LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 113, 11 May 1844, Page 38

LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.

Captain Taylor, of the Katherine Johnstone, has informed us that, previous to his leaving Wellington on Saturday last, the Scotia had arrived from the southward with intelligence that Mr. Tuckett had selected Otago as the site for the settlement of New Edinburgh.

A requisition to the Police Magistrate has been got up during the past week, requesting that a pubiic meeting may be called to take some steps towards forming a Mechanics' Institution. Having ourselves witnessed the benefit which mechanics' institutions have conferred on the working classes in England, there is no public object 'which shall receive our more earnest, though humble support.

By a reference to our advertising columns it -will be seen that some of the principal settlers in the district are exerting themselves to get a flour mill erected. There can be but one opinion as to the necessity of this step. Unless something of the kind is done, our agriculturists will only sow just as much wheat for the next year as will preserve their seed; and the settlement must continue to be drained of its capital

for this first necessary of life. Fortunately for us, if the company for the above purpose be formed, but little time will be lost in getting a very complete mill at work, as we understand a pair of stones is all that is wanting to perfect a verjrexcellent one, now for sale in the settlement. It is not likely that we shall grow sufficient wheat for our consumption next year, but if we had a mill in the settlement, instead of importing the difference in flour, we should do it in grain, which would be much to our advantage. Every one who has the interest of the settlement at heart should promote this really beneficial object. Two sales of cattle have taken placeduring the past week. The first consisted of fifteen heifers and two bulls, imported about eight months since in the Gannett, and which averaged £9 10s. per head.The other consisted of the cargo of the Urgent, of which only a few of the cows and working bullocks were sold, at about the same prices. As these prices were not satisfactory to the owner, the sale was not allowed to proceed. The sheep imported in the same vessel were afterwards put up, but no bidder could be found at the prices required.

We adverted a few weeks since to the losses which owners of sheep occasionally • sustain from the number of dogs at large in the colony. Last week, one of our settlers, Mr. A. Saunders, lost a valuable imported Southdown ewe, which he valued at £50.. It is but a poor satisfaction to the owners of sheep to know that the dogs which have worried their flocks have been afterwards shot by the persons to whom they belong. The evils from <dog-fancying are becoming so great, that nothing short of a legislative enactmeut can put a stop to them.

The Potato Crop. — We find that in our remarks a few weeks since on the probable amount of the potato crop, we understated the actual produce. A considerable quantity of fern land in the Waimea has yielded 7 tons to the acre, without manure, and with only two ploughings. Potatoes planted at Christmas, in land newly broken up early in the preceding spring, and which had consequently received a tew months' , fallow, has yielded excellent crops. The fern laiid adjoining the forests in the Motuaka has yielded heavy crops of grain to the few settlers located in that district.

While the Katherine Jobnstone lay at Kapiti, about three weeks since, the cutter Lively, from hence to New Plymouth, ran in there for provisions, having been out twenty-four days.

BIRTH. On the Bth instant, the lady of the Hon. C. A. Dillon, of a daughter.