WELLINGTON.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3095, 18 January 1879, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

This day. The ship St. Leonards leaves for London with 6353 packages of wool, skins, etc., valued at £91,745, and the Wairoa also, with a cargo valued at £76,495. The second New Guinea expedition is being got under way rapidly; about thirty applications have beda received. It is proposed to take a couple of horned cattle, two horses, and a number of goats, and an endeavor will be made to secure representatives of the different handicrafts. Preliminary arrangements have been made for obtaining land for a European settlement. The expedition is to start in August. The New Zealander says the Government received a petition in favor of commuting the sentence of Walsh the murderer, signed by a number of people in the South; also, a report from a medical man that the prisoner is suffering from mania. A commission, consisting of three doctors, will be appointed to make an investigation as to his state of mind.

The Native owners between Otaki and Foxton have given Government a chain wide of land in order to enable the Government to form the railway which runs through their property.

It is understood that Mr Worry, Chief Clerk, Railway Department, will shortly be appointed Under-Secretary of the same department.

H.M.S. Nymphe has just started on her voyage home.

A presentation on behalf of the police force was made to-day to Mrs Atcheson by the oldest member of the police force. The presentation consisted of a handsome casket with a hundred sovereigns enclosed. "

The Public Works Department experience great difficulty in obtaining the necessary sleepers for railway works in hand, and, in consequence, have sent for some time to discontinue the practice of obtaining hard wood sleepers from Tasmania. It is even now feared that owing to the difficulty of procuring sleepers of any in this colony the Government will be obliged to send large orders out of the colony. Offers for supplying a million sleepers from Tasmania have been received and as a temporary means to prevent absolute stoppage of one or two works approaching completion fifty thousand have meanwhile been ordered from Tasmania. [This message is published 4s received, but we confess we cannot make anything of the " sleepers " question.—Ed.]

Friday. The Royal Commission on education have appointed a committee to consider the best mode of procedure to accomplish the object they have in view, and to decide as to what form the inquiry should take. The result was that four com* mjtteea were appointed, one to arrange as to University matters, a second to deal with the question of technical education, one for secondary education, and another to arrange for scholarships and finance. After the appointment of the committees the commission was adjourned till Monday, at which time they expect to be able to proceed with business without any further delay.