CALIFORNIA.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 5, Issue 270, 28 November 1861, Page 4

CALIFORNIA.

Our- dates from California are to the 10th of August. The papers at that date were principally occupied with the late American news. They are all from the San Francisco Herald of dates from the 3rd to the 10th of August r-

General Scott says he would have captured the rebels at Harper’s Ferry but for the premature publications ol the newspapers. The New York World, in view of the frequent attacks of the Tribune upon General Scott’s war policy, proposes that Horace Greeley,with a long string of titles at the end of his name/ shall supersede Lieut. Scott and take the command. We extract from the World the following truthful and graphic description of the proposed new General and Commander-in-Chiaf :-v“ We need not repeat that we shall be glad to see Air. Greeley at the head of the army. He possesses all the personal traits calculated to inspire enthusiasm in men and give unity to their action. He unites to the sagacity of the octogenarian the intrepidity of meridian age and frisky buoyancy of the infant.”

Wheat. —The SlocJcfon Independent of Bth Aug. says, The market quotations are 4s. Bd. to ss. 6d. per 100 lbs., or 2s. 9d. as the minimum and 3s. 3d. as the maximum price per bushel. AVe do not believe that one-half the yield of the farming country has yet been marketed, and it is to be anticipated that a still further decline will transpire before the shipping season closes.

Prices of Cattle.— A sale of- Cattle transpired on the 31st of July, and on the Ist August, near Mokelumne City, in San Joaquin county, at which 140 cows, calves, and steers, sold at the average price csf 20s. per head. 159 head of Spanish horses in lots, were sold at the same time and place, bringing an average of £3 15s per head ; 30 head of half-bred ■horses brought <£l2 10s. per head. A Jeff. Davis Dinner.-— A secessionist went into a restaurant in Alartinez a few days since, and, called- for a “ first rate Jeff. Davis meal.” In due course of time the waiter placed before him a large covered dish —“ only that and nothing more.” On removing the cover, Secesh, found snugly coiled up a hempen, rope, with a slip noose at one end. He left —had no appetite. Taxation and Trade.-— At a crisis like the present, whatever mains of raising public revenue for the support of the Government may he deemed necessary by our lawmakers, will, of course, be responded to, by the "people ; but there is danger that a rule of heavy taxation once inaugurated and patiently borne, may not be so. easily relaxed, when there shall become less occasion for its exercise.

Perhaps no section of the Union still loyal to it, feels more sensibly the injurious effects of a high scale of impost duties than our own. As yet, manufactures on this coast are in their infancy. We are a largely producing people, but of the products of our- soil. To dispose' of the surplus of these products, we must elicit trade with other parts of the world, and if this trade be hampered by high impost duties, of course an interchange of commodities is to that extent restricted, orcrippled. Alongside of us is the free port of Victoria. On the north is an extended frontier, v/hero the revenue has little protection. The free port of Victoria enjoys an excellent opportunity of competing with our own, in supplying tins northern section, whether it be British or American domain. Already Victoria is eliciting the Pacific Island trade, which, until recently,. San Francisco enjoyed. With Victoria itself, our trade is declining, and no wonder, for it is becoming our- commercial competitor.