The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-24 00:00:00

AUSTRALIA.

By the Arctic we have received advices from
Sydney to the 19th of August, being six days' later
than those previously received in this country
direct. We have no later news from Melbourne.
We subjoin a summary of the news from the
Sydney Empire.
RATES OF LABOUR AND RENTS.—Notwithstanding
the continued stream of immigration, the rates of
labour are increasing, more especially those con-
nected with housebuilding. Stone-masons obtain
from lbs. to 14s. a day; carpenters, 12s. to 13s. a
day ; and other trades vary from I ls. to 13s. a day.
Building materials are enormously high. Prior to
the gold discovery sawn timber was from 7s. to 10s.
Per 100 feet—the average was about Bs. ; it is now
aboutstoll 21. per 1,000 ;
Stone has increased
iunP nonewt
lalee 44
onf o wsog g oßtriuenkds eli7Bll.e.
same or even greater proportion. The price
of stone for ordinary building purposes, at the
quarries, was formerly Vid. to sd. per foot; it is
now is. 6d. to 25., according to size and quality.
The amount of money earned at these wages is
enormous. We believe 11. a day is a very moderate
amount at which to estimate the earnings of saw-
yers and quarrymen.
Rents are gradually increasing, and for ordinary
dwellings have risen about three times, and for good
business premises about five times what they were
two years since. Small three room cottages, in the
outskirts of the town; let for 30s. a week; five room
cottages, fit for families, are from 2/. 10s. to 41. a
week. In the city a good family house is worth
3001. a year. Good business premises, in first rate
situations, are very difficult to obtain ; 7001. to 8001.
a year is asked, and for some large premises 1,0001
has been given. One of the recently arrived banks
gave 11,0001. for the premises which were years
ago occupied by.the Bank of Australia, and then
gave 3,0001. to the tenant, who had a five years'
lease, to give up possession. A hotel, recently
erected, has been let for £l,OOO a year.
AGRICULTURE.—It is a matter of surprise and
satisfaction to find that the agricultural and pas-
toral pursuits of the colony have not suffered from
the gold discoveries. A very large quantity of land
has been sown this year, in consequence of the
high price of wheat and flour a few months since ;
and although the heavy importations from the
United States put prices down to an almost nomi-
nal rate a few months since, the cessation of im-
portations has caused a gradual increase during
the last month. The graziers were naturally alarmed
when gold was first discovered ; but the gradual
increase in the price of wool and tallow has more
than paid the increase of wages, as is evident from
the great increase which has taken place in the
price of stock and stations.
SHOCKING CONDITION OF THE ROADS.—RAILROADS
BEGUN.—A great drawback to the prosperity of the
colony is the dreadful state of the roads. At pre-
sent a ton of flour can be purchased in Sydney for
£25; it cannot be conveyed from Sydney to the
Turon, 160 miles, for less than £3O, thus adding
more than one hundred per cent. to its cost. We
are glad, therefore, to be able to state that before
the end of the next year, the first section of the
Sydney railway, fifteen miles to Paramatta, will be
opened. A second railway company is in course
of formation, for the purpose of making a railway
from Newcastle to Upper Hunter.
Another step in the extension of Warn naviga-
tion is about to take place. The Peninsular and
Oriental Company have announced their intention
of placing the steamer Ann on the line, be-
tween New England and Sydney. She is to sail
this week.
DISCUSSION OF THE PROPOSED NEW CONSTITUTION.
—The legislature of New South Wales has been
engaged for two months in discussing the provi-
sions of a new constitution, reported by the com-
mittee to whom the subject was referred. It is in-
tently opposed by the Sydney Empire and a large
proportion of the people.
Many of the most intelligent men in the colonies
are warmly in favour of modelling the new constitu-
tion after that of the United States, and all our
leading statesmen and constitutional writers are
constantly quoted in the debates. The Sydney
Empire says on this subject:—
The outline of the American constitution pre-
sents us with an idea more nearly complete of a
perfect contrivance for the government of a country,
than we can find anywhere else. It was the glory
of Washington, his times, and compeers. Nothing
can be more worthy of the profound study of a
statesman. And. adherence to such a plan could
not fail, under Providence, to make a nation great.
It is the constitution which has raised the United
States, in less than eighty years, to the . rank of
one of the chief nations of the world. The issue
of the experiment has been so manifest that it is
impossible not to wonder at the stolidity of states-
men who are not convinced by it.

LATEST GOLD CIRCULARS.

SYDNEY, AUGUST 13, 1853.---The latest news from all our
mines continues to show signs of reviving activity and pros-
perity. We must remain contented with these glimpses of
future well-being until the weather becomes more settled,
but yet we prize them as earnests of what may then be ex-
pected. The only point worthy of notice is the falling in of
about half an acre of ground at Spring Creek owing to the
water having filled the excavations and undermined their
supports. Happily this was attended with no accident, the
water having effectually precluded all attempts at working
the claims thus overwhelmed.
No escorts have arrived in Sydney this week.

There has been but little gold offering during the week,
and the price remains firm at 78s. for Victoria gold.
Exports since our last :
August 11, G. S. Co.'s steamer Argo, for
Southampton
Add previous export

Ounces

29,846
1,394,339

1,424,184

Value at 70s. per ounce £4,984,644,000
Exchange on London, drafts against gold, 1 per cent.
premium. Freight I per cent.

THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

We publish from the Polynesian of the 3d and 10th of
September, copies of the official correspondence between the
Hawaiian government and the representatives of France,
Great Britain and the United States, briefly referred to in
the NORTHERN DAILY TIMES of Monday.
HONOLULU, Aug. 29, 1853.

SIR,—We, the undersigned representatives of Great
Britain and France, have the honor to solicit an audience
with the king and his majesty's privy council, for the
purpose of expressing our sentiments respecting some recent
occurrences which we conceive deeply involve the sovereignty
of the king and the independence of the islands.
With sentiments of high consideration, we have the
honor to be, sir, your most obedient humble servants,
WM. MILLER,
Em. PERRIN.

To R. C. Wyllie, Esq.,
H. H. M.'s Minister Foreign Relations

PRIVY COUNCIL CHAMBERS, PALACE,
August 29th, 1853.
_ _

The undersigned had the honor to receive this day in
privy council, the note by the two representatives of Great
Britain and France, of this date, in which they solicit an
audience with the king and his majesty's privy council, for
the purpose of expressing their sentiments respecting some
recent occurrences which they consider deeply involve his
majesty's sovereignty and the independence of his islands.
The undersigned is commanded by the king to reply that
he has convoked his council for Thursday, the Ist of Sept.,
at 11 o'clock, a.m., to receive the representatives of Great
Britain and Fr moo.

The undersigned has the honor to add the assurance of his
highest respect and consideration. R C. WYLLIE.
To Monsieur Louis Emile To
Perrin, Consul, Commis- Wm. Miller, Esq.,
sioner and Plenipotentiary H. B. M.'s Consul,
of his Imperial Arajesty, &c., &c., &c.
Napoleon 111. of France.
HONOLULU, September Ist, 1853.
May it Please Your Majesty :
We, the representatives of Great Britain and France, beg
leave respectfully to intimate to your majesty, that we are
fully informed of the extraordinary course adopted by some
American merchants, landed proprietors, and other citizens
of the United States connected with the Protestant mis-
sionaries, residing in Woahoo, with a view to induce your
Majesty to alienate your sovereignty and the independence
of these islands, by immediate negotiation for annexation to
the U. S. ; and that we are aware, also, of the countenance
and support that. a memorial those gentlemen have addressed
to you, to the aforesaid effect, has received from high official
functionaries at Honolulu, all of which proceedings have
given rise to considerable excitement among French and
British residents.

Under these circumstances we consider it our duty to re-
mind you that Great Britain and France have entered into
solemn treaties with the Sandwich Islands, by which treaties
your mljesty, your heirs and successors, are bound to ex-
tend, at all times, to French and British subjects the same
advantages and privileges as may. be granted to subjects or
citizens of the most favoured nation; and the joint decla-
ration of England and France, on the 28th of November,
1843, was founded upon the clear understanding that your
majesty was to preserve yobr kingdom as an independent
state. _ _ .

Therefore, we declare, in the name of our governments,
that any attent to annex the Sandwich Islands to any fo-
reign power whatever, would be in contravention of existing
treaties, and could not be looked upon with indifference by
either the British o► French governments.
We beg further to observe that, in accordance with the
Hawaiian constitution your majesty could only alienate
your sovereignty and islands under certain circumstances
—which circumstances have not occurred— and that no mo-
narch whatever, according to Vattel and other writers on
international law, has a right to alienate his kingdom, or to
enter into a negociation with that view, without the concur-
rence of his people.
We therefore, consider that the time has arrived for us to
remonstrate, and we do hereby remonstrate against your
majesty becomming a party to the scheme recently got up,
or to any other project which existing treaties and the Ha-
waiian constitution do not sanction.
EM. PERRIN,
Wat. MILLER,

PRIVY COUNCIL CHAMBER, PALACE,
12, Noon, Ist Sept. 1853.
. .

The undersigned is commanded by th king to state to
the represent itives of Great Britain and France, that his
majesty will duly consider the joint memorandum which
they this day presented to his majesty,
_in presence of his
ministers and privy council of state.—Your most obedient
humble servant,

R. C. WYLLIE.

To Mons. Louis Emile Perrin, To
Consul, Commissioner, and Wm. Miller, Esq.,
Plenipotentiary of his H. B. M.'s Consul,
Imperial Majesty, Na- &c., &c., &c.
puleon 111., of France.

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN RELATIONS,

(No. 8.) HONOLULU, September 3, 1853.
Sm,—lt was resolved by the king in council on the Ist of
this month, that I should pass to you, officially, the Poly-
nesian, No. 17, of this day, containing the joint address to
his Maj,;sty of that day, by the representatives of Great
Britain and France. This I have the honor now to do, and
at the same time, to acknowledge the receipt of your de-
spatch, No. 46, of the 29th August.
I have the assurance of uniform past experience that you,
and the United States consuls under you, have ever taken a
deep and active interest in the independent sovereignty of
the king, acting fully and faithfully up to the principles de-
clared by Mr. Clayton, on the 6th of July, 1853, to Wm.
C. Rives, Esq., to be submitted to the government of France,
and to those declared by the late Mr. Webster, to your-
self, under date of the 14th July, 1851, of which copies were
frankly and honorably sent by him, both to the British and
French governments.
With the highest respect and consideration, I have the
honor to be, sir,
Your most obedient, humble servant,
R. C. WYLLIE.

To Luther Severance, Esq.,
U. S. Commissioner, &c., &c., &c.

U. S. COMMISSION,

(No. 47.) HONOLULU, Sept. 3, 1853.
have the honor of receiving your communication
of this morning, in which you say it was resolved by the
king in council on the first day of the month, that you should
pass to me, officially, a copy of the joint address to his
majesty by the representatives of Great Britain and France,
made on that day, which you have done by enclosing a copy
No. 17 of the Polynesian, published this morning.
My thanks are due to the king and council, for taking
immediate measures to apprise me officially of the exact con-
tents of the address, which I perceive remonstrates against
the " extraordinary course adopted by some American mer-
chants, landed proprietors, and other citizens of tho United
States," to induce the king to slionate his sovereignty and
the indepot.louee of the islands, by immediate negotiation
for annexation to the United States.
You are aware that the government of the United States
has never made any propositions to his majesty's govern-
ment to annex the islands, though the matter has undoubt-
edly engaged the attention both of citizens of the United
States and of subjects of the King. To me it is not surpris-
ing that the " merchants and landed proprietors," whether
Americans or others, should perceive great commercial ad-
vantages in such a connection,' considering that the principal
part of the commerce of the islands is with the United
States, and that the islands must look almost exclusively to
the Pacific coast of the United States for a market for their
products, and the means of paying for their heavy imports.
I perceive, therefore, nothing very extraordinary in the pro-
ject remonstrated against. And if now, or at any future
time, it shall be found to be decidedly for the interest of
both countries to unite their sovereignties, I am unable to
perceive any treaty or moral obligations on the part of either,
to forbid the desired union, or any good reason for foreign
interference to prevent it.
French and English subjects might still be entitled to the
privileges of the ' most favoured nation," and on the score
of commercial advantages cannot well complain of being
subjected in these islands to the revenue laws of a country
which consumes and pays for French manufactures and other
products to the amount of forty millions of dollars annually,
and of British goods to the amount of one hundred millions
annually—the revenue laws of a country rapidly growing,
and whose trade is now of more value to Great Britain and
France than that of any of their colonies, if not indeed of
all of them added together, vast as the English colonies are.
In view of these great interests which would be sacrificed
by a disturbance of pacific relations, (to say nothing of
several hundred millions of American stooks held in Europe,
whose value might for the time be seriously affected,) it is
not to be supposed that France will insist on the little ad-
vantage of importing into these islands, silks, wines, &c., to
the amount of a few thousand dollars at five per cent. duty,
as she now does by her construction of the treaty of 26th
March, 1846 ; a treaty which instead of being a valid reason
why the king should not transfer his sovereignty, is a stand-
ing and powerful argument to justify him in doing so, since
that treaty denies to him one of the most important attri-
butes of sovereignty—one in the highest degree essential to
all independent nations.
Still less is it to be supposed that great Britain will claim
the privileges of the " most favoured nation" under this
IFrench treaty, since she has generously thrown up her own
treaty of the same date and tenure, and substituted that of

THE NORTHERN DAILY TIMES.