TESTIMONIAL TO GENERAL WYNYARD.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 292, 7 August 1860, Page 4

TESTIMONIAL TO GENERAL WYNYARD.

The Testimonial to Lieut. General Wynyard, subscribed for previous to his departure from New Zealand, as assumed a " shape" uuder the cunning hands of Messrs. Smith and Nicholson, and lias been forwarded to the General at Cape Town. We republish the description of the same taken from the Gapp Monitor. Photograps of the pieces of plate arrived by the last mail, and judjing from the same we cannot speak too highly of the beauty and elegance of the designs:— Magnificent Testimonial to his Excellency General Wynyard.—By the last'nmii steamer (the Athens) there arrived from England a splendid service of plate, as a testimonial from the inhabitants of Auckland, New Zealand, to his Excellency Lieuteuant General Wynyard. It was subscribed foe on his' departure from that colony, and consists of a splendid centre piece and four side pieces of solid silver. The base of the principle epergne is triangular, bearing upon one side a suitable inscription, on another the names of the subscribers, and on the third the family arms of the Lieut.-Governor., This is surmounted by one of the native ferns in the shade of which there are the figures of a New Zealand chief, his wife, and child, and a soldier of the 58th Regiment. The. figures and foliage are in frosted silver. The side-pieces are executed on the same idea somewhat modified ; the whole, both in design and execution, is too rnosc chaste and valuable specimeu of the work of the silversmith which has ever been seen in the colony. The following is the inscription :—' " Presented to Colonel Robert Henry Wynyard, C.8., of ELM. 58th Regt., on his departure from New Zealand, by a number of the inhabitants of the city and province of Aui'klaud, in testimony of ttiejr high appreciation'of the abilities, integrity, and urbanity, which has characterised his discharge of the sevenil important duties which developed upon him during thirteen years official residence in New Zealand, from August, 1845, to October, 1858, ia which time he filled for various periods the following offices in the public service:—Lieut.-Governor of the Province of New Ulster, Superintendent of the Province of Auckland, .Governor admi- ' nistering the government of New Zealand, member of the Executive Council of his Excellency the Governor, member of the Legislative jCouooil of the Colony, Colonel of H.M. 58th Regiment, and Officer Commanding H.M..troops I in New Zealand." . . The testimonial has been placed for a few days in the shop of Mr. Waldek, St.. George'sstreet, where it may be inspected, and will well repay a visit. The makers are Messrs. Smith and Nicholson, the weight upwards, of i:our bundr.ed ounces, and its value £360.— Gape Monitor. ■ __ . , (Prom the New Ze(tlarf,d§r.) The weather which during the ks,t week/ continued wet and boisterous has, since Monday, become more settled stnd we are now, en;, joying a bright clear sky, with a more bracing: atmostphere than we have for years experienced. •Yesterday; morning s ice-was -to he found on water in sheltered .localities, in tb^e ueighbori hood of the town-«-iu soiae places a: quarter of

an inch thick—and we could not help noticing the delight of the youngsters, many of whom were handling it for the first time. What1 would they not give for a veritable snowball, such as are to be met with in Edinburgh Univfrstty or on the Liverpool Exchange. Young Auckland has now seen both ice and hailstones, and can speak with some authority on (he force of a steady " nor'easter"•—or the drenching gush of mid-winter wet, but the short crispy tread on the snowy sideway—on a frosty morning—aud the warm glow of both hands and body after a pelting round of snowballs, or the healthy excitement of the skates are for our risiug generation enjoyments yet to come. Snow, and thaw, and skates, and curling, and rinks, are but generic terms to the young idea here. If Macaulay's traveller who some day is to make the pilgrimage'to view the ruins of St.: Pauls from London Bridge, should happen to go from Auckland—arriving there early in the year—he may then also there first be led to contemplate for the first time some qf the, to him previously unknown sources, whence his Saxon ancestors drew the manly development of hisrace. Death of . a Native Chief.—Mr. Preece writes us:—" The native chief Job, Hopa Hokianga, died at Coromandel last Sunday. .Be was on board Captain Cook's Vess6l, at Mercury Bay. He was then about twelve of fourteen years of age. I have not a copy of Cook's Voyages to refer to,-or I oould tell his age. You will find that at the time he.wap ;on board there was a disturbance: some natives were fired on, for some petty theft. Job was on board at the time, but not engaged in the theft. I believe that it was on Cook's first voyage that thisitook place; if so, Job must be 102 or 104 years of age ; if on the second voyage, he must be either 100 or 98 ; if on the last, he must be 97 or 95. He was always a well behaved man, and bas conducted Christian worship for his tribe for more than twenty years. He died tin full reliance upon his Saviour." Potatau. —This chief was buried at Ngaruawhia on Sunday, the 15th July, by the Rev. B. Y. Ash well. At the time of the funeral, and afterwards, the reverend gentleman had, we are informed, the same pacific assurances made to him by Potatau's relatives as were given utterance to by the deceased chief on his deathbed. , FißE.—The Watchman of the Block, between Wyndham and West Queen-streets, discovered a fire which had been apparently smouldering for some time in a stable used by Mr. Pollock (butcher), at the back of the Trafalgar Inn. He immediately alarmed the police who with a few buckets of water extinguished, what in all probability would have soon become a large fire. It proved to be hay that was burning, perhaps ignited by ashes from a pipe, of which some seem so recklessly careless. KoftoitAßEKA.—-We regret having to stnte that no doubt is entertained of the death, by drowning, of one of our old Bay of Island settlers— Captaiu John Wright, formerly in command of the Missionary schooner. He had been long in the habit of sailing his owu boat, single-handed, between his residence at Omata, near the Waliapu, and Kororareka—so long, that overturn tidence had resulted. On Friday night, between 8 and 9 o'clock, he left Kororareka. The weather was gusty, with occasional heavy squalls, aud in one of these, his boat must have been capsized. It was picked up on the following morning near the full of the water, with one of the thwarts torn out—of course by the mast, which was carried away. At one o'clock on Saturday nothing had been seen of him, and it became, too evident that he had not escaped to shore. The Volunteer Eifles.—We have not recently had an opportunity of reporting the progress of these valuable Corps, but if any of our readers will turn out any Tuesday morning they will find in Albert Barracks ample repayment for their trouble. Some of the companies are, we believe, still incomplete, but the deft manner iv which they .go through their drill, the readiness and aptitude with which men of alt ranks have become, as it were, one man—the hearty co-operation pervading all—and the determination which seems to pervade every man to become as perfect aslja possibly can be, makes ope feel that sure wall of defence is steadily rising up amongst us, not only in the Rifles but also in the Militia—whose dill is not in the least behind and in most cases equal to those of the or : ganised Rifle Corps. As with the Rifles so with the Militia, one spirit seems to pervade all, and nothing bhort of being as perfect as they can be seems 'their aim. We cannot report more at present than the bare facts. On how far so of- this spirited organisation is due to tho officers of the various companies, and those painstaking drill sergeants we may have more to say at another time. Where all are so laudably actuated and creditably trained, it is a matter of no less difficulty than delicacy to say one word more for one than another. The heartiness of the movement is the surest guarantee of its stability, Kauri Spars.—Notwithstanding the high estimation in> which these spars are still held and have always hitherto maintained for masts in both the Government and private dockyards, we must not shut our eyes to the introduction in England of their newest and most.formidable rival, from Oregon. A recent London circuhr, in quoting the position of spars for masts in the London market goes on to state that "many of those imported from Canada in 1857 were deemed superior as Canadiau masts, but none cao compare with the new, importation from Oregon and Vancouver's Isle. Four cargoes of these magnificient trees (said to be Abies Doug lasii have been imported, creatiug as much wonder in the naturalist as in the trade. In length, 100 to 130 feet; in diameter, 30 to 39 inches throughout their length ;! straight, without knots,, with scarcely any sop ; sound, strong and hot weighty : these splendid trees combine ail the .qualities required in masts, and have already; attracted the attention of our own and foreign Governments. The principal and largest masts' of this Oregon wood have been valued at J£l2 per load, topmasts and maiuyards, £8 10s. to ,£lO 10s. per load ; bowsprits and small spars in proportion. Canadian masts will we fear be less valued than heretofore. The Kauri masts of New Zealand are still in high esteem for the navy and first-class $nips, though they are as costly to import as the Oregon masts,; and are not of the same dimensions." If our Kauri masts : must yield the palm it is but the stronger man yielding to the strongest; nor need they feel it any discredit to stand next to the forest gian,ts of the north. Whence else do onr home shipbuilders draw the masts so high in eite'jm for the navy and first class ships but from the Kauri fopest^ pi Kaipata aud I^okjanga. *