trial, though it is competent for the attorney-general to do so. On 31st January a preliminary examination took place into the charge brought against Benjamin Thomas Glynn, of having at the late sessions of the supreme court personated his brother Thomas Glynn as a juror. The defendant admitted the charge, but stated in his declaration that his brother being unwell he attended in court to answer for him in case his name was called, thinking that there would be no hsrm in doing so. He was committed for trial, but admitted to bail, himself in £100, and two sureties in £50 each.

Locusts were very numerous on the frontier, and the accounts of their ravages are such as to excite serious apprehension. Already considerable damage has been done by them, and much more is anticipated. By great efforts the standing crops of Indian corn and gardens have been partly saved ; but in other instances every endeavour to resist their invasion has been utterly futile. Mr. D. Hanney on the Kerriega River, has had cleared off by them from 15 to 18 acres' of standing corn. At Salem the country has been left bare, and at Famerfield, a missionary village of natives, damage to the crops has been done by them to the amount of several hundred pounds, and the ravages of this formidable insect will probably exteud through Kaffirland. ,

Commercial Mission. — We take the following paragraph from the Port Elizabeth Gazette, a Cape of Good Hope newspaper ;—; — Among the passengers brought by the Belgian vessel Oceanic, which lately sailed for Sydney, were two gentlemen sent out, one by the Belgian, and the other by the Dutch Government. The object of their mission was to ascertain the capabilities of this and the other British colonies of Australia and New Zealand, with a view to establish an advantageous traffic between them and their own countries. Their opinion of the possibility of commencing a direct and permanent trade between their respective nations and this colony was decidedly favourable, and in all probability many months will not elapse without some arrival from either the ports of Belgium or Holland. Of the advantage of such a traffic there can be no doubt, and we are informed by the Belgian agent, that the people whom he represents being extensive purchasers of wool exported from Great Britain, would be naturally anxious to establish commercial relations with this colony, were it merely for the purpose of avoiding the additional expense incurred in receiving a supply of that staple article through a third party. There are other productions of this colony, which would be of great value to a country possessed of the manufacturing industry of Belgium, which country would furnish another market for the disposal ot raw produce. In the removal of restrictions hitherto imposed (by the abolition of the Navigation Law) there are other advantages, which would naturally suggest themselves to our readers, which would be conferred on this colony by the establishment of this species of commercial league. Should however a new outlet for the disposal of our staple commodity, wool, be the only advantage derived, we shall still be gainers by the transaction, but we anticipate other results from the connection. — S. M. Herald.