CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

Otago Witness, Issue 654, 11 June 1864, Page 20

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

By the arrival of the Sir George Grey at Auckland, we have much later Cape news than that previously received. We make the following extracts :—: — i New Zealand International Exhibition. — The Cape Town Chamber of Commerce has received a communication from the secretary to the International Exhibition, which is to be held in Otago next year, inviting the co operation of the Chamber, and of the colony generally, to promote, as far as in them lie, the success of the undertaking. The letter will be taken into consideration at the ordinary meeting of the Chamber on Monday next, I at which we hope resolutions will be adopted having for their object the extension of the trade of this colony to the most distant of her Majesty's dominions. — " Cape Argus." Trade of our Port. — In our last Weekly Notes on Trade' and Shipping, in recapitulating the quantities of wool exported from this port during the quarter ending the 31st ult., we made a very serious error. The returns just completed by the Customs' officers showed that the following quantities have been shipped :—: — Bales. lbs. •:. To the Unifed Kingiom ...17,023 . 4,603 3?9 To the United States ... 8,286. .3,450,915 To Holland 710... 196 519 Via Cape Town, about ... 376... lUS 777 Total ' 26,400.. 8,361.510 Total value of imports for same period, L 320,662; of articles entered for consumption, L 295,433 ; and of exports, L 477,405. The latter exclusive of large shipments via Cape Town.—" Port Elizabeth Telegraph," 6th April. Colonel Armstrong, C.M.R., it is said, is to proceed to Natal as Colonel on the staff. This is considered aa an indication that head quarters are to "be established at King William's Town. — Ibid. Lieutenant - Governor Maclean, it is surmised, will shortly retire on a pension of LBOO per annum. Sir Peter Douglas ■will be Lieutenant-Governor of the province, and reside at King William's Town, ■when Kaffraria shall have been annexed. — Ibid. The locusts appeared in great numbers at Graaff-Reinet last Friday and Saturday. The swarms were not so large as some already reported ; but still large enough to do considerable mischief in the erven, and especially at Adendord. Mealies have been eaten off to the bare stalks, and foliage has disappeared altogether in some places. — Ibid. Major, Lord Brown, will probably leave Fort Beaufort for Grahamstown shortly •with 200 of the 96th. Head-quarters of this regiment, it is reported, will be stationed here.— lbid. Elopement. — One of the topics of the day has been an affair which has lately occurred in Witte Muisje,Kloof, in the district of Somerset. One day during the past week a girl about 16 or 17, of respectable European origin, took an intense desirefor a young Hottentot servant of her brother's. The love it appears was reciprocated by the nigger, and one fine evening the brother's wardrobe was pillaged of several shirts, unmentionables, and a jacket or two, and the foolish young woman and her swarthy seducer decamped. Search, we believe, has been made by the famity, who have been plunged into deep distrees on account of the lamentable and degraded taste of the young woman. — " Somerset Courant."

The following, under the head passing events, is from the Eastern Province "Herald" of sth April :—

Our Cape legislature may well take a leaf out of the proceedings of the dignitaries of Mauritius. The authorities of Beunion have hitherto paid to the Peninsular and Oriental Company a sum of £12,000 per annum for carrying the mail to and from the Mauritius ; but they have lately given notice that the subsidy would Bpeedily be withdrawn. In turn, the Mauritius authorities were informed by the P. and 0. Company that the service could not be maintained with Beunion in consequence of the annual payment being withdrawn, but they were informed that for 8 sum of £6,000 paid by them the mail service to Reunion would be continued aa usual. The Governor and the Council at once fell in with the proposal, and there seems no doubt that it will be carried out. We trust that so good an example w.ill not be lost on our Parliament. The Union Company can run their vessels to the Cape in several days less than the contract time, but they will not do so without extra pay, because of the increased cost at which high | speed js obtained. Our merchants, as well as private persons, are exposed to much annoyance and loss by the short time for reply afforded under the present arrangement, and we hold the sum of L4OOO required by the Company as a bonus for increased speed to be one of the most legitimate items of expenditure which the Colonial Secretary could propose. The purchase of the Sea Bride and her cargo seems destined to be o source of

vexation to the present owners, if not of trouble to the colonial authorities. Part of the cargo having reached St Louis, the American Consul demanded its surrender to the original owners, on the ground that the ship and cargo had not been condemned before a competent tribunal. Sir Henry Barkly, however, refused to interfere, alleging that his instructions would not justify his acting in the way proposed. The Sea Bride herself, as our readers already know, lies dismantled in one of the harbors of Madagascar, where she is safe from all molestation, being in neutral waters— safe it may be, but useless to her owners.

The most recent advices throw yet fresh light on the conducj of Captain Semmes with regard to theiMartaban, destroyed by his orders in the' Eastern seas. By the first account it appeared that the vessel possessed a bona fide British register, but that the Confederate commander, knowing that she had very recently been owned in the Federal States, chose to exact some arbitrary proofs of her transfer being bonajide, and these not being producible, burned her. On Captain Semmes' recent visit to Table Bay he alleged that the captain of the Martaban, on being pressed, admitted that there was not a bona fide transfer, and that the transaction referred to was carried through merely for the purpose of blinding the commander of the Alabama, should slie be met with. Now, however, Captain Pike puts the matter in a different light. He alleges that the papers presented to Captain Semmes were perfectly regular, and testified, under the hands of the British consul and of the Customs authorities at Moulmein, to the fact of the owner of the vessel being Mr Currie, a British subject residing in that town. It was not till a considerable time after the Martaban was fired that Captain Semmes proceeded to question Captain Pike closely as to the nationality of the vessel. Captain Pike admits that in reply to the qnestion, "Do you not know that the sale was intended merely as a cover to prevent capture?" he said, "I do know it ?" but he maintains that he understood his answer only to involve the statement that he sold his phip because he did not feel disposed to run the risk of capture by the Confederate cruiser, aud not the alleged sale was made for the purpose of deceiving the commander of the Alhambra. It seems to us that in this case at least Captain Semmes has acted with undue haste, and that Mr Curries claim against the Confederate authorities ought to be urged by the British Government with all the energy they can command. If Captain Semmes, or any one else, is to be allowed to set at nought British papers, of what service is our flag to our merchant marine ? It is high time that this question should be cleared up ; and we trust that Lord Russell will lay the matter before the Confederate Government without delay. Captain Semmes has been very successful in the line which he has pursued, and he has recently dazzled some of our contemporaries by the force and acumen of his protest against the detention of the Tuscalooza \ but we cannothelp feeling that it is an ignoble sort of warfare which is waged against helpless merchantmen; and to compare Serames with Drake and Raleigh is. mere balderdash. These men at least fought their equals, whether in the tall Spanish galleons, or in the hardy soldiers of the Spanish Main. Say Paul Jones, and we admit the parallel ; Drake and Raleigh stand in a very different portion.

On Drr.— Sir Percy Douglas is appointed Governor of Kaffraria, which is now to include the Transkein territory; Colonel Gawler to be Secretary ; and Sir Walter Currie Chief Commissioner of the new territory, King Williamstown, will be the head-quarters, and the military store depot at Panmure. — " Frontier Times."