CALIFORNIA.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 524, 10 August 1850, Page 3

CALIFORNIA.

The following intelligence from California is extracted from the Launceston Examiner. The account of the fire at San Fiancisco was received by the Petrel which arrived on the 12th July at Hobart Town from San Francisco.

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE FOUR BLOCKS IN RUINS LOSS ESTIMATED AT TWO MILLONS ! The most destructive fire winch has yet visited San Francisco (says the Journal of Commerce of Saturday, May 4th) broke out this morning in the " United States" house on Kearney-street, fronting Portsmomh-square. The scene was soon a terrible picture of the power of the destroying elernpnt. Duiing the progress of the flames v\e passed along the wharves, and saw a number of our merchants removing their most valuable effects into boats. An iron-building on Washington-street was destroyed almost as rapidly as the wooden edifices by which it was sui rounded, We have heard from two 01 three sources that two boys were destroyed in the Empire House, but oi the truth of this we are not certain. In addition to the above, says the Polynesian, we have been furnished with a private letter from a most creditable source, from which we make the following . xtracts ; — "San Francisco, May 4, 1850. " , I write in haste to inform you of another awful fire in this town. A few minutes before the dawn of day we weie roused by the cry of ' fire' from the Plaza — the * United States' gambling house was in one sheet of flame, which soon spread right and left. In a moment the entire line of Ports-mouth-square, from Washington to Claystieets, was in ruins, and the flames rapidly spreading with a square front towards Mont-gomery-street. So appalled were the occupants, and so helpless are we in this community, that the element had full sway, until that entire block from the square down Clay to Montgomery and Washington-screets was one mass of ruins — save the new and beautiful banking bouse of Burgoyne and Co., on the corner of Montgomery and Washington-streets. At one time the fire crossed Clay-street, and taking possession of some three or four story buildings, threatened all that part of town. " In the short space of a single hour, three entire blocks, each of six fifty vara lots, have been burned over, the inhabitants turned out of doors, saving but little else than what at the moment they happened to have on. From* the corner of Clay-street along the Plaza, up Washington to Dupont-street, was one nest of gamblers — for such the community have no sympathy. " The losses of this morning are immense, and will fall heavily upon all — they can only be counted by millions ! " This fire was undoubtedly the work of an incendiary, as it was first discovered in an unoccupied gambling-house, about which there had been a law suit, which a few days since

v;as decided ayMiii>t the gamblers. Since I commenced writing I team that two men have been arrested upon suspicion, and that the police have good grounds for arresting three more. If there be good grounds against them, the community will not wait the slotv action of the court, but give a funeral pile out of the embers of their own destruction. The town is all excitement and no business doing." The proceedings of the Legislature at San Francisco are published in the Pacific News, entire up to the 29ih March last; the proceedings as well as the report of them are on the "go a head" system ; railway pace is evident in every thing in California, the most remarkable of which are the off-hand elections , for public appointments, all of which from the Governor on the descending scale, to the meanest civil officer are chosen by the people or their represeutatives ; the offices of chief justices, clerks of Supreme Court, district attorneys, county judges, county clerks, county attorneys, county surveyors, sheilffs, recorders, assessors, coroners, treasuiers, &c, &c, are filled by the votes of the "citizens, who announce in the newspapers the candidates according to "parly" feeling', and invite support ; thus, are brief notices given : — "for Sheriff: Col. Jack Hays the gallant Texican, will be sustained in the proposed election by many voters." " Jackson Moses is up before the people of San Francisco as a candidate for the office of clerk of the County Court." "For Mayor: We the citizens of San Francisco, and friends ot Col. James B. Huil, take pleasure in bringing his name before the public for the office of Mayor, Hosts of Whigs, &c, &c. In the Legislative Council, on the 23rd March a bill was intioduced by a Mr. Walt hall to suppress gaming ; Mr. Moore's motion that *' the bill lie on the table indefinitely," was lost. Mr. Deal offered the following resolution, which was adopted : Resolved that the committee on the judiciary be, and is hereby, intrusted to prepare and report a bill, at as early a day as possible, to prevent the emigration of all persons not citizens of theUnited States, from one of the Penal settlements of Europe ;" the bill was introduced on the 29th, and read a first time. A portrait of his Excellency Peter H.Burnett, Governor of California, was ordered to be painted and yiUced in the halls of the Legislature. — At Coloma a saw mill has been erected ; the price paid there for timber on the 25th March last, was per thousand feet. — Messrs. Finlay, Jonson & Co. were electing a building in San Francisco of brick, three stories in height, surmounted by a handsome dome, covering a large hall to be U!>ed as a Merchant's Exchange, at a cost from 150,000 to 200,000 dollars. — The following articles realized as enumerated by p.iblic auction on the Bsh Auiil. — Quaiter sacks Chili flour, #2, 50c, @ %± 50c; sperm caudles, 98c. ; barrels mess pork, #26 to J&26 50c. ; English cheese 56c. ; Jamaica rum, 4lc. ; sweet potatoes, 15c. ; butter, GOc. @ 05c. ; sugar, 20c. @ 23c. ; all eaah. The Alia Calljornia of the 18th Febiuary, states that upwards of three million feet ol timber arrved in the ].ort of San Francisco tromthe United States since the Saturday morning previous.