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Wellington Independent, Volume I, Issue 32, 19 July 1845, Page 3

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Colonial Opinions ok the Colonial Office. —The Jamaica Dispatch writes thus: —" It is impossible (hat the Colonial Office can remain in the state in which it is after the report of the New Zealand Committee. For what does that invaluable document prove? Why, that four successive Secretaries of State for the Colonies have committed such series of blunders or ignorant enormities as have nearly deprived the British Crown of the New Zealand islands, as have violated a fundamental maxim of colonial law, as have almost ruined the colonizing company which commenced their systematic settlement, and as have stirred up the natives to acts of hostillities, outrage, and murder against British subjects." (it goes on to exult in the supposed irapendiug resignation of Mr. Under-Secretary Stephen.) The Hobart Town papers acknowledge the recept of English news to the 6th March, but we are unable to lind in them any extracts of a latter d te than have already appeared in the Herald. It is said to be the intention of Government to make a retired list for the navy, in all its grades, after each officer has reached his 60th year. Among the parliamentary notices we perceive one from Dr. Bowriug, for a committee to enquire into the mode of keeping colonial accounts.

The motion of Mr. Duncornbe for further enquiry into the system of opening letters at the Post Office was negatived on division by 250 to 145. A ship with German emigrants was to sail for South Australia in March, and it was probable that she would be followed by a second ship in the spring. Sir T. F. Buxton died on the 19th of February. Crime in England.—The crime of murder in Great Britain, seems to be increasing to an alarming extent. Scarcely a paper of any note in England, has not some appalling tale to relate to its readers. In thos»j received by the last mail, we find accounts, of 1. "The late tragical affair at Bermondsey," where a man named John Clement, aged 60, after attempting to cut his wife's throat, subsequently committed suicide, by nearly severing his head from his body. 2. " Supposed murder at Bethnal Green," where a Mr. May is supposed to have been murdered and thrown into the Regent's Canal. 3. i( The murder at Salt Hill," for which a quaker, well known in Sydney, named Tawell, stands committed to take his trial for the murder of one Sarah Hart, with whom, it is supposed, he had cohabited, and by whom he had the two children who were in the house at the time of the murder4. "Frightful cases of poisoning in Somersetshire," for which a woman named Sarah Freeman, has been committed to take her trial for the muider of her husband, her mother, her brother, and her child ; the first, that of her husband, was perpetrated about Christmas, 1842. 5. " Execution of a Murderess," wherein it is recorded that the woman, named Mary Sheming, had been found guilty of the murder of her illegitimate child ; the woman was executed in front of the County Gaol, Ipswich. 6. " Fratricide," The murderer's name is John Brough, and his Brother's Thomas Brough. They are both small farmers, residing in Staffordshire. 7. " More poisoning." It was not known whether the deceased, named Esther Russel:, described as a very handsome youug Jewess, had poisoned herself, or whether the arsenic had been administered by the hand of another. Shortly before her death she had given birth to an illegitimate child. 8. " Charge of Murder." The deed took place at Kilsyth, in Scotland, oa the 18th December. The murderer was the son of the woman whom he deprived of life, by throwing her over the stairs. He was intoxicated at the time. This summary of crimes is taken from one paper; if we had time to extract them, we certainly could not find space far a fraction-! part ol even the most appalling and heart rending accounts with which the English journals before us are studded. The Greenacre Family.—The daughter of this noted individual, as well as her husband, are now inmates of hospitals—the latter as a lunatic, and the former in childbed. On the execution of the father, the son and daughter took a shap in the Londouroad ; and notwithstanding that their business was prosperous, still, such was the effect produced on the mind of Gresaacre's son-in-law, that his senses gradually grew impaired, and he was obl'ged to be removed to a lunatic asylum. A Roman Catholic cathedral, lately erected at Nottingham, had been consecrated and opened with much pomp r.nd ceremony. Fifteen Roman Catholic bishops, and more than a hundred priests were present, and so gorgeous a spectacle is said not to have been witnessed in England since the Reformation. A new Romau Catholic Chapel had also been opened with great magnificence at New-castle-upon-Tyne ; niae bishops and seventy priests being in attendance. Tub last of the Defiance Oxford Coach.—Yesterday the whole of the horses, amounting to thirty, of the Defiance Oxiord coach, which for many years past has gone the road between Oxford and Lviniou, were sold by auction at Dixon's repository. The railway being now opened throughout the line the coaches have been taken off the road. Land near London. —A piece of building land on the Uxbridge-road, with not a very desirable frontage, was sold lately after the rate of i'B,ooo the acre English and Irish Absentees.—lt has been ascertained by unerring calculations that upwards of five millions of English and Irish rents, and other incomes, are expended by absentees residing in France, Belgium, and other parts of the continent. Mr. Willoughby Shortland had an interview with Lord Stanley on the 15th Feb. Archdeacon Marriott had an interview with his Lordship on the 17th February.