The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-01 00:00:00

VAN DIEMEN'S LAND COMPANY.
On Tuesday the annual general meeting of the
directors and proprietors of this corporation, established
very many years ago to promote agriculture and grazing
pursuits as well as settlement in the colony of Tasmania,
was held at the company's house, Great Winchester-
street, to receive a report of the last year's proceedings,
the election of directors who have vacated office by
rotation, and upon other matters. The governor, Mr.
Cattley, presided. The minutes of the last meeting were
read awl confirmed.
The Secretary, Mr. HOWELL, read the report, which
stated--" That the Government survey of the company's
lands had been completed, and that the Lieutenant-L;(0-
vernor of Van Diemen's Land was about to forward to
the Secretary of State the tracings and descriptions of
those lands, with a view to the grant of the requisite
warrants by her Majesty's Government, and the directors
are now enabled to state that the said documents have
been received, and that Earl Grey has signified the
intention of Government to carry out this arrangement
fully, in pursuance of the company's charter. Steps
have been accordingly taken for preparing and sub-
mitting a Bill for the sanction of the grant by Parlia-
ment, and the directors trust that an Act to empower
her Majesty to convey the lands in question to the com-
pany will be obtained in the present session of Parlia-
ment. The proprietors will be gratified at learning that
the lands thus awarded to the Company, by an agree-
ment between the Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's
Land and the Company's chief agent, as shown by the
tracings and descriptions transmitted to Earl Grey, con-
sist as follows. viz.:--Circular Head, 20,000; Surrey Hills,
150,000 • Hampshire Hills, 10,000 ; Middlesex Plain!,
10,000; Emu Bay, 50,000; *oolnorth, 100,000; Robbins
Island, 24,450 ; Walker's island, 1,7:!0; and Trefoil
Island, 255—making a total of 366,425 acres. Valuable
as these extensive grants must ultimately prove, yet
the directors regret to add that the expectation which
they had entertained of their becoming so at a very
early period, has been frustrated by Sir Eardley
Wilmot's announcement to Mr. Gibson, that in con-
sequence of the Government surveyor's unfavourable
report of the line of road previously laid down between
the settled districts and Emu Bay, the Government
gangs had been withdrawn to another quarter of the
island. The result, however, of an interview with the
present Lieutenant-Governor, before his departure from
England, leads the directors to believe that the project of
establishing such a road will ere long be resumed, and this
expectation is further confirmed by the accounts of the im-
proving state of the commercial, agricultural, and financial
interests of the colony, as to the unprecedented depression
of those interests, and the consequent want of funds for
public works, rather than the difficulties of the line of
road, its abandonment may probably be attributable.
The proprietors are aware that the chief inducement
held out to settlers to take farms on the company's
heavily timbered lands, was an engagement to take its
produce at certain prices. The engagement was I
entered into just before the commencement of
the pecuniary embarrassments and stagnation of
all enterprise throughout the island, and the results
have been very disadvantageous to the company, as
the produce delivered into the store by their tenants was
hardly saleable at any price—the loss, however, has not
been so heavy as might have been at first supposed, be-
cause in the earlier years of occupation the clearance and
cultivation of land proceeded bat slowly, and the tenants,
therefore, instead of being creditors, became largely in-
debted to the company for indispensable advances of
provisions and stores. Those advances at one time reached
20,2571. Bs. 5d., and from the tenor of the latest advices,
it would appear that they still exceed 10,000 L, but
the increase in the tenant population, and the rapid
clearance of land (amounting altogether to 1,640 acres
under the plough), leads to the belief that a great part
of this debt will be liquidated in the course of the years
1847 and 1848; so great in fact is the progress of
cultivation, that the directors would regard with some
degree of' alarm the prospective success of their
tenants, were it not that the improvements in the
markets of Australia hold out the expectation of
remunerating prices for produce delivered to the com-
pany. Should these prices be maintained, as may
not unreasonably be assumed, for the next three
years, there will be no further loss to the company
from over production by their tenants, as in
March, 1850, their leases, and with them all the
company's engagements will terminate. The sales
of cattle and sheep have been inconsiderable, and at
very low rates, and the horses disposed of were few,
and netted small sums ; the exact amount cannot be
accurately shown, as, from some unaccountable delay,
no account of sales have yet been received. On the other
hand, the sales of live stock for the tenants' subsistence
have been very large. The 'company's clip of wool for
the year 1845, consisting of 74 bales, realised, at
public auction, 1,0751. 193. I Id. In the course
of the eight months from the sth of January
to the sth of September last, 29 vessels had
arrived, and 31 departed from Circular Head
to foreign ports, besides numerous 'coaster, trading be-
tween Stanley, Ernu Bay, and Launceston, and that
the traffic was progressively improving. Whilst pro
vision had thus ben made to advance the com-
mercial interests of the new societies growing up at
Stanley and Emu Bay, every attention has likewise
been paid to their moral and religious improvement,
and the directors have great prlcasure in stating that
as far back as March, 184 f,, the chaplain, the Rev. Mr.
Grigg, had secured the services of a respectable and
well qualified schoolmaster, and also a mistress, for the
schools at Stanley. A master and mistress had likewise
been ob:ained for schools at Emu Bay, where buildings
for the purpose were in course of erection, at the cost of
the tenants, and Mr. Grigg states his sanguine expecta-
tion that both places will shortly possess as many social
advantages, and exhibit as fair a social character as any
like amount of population in any rural district of Eng-
land."

Upon the question that the report be adopted and
printed for circulation among the proprietors, many
questions were asked by proprietors present,
The GOVERNOR, in reply, said, he as well as the direc-
tors had to regret the report was not more favourable,
but they had laid before the court all the facts that bad
come to their knowledge. Every effort had been made to
reduce expenditure in the colony. The great object to be
obtained was, that the corporation should become land-
lords, not farmers. Upon the company's lands all poor
but industrious men would succeed in bettering their
condition in life. With respect to the defalcation in the
number of sheep which appeared to exist in the report,
full returns had not been received of the number which
was at Woolnorth, accounts relative to which had
not yet come to hand. Upon the whole, however, there
had been a considerable increase in the company's flocks.
As soon as a title could be given to the lands sold by the
company, which would be the case very soon, no doubt
there would be plenty of purchasers.
A PROPRIETOR complained that for seven years the
tenantry system had been going on at great loss, and
that the results had been so small.
Mr. ROUGEBIONT explained, that owing to the panic
the directors had directed Mr. Gibson, the com-
pany's agent in the colony, to be cautious. The
prices of produce in the colony had been exceedingly
low, but the markets were rallying, wheat as
well as other produce, as well as stock, was in
demand for Australia and the Cape of Good Hope,
As almost all attention in Australia was directed to the

working of copper mines founcrin—the sister colony, it
was probable that agricultural pursuits would not be
followed up with so much avidity. This would give a
better cha►ice for the produce of Van Diemen's Land.
The company's agent, Mr. Gibson, when he learned the
state of the markets in England and Ireland, would re-
gulate his course accordingly.
After some further discussion the directors aEd
auditors were elected.

A vote of thanks was then passed to the governor
and directors,

The GOVERNOR, in returning thanks, observed that
they wished to encourage the emigration of the more
decent portion of 'agriculturists of industrious habits, and
;S
their e
Land,
possessing some small property. To these the company
would afford many facilities, such as the loan of bul-
locks, sheep, utensils, &c., with a view to encourage the
such emigrants
tenants, and bring on their estates a class of people who
wth(amtldonkgeeepin
would find every encouragement and kindness from their
going
their
tmo ay:lnagua as gi)e
wellime I
ne engagements.
esoxlcileundteefolerrgthyose emigrating to the colony was most
praiseworthy.
The meeting then adjourned.

appears
INFERNAL that a diabolical
attempt laas lately.been made to fire the large stack yard
of Mr. Allez, of the Bordages, St. Saviour's, who has
been recently released from prison for contempt of court.
On removing a stack a few days ago on his premises, a
bundle of cartridges of powder, bound together with
slow-match, and covered with loose hay, was found un-
derneath. The amadoux, or match, had evidently been
lighted, but appears luckily to have been extinguished
from being too tightly bound to the packet attached to it;
otherwise, no: doubt, one of the largest stackyards in
Guernsey would have been reduced to ashes.—Guernsey
Sun.
ARRIVALS OF CORN IN IRELAND.---The arrivals
of corn, meal, flour, and other edible produce continue to
be immense. The prices of food, we rejoice to say, are,
in consequence, falling rapidly.—Dublin Pilot.
An advertiser, in a Western paper, who rejoices in
the various occupations of lawyer, doctor, justice of the
peace, and dry good merchant, adds the following to his
list of pursuits and qualities :—" N.B.—Auctiuneering
of the loudest kind, interwoven with ventriloquism."—
Philadelphia Gazette.
Mr. Fitzgerald, of Holbrook, near Horsham, has
issued an addre.,s to the constituency offering himself to
their notice. The Hon. Gentleman does not deem it
necessary (or prudent, perhaps) to set forth his political
views in a "preliminary address," though report says
that ho is a Tory Protectionist to the back-bone.—
Brighten Guardian.
FA LE LIVES LosT.---An accident
of a very lamentable nature occurred at Forthar Lime
Works on the afternoon of Friday last, whereby three
men were instantaneously called into eternity, whilst a
fOurth was so injured that he is not expected to recover.
The accident was occasioned by the falling of a huge
mass of rock from the face of the quarry in which they
were employed. Upwards of two hours elapsed before
the bodies of the unfortunate men were got out.—
, Edinburgh Witness.