ENGLISH NEWS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 59, 21 February 1852, Page 3

ENGLISH NEWS.

[From the " Sydney Morning Herald," Jan. 3.]

We have received via Port Philip, London papers to the 18th of September, and have been favoured by Messrs. Crawley and Smith with Liverpool papers to the same date. The f exci(ernent caused by our gold discoveries.irip'nicrcasing. Freights for Sydner were doumtM in consequence of the difficulties which < ere expected to be felt here from the deserVion^f seaman. Many of the mercantile men eormected with the colony were buying extensively for this market, and large shipments of all kinds of goods were being made. One hundred tons of flour were on board the " Carthaginian." One of the largest shipping houses, writing to their Sydney agents, say :— " We offered £, for a vessel of 900 tons, and '£—- —for-a- vessel of 400 tons, for your port;-but the owners feared desertion of their crews. We hear that £15. is asked by ships for Government emigrants, whilst 101. to 1U would have been taken a month since. The accounts of gold have created much sensation here. Already many are talking of going; and should the accounts be confirmed, thousands will venture —tempted by gold, your climate, and the prospect of success as settlers if every thing else fails." The price of wool remained firm, and there was a tendency upwards, the Continental buyers being now dependant on the English markets for their supply. For tallow an unusual demand was quoted. The Government proposal to send a screw steamer to Sydney every two months was considered most absurd. The City Article of the Times of Sept. 17, says:— " The advertisement from the Admiralty for tenders for a steam communication to Sydney at intervals of two months, by the Cape of Good Hope, at a speed of 8% knots per hour, is looked upon in the city as simply ridiculous. It has not awakened th^slightest interest on the part of any of the merchants connected with Australia, and the only hope itsgeems to have created is, that it may serve as another and final illustration of the way in which our mail contract system is suffered to cripple a branch of enterprise for which we have greater advantages than any other nation." After showing the advantages of the trade with Australia, and the impulse which it will receive should the gold discoveries be confirmed, the Times shows that the above proposal, at such a time, is absolutely ludicrous: — More than a year ago the Pacific Steam Company of Liverpool, tendered a monthly mail for 48,000£. per auntim. If it were safe at that time to offer to undertake it at such a payment, the improved circumstances of Australia, her increased traffic with the west co?st of America, and the opening up of the Nicaragua transit, to say nothing of the gold question, would now seem at least to warrant an experiment without any such aid. Of course, if the postages, or even half of them, were allowed, there would not be a moment's difficulty, but it is in that point that the power of the Government lies ; and, as it is hopeless to endeavour to disturb their routine views, whatever is now done should be done without them. The colonists, moreover, would be far more willing to patronise and make sacrifices for a line that should boldly start on its own resources than for one which had subjected itself to all sorts of -niggling shackles and delays in negociating with the miserable and humiliating invitations of the Lords of the Admiralty. At all events, if the gold news be confirmed, and no steps are taken, we may at once I'esign the South Pacific to the Americans along with the north. They know the field it presents, and, if we are indisposed to share it with them, it is to be hoped we ehall be rational enough not to complain when they •^shall render-the service to our fellow-countrymen 'it,the-antipodes of regularly conveying goods and 'intelligence many days in advance of the remarkable fleet for which, since the receipt of the recent tidings, the Government have so suddenly advertised." It is gratifying to find that our interests are so closely watched, and that such just views are entertained and so forcibly expressed in influential quarters. We have no doubt that the "HSss^ft in the last extract will have the desired effect. The Morning Chronicle of the same day insinuates that it is intended to give ns steam via the Cape and via Singapore in alternate months.