WELLINGTON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 362, 17 February 1863, Page 6

WELLINGTON.

(from our own correspondent.) WRECK OF H.M.S.S ORPHEUS AT MANUKAU. 187 LIVES LOST. ! Wellington, 12th Feb.. 1863. With the spcelofthe telegraph, the above startling and fearful information was passed from mouth to mouth through this city last evening. The Wonga arrived from the scene of the disaster in ordinary course,'at 6 o'clock last evening, and cast a solemn gloom over us, such as I only remember witnessing once before.—on the receipt of the sad defeat Major Nelson's troops sustained at Puketakauere., The Independent and the Advertiser publish the details this morning, and, as they each draw their information from the same source—the steward of the .Wonga—both accounts are substantially the same. The accident occurred daring the afternoon of Satuiv' day, the 7th instant, the Orpheus, apparently being on the bar before she wos aware of her danger. The Wonga reports the sea to have bsen very heavy, and surprise is manifested at the attempt to take the bar being made at all. However) with the scanty information we possess, it would be cruel to surmise anything', especially as we mny be quite sure the cause of the wreck will be fully enquired into. After rendering every help, the Wonga proceeded on her course, : the Avon having come down from the head of the harbor, and tHere being nothing about the wreck that would indicate the slightest hope of saving additional life. Out of 254 souls, only 67 were saved, the principal of the remaining 137 having gone overboard with the masts, to which they were clinging. It was the Orpheus' first trip to New Zealand, she and the Commodore (Burnett) having only, arrived on the Australian station a short time since. Two lieutenants, three midshipmen, and the paymaster, were all the officers saved. When the Commodore was last seen, he was dinging to the mizenmast. The Orpueus was under sieam. I send you the newspaper accounts for full details. We shall probably not hear anything further until the Airedale returns on the 27th; but, if anything turns up, I will let you know, ehould a chance opportunity oner. ", . ?,, •,. We have to-day an illustration of how desirable it is to have two strings to. your bow, and that it Is not always well to be off with the old love before you are on with the new. We, in common jvith other provinces, have this month been singing pceans with reference to the certainties of Nelson and Sydney route, for the transmission of the homeward mail. We have been rejoicing in the advantages of the route which not very long since we despised, and the whole of the Auckland, and the bulk of the Cimteriury and Wellington letters have, been made up ior Fi-ince Alfred accordingly. But alas! there is uothing certain in this world except .Quarter-day, and ibereisnow a doubtas to whether ever the Nelson route may not this month prove a failure. Our mails were being shipped on. board the Airedale last evening.

when the Storm Bird brought ,up word that the Prince Alfred had fouled her screw and injured ber sternpost at Lyttelton, and that it would take her at least two dajs'to repair. As it seldom'happens that the repairs are executed wiiiuu. the time first spoken of, the mails were transhipped into the Queen, and will go after all hy your route. Yesterday morning we talked nf it heinsr a. prudent act to send- the bulk lof oar mails via Nelson, rather than trust to the clionues of t lie Otagt route : this morning we say it was a prudent act to send the mail via Otago rather than trust to the chances of the Prince Alfred reaching Sydney 'via Nelsoii in time. Whatatuass ofun- ; oftainty and contradiction our mail service is always producing. Havins been jilted fay our last love, we shall perhaps ho as su'eet as ever on yours, if you will but send us up the next mail or two punctually. Our last Euglibh mail, thanks to your post-master, arrived here during tlie night of Wednesday the 4th, by the Corio. Not intending to call here on her way to "Wanganui, it appears Mr Barr held out the prospect of the Provincial (government being-sure to renumerate liberally, and so induced her to bring on the mail. The lion. Mr ftlantell had, however, sent down instructions to despatch the mails for Canterbury and Wellington by special steamer; these instructions crossed the Corio, and Mr Mantell was therefore only too happy to comply, with the recommendation of the Chamber of Commerce, and pay the Corio a bonus of £100. We trust that on future occasions Mr Barr will bear Mr Mantell's instructions in mind, and that the English mail will not again be subject to any great detention at your port. Just now we prefer the gloomiest side of everything connected with the incoming mail, and prophecy its non-arrival, at Otago at its due date, the Aldinga having to leave Melbourne two days earlier than usual. 1 see by the Oazelte that Mr Tancrod has resigned his "seat without'office" in ttie Executive. We find it here a matter of very great convenience to have a Minister resident amongst us, as he can ofteu rectify impromptu, difficulties. Greasing the wheels a little always makes t!ie carriage run freer. The instance nbove quoted relative to the despatch of the last mail from Otago is a case in point.

Local steam companies are extending even to Hawke's Bay, where the shares have been spiritedly taken up, and the intention expressed of chartering a suitable boat until one can be purchased or built; but if the Napier people are wise, they will have nothing to do with the chartering busiuess. Steam is so expensive at the first starting where a trade has to be made, that it is almost sure to be a temporarily losing game, and will be still more so where the owner lias to secure a profit, as must of course be the case when .the steamer is only hired. The N. Z. Company are in immediate want of a third boat, and nieau totry to purchase one in Australia, for which purpose the agent sailed yesterday to Sydney. In a couple of months the Queen is likely to be in the market, as the Lord Ashley is to run on the East Coast line after the present quarter. lam verysorry for it in one sense, as it partially destroys the little competition there is. The passage rates are already most extravagantly high, and they are not likely to be reduced now that the traffic is being: concentrated by the intercolonial and the New Zealand Companies. . ' : The effort which the Government is making to induce volunteering does not seem likely to meet with much success either at Auckland or in Wellington. The corps at the former only muster some half hundred regular attendants, and last parade day there were only four or five. If the papere me" any criterion, there appears to be little likelihood anywhere in this island of the settlers becoming volumcers, except under the pressure of the alternative of having to engage in militia duties. It is very amusing to find that men who have always been prognosticating most ruefully for the future, now see no necessity for volunteering, as the only reason for it is to be prepared for the attacks of the Natives—an event which, for the nonce, they declare improbable. It strikes us as somewhat strange that while the settlers are called upon' to volunteer, the Government do not appear to be; doing anything with regard to the mounted police force, about which there was so much talk when the measure was before the Assembly, and from which such great things were expected. New Ministries are prone to strike out new paths in theory, but somehow or o'her they manage to run eventually in pretty nearly the same sets as their predecessors. It is said that the Minis try is in such an attitude of uncertainty, awaiting replies from England, that they hesitate to do more than the ordinary routine-'. If sueli is the case, the doit ble detention of the September mail, which took the despatches consequent on the close of the Assembly—detained fora month at Melbourne, and, agnin, by the wreck of the Colon!bb—will be most unfortunate for the Colony, as well as lor individuals.

The Governor is intending to pay the South a visit in March. "SoiiiJj" may only mean Cook's! Stniit as it did before; but I should scarcely think the Governor inttuds to ignore the existence of the other island altogether. The Harrier had a great .••.version to get into cold latitudes last year—or, rather Sir Malcolm M'Gregor had ; perhaps it may be different with the Commander of the' Station next March. Let us hope f.o, (or all who are the well-wishers of i>iv George cannot but regret that a cause of complaint, so just as this apparent neglect gives rise to, should continue to exist.

Our contribution to the Lancashire Relief Fund now amounts to £1,500. , I mention this, not with a view of boastfully calling attention to our castings into the treasury, but to help your editorial efforts to provoke your community info something more proportionate tlmn the pitiful £700, which the first effort of the Ot'ifto public produced. The Gazette of the 7th inst contains the proclamation dissolving the Otago Provincial Council, so there must speedily be an end to the coquetting and flirting which has been going on betweeu tne gallant Major and the constituency. Who shall say that " emoluments of office," as the phrase goes, are coveted by the colonists. The £800 or £1,000 a-year attaching to the superintendencies of the larger Provinces (to say.nothing of the £l,ol>o at Canterbury) often goes a-t>egging Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago eaoh present instances ot resignations on particular ideas or points of policy, private affairs, and other causes not absolutely requiring them. Just now at Canterbury the " reigns of Government." have been offered to, and refused by one after another.— £1,500 a-year, and the honors attached, being insufficient to attract her besb men ; and in Otago, you seem to be in doubt as to whether Major Kichardson or Mr, Harris will do you the honor to reign over you. The bowing and scraping of these two gentlemen— neither willing to walk in advance of the other—must present a spectacle for astonishment to the mass of your population, who have been used to something very different in Victoria—a sort of universal scramble. . ;...•■ ■..:.•■

Your last poid escorts have astonished, but not excited us. The country population are doing so well now with the produco they send to your market, that they prefer to be thus represented than in propria persona, and some of our first-rate town hands were so grievously disappointed, an'l spent so much money when the first news of the Llunstim was received, j that they not only had a sickener themselves, but! have by their conversation, induced most of those who would have otherwise have visited you this summer, ta let well enough alone. I shan't amuse your readers to-day with anything about our own hopes, further than that by the lastmr.il from Melbourne, a second letter from Sir Brough Smyth has been received, in which he speaks even more confidently than before. The further specimens jf rocks sent induce him to advise that the search be continued'} a search which in his opinion, ought to lead to a successful result. But if I don't feel inclined to ral-e a laugh at our expectations, I don't mind giving the latest intelligence from Coromandel, because at one tinu when such flaming accounts were circulated witii the especial and undisguised oi'ject of creating a rush, there can b« no doubt tii&t you felt a little—just a lcetle—;jealous of the rival claims it was then supposed Coromandel would set up to the richness even of the once renowned Gabriel's OJully. The few men now working there, some 250, are not miners in their own right, but working for wages, and the result of their earnings may be gathered from the market price of Keveii's fleet" Company's shares being now only LlO on LOO paid up. The gold seems to be of a most inferior quality, for there was a loss of L3O on some 300 or 400 ounces purchased by the New Zealand Bank (and sent to the Sydney Mint) at the low rate of L 2 12s per ounce. However, there is hope yet, for althongi) they have hitherto failed to find gola in the crushed quartz, it appears it was solely the fault of the machine, for visibly gold bearing stone was purposely passed through with the reef stone and still none was produced! At that rate certainly there was little chance of the C'oromandel ever answering the golden expectations formed of it. We have been delighted here by a visit from the English Opera Company. Nip-lit after night thry have played to full houses, and their success has exceeded their most sanguine expectations. The Press have been loud in their piaiaes and the company went on to Nelson yesterday, with their trumpet pretty well blown before them. This reminds me of a critique in the Southern Cross of the 3rd :—" Mr C. Roland's entertainment was continued last night at the Oddfellows' Hall, and met with a most hearty reception. The "Juvenile Wonders' characteristic dances were loudly applauded," the fact being that as there was no audience, the performance was postponed that evening. If that is the style in which the Cross does things, may we not charitably conclude tint there is a good deal of truth in the accusations that are made of its incorrectness in—say native matters. And is it possible that I can have written thus far without touching upon Native matters? Surely there must be a woeful stagnation therein. From Auckland there seems to be nothing of any conseqifence; from Taranaki nothing either; and

from Waiigniuu I Yes, there ,is sonittliiug from 1 Wan.ca.nui, which, if I rue. is very sad. but I can scarculv credit that such is the ease. Nothing; less than that the miscreant SVirihana,' who attempted rape upon a child some months since, and after.whom warrants and po icemen were sent by the dozen, openly walks through Wanganui, ai'mt'd with a horse pistol, in the company of a 'number of Kn<r Natives from Wiiikato, joined by others from the neighbourhood of Wanganui. " v> The Dun' Mountain Company at Nelson is, I am. sorry to hear, likely to be in difficulties. 'The Chrome lias not sold for anything like what was ■ expected it would fttch, and the result that usually follows in surfi ta^es is, I am told, likely. to follow, in this. It would not be wise to enter into furtl^cr r i(ar-| ticu'ars at the present. Mr Shand, formerly an officer of the O.tago Cus-' toms, but for some yi are past the R.M.V at' the Chathams, is about to ba transferred to Akaroa,'yiee Captain Greaves! appointed to the secretaryshij)'of , the Central Marine Board.' . . ■ '," ■

As I suppose your readers nre.talking linrse constantly in anticipation of the Champion race, I may mention with reference to our worthy R.M.s horse Duc-an-Dhurras, lately ridden by his brother Lieut. S. Hill at the Auckland races, and carrying ioff everything he was entered for,, that he has been sold there by auction for L 250. I see the owner backs him to run one mile and a half or three miles against? any horse in New Z aland for LSCO or LI.OOO. There is a better one in the stable where liuc-nn-Dhurras came from.

We have had a light shower or two recently, but nothing to speak of. The country is burnt up, much of it literally so, iov we have had very extensive bush fires. I see you have had the thermometer at .120 deg., and Canterbury has had it at 125 deer. Our highest this summer lias been 108 deg., according to the published returns. P.S.—The Spectator having issued an extra, I enclose one, as you will possibly be glud to have all the particulars you can.