AUSTRALIA

Colonist, Volume V, Issue 477, 20 May 1862, Page 3

AUSTRALIA

METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENON.

[The following communication has been published in i he Sydney Herald.}

On Saturday the 12th April, I .left Launc ston in the steamer Lady Denison. For several days we were baffled by head winds, and on Thursday, the 17th, we had only reached latitude 38 30, longitude

14950 E. This day was an eventful one ;o us; for, not to speak of several flyingfish, that sprang on board, and an enormous sword-fish that shewed himself several times near our vessel, we witnessed a sight granted but to few.

About twelve o'clock a waterspout appeared in the distance, not near enough to cause apprehension. A few hours alter, however, an immense one hove in sight, much nearer and passed the ship at right angles. It seemed like a gigantic hose let '"down from the clouds (which had accumulated in grtat masses), and communicating with a cauldron in the sea. Hardly had we cleared this, when I perceived through the tempestuous waves (a gale was now blowing) a wide whirling eddy of smoke, I called out to the captain that a steamer was coming fast down on our beam, but at the very instant of speaking I sa*v that it was a whirlwind flying at the rate of at least sixty miles an hour. It was a wonderful sight. Fancy a cauldron eighty yards wide, boiling madly, and huiling its steam up to the clouds. Not steam only, ibr euch was the force, that 6mall bodies of water were carried aloft and about with inconceivable Telocity. And fancy this cauldron rushing at you as straight as an arrow, while the winds were howling in a frantic gale s and the aky was covered with blackest clouds in every

quarter. Captain M'Kinlay saw at a glance our extreme danger; and bo did every one of his small but active crew. Our course was then north and by west, and at once the

vessels Uriad was turned north and by easi The cauldron iiistan'.ly changed its direction, nn.i what will your readers say when I inform (hem thai, we tacked sound to a'most every point of the compass, and tliat the fearful thing fcT'owed us at every turn until we succeeded in clearing it by tackino totheS.S.W. On the very instant of our success the man at the wheel sang out ' another on the weather quarter, sir!' And there was another equally large, fierce, and speedy, which passed near our ste.n. Immediately after was heard •another on the weather beam, sir!' We cleared that, and then ' another on the weather bow sir!' was shouted by the steer&man. In brief, nine waterspouts passed close to u3 in twenty minutes, any one of which would in a moment have sent us to the bottom. Perhaps the most extraordinary thing yet remains to be told. Each cauldron altpr passing us, halted about half a mile off, and then the whirl grew more dense, the ' steam ' was lifted higher, and a tongue was let down from the clouds immediately above, forming a regular ' hose,' so to speak, up which the water went in immense quantities. The whole nine then ranged themselves close together on our lee, each being perfectly defined, and in shape exactly like a boy's peg top, the spike being in the water, and the top spreading through the clouds.

Dr. Livingstone has apoken of the benignity of Providence in depriving of the feeling of terror one who is in tho jaws of a ferocious beaat. I am inclined to think that Providence 3ho\ca great indulgence in all great dangers, I can only say that the exceeding majesiy of the scene precluded every feeling of terror. At the very moment when one of the waterspouts (for the whirlwinds were all nascent waterspouts) actually touched our bowsprit I was busily calculating ita area and its speed. Too much praise cannot be given to Captain M'Kiniay, to whom I am most happy to express (by authority) the thanks and gratitude of all his passengers, who received, at his hands, all that could be expected from a kind and considerate gentleman. V. CARR BOYD, LL.D. 54, Wynyard-square.

NORFOLK ISLAND.

His Excellency Sir John Young returned on Monday last in H.M.S. Pelorus from a visit to Norfolk Icland. The voyage there laoted a fortnight and was ?ery rough, but tdis in no way lessened the gratification his Excellency received on his arrival there. It will be generally remembered that the Norfolk Islanders e.;e descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty and Otaheitan women, and had been removed fro:n Pitcairn Island. The Pelorus arrived at Norfolk Island at daybreak on the 3rd of April, and, shortly after, cast anchor. His Excellency was met, on landing, by Mr. Nobbs and Mr. llossitor—the former the clergyman, and the latter the schoolmaster —who accompanied his Excellency to Government House. After lunch his Excellency, suite, and commodore Seymore, visited the public buildings erected by the convicts, and were much struck by their extreme dilapidation. His Excellency, accompanied by the aide-de-camp, and Mr. llossitor, subsequently look a walk into the country.

Friday, April 4th.—His Excellency, attended by his aide-de-camp, visited the schools before breakfast, and gave away the piizes ; subsequently, had a long interview with Messrs. Nobbs and llossitor, and then with the chief magistrate, by name Quintal, (grandson of the mutineer of that name), and with the two councillors. In the afternoon, his Excellency and suite took a ride in the country, the Governor being chaimed 7vith the beauties of the island, especially the luxuriance of the grasses and the magnificence of the pine trees.

Saturday, April 5. — His Excellency visited all the houses on the settlement after breakfast, and subsequently rode to Cascade Bay. In the afternoon there was a general meeting of the community, when iiis Excellency addressed them, passed certain laws, and suggested that certain improvements should be made, principally connected with the cultivation and fencing in of land, about which the Norfolk Islanders are very remiss. Sunday, April C.—His Excellency, accompanied by the Commodore, attended divine service. The Rev. Mr. Nobbs selected for his test 2nd chapter Luke, 3 Oth verse, and made allusions to the death of the Prince Consort. His Excellency and aide-de-camp remained for the communion, and embarked at half-past two p.m., getting through the surf without difficulty. The present population of Norfolk Island consists of two hundred and sixty-eight persons ; but judging from what has already occurred it will soon comprise a much larger number. Since the people landed there from Pitcairn's Island, there have been eleven ma;riages, and no less than eighty-two births, while the deaths had only been eleven, these being, fov the most part, children, or the results of accidents. The Pitcairn emigrants are a prolific race. One family alone comprises fourteen persons, and there are six other families of eleven each. Every member of the ieland is of the Church of England, every child is bound to attend school, but there appears to be no great desire to learn, nor indeed much activity or enterprise of any kind amongst the Islanders. About thirty-five acres are under cultivation, the produce of which, and cattle and sheep supply their wants. Owing to the depredatione of wild pigs there, his Excellency haa ordered them to be exterminated. He also suggested the cultivation of arrowroot and potatoes. It i« eaid the Islanders &re quite satisfied with their isolation. — Sydney Empire.

The change in the lan i sys'em, wlic.h eauie iulo operation with the comment*1-

rif.nt of the present year, confi:>ue< ■■■ i'uifil the expectations o;' iis advoca^s. - • to falsify tiu j prophecies oi' iis of (•••:.•-■;- No violent fransiietkui has iaken t.-'.sC'.' ■>' ihe o( the ciifft-reut dashes <■>'■ *•< - eiety —no important interest lias suiter*.-.i ihe least derangement in consequence ot ii ; yet a large scope of waste laud has beon purchased, and brought under permanent .settlement, and thousands of industrious families have thereby invested the savings of pasc years in a way the best calculated to advance their own position and prospects, and to secure the best interests of the community at large. An extensive influx of small capitalists is setting in from the neighbouring colonies, attracted by the superior facilities which our land laws hold out to them for the acquisition of freehold homes. And the gold mining portion of the inhabitants of this colony enjoying under the provisions of tb^ Alienation Act peculiar advantages in this respect, the large additions to our population occasioned by the late rushes to the Burrangong and Lachlan diggings are more than likely to form, to a large extent, a permanent elen.e.u in the co!onisatim of the Southern and Western districts. These are grand steps towards placing society in New South Wales upon a more stable and conservative basis, as well as towards laying the foundation, throughout the length and breadth of Australia, of an energetic, moral, and liberty-loving people. Complaints have been made by intending settlers that man}' eligible situations for agricultural occupations were shut in by pastoral leaseholds. The right of withdrawing from such runs, however, any lands which might be required ' for any public purposes whatsoever,' had been reserved to the Government by the fifth section of the Crown Lands Occupation Act. And this power has just been exercised in respect to numerous different portions of fertile land within the unsettled districts. A supplement to the Crovernment Gazette of the 17th April, contains an official notification of the withdrawal from pastoral leases, • for public use,' of nineteen separate areas, varying in extent from less than a square mile to upwards of a hundred, and situated within the most fruitful and inviting localities—north, west, and south. The three largest of these reservations from lease, thus thrown open to free selection, compromise, taken together, two hundred and sixty-five square miles, and lie in nearly equal quantities within the weil watered, humid, and fertile districts of Murrumbidgee and New England. By this prompt and timely exercise of the powers reserved to it by the Land Acts the Government has shown that no artificial obstruction shall interfere with the legitimate operation, or diminish the success of free selection before survey. It has shown moreover, that by an expedient placed by the Land Act within its reach, and which it knows how and has the requisite courage to make us of, the growing requirements oi an increasing population, in regard to the purchase ot land, can be kept pace with, and fully met from time to time as occasion demands. Such are the simple and effjctive principles on which the land system of New South Wales is based, requiring nothing on the part of the administration but honest attention to the claims of the industrious and enterprising in providing them with a fair field and full scope for the display of their colonising and wealth-creating' capabilities.

With the minute details of the process thus going on, which considered as a whole, are complicated and diversified in the extreme—the Government, under our system, of * free selection,' has nothing to do. It is the licenser and guardian of the various industries put in motion, but the particular direction and conduct of them is in other and wiser hands. Our land system, in short, is like a machine that stands in need of nothing from its framers and superintendents, but grist to grind. In all other respects, so far as they are concerned, it is seif-supporiing and self-regulative. And the system, as a whole, after some improvements in its details, and such an amendment of the impounding law as will bring its provisions into harmony with those of the Laud A. C { 3 —both of which reforms are sure, before long, to take place—will approach as near to perfection, perhaps, as any contrivance of the same kind at present in existence. Under its auspices, indeed, all the fading interests of the colony, pastoral as well as agricultural and mineral, bid fair to prosper in a much higher degree than heretofore. So far from having a tendency to reduce the number of our flocks and herds, and to drive across the borders to Victoria or to Queensland, the pastoial occupants of our interior —as foretold by the antagonists of reform—our amended land laws have had the contrary effect ofattractipg. the atockowners of the neighboring colonies. Sheep in large numbers are pouring in fiora Victoria, to occupy our back runs upon the advantageous terms offered by the Crown Lands Occupation Act, in respect of improvements, by which the grazing capabilities of runs are increased. The formation of reservoirs, dams, &c, by which numberless well-grassed localities, at present useless for want of water, can be brought into profitable occupation will under the provisions of the new Act, entitle the pastoral tenant to a ten years' lease. By this means the resources of our immense interior promise to arrive at a new and higher stage of development, and our pastoral returns *o fee correspondingly increased.. So vast is the scope of fine country, indeed that remains to be taken up in this manuer, that any guess at the possible multiplication thereby of our flocks and herds would bear the appearance of exaggeration.--ifrn J pVe.