WELLINGTON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 112, 26 February 1853, Page 6

WELLINGTON.

We have Wellington papers to the 15th inst. The Government have as yet made no preparation to bring the New Constitution into play, nor can we learn from the Journals when such is likely to be the case. Externally, a profound apathy would seem to exist with regard to political matters, for no Candidates have publicly come forward for the honour of sitting in the Provincial and Legislative Assemblies. His Excellency has been visiting Whanganui with the Bishop, and rumour sends the former to Auckland. We give some local extracts from the papers.

The exports of New Zealand produce which have been shipped during the last five or six months from Wellington alone, to the various settlements in the Australian colonies, have been very considerable both in quantity and value. Butter, hams, bacon, oats, maize, cheese, timber, shingles, laths, and bricks, have all been exported in large quantities, and the exportation, we are glad to say, is still going on to a great extent, in fact so much so, that the supply, great as it is, and has been for some time past, is scarcely equal to the demand. It is supposed that the value of exports from this port alone during the quarter, from September to December, was upwards of £20,000, the whole of it being New Zealand produce. The last shipment was by the " Tory," which left here for Melbourne on the 3rd instant; the value of her cargo being between £3000 and £4000. The " Munford" is also taking on board a very valuable cargo of timber and other New Zealand produce, and is expected to sail for Melbourne in a few days. The "Belle Creole" is also laid on for the same place, and will, we have no doubt, be freighted with New Zealand produce equally as valuable. Independently, however, of the valuable and extensive export trade which Wellington is now carrying on with the Australian colonies, there is ano* ther source of benefit, almost equally as great, viz., the return of many of those who left here some months ago for the Port Philip Gold Fields, and who are said to have brought back with them a considerable amount in specie, being the result of their labours at the diggings. Now that they have returned, we trust that the Government will give those who desire it every facility of investing their acquired capital in the purchase of land.— lndependent. ■ Caution to Bathers.—As a person of the name of Wouldham was fishing with a line off one of the jetties at the head of the harbour, he hooked, as he thought, a fish of very considerable size, which, after a great deal of trouble, he at length succeeded in bringing to the shore and securing. It turned out to be a young shark about 10 feet long, which, in quest of food and prey, approached thus near the shore. Woouldham, after having properly secured it, took it up on a wheel barrow to his house in Willis-street, where a great number of persons have already been to view this voracious monster of the deep.— lb. The deputation appointed by the public meeting, relative to the erection of a wharf for the convenience of the ocean steamers, waited upon his Excellency Sir George Grey, and presented the memorial which wks adopted by the settlers at that meeting. His Excellency received the deputation with his usual courtesy, and expressed himself as most anxious to comply with the wishes of the Memorialists; but, as there were not any funds at present at the disposal of the Government available for the erection of a Jetty, he was not prepared to advance a sufficient sum without interfering with some other equally useful public work now in progress, such as the Wairarapa Road, &c. His Excellency, however, intimated, that should it meet the wishes of the settlers, an ample portion of laud, to be reclaimed from the sea, should be set apart, to be vested in Trustees, for the purpose of deflaying the expenses incurred in the election of the proposed Jetty; the trust so invested to be transferred to the Corporation of WelI lington, when such a body wus.constituted.—76,

TARANAKI,

We have files of the Herald to the 26th nit. A severer shock of earthquake than was ever remembered to have been experienced, was felt on the night of the Ist of January. A number of chimneys were thrown down, and buildings and goods seriously damaged. Great alarm was for some time felt, and nearly the whole population fled from their houses into the streets. Shocks of more or less severity continued for a few days, but nothing like the first, which caused the chief damage.

Mr. W. Halse has responded to a requisition to stand as Superintendent, and is a candidate for the office.

The Bishop has been on a visit, and on the 23rd, confirmed 16 males and 18 females in the church at New Plymouth.

Advices had been received from Auckland to the 13th, at which time we gather that little or nothing was doing at Coromandel, owing to a scarcity of diggers. The few who remained were obtaining good specimens of gold.