THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, November 11, 1848.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 349, 11 November 1848, Page 146

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, November 11, 1848.

Journals bsoomt more necessary as men becotna mun equal and indiTidualism more to be feared. It would b» to ■ndsrrais their importance to suppose that they serre only to ••ear* liberty i they maintain civilisation . D» TocavcvrLLi. Of Democracy in America, toI. ir., p. 910.

We have the satisfaction of announcing, in the arrival of the Bernicia, the revival of emigration to this settlement. This event, though unlocked for at the moment, could not have occurred at a more seasonable time, both for the interests of employers and the labourers themselves. The emigrants by this vessel are not however all for Nelson, she will leave us only 72 souls, the rest proceed to Otago. The Company has acted wisely in thus sending us a limited number of emigrants at a time ; if two or three such bodies, at intervals, during each year, are sent out, they will be more likely to find employment with us, and remain permanently in the settlement, than if the whole number were poured in upon us at once. Until we have more -capital, the supply of labour will require to be regulated with care and discretion, otherwise we shall be, as heretofore*, only a sieve, to receive that which we cannot retain, whilst our funds will be expended in benefiting other colonies.

The Bernicia, from London the 7th of July, arrived here on Sunday last, having called at New Plymouth on her way. She has 23 cabin, 13 fore-cabin, and 117 intermediate and steerage passengers, for the New Zealand Company's settlements, with a general cargo. The commander of the Bernicia is our old acquaintance, Captain Arnold, formerly of the Fifeshire, the first Nelson emigrant ship, and which, from the ignorance of the person who then acted as pilot, was wrecked on leaving the harbour. Several of the passengers, we are happy to ' find, are for Nelson, and among them our old fellow- colonist, Mr. Ward, who has greatly exerted himself during a short sojourn in England in giving publicity to the advantages which this settlement offers. The Bernicia has made a tolerable passage of something less than four months. Passengers for Nelson — Mr. Mrs. and Miss Ward, Miss Field, Master Greenwood, Mr, Godfrey, and Mr. Osborne. For the other settlements — Mr. and Mrs. Williams and family, Mr. and Mrs. Brown and family, Mr. and Mrs. Milne, Mr. Cass, Mr. Torlasse, Sir W. Congreve, Capt. Thomas, Mr. and Mrs. Fraser and family, Mr. Macintyre, Mr. Ormaston, Mr. Loudon, Mr. Paul, and Messrs. A. and H. Lakeman. On the day the Bernicia crossed the line, a lad, one of the crew, was unfortunately lost overboard. It happened that the {act was not immediately known as a certainty by those on deck, and from a quarter of an hour to twenty minutes was allowed to elapse before tha captain was made acquainted that a suspicion existed that such an accident had taken place. The hands were then immediately summoned, and it was found that one of the boys was missing. As however the vessel had been running all the time before a fresh breeze, and as it had become quite dusk, and the night threatened to be dark, Captain Arnold was reluctantly compelled to abandon all hopes of saving the boy, for to have launched a boat at that hour would only have been risking the loss of her whole crew.

We occasionally see in some of our contemporaries a column devoted to " Facetiae," to extracts from Brother Jonathan, or gems from Punch. It is not our practice to offer the same amount of worship to Momus, but we like occasionally to pay a small tribute to his merry godship when we can spare a corner from more grave concerns. It however we could find something like the following to weekly entertain our readers, which we discovered among the advertisements in the Glasgow Post, of March IT, 1848, we should not be so sparing of a column of fun, bat it ii seldom our good fortune to meet with 10 choice a morsel : Nkw Zealand.— Parties willing to purchase land without seeing it, are offered, at cost price, 653 acre* in the settlement of Nelson,

comprising sections of an early Order of Choice far above the average value of sections in that settlement. Title, the Land- orders of the New Zealand Company. On four of the sections labour- to the value of more than £1,200 hat been Bpent in attempto to improve them. On these are or were tenants, by most of whom the rent is unpaid. Locality of 450 acres still unknown. Emigrants are offered advice on the consequences of buying in England land supposed to be situated in New Zealand, and the selection of which has been or is to be determined by a ballot or a lottery ; also, how and where they may acquire available land, select* ing, after actual inspection, that which they may find to be worth having. Apply (post-paid) to Frederick Tuckett, 45, Mortimer- street, London. We shall not take the trouble to critioise the above, or we might be curious to learn how it was that the advertiser, with his large bump of conscientiousness, in his capacity of Chief Surveyor in Nelson sanctioned the surveys of unavailable land, and afterwards selected it for absentee owners : and if the people at home knew as much as we do in the colony of the judgment Mr. Tuckett has already displayed in selecting land, they would not rely implicitly upon his dictum of what alone was worth having ; for Mr. Tuckett, in his antipathy to the ballot, appeared in making his selections to have gone on the principle, that in value, the last should be first and the first last, for in a large number of cases the owners of early choices of land, whose interests were confided to his charge, found the land selected for them to be inferior to that which fell to the lot of those whom the ballot had placed at the other end of the list. But there is one part of Mr. Tuckett's advertisement.which we do not understand. He offers his land at cost price. How is this to be determined ? The greater part of it was purchased not by money, but by services, which we are. sorry to say did not greatly benefit the settlement, as the wreck of the bridges and loads made under bis superintendence can testify. But if, as Mr. Tuckett insinuates, the price of his land in Nelson was high considering its intrinsic value, we know the same opinion is generally entertained of his services to the settlement. We fear Mr. Tuckett will not add to his reputation by his proffers of "Advice, Gratis," and that he will be looked upon much in the) light of those quacks who resort to a similar expedient to cover some selfish and narrow purpose.

We understand that a despatch from the New Zealand Company, relating to the Nelson Trust Funds, has been received by the Bernicia, and we believe we shall next week have an opportunity of laying it before our readers. In the meanwhile we are glad to be able to state that there seems every probability that the whole of the Trust Funds due to the settlement will be immediately forthcoming, for the Company promise that the next vessel shall bring out a full statement of the expenditure, and the sum of £25,000 has been invested in the Funds on account of the settlement.

We have had placed in our hands a " Plan of the Association for founding the Settlement of Canterbury in New ZeaZealand," which we shall next week quote to show the nature of the scheme which the Church of England Association have adopted. From a hasty glance at the document, we are led to believe that great care has been bestowed in drawing up this plan, and that it affords to intending colonists some advantages which the schemes of the already formed settlements did not offer. Among the passengers in the Bernicia ii a gentletqpn named Thomas, who has been been sent out by the Association to select, in conjunction with the Governor and the Bishop, a site for the settlement, and make other preliminary arrangements.

The next vessel for the Cook's Straits settlements, to be chartered by the New Zealand Company, was to sail on the 3d of September, to make OtSgo her first port. The Susan, a brig of 2ip tons, th"c property, we believe, of Mr. J. Beit, was to leave London on the Bth July for Wellington and Auckland, and the Duke of Rutland, 533 tons, was advertised to sail for Auckland and Wellington on the Ist of September. The Slams Castle, from Port Phillip, which called at Wellington on her way through Cook's Straits, arrived in England in the latter end of June, after a quick passage, and the Woodstock, which sailed from Wellington on the 3d of March, passed the Bernicia in the Downs.

«* Since ouclerst notice of the earthquake a fortniguT'since, we have experienced a few slight shocks, but none of any violence; and now that • the alarm which was temporarily created in the minds of some, has subsided, we can better estimate the damage which these phenomena have done us. If

we estimate this at £30, we know we shall be considered by many as placing it too high, because we have heard it laid that, with the exception of the late Mr. Thompson's house, the whole of the damage done can be repaired for £5 ; and we understand the latter can be lepaired and made habitable for about £10.»' This, it will be seen, is very different from the reports published in Wellington of our disasters, where it was represented by oae journal that "Mr. Thompson's house was entirely shattered," and in the other, that " most of the brick dwellings and chimneys in Nelson were level with the ground." f^So far, as we stated, is this from being the truth, that not a single properly-erected building in the settlement has suffered in the smallest degree. ' »

The Wellington papers brought by the Emily give us further particulars of the earthquakes which have lately been so severely felt in that settlement. It appears from the accounts which have been received from the surrounding country, that the tprce of the ihockß must have been greatest in the neighbourhood of Wellington. To the northward, and along the west coast of the island as far as Taranaki, the shocks were felt, but with diminished violence ; and the same may be said of the east coast, but they did not extend beyond the East Cape. At Banks' Peninsula, which lies to the southwest of Wellington, smart shocks were experienced, but they did not reach Otago, about 180 miles lower down the coast. In Cook's Straits, oppoiite to Wellington, the shocks were very severe, while in Nel•on, some 80 or 90 miles west of Wellington, they were comparatively slight — the class of buildings which in the last-named settlement were thrown to the ground, j receiving here no injury. It therefore seems that Wellington was the centre of the shocks, and that they radiated from thence until their force was expended. The Wellington Independent however is of opinion that the earthquakes originated on the south-west coast of this island, and that they "travelled in a N.E. direction towards the Curtis' Island, lying about 400 miles off the East Coast." We cannot see how our contemporary arrived at this conclusion, as it «eem« to us directly opposed to the facts which had come to his knowledge. There is no reason to believe that a volcanic eruption had taken place.

We are sorry to see by the Wellington papers that Captain Watson, of the Fisherman, met his death on the Bth of October last, off Taranaki, by being knocked overboard his vessel by a blow from the boom. The unfortunate man was a skilful seaman, and was much respected. The schooner Harriet Leatheart, from Manakau, with three missionaries and their families, bat been wrecked on Wanganui bar. Fortunately no lives were lost.

The space we have devoted to the accounts of the insurrection in Paris prevents us from noticing other important European news until next week.

The Comet arrived on Thursday from Newcastle, after a passage of fourteen days, with 760 sheep, having lost only 15 on the voyage. The Government brig left Sydney for Auckland on the 20th of October ; and the Acheron steamer, and H.M.S. Havannah, were about to proceed to the same port.