WELLINGTON.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 338, 15 January 1861, Page 3

WELLINGTON.

We have received Wellington papers to January 5. The Porirua election has taken place. The Returning Officer declared the state of the Poll to be in favor of Mr. Brandon, 149. Mr. Sim having polled 5; The holiday week was spent in Wellington somewhat similar to our own. The rain on Christmas Day unavoidably damping the spirit of the people. A steam excursion to Lowry Bay took place in the Wonga Wonga on the following day. On the Thursday the Choral Society gaye a concert in the fine Hs*H c$ t^e o^s fj e\lQvys.

It was divided into two parts—sacred and secular. It passed off right well. Coup nu Soleiii.—On New Year's Day, a child named Collins, belonging to a private of the 65th regiment, was sun-struck, and, notwithstanding that every effort was made for his recovery, he died the same evening. This should he a caution to parents not to allow their children to be exposed to the sun without a covering to their head. • — lndependent. Commercial.—We have nothing new to report under this head. Business is still in a state of stagnation. Current wants must of necessity be supplied, but there is nothing further doing. While the] present relations exist between the Europeans and Maoris of this island there is no likelihood of any change for the better. The wool season has now fairly set in, and the Hound cleared for London with a cargo valued at £24,000; the Snaresbrook is the only vessel laid on, and the freight, owing to a combination amongst the merchants, rules 100 per cent, higher than what it did last year. The high price realised for wool in the English market, as reported by the last mail, has, of course, had a corresponding effect on this. The slovenly manner, however, in which wool has been shipped from New Zealand has anything but a beneficial effect upon its sale. It will be scarcely credited that Wellington, instead of being a large exporter, is a large importer of grain, and that her exports of other agricultural produce may be put down at nil. The timber trade, which formerly had some life, is now nearly, if not altogether dead. Instead of that we have become exporters of live stock both to Auckland and the Southern Provinces; we question, however, whether this trade, however remunerative it may be to individuals, will be so tojthe Provincp. Until the public lands are unlocked, and the rebellion has been quelled, it is not likely that any real and permanent improvement will be effected in tho commerce of this Province. A trade has sprung up between Wanganui and Taranaki, owing chiefly to the war; but, strange to say, there has been little or no trade between that place and Wellington. It is about time that some energy and enterprise was infused into our merchants. We perceive with satisfaction that a trade is about to be established between this port and the Fijis, which we trust will be remunerative. We can see no reason why Wellington should not enjoy a prosperity to which her geographical position entitles her. The rate of exchange on London is 1 per cent, for 60, and 1| for 30 day bills.—Advertiser. The Nobth Island Press. —Within a comparatively brief space of time a great change has come over the press in this island. At Wellington, the* Spectator, which has ao long been the bitter opponent of Dr. Featherston, has completely gone round; and we now find it giving him a warmer suppjrt than that which even the Independent can afford to award him. It is very probable that we shall find it before long the acknowledged organ of the Provincial Government, and of the boasted policy which it has so often and to justly denounced. A similar change has taken place in the views of the two leading Auckland journals. The Southern Cross has got rid of Mr. Carleton who was so long its editor, and it now as warmly supports the Governor's native policy and the Stafford Ministry; as it formerly opposed both. The New Zealander on the other hand has changed its colors, and has become all at once the organ of the peace party and the denouncer of the General Government and all its doings. Judging from the few leading articles we have seen from the pen of the new editor of the Cross^ we should be inclined to think that that paper is now edited as ably as any other in the Colony, and that it will afford invaluable assistance to the General Government during the general elections.— lbid. Fatal Accident.—lt is our painful duty to have to record the melancholy and fatal accident which happened on the first day of the year to one of the sons of tho Rev. D. Hogg, minister of the Presbyterian Church, Wanganui. Some of Mr. Hogg's family had formed a portion of a party who had gone on a pic-nic to Fordell on New Year's Day, a distance of some seven miles or so into the country, where they enjoyed themselves in the innocent pastimes peculiar to the season, and all went on well. On their return home, however, the scene sadly and suddenly altered. The carter ghad on re-yoking the horse forgotten to put the bit in the animal's mouth, and on stopping to do so, the horse on the blinders being removed seeing the cart behind it full of people, immediately took fright, bolted off, and upset the vehicle; owing to which a son of the Key. D. Hogg, a boy of seven years, and a young woman of the name of Williamson, about the age of sixteen, were both seriously injured. It was thought at first that Mr. Hogg's son's collar-bone, which was broken by the fall, was the only hurt the poor hoy had received, but he must* have been internally damaged, for he died in a few hours afterwards. Miss Williamson was so seriously ill that little or no hope was entertained of her recovery. The Rev. Mr. Hogg had just arrived in Wellington on a visit on JNew Year's Day, but on the receipt by a special messenger from Wanganui of the heart-rending intelligence, the rev. gentleman immediately returned to his sorrowing family.— Spectator, January 9.