LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 167, 17 May 1845, Page 42

LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.

Odd Fellows. — Monday last being Whit Monday, and the day on which the Odd Fellows in England hold their great anniversary meeting, the brethren of the Nelson Lodge and their friends dined together at the Odd Fellows' Tavern. The number of persons who sat down amounted to about forty. Various toasts for the advancement of the Order were drunk, nor was the welfare of the settlement and the memory of those who suffered in its behalf, forgotten. The convivialities of the evening were kept up until a late hour.

Militia List. — The militia list for this settlement, after revision, gives 730 names. The list will be forwarded by the first opportunity to Wellington, to his honour the Superintendent, and by the return mail we may expect to learn what steps will be taken to bring the measure into operation.

Weekly Market. — We beg to call tljie attention of our readers to an advertisement in to-day's paper, announcing the intended establishment of a weekly market. As the measure is calculated to be highly beneficial to the consumer as well as to the producer, we hope it will receive every encouragement. The spot on which it will be held is well chosen, being in the greatest thoroughfare and in the centre of the town. The thanks of the public are due to Mr. Fox for bringing the subject before the notice of the magistrates, who most readily adopted his suggestion. We adverted a week or two since to tb(e scarcity of flour in this settlement. Oiir wants in this important article have since been supplied from Wellington ; our flour mill not being yet in complete working older. We are now, we believe, totally without moist sugar, and of course loaf sugar hss risen to a high price. We have been so long without a vessel from the neighbouring colonies, that most of the articles with which they supply us are very scarce, and the fin it vessel which arrives will find a good market.

New School in the Waimea. — Thi wooden school -house erected in Bridgi Street, by public subscription, on our firs: arrival in the colony, and which, by tin foundation of other schools, and one in th< immediate neighbourhood, has not been re • quired for its original purpo c for some tim< past, has within the last few weeks been re moved to Waimea South, about fourteei miles from Nelson, where it is placed in tin centre of a district in which one hundrei children were totally without all means o education. The carriage of the material! and re-erection, has, we believe, been doni gratuitously. The building is now namet Spring Grove School, and will be opened t a Sunday school to-morrow. Arrangement are making to open it as a day school like; wise. :

Re-Emigration from Van Diemen's Land. — In addition to one hundred men previously shipped off for Port Phillip, sixty more have taken their departure for that colony. We have paid about twenty three pounds each for these men. The neighbouring colony now abstacts them at a cost of about two pound five. The Government agents procured for us good men wherever they could ; they then filled up with any description of men they could procure. The Port Phillip people will have none but the best. Thus not only do we, the poorer and still depressed colony, pay for the labour of the rich and improving one, but we are a filter to separate the best for their especial use. — Hobart Tovm Advertiser, March 14.

Sheep and Cattle. — The following prices were realized at auction, on Wednesday week, in Sydney: — 1,358 head of cattle, with station on the Hume, 20s. per head ; 1,010 sheep, mixed flock, deliverable at Goulburn, ss. 6d. per head; 1,490 sheep, mixed flocks, deliverable at Maneroo, 4s. 6d. per head. — Maitland Mercury, March 29.

Colonial Products. — Notwithstanding the many storms to which the district has been subject this season, and the continued rain in the early part, the fruit has been throughout, with the exception of peaches, very good. Grapes have been in many vineyaids greatly injured by hail-storms and other causes, but we are pleased to hear from one grower that from about four acres of bearing vines he has sold nine tons of table grapes and made fourteen hogsheads of wine. He informs us that his vineyard is about twelve years old, was never trenched, and that the soil is a poor sandy loam. The wine will of course be proved by time, but for the excellence of the table grapes we can vouch. The same gentleman informs us that he sent about 50 lb. of soft shell sweet almonds this season to Sydney, but could obtain only a wholesale price of 6d. per pound. — Maitland Mercury.

Mortality of the Army in India. — The 28th regiment has lost in India in twentyone months, 10 officers and 384 non-commis-sioned officers and privates. The majority of deaths proceeded from cholera. | French Naval Experiments. — Sone experiments of a highly interesting nature (ot >- serves the Constilutionnel) took place some days ago in the port of Brest. Some percussion balls were tried, after having been laid by for several years, in order to ascertain whether, after a prolonged exposure to the marine atmosphere, the permanent humidity of the shores was not capable of injuring them, inasmuch as it generally happens that the fusees of ordinary shells are completely useless for service after the expiration of one year. The results were highly satisfactory, and left no doubt as to the perfect conservation of the new projectiles. Thus M. le Commandant Billette will have conferred upon the navy the advantage of a new and terrible instrument of warfare. That officer has just adapted his system of percussion to hollow balls or shells destined for carronades of 30, 24, and 18; and thus all our cannons will henceforth be capable of expelling explosive projectiles. With the powerful destructive agents now in our power, battles will be of a very short duration, and victory will be obtained by the ship which shall first succeed in sending on board her adversary a small number of these explosive shells. But victory or defeat will be greatly decided by the accuracy of aim, to which every attention should be paid. *