CORRESPONDENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 109, 5 February 1853, Page 10

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. *v Sl?<T I. be S that y°u will insert in your paper the following lines of advice and instruction which I give to the people of New Munster gratis. When the emigrants, Canterbury ones, of course, were about leaving England for this beautiful place, New Zealand, they asked either the Association, or amongst themselves, what kind of a climate it was ? « Oh, superlative!" was the immediate answer. Rather too ready, I think, if I may be allowed to have that sense, m conjunction with my others, and if I have not, why I shall uot be much worse off than a

good many people not very far off. First and foremost, then, I will begin and give the true state of the seasons here, together with the climate, which, in my poor opinion, is about as difficult a thing as any one person can do, and therefore any little fault that I commit ought to be passed over in silence. We will begin with spring, when nature first begins to show her charms here as well as elsewhere, but the worst of it is, that just in this spot of the globe she is a very long time about it, and as to calculating what next spring may be from the one that is past is an utter impossibility, and I might just as well say that I can tell what kind of a child my wife will have, whether it will be a boy or a girl, or an hermaphrodite, which last term is the one that I think is best applicable to the seasons here; for instance, you get a winter's night in the middle of summer, and a summer's day in the middle of winter, and not only once, but pretty often. Now I calculate that that must be a very injurious thing for nature to perform on any young plant, not that I say it can be stopped, for that is the worst part of it—it can't be stopped by human interference. All that I can say in the way of consoling you is, —to jog on, those that can, and those that can't, walk a-bead after them as fast ye can, but take good care which way your superiors are going, for may be it is tb.3 wrong road. Well, now, I don't think the three other seasons differ much from spring in many respects, they seem about as changable as one another. A plant that will grow in luxuriance one season, next season is sown just as early, and does not do more than just come up. What is the cause of it ? Nothing but the changeableness of the weather; if not that, I leave other and wiser men than myself to find out, and give the public that information which is due to them. I remain, Sir, Your obedient servant, A Labouring Man. Christchnrch, Jan. 29 th.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton, Times,

Sib, —In consequence of my name having been brought so prominently forward in your Journal of the 29th January, I am called upon to notice it, therefore trust you will permit me to occupy a small portion of your next publication, in order that I may be enabled to rectify the erroneous statements which have been made not only to yourself but the public at large, by certain parties who have exulted in the propagation of known falsehoods.

The truthful facts of the case are simple, and from the public of this Settlement having been under considerable excitement from the evil machinations of designing persons for some weeks past, I shall in order to afford the public an insight as to what has taken place, and if possible remove that excitement, narrate them. I arrived in this colony last March from Sydney, and from my thorough knowledge of the auriferous nature and formation of the land I had left, had my immediate attention drawn to the similarity there existed between the mountainous ranges of Australia and this settlement, as to the production of the precious metal. I stated my views to a high official; he however differed from me, and urged me not to attempt the discovery, as the minds of the public might become excited, and in case gold was discovered, and not proving a profitable field, it would be the ruin of so youthful a colony ; upon those grounds he declined his assistance. I removed from Lyttelton to Christehurch,-and in the course of a short while the inhabitants became quite cognizant of my views, but not a single individual proffered his assistance either by private or public contribution, indeed the contrary was the case; I was laughed at, and looked upon as an old fool, in a state of dotage, until I became acquainted with Mr. Shand and his two sons, from whom I received what the public of Christehurch considered me unworthy of—every mark of kindness and friendship. Mr. Shand's views and my own exactly coincided as to the metallurgical formation of the country; we therefore determined to examine the mountainous ranges. His youngest son and myself set out for the purpose, carrying the whole of our shelter for the night, food, and

Working Implements, upon our shoulders, and after traversing some hundreds of miles in the mountainous districts during the late inclement, weather, we found - that the implements were inadequate for the task, and nature was unable to sustain such a mode of travelling. We decided upon returning, and either to abandon the scheme or prepare ourselves with more suitable and adequate means. Upon rejoining Mr. Shand and his eldest son, the latter was decided upon, when we immediately undertook to make ready everything that we deemed necessary to enable Mr. Shand's two sons and myself to devote at least three months to the search, for what we and the public were so anxious to ascertain ; but as is always the case in so important an adventure, the jealousy of the public became excited, every movement we made was narrowly watched, and through the, mistaken feelings of one or two parties in whom confidence had been placed, our intentions were, publicly misrepresented, and with the basest of feelings and motives. This party, in order to carry out their designs, resorted to every species of falsehood, which induced many mistaken individuals to join them. After being out a few days upon our second campaign, we rer ceived information that we were followed by some thirty or forty person, who were determined to discover our whereabouts, in the expectation that they would find us hard at work gathering in the golden fruits of our labours' when they anticipated to reap the benefit of our toil without any trouble of their own; however, in this they were disappointed, for after hunting for us some ten or fourteen days, as if we had been culprits of the blackest dye, instead of being their best friends, they came up with us before we had reached a third of the distance to where we proposed to commence our exploring. In consequence of such unmanly conduct being shown to us, we at once decided upon returning, leaving the necessary examination at rest for a while. This disappointment to the Search Hounds has induced them to circulate the grossest falsehoods respecting Mr. Shand and myself, in order to keep the credulity of the public alive, and in an excitable state.

Permit me here to make publicly known that the assertions, promises, and assurances, which appear in your publication, and have been published far and wide, by some evil disposed persons as having been made by me, are a tissue of falsehoodsjfrom beginning to end ; the only promise, or assurance, I ever gave to the pack of men-hunters was, that Mr. Shand and myself would meet them as they desired in public to hear what they had to state, when my health,, which has suffered severely, was sufficiently reinstated.

And that the public may be no longer misled by false statements, I deem it only right to state the views and intentions Mr. Shand and myself had in undertaking the arduous task. From the general appearance of the country and its mineral arrangements, we believed it very possible that gold, after a diligent search, might be discovered ; if so, and it had proved a profitable field, we purposed, after reaping a sufficiency in quiet to repay ourselves, to wait until the whole of the harvest in the colony was secured, when we should have given Her Majesty's Representative notice of our discovery, in order that her interests might be duly, protected, and have called a meeting of the public of Lyttelton and Christehurch together and laid before them the result of our toiLthe fruits of which we should have disclosed to them, upon receiving their reward ; bnt in case the metal was not likely to prove beneficial to the public we should have abandoned the discovery, and have permitted the public to remain in silent ignorance. How far our intentions may be approved of by yourself and your numerous readers, I feel assured that neither you nor a discerning public will justify the means that were adopted by the pack of manhunters, who turned out not for the good of the community at large, but to gratify the worst of passions that can inherit the breast of man; and in conclusion I can only say that which they are now so anxious to attain, they might have been in possession of, if it existed, if they had permitted us to pursue our search in quietness without their anticipated assistance which they now proffer. I remain, Sir, Ydur's respectfully, Chabjlks Cook.

February 2nd, 1853.^

The Long Vacation.—lt is the long vacation in the regions of Chancery-lane. The good ships Law and Equity, those teak-built, copperbottomed, iron-fastened, brazen-faced, and not by any means fast-sailing Clippers, are laid up in ordinary. The Flying Dutchman, with a crew of ghostly clianis imploring all whom they

may encounter to peruse their papers, has drifted, for the time being, Heaven knows where. The Courts are all shut up ; the public offices lie in a hot sleep-, Westminster Hall itself is a shady solitude where nightingales might sing, and a tenderer class of suitors than is usually found there, walk. The Temple, Chancerylane, Serjeants' Inn, and Lincoln's Inn, even unto the Fields, are like tidal harbours at low

water; where stranded proceedings, offices at anchor, idle clerks'lounging on lop-sided stools *•* that will not recover their perpendicular until the current of Term sets in, lie high and dry upon the ooze of the long vacation. Outer doors of chambers are shut up, by the score, messages and parcels are to be left at the Porter's Lodge by the bushel. A crop of grass would grow in the clinks of the stone pavement outside Lincoln's Inn Hall, but that the ticket porters who have nothing to do beyond sitting in the shade there, with their white aprons over their heads to keep the flies off, grub it up and eat it thoughtfully. There is only one Judge in town. Even he only comes twice a week to sit in chambers. If the country folks of those assize towns on his circuit could only see him now! No full-bottomed wig, no red petticoats, no fur, no javelin men, no white wands. Merely a close-shaved gentleman in white trousers and a white hat, with sea bronze on the judicial countenance, and a strip of bark peeled by the solar rays from the judicial nose, who calls in at the shell-fish shop as he comes along and drinks iced ginger-beer! The bar of England is scattered over the face of the earth. "How England can get on through four long summer months without its bar—which is its acknowledged reluge in adversity, and its only legitimate triumph in prosperity—~is beside, the question ; assuredly that shield and buckler of Britannia are not in present wear. The learned gentleman, who is always so tremendously indignant at the unprecedented outrage committed on the feelings of his client by the opposite .party, that lie never seems likely to recover it, is doing infinitely better than might be expected, in Switzerland. The learned gentleman who does the withering business, and who blights all opponents with his tslooniy'sarcasm, is as merry ■as a grig at a French watering-place. The learned gentleman who weeps by the pint on "-the smallest provocation, has not shed a tear these six weeks. The very learned gentleman who has cooled the natural heat of his gingery

complexion in pools and fountains of law, until he has become great in knotty arguments for Term-time, when he poses the drowsy Bench

with legal "chaff,'' inexplicable to the uninitia-

ted, and to most of the initiated too, is roamling, with a charactevestic delight in aridity and dust, about Constantinople. Other dispersed fragments of the same great Palladium are to be found on the canals of Venice, at the second cataract of the Nile, in the baths of Germany, and sprinkled on the sea-sand all over the English coast. Scarcely one is to be encountered in the deserted region of Chancery-lane. If such a lonely member of the bar do flit across the waste, aud come upon a prowling suitor who is unable to-leave off haunting the scenes of his anxiety, they frighten one another, and retreat into opposite shades. It is the hottest long vacation known for many years. All the \, young clerks are madly in love,J and, according to their various degrees, pine for bliss with the beloved object, at Margate, Bnmsgate, or : Gravesend. All the middle-aged clerks think their families too large. All the unowned dogs which stray into the"lnris of Court, and pant "about staircases and other dry pjajces, seeking yater, give short howls of aggravation. All . .he blind men's dogs in the streets dm"w their nasters against pumps, or trip them over buckits. A shop with a sun-blind, and a watered iaveinent, and a bowl of gold and silver fish in he window, is a sanctuary. Temple Bar gets to hot, that it is, to the adjacent Strand and Fleet-street, what a heater is in an urn, and keeps them simmering all night.— Bleak House. Gold in Bnmsii Guiana. —The Guiana • Colonist of 30th June, contains the appended paragraph on the subject of the alleged discoveries in British Guiana :—" And so it would seem that this colony is to be added to the list of gold countries, and the memory of the gal-

hint but ill-fated Raleigh vindicated from the aspersions which have obscured his name. We yesterday inspected some gold dust in the possession of Mr. Abrahams, which he had purchased from a captain from the Orinoco. The gold he finds to be of the finest quality, superior to the product of the Californian or Australian fields, and of the same purity as that which is procured from the sands of the rivers on the Gold Coast of Africa. The present specimen was purchased by the person who sold it to Mr. Abrahams, from the Indians who inhabit the disputed territory between the limits of this colony and the republic of Venezuela, on a tributary of the Cayuni, about three days'journey from the penal settlement. This discovery will, of course, renew the former question of right, and probably embroil vs —or rather the English Government—in a contest with our neighbours. The gold dust is procured from the sands of the rivers which flow into the Essequibo from the mountain ranges towards our frontier, and can only be obtained during the time that the waters of those great natural drains are at their lowest. From the statement of the person from whom Mr. Abrahams derives his information, it appears that the ensuing three months are the only period of the year available for the search, as the inundations return at the expiration of that time, and continue during the rest of the year." The Man who ought mot to Emigrate. —The man who cannot shave without hot water, or pull off his boots without a bootjack ; the man who cannot get up without a glass of pale ale in the morning, or go to bed without a " bashawed lobster," or devilled bones; the man who has never carried anything heavier than his cane, or cut anything stronger than his beard; the man whose only sowing has been limited to his wild oats, and whose only reaping to Eisenberg cutting twice a year his corns; the man who has never handled any other bill but a tailor's, and only knows what a spade is by seeing it in a pack of cards ; the man whose only knowledge of "hedging" has been derived from the race-course, and of " harrowing" from a Victoria melodrama ; the man who only cares for a horse as something to bet upon, and looks upon sheep as creatures " from the country" that are fleeced at ecarte ; the man who imagines that a bull walks on two legs like those he has seen in the Stock Exchange, and whose skill iv shooting has been restricted to a few shots at the moon : the man who merely knows a bank and a rake from what he has seen at a rouge-et-noir table ; the man whose footing in society has always been upon the very best polished leather boots, and whose longest walk in life has been through the Insolvent Debtor's Court; the man who has never known what it is to earn a dinner, or to enjoy one without French wines ; the man who would think himself degraded if he was seen carrying a parcel: such a man of all others ought not to emigrate. Better far for him to lounge and 101 lon sofas, and lisp, and smoke, and yawn, in a country that can appreciate him, doing no harder work than digging occasionally in the morning papers, or in the gold districts of his mother's pocket, than to carry those same qualities to a distant land where they would only be thrown away, like early purl before Quakers. Such a man, we repeat it, ought to be the very last in England to emigrate ! — Punch. Australia is the largest island in the world. It was first discovered by the Dutch in the I.7th century, but it was not recognised and scarcely known by the British Government, until the following century, when Captain Cook visited its shores, and explored a short distance only into its interior. The name of this distinguished navigator is rendered almost immortal in the colony, but the lip only speaks his praise. With shame be it spoken, no public monument attests the gratitude of its inhabitants, and no successful effort has ever been attempted to blot out from Australia's escutcheon the disgrace of such neglect. Yet there is one significant memorial of his greatness. On the southern side of the Bay of Botany there is a well of water, and hard by their fives a labouring man. It is his wont, when strangers pass his cottage, to invite them to drink of the well which Cook opened up, and where he and his crew quenched their thirst and filled up their empty water-casks. The ceremony is simple but striking. You must imitate him, and with bare head and reverend manners, drink the brim-full tumbler at the margin of the well, exclaiming, v To the memory of the immortal Captain Cook."— Sydney Morning Herald.

Victor Hugo, observes the correspondent of a London paper, was driven out of Belgium, aud is now seeking refuge at Jersey. Since his arrival in that island, Bonaparte (we hear) has addressed a note to the British Government, complaining of the refuge accorded by England to the enemies of the French Government, on an island only 20 miles from the French shore. The English Government is said to have replied that the right of asylum at Jersey was an old privilege consecrated by time ; and it was neither in their power nor their intention to infringe that right. Bonaparte, implacable against Victor Hugo, had resolved to pursue him from one end of the world to another. It may be learned from this resentment the ravages his book is committing in France, where its clandestine circulation is universal.

Dr. Chalmers' Death.—After supper, addressing me (Mr. Gemmel, a guest in his house), ' You gave us worship/ said he, ' in the morning; lam sorry to ask you again to give us worship in the evening.' 'Not at all,' said I, ' I will be happy to do so.' ' Well,' said he, ' you will give worship to-night; and / expect to give ivorship to-morrow morning.' During the whole of the evening, as if he had kept his brightest smiles and fondest utterances to the last and for his own, he was peculiarly bland and benignant. ' I had seen him frequently," says Mr. Gemmel, ' at Fairlie, and in his most happy moods, but I never saw him happier. Christian benevolence beamed from his countenance, sparkled in his eye, and played upon . his lips.' Immediately after prayers he withdrew, and bidding his family remember that they must be early to-morrow, he waved hishand, saying, ' A general good night.' Next morning, before eight o'clock, Professor M'Dou-.

gall, who lived in the house adjoining, sent to enquire about a packet of papers which he expected to receive at an earlier hour. The housekeeper, who had been long in the family, knocked, at the door of Dr. Chalmers'room, but received no answer. Concluding that he was asleep, and unwilling to disturb him, she waited till another party called with a second message. She then entered the room ; it was in darkness ; she spoke,, but there was no response. At last she threw, open the window-shutters, and drew aside the curtains of the bed. He sat there, half eiect, his head reclining gently on the pillow, the expression of his countenance that of fixed and. majestic repose. She took his hand—she touched his brow; he had been dead for hours—very shortly after that parting salute to his family he had entered the eternal World. It must have been wholly without pain or conflict. The expression of the face, undisturbed by a single trace of suffering; the position of the body, so easy that the least struggle would have disturbed it; the very posture of arms, and hands, and fingers, known to his family as that into which they fell naturally in the moments of entire repose, conspired to show that, saved all strife with the last enemy, his spirit had passed to its. place of blessedness and glory in the heavens, —■ Life of Chalmers. Lloyd's List a Century ago.—The oldest published Lloyd's list iv existence bears date 1745, and is in possession of the committee of Lloyd's, being- somewhat more than a century old. We are thus enabled to draw a tolerably accurate comparison between the shipping operations of the middle of the hist century, and the middle of the present century. The old Lloyd's List appears to have been the last that was published once in the week. It is printed on a narrow slip of paper about a foot in length, and, besides containing the price of bullion and the stocks, gives the rates of exchange on foreign countries ; these are on one side. On the reverse is what was then termed 'the Marine List,' which gives a list of 23 arrivals aud 12 departures at English ports, with 34 ships at anchor iv the Downs. There are also notices of four arrivals in Trish and foreign ports, witli advice of three British ships taken by the enemy's privateers. Turning from this doeumeni winch gives a week's news, to one of the year 1800, published daily, we find it contains, on an average, notices of 75 ships. This was in time of war: and comparing numbers, we find the ships noticed as ten to one against the; previous date. Following up the comparison, we turn to a 'Lloyd's List' for 1850; one of the fullest of those covered 15 pages in the arrivals and loss books for one day, giving the names of about 460 vessels —being'six times the numbsir of those in 1800, and as numerous its me lists of one entire year in the previous century. — Dickens' Household Words.

Scene in a Wisconsin Prairie. —" I was once strolling on the beautiful prairies, and perceived in my path, a little in advance, a tall gaunt Yankee.* He stood erect, leaning on his rifle, watching my approach. .As I never met anything but the utmost civility and attention on'mv rambles, I went up to him.with my usual confidence. On approaching he addressed me as • follows: —' Well Captin, How are you ?' ' Very well,' replied I,' How does the world wag with you?' ' I have a duty to perform, Captin,' he replied. * Fire away, and do your duty,' rejoined I, wondering what duty my stalwart Yankee had to perform. 'Well Captin,' he continued,'you are not at all starched up as I thought all Britishers were. You wear tow breeches, and don't think more of yourself than any of us. Moreover, I see you cany a huge j?r the other day; and I know you have lots of dollars. Well then, it is my duty to ask you to drink.' * With all my heart,' returned 1; and we repaired to my friend's log-house. After a social glass and sundry shaking of hands, my Yankee friend told me his history. ' I fit in Mexico,* said he. ' I likewise fit the Jnjuns iv Caiiforny, and have had a good deal of experience in savage warfare. My name is Captin Ezekiah Conciin Brum, and I think you are the best Yankee Britisher I ever seed. Now then, Captain, I have a proposal to make to the British Government; but before I tell it you, I'll explain what made me fust think of it. When I returned from fitting Injuns in Caiiforny, I read in the papers the accounts of your fitting the Injuns at the Cape of Good Hope. Well, I wanted to find out all about it, so I sent to England, by a relation of mine who is mate of a liner, for a British infantry musket, with all the Jixins. About six weeks ago it arrived here, and here it is, Captin,' (going to a corner and bringing out a regulation musket). ' Well, Captin, did ever you see such a clumsy varment in all your born days? Now, Captin, look out of the doorway, do you see that biased stump ? It is seven feet high, and broader than any man. It's exactly one hundred and fifty yards from my door. I have fired that clumsy varment at the stump till my head ached, and my shoulder was quite sore, and have hardly hit it once. Now then, Captin, look'ee here,' (taking up his seven-barrelled, revolving rifle, and letting fly one after another), ' I guess you will find seven bullets in the biased stump. 1 will, however, stick seven playing cards'on the stump, in different places, and if you choose will hit them all.' ' You are very skilful,' I exclaimed. ' There are ■plenty more quite as skilful as me,' he responded ; ' but, Captin, let me ask you, would you fit me with that machine, bagnet and all, against my rifle at one hundred and fifty yards!' 'No, thank you,' I hastily answered, ' I had rather not.' 'Would you like to be one of two, or three, or even six, with bagnet fixed and all ?' urged he. ' No, I replied, 'certainly not.' You would have the best chance by far.' ' Now then comes my offer to the British Government. Will you make it to them from me?' ' No,' replied I. 'If I make the finest offer in the world to the British Government, the chances are, they would not read it. If they did, they would only sneer at me, and call me officious and impertinent, and very likely put a black mark against my name. I cannot, therefore, present your offer; but I will nut it in print, if you like, and the public may judge of its merits. * * 'My offer to the British Government is as follows :—I, EzeIriah Conciin Brum, have learned by the papers, that the last war at the Cape of Good Hope cost ten million dollars (two millions sterling) to the British Government; and that it is likely the present war will cost quite as much, ami be a protracted affair. I, Ezekiah Conciin Bnim, have a high opinion of the bravery of the British soldiers, but a very contemptuous {minion of their arms. 'I, Jizekiah Conciin Brum, will undertake to enlist five thousand Yankee marksmen, each armed with a sevenbarrelled revolving rifle, or any better weapon that may turn up, and kill, or* disperse all Injuns on the British territory at the Cape of Good Hope, within six months of our landing there ; conditionally, that the survivors are paid the sum of five millions of dollars on the extirpation of the Injuns, and settlement of peace: thus saving half the expense, and great numbers of British soldiers. In course, the British Government must send us over in their brassbottomed sarpents. This will be easy, and we can stow \ery close having little or no baggage.' 'You think that your five thousand marksmen could do it in six mouths,' said I.

' Sartin,' he replied ;we could oe e kal to thirty thousand troops with such tarnal, stiff, clumsy consarns as them reg'lation muskets is. We should do it slick, right away.' ' Suppose you were successful,' I rejoined, ' what would you and your Yankee marksmen do afterwards?' 'Do afterwards,' echoed he; ' why many would settle in the-country, and shaw them how to go a-head.' ' And,' added. I, ' turn it into a republic before long.' 'In course, that is sure to follow afore long, whether we go or stay. But I tell'ee what it is, Captin, this here gold in Australy will bring on a republic there, while you Britishers are dreaming about it.' 'Good bye, Captain Ezekiah Couclin Brum,' I exclaimed, as I shook his hands heartily at parting.1 ' I will print your propositi. It will have th'J advantage of novelty, at any rate.' ' Good bye, Captin. Won't] you lake a chaw ? But mind you write and tell me all about it.'"— Mackinnons Atlantic and Transatlantic Sketches.