ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 107, 8 August 1846, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Sir De Lacy Evans had been elected member for Westminster by a large majority. His opponent was Captain Rous. Among those who are most likely to be well informed it is confidently stated that her Majesty's confinement is not expected before the end of May.—Times. ' The Dutch are about to erect a bronze statue of their illustrious countryman, Rembrandt, in front of the Museum, at Amsterdam.

A Regal Writingm aster.—There lately died at Versailles (says one of the Paris journals) a little old man, who always dressed in the style of the last century, and who had in his youth been writingmaster to Louis XVII. By a singular coincidence, the functious which he had fulfilled near the person of the Dauphin had been performed by his ancestors, from father to son, from the time of Louis XIII., exclusively. He had, however, nothing to leave at his death to his granddaughter, a young woman of 20, but a series of copybooks, written by the several members of the Royal family. On one collection of papers was written the words "AH this was written by Louis XIV. at the age of 10." The young woman found that she had a precious collection of Royal writing, and she has obtained not less than 60,000f. for the portion written by Louis XVII. Among the novelties of the day, in the way of imports, are piano-fortes manufactured iti New York. Letters from Naples state that Sir E. Bulwer Lytton is still theie, testing the efficacy of the water cure. About £15,000 have been bequeathed to the Phrenological Society of Edinburgh, by the late Dr. Robertson of Paris. A large proportion of the Protestantjiobility of the province of Lifland have petitioned the Russian Government to purchase their estates, and permit them to emigrate to Ger,many. A'Belgian savant has, it is stated, just discovered that electric light, directed on the human body, makes it so diaphonous as to enable the arteries, veins, and nerves, to be seen at work, and their action to be studied.

Purifying o* Water. —lt is not so generally known as it ought to be, that pounded alum possesses the property of pnrifying water. A pailful, containing four gallons may be purified by a single tea-spoonful. -, In the obituary of eminent persons deceased are Mrs. Cornwall Baron Wilson the poetess; the Rev. Geo. D. Oyley, D.D., Recto,r of Lambeth, author of the Life of Archbishop Sancroft, and joint editor with the present Bishop of Dowu and Connor of the splendid quarto edition of the Bible published by the Society for propagating Christian Knowledge

Sir H. A. Compton, formerly Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at Bombay ; Lieut. Gen. Sir F. W. Mulcaster, K.G.H., of the Royal Engineers and Inspector-General of Fortifications ; Sir W. Wake, Bart., and Sir James Rivett Carnac, Bart.., the East India Dhector and formerly Governor ,of Bombay. We also notice the decease of the Right Hon. J. H. Frere, the friend and -schoolfellow of Canning and the British Ambassador to the Court of Spain in 1809 (when the Battle of Corunna was .fought.) Mr. <Frere_, who was, eminent for his literary accomplishments., died at Malta on the V7th January, in his 7,7 th year. Messrs. Stockdale & Sons, of Liverpool, had failed for £250,000. Their assets are set down at £1312,000. They >were»indeteed"" to the Borough bank £M 26,000: for £26,000 the hank held securities, but for £100,000' 'there was no security whatever. A very destructive fire had taken place at^ Liverpool on the i7ih -February, in a large ■warehouse in the vicinity of St. George's Dock, and in what is.called the .Back Goree ~at tbe,rear<of a l»rgei.pileoftwarekouses which^ about twenty years ago, were destroyed by a similar conflagration. The warehouse in which the fire commenced, was the property of the JEtev. Mr. Monk, .and was heavily-stored with cotton, corn,, and flouc .In the ..cellar was a Jarge quantity of tallow and rum. -In onestorey of the building there was East Indian and Mauritius sugar to the value of £10,000 the property of a respectable firm, members of. the society of .Friends, of which not a single bag was saved. »Tbe next morning at seven o'clock the, flames burst forth in the adjoining warehouse with great fury, the rooms in the? upper stories *of which were covered six or .eight feet- deepwith corn. The destruction of property was estimated at £65,000. The fire is supposed to .have originated in the carelessness of some of the <porters, who- had been al.lowed' to smoke in every part of the building. ,-

The Campbell MolruMENa:.—M^r. Marshal, A.R.A. the &culptor appointed to execute the statue of Lord Clarendon for the new, Houses of Parliament, is also engaged >upon/ •the monument to be erected to the author of the Pleasures of Hope in the poets' corner in Westminster-abbey. This monument will consist of a statue ofi the , poet, leaning upon a pedestal, on which is a figure of Hope in bas--relief. At the foot is a lyre with a wreath. The modern costume not being adapted to sculpture, Mr. Marshall has represented the bard'in his?robe as'Lordißector of Glasgow.

Lady Holland's Will—lnteresting to LiTEßATfcKE.—Besides some £ 1,500 per annum, and a considerable sum in money, £7,000, Lady Holland hasleftLord John Russell the " Memoir, of Mr. z¥os," so long in preparation by the late .Lord Holland, with the expression of a hope that it should be published as early as possible. JHer ladyship also bequeathed lo the JJritisli Museum the celebrated Tolentino box, on which, the lovers of art are awaie, is sculptured the noble antique of the Goat Browsing. This precious, relic, it may be remembered by our readers,, was presented by the Pope -to Bonaparte after his Italian campaign as the richest gift he could offer him. Napoleon sent it to .Lady Holland from St. Helena, .with .a grateful autograph note, for the attentions paid to him by her ladyship in his captivity. Both box and autrgraph are now, we believe, in \he British Museum.—-^Literary Gazette. It is estimated that 190,000 tons of guano were put upon the land*.in 1845, against 50,000 tons in 1844. The Post-office authorities have discovered that spurious postage stamps, to a considerable amount, have been issued in 'London. The cone of Mount Vesuvius, according to the Neapolitan journals, coutinues to rise higher and higher, although no eruptions have taken place. Down the whole northern side of the Abruzzas, -as far as Loretto, shocks of earthquake have been felt.—Galignani A letter from Christiana states that the King of Sweden has ordered a commision of eight persons, four of whom are shipbuilders of the royal navy, to proceed to England and France, to study the organization of the jrincipal dockyards in those two kingdoms. Emile Prudent, the celebrated Parisian pianist, has been the Madrid lion lately ; the Queen made him a present of a diamond pin, and General Narvaez a gold watch-chain set with rubies. We learn by letters from Stuttgardt, that nothing can exceed the magnificence of the new palace which the king is erecting there for the residence of the Prince Royal of Wirtemberg and his lovely bride, the 'Grand Duchess Olga of Russia. Works of art, in painting and sculpture, of immense value, are to adorn this splendid edifice, and a refined taste is said to have presided over the whole arrangements.—Daily News. In the United States, such is the love of literature and science that when Mr. Lyall, the geologist, went to Lowell, he received £400 fdr a course of lectures, and at Philadelphia he received £500.

The New Zealander of July 4, announces the safe arrival at Auckland of Capt. Wilmot, R. A., and Capt. Nugent of the 58th regt., mho left this settlement -in March to proceed overland to Auckland. We have extracted from that paper the journal kept by these officers during their journey, .which will be found to be full of interest.

JOURNAL Kept by two British Officers, on their Overland Route from Wellington to Auckland. —lB46. Wellington, March 16 —Owing to the state of affairs oh the Hutt, there was considerable difficulty in getting natives to go up the coast; however, by the influence of the .Rev. Mr. G a missionary, at Waikanae, we succeeded in engaging four natives to go as far as Wanganui. 17. —Started at half past eight, a.m., in company with the Rev. Mr. G , on our road to W-anganui. At,about eleven, arrived at Johnsons clearing on the Porirua road, where about 40 of the Volunteer Militia were stationed, under the command of Captain Clifford, and were constructing a stockade as a protection to the few settlers in the neighbourhood. The road thus far is good—afterwards there is a mere bush path to Jackson's ferry, fourteen .miles from Wellington, at the extremity of the Porirua harbour. We got a boat, tind proceeded about four miles to the whaling station, where we halted for the night. There were several natives at this place, who said that they had been.on the Hutt while the soldieis were firing, and who seemed to think it rather a good joke. They described the way they avoided the-balls, and gave the soldiers credit for being very bad shots. 18. —After breakfast, .went to Rauparaha's pa at Parramatta, abo»t a mile further along the beach. Rangihaeata was in the pa.olose at hand, but did aiotmake his appearance, and we had no wish. to pay a visit to that amiable individual. We stopped at Rauparaha's place for about half an hour, and.found him very civil, although his countenance is a true index of the treachery of bis character, for which he has aver been distinguished among the natives. He 1-ad.only a few men wiih him, and had a singular appearance, being clothed in a dirty mat, and his grey hair adorned with two peacock s feathers. There was a human jaw bone lying before him, which -we were rather curious to know the meaning of. He gave us a letter to Heu Heu, at Taupo, of which the following is a translation: — " Friend Heu Heu, —This letter.is from your father. Listen to me. I have put away this disturbance that good may come among men. My son, there is no one of authority, save you, myself and Te Whero-Whero. Listen to this letter. My son, these foreigners are going to see you. Let your love for them be great. These foreigners have come from England. They belong to me, to the* Queen > and the Governor. This word is enough from me to you.

" From Te Rauparaha." The disturbance he referred to, related to the affair at the Hutt, about which it is doubtful whether he.is not playing a double game. He also dictated a letter to his son at the .Bishop's College and the JSishop. X)n leaving Porirua, we proceeded seven miles through the wood, and then came out on a shingly beach, along which we went for about four miles, and then along a good beach ,for about ten miles to Waikanae. The native church is well worth seeing, as an example of Maori ingenuity. It is forty feet long by thirty broad; the inside is neatly fitted up with reeds, and a kind of arabesque painting on the wood work has a good effect, and is executed .with some taste. 19th. —The natives we hired at Wellington Xo go to Wanganui, changed their minds, and refused to go on. Remained the whole day at Waikanae, being unable to get carriers, as the natives were giving a feast to 300 people, who had come from the south side of Cook's Strait, about Queen Charlotte's Sound ; there were several pigs, and six canoes full of flour and sugar, besides potatoes and kumeras, laid out on the beach. However, about five o'clock, we succeeded in persuadimg four men to go on to Otaki, ten miles distant. At Waikanae we saw,a most extraordinary looking being, a white man with red hair ; we were with difficulty convinced that he was not an European, but Mr. G said he was a true Maori. 20ih. —The raea we got at Waikanae not being willing to go on, we engaged with some Taupo natives, who happened to be starting, to take our baggage on to Wanganui. They had brought pigs down for sale, intending to go to Wellington; but owing to Rangihaeata having stopped the road to Porirua, they were obliged to sell them at Otaki for small prices. Rangihaeata had a notice stuck up on the hill above Porirua, prohibiting pigs and cattle ■ going on to Wellington —as he said war was going to commence, ami the soldiers should not be fed. The country as far as Otaki} seems to be thickly populated, as there are several large pas ; but they say, that a great part of the population of Waikanae is about to ;

I remove to Taranaki, from whence they formerly came. We only got on about ten miles this day, and halted at a place called Waiwetu,* where there were the remains of some deserted wares. 2 1st. — The natives would not move on today. A European employed in the whalefishery said, if we came back to Otaki, he would get a crew and take us to Wanganui in a few hours. We went back with him but had our walk for nothing, as he could not get a crew. — Remained at Waiwetu. The natives began to get troublesome by continually begging for tobacco. The principal chief of the party, Ehate took a piece of greenstone out of our box, and was going quietly to appropriate it to his own private use, when one of us squeezed it amicably out of his hand, which he took in very good part, asking us to give it to him when we got to Taupo, which we agreed to. 28d. — Started at half-past seven along the beach : on our way met a European servant of Mr. R 's, a settler at Manawatu, going towards Wellington. While he was talking to us, the natives took the opportunity of picking his pocket of tobacco, &c. It was very amusing to see his face when he found it out, as he had just before been boasting of his knowledge .of the natives, and seemed to pity our helpless situation among such a set of thieves and .rogues as .the Taupo natives have -the character of being. After a twelve miles walk, we arrived at the Manawatu river. The man that ferried us over was named by the Bishop, "Wellington," as he had been a great warfior in hisyouth. His native name, however, was Kai Tangata, by which it would seem that his powers in man-eating was as great as in fighting. He had now adopted the more civilized occupation of keeping a ferry, and extorting a price for crossing his river that would shame even a Gravesend wa- | terman. We were hospitably received here by Mr. R , a retired officer of the Indian navy, who recovered in the climate of New Zealand the health he had lost by a long residence in the tropics. He told us, that three" years before, he had gone overland to Auckland by way of Taupo, in company with a Mr. Harrison, a surveyor of the New Zealand Company,; and that at a place named Rotorua, they had been robbed of every thing by a chief named Te Wetu and three others. They were in considerable danger of their lives, but were protected by the chief Heuheu, at Taupo, who kept them for a week, in order to try and get back their clothes, in which he was not successful. They afterwards got to Kawhia, on the west coast, in a miserable plight, and were two months getting to Auckland from Taupo. 24th. — Very rainy day. Remained at Mr. 25th. — Sfcill raining. A chief we named the " Ogre," from his size and ugliness, came this day to try and get a native slave boy, who was dying of consumption at Dr. B — 's house, about a half a mile from Mr. R 's, in order to -take him to Taupo with him. The poor boy had heard him, aud refused to go, as he said that they had taken a .sick boy with them before, and left him to die on the road. Dr. B — , with great humanity, had kept the boy for some time without the knowledge of the natives, or they would assuredly have taken him by force. 26th. — The natives suddenly came to the determination of starting at twelve o'clock, when we went about six miles only, and halted among the sandhills. 27th. — Went six miles to Rangitiki river, where there were remains of a pa ; some good pasture land near it. Mr. R 's cattle run extends to the river, and he has sixty head on it ; he pays rent for it to the natives. At about nine miles further on we stopped for the night on the beach. 28th. — Moved off at daylight six miles to the Turakino river, which is dangerous on account of quicksands. Mr. Mason, a missionary at Wanganui, was drowned here about three years ago, while trying to cross it on horseback. Three miles further on we forded the Wangaehu, which was nearly five feet deep, and after a walk of nine miles arrived at Wanganui, one hundred and ten miles distant from Wellington. Near Wanganui some men passed us, carrying the remains of a man who had been drowned crossing the bar a few days before ; nothing remained but the head and hands, the rest having been destroyed by fish. We slept at the Rev. Mr. T 's house, who was kind enough to accommodate us. 29th & 30th. — Rainy weather, unable to move out. To be continued. *Waikawa ? En. N. Z. S.