ARRIVAL OF ANOTHER VESSEL FROM NEW CALEDONIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 5729, 29 March 1880, Page 5

ARRIVAL OF ANOTHER VESSEL FROM NEW CALEDONIA.

JjVTE od Saturday afternoon the cutter | Sovereign of the Seas arrived in harbour from Noumea, New Caledonia, and, as she observed tacking towards the wharf her deck crowded with passengers, the intelligence speedily spread that another batch of " Communists''had arrived. The result was that in a few minutes a considerable crowd gathered at the watermen's step' to witness the landing of the new arrivals, and take stock, of them. Sergeant Martin and Constable Dngan (water police) speedily put off in the police boat, and boarded tho cutter, in order to furnish the necessary report to the police authorities. Meanwhile the watermen were actively encaged in landing the passenger?. The Sovereign of the Seas left Noumea on the sth March, and encountered very severe weather, which, with so many passengers— twenty men, three women, and one child— cooped up in a small cutter, made the passage a very trying one. The passengers by the Sovereign of the Seas are not altogether drawn from the same classes as those who recently arrived here by the schooner Griffin from New Csledonia. For iu3tancc, there are only two deportls. There are, however, seven formats liberis (liberated convict?), or what is commonly known as " ticket of-leave" men. The offences charged against the latter are : Violent assault, conspiracy, larceny, larceny as a bailee, larceny and desertion, desertion, and assault on a captain. It will be seen that several of the crimes preferred against the liberes are offences under the Code Militaire. Of the deportcs, one is a clerk and the other an architect.

The remainder of the passengers (eleven) arefrea French colonists, some of whom have come out from France to New Caledonia, owing to the representations of the authorities concerning the excellent prospects of the color.y, and others went there from Australia. We understand that some of them have been heavy losers through speculation in the nickel mines on the island or through trade. The failure of the local bank and the recent cyclone seem to have brought business in New Caledonia to a state of stagnation, and these men, despairing of any speedy revival of affairs, came od to Auckland in the hope of bettering theraselve?. These colonists seem toMie of a superior clas3, intelligent and well educated, and bring a Bmall amount of capital with them. The women are the wives of some of these colonists. One of the women and her husband are natives of the Isle de Bourbon. One excellent sign amongst these French colonists is their anxiety to get at once to work, aod we have no doobt that the French Consul (Mr. D. B. Cruickshank), regarding whom they made numerous inquiries, will use his good offices on their behalf. The following callings are represented in the party :—Architect, chemist, clerk, jeweller, lemonade manufacturer, csrpentr-r, joiner, gardener, blacksmith, sawyer, labourer. It is stated that a number of the colonists of New Caledonia may be expected lo emigrate to the Australian colonies, owinc to the depressed stat= of affairs at New Caledonia. We havr been informed that all those on board the Sovereign of the Seas paid their own passages.