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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 117, 21 May 1867, Page 2

We observe that the Canterbury Times and the Waikouaiti Herald have been publishing seriatim a "Life of Burgess, the Murderer." We would apologise to our readers for intruding this very hateful subject once more upon their notice, but we have our suspicions as to the manner in which this brochure has been obtained and thus published evidently for sensational purposes, in the columns of journals which are in no wise connected with this province. We may remark, en passant, that this memoir is not identical with that which was published, in the local journals here, at the time of the trial, but it bears the strongest internal evidence of being the composition of this notorious culprit. Now it will be in the remembrance of our readers that Burgess, in the interval which elapsed between the confession of his guilt and his conviction, employed himself in writing his autobiography. The publication of this manuscript j was considei-ed to be likely to exercise so j baneful an influence, especially upon the minds of the rising generation, that it was suppressed, and, as we understood at the time, placed in the hands of the Government at Wellington, on the recommendation of his Honor Mr. Justice Johnston, who had perused it. We are assured that Burgess never wrote any other memoir of his life and adventures during his incarceration in Nelson Gaol, and we think that we are entitled to ask by what means these journals have become possessed of the manuscript in question, which, there can be little doubt, should, if any value or curiosity attached to it at all, have become the property of the province upon whose xchequer such heavy drain was made in

order to defray the costs of justice in thi3 particular case. /The Volunteer movement seems to have received a very decided impetus in this , province, and more especially among the more juvenile members of the community. We understand that the No. 1. Company of City Cadet has increased' so largely, that it has been deemed necessary to form a Second Company, which will be officered from the present non-com-missioned officers of the First. We noticed, a short time since, the organization of a Rifle Cadet Corps at Motueka, . under very promising auspices ; another Cadet Corps is, we hear, in process of 'formation in the Waitneas, and enquiry, '. we are told, has been made of Captain Lockett as to whether the services of an adult, as well as of a Cadet Corps in the Takaka and Motupipi districts, would be acceptable to the Government. At the same time, in the face of these facts, we may regard it as somewhat inexplicable that, although the recommendation for the organization of an adult Artillery Corps in Nelson has been forwarded to the Government at Wellington, only forty names have as yet been enrolled on the list. There can be no question that the Nelson Artillery Company will be a first-rate corps, and we trust to hear that many more names have been added to the roll, the more especially as when the Government authority arrives, a public meeting will be called for the election of the officers, and it is highly de--1 sirable that all persons intending to join \the corps, should do so before that time. Our contemporary, the Examiner, publishes in this morning's issue, a letter from Mr. Symms, who, as we stated yesterday, has just returned from a prospecting trip to the Moutere, Motueka, and Mount Arthur Ranges. In this letter he states his belief in the existence of an extensive gold-field in the Moutere district, that is, between the Upper and tower Moutere, down to Blind Bay. Should this prove to be correct — and we have every guarantee in Mr. Symms' antecedents, especially when we remember his prophecies relative to the Wakamarina and West Coast gold-fields, which have been liberally fulfilled — we think it would not be too much to ask of the Government that they should place such facilities in Mr. Symms' hands, as may enable him to develop the gold-field to which he has now directed our attention, and which is so ■ eminently calculated, from its proximity to Nelson, and its inaccessibility from any other port, to benefit this city and its inhabitants. In consequence of the stormy weather which prevailed this morning, the Airedale has been compelled to defer her departure for the Southern Ports until 9 p.m., this evening. We are informed that mails for Picton, Wellington, and the South, will be made up at the Post-office, at 5 p.m., to-day (21st) by the Airedale, and for Westport, at 9 to-morrow morning, by the Stormbird. Madame Celeste, whose name is so intimately associated in the minds of London play-goers with pleasant reminiscences of the Haymarket and Adelphi Theatres, is now fulfilling a professional engagement at Melbourne, as a member of Mr. Coppin's Company. We understand that Madame Celeste will probably visit New Zealand, and we may therefore have some chance of witnessing some of her impersonations in Nelson. We are glad to learn from the report of the Court of Inquiry on the recent wreck of the steamer Queen on Cook's Rock, which appeared in the Government Gazette of the 10th instant, that Captain Kreeft is acquitted of any blame in the matter. After briefly summing , up . the evidence taken in the case, the report

which is signed by the Resident Magistrate at Wellington, and concurred in by Captain Benson, Nautical Assessor, concludes thus : — " From the evidence adduced, I must conclude that the loss of the ship is due, to an unexpected deviation of the compasses, rather to any act or default of the master." It seems that the growth of European flax (linum usitatissimum) has been receiving some attention at the hands of the Auckland. In the last Gazette a lengthy correspondence is published between Mr. John Williamson, the Superintendent, and Thomas A. Kidd, Esq., Auckland, together with a report of a lecture delivered by Mr. James Macadam, jun., on the same sul ject.