The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-12 00:00:00

NE W ZEALAND.
We have received New Zealand papers to the Ist of
March, and subjoin the following intelligence, which we
take from the Are, Zealand Spectator of that date:—
" The departure of a vessel direct for England,
freighted with produce of this settlement, renders it ne-
c.ssary for us to say a few words on some of the topic;
affecting our local interests, on which those in the
mother country interested in our welfare desire informa-
tion. On most of these subjects we have, as opportunity
offered for their discussion, entered fully; but on an occa-
sion like the present it will be necessary again to refer
to them in a summary manner. After a weary in-
terval of eight years Crown grants have at length
been issued to the New Zealand Company for the dis-
tricts in the neighbourhood of Port Nicholson; and the
statement of this fact proclaims the final adjustment of
all disputes with the natives relating to lands in the
districts for which these grants have been made; the
roads undertaken by the Government aro carried on
with increased vigour, opening the country districts
for the occupation of additional settlers, and afford-
ing, when they are completed, the means of increas-
ing our trade with the natives by the improved faci-
lities of communication. The money obtained by the
natives for their labour on the roads is for the most
part spent either in the purchase of clothes and other
necessaries, the produce of English manufactures, or in-
vested in stock (either horses or cows), thereby adding
to the permanent wealth of the colony. The work of
clearing and cultivation is proceeding this summer with
renewed vigour, and the cargoes of stock imported from
the neighbouring colonies find ready purchasers in
the country settlers; so that the different country
districts present indications of hopeful progress. These
are encouraging signs of returning prosperity, but we
want the assurance of their permanence. These are
the bright spots—the lights of the picture on which
the eye, attracted by their prominence, rest. But
if we turn to :the other side, if we name
the three great wants of the settlement, they
are precisely those essential elements of colo-
nisation which it was to be the peculiar business of
the New Zealand Company to keep in their due re-
lation to each other, so as to insure the greatest pros-
perity. We want land, labour, and capital. The roads
now in progress open up fresh districts to the settlers,
but the absentees in too many instances interfere to pre-
vent their profitable occupation, there is an absolute scar-
city of labour of all kinds, and bat little prospect of a re-
medy for this want, the wages of labouring men are from
3s. 6d. to 4s. 6d. a day, while female servants are
hardly to be procured on any terms. An influx of
fresh capital would materially assist in developing the
resources of the colony, since the recovery of the old
settlers from the losses inflicted on them by the
previous mismanagement of the Government and
the company must be the work of
,time. But our
these points are unsatisfactory. As long
apsrostpheects n
New
o
:Zealand Company are allowed to mar
our prospects, as long as they continue their mischievous
uncertain; the result of the meeting held here 1311 Mon
existence, the progress of the settlement will be slow and

day will at least convince them of the estimation in which
they are held by those who formerly most trusted them.
They may linger on for a time by the aid of a
friendly minister, but the settlers can only anxiously
look forward to the period when the claims of this
rapacious body must be finally extinguished, and the
whole colony placed under the more vigorous manage-

ment of the British Government. To Ibis consumma.

Lion we are tending. his a question of time, but until
Lhe consummation arrives, time—our only inheritance—
Ls wasted, and we shall still remain the victims of their

broken pledges, of their repudiated obligations.
"The Woodstock sails to-morrow for London direct
with a cargo of oil and wool, the produce of this settle•

went. Wool is rapidly increasing in importance as an
export, from the number of stations now established in
the southern province, and the early increase of the
flocks, and promises soon to become one of our staple
exports. Three hundred and seventy-six bales of wool
are on board the Woodstock, and we believe there

are nearly two hundred more, with other produce, wait-
ing a convenient opportunity of being shipped direct to
England. Through the activity and good management.
of Captain Nicholson, her commander, the vessel has
been got ready for sea with great dispatch, and due pro-
vision has been made by him for the comfort and conve-
nience of the passengers, of which there are several both
cabin and intermediate.

"The Supply returned on Monday from Queen Char-
lotte's Sound. The negotiations with the natives for the
purchase of the Waitohi were unsuecessifl, the natives
declining to part with the district, though they offered to
sell the adjoining bay ; but it is believed that
eventually some arrangement may be made with them,
and the Waitohi secured. The greater part of the na-
tives belonging to Queen Charlotte's Sound have left
fur Taranaki. Not more than about sixty of them are
living at Waitohi and its neighbourhood."

THE EXPECTED COMET.
Public attention having boon recently drown to the
anticipated return of the great comet of 1264 and 1556,
after en absence from our system of 292 years, the fol-
lowing particulars, which were stated in a lecture upon
the science of astronomy, delivered by Mr. Henry Al-
thans, jun., before the Hackney Literary and Scientific
Institution, in the Mermaid Assembly Rooms, may
not be uninteresting:—" On the sth day of March,
1556, this eccentric wanderer was first perceptible in
the sign Libra. Pursuing its celestial course with
great velocity, it touched the left wing of the sign
Virgo, passed below the knee of the constellation
Bowes, whence it ascended to the northern pole
of the ecliptic (its inclination being 32 degrees 6
minutes) towards Andromeda, where it lingered, ,
but receding towards the northern Fish, it was
there lost. Its perihelion (or nearest point to the sun)
was passed on the 21st day of April, just two days pre-
vious to its final disappearance. Whilst it remained
within the circle of those tropical stars which never
set, the comet was visible all night long ; and
throughout its course, the apparent magnitude of
the head was uniformly as large as Jupiter to
the naked eye. Its motion ran contrariwise to
the succession of the Zodiacal signs, and within the
space of four days it completed seventy degrees west-
ward, and thirty degrees northward, directing its path
towards Saturn (then in Aries), but apparently slacken-
ing its speed as it approached that planet. At
first its heliocentric motion was retrograde—at last,
direct. In the intermediate course it was most
swift, dispatching fifteen degrees daily. The
nucleus (or body) presented the aspect of
a bright globe of flame equivalent to a half-moon, but
the rays and colours varied and interchanged like the
flickering of a flame agitated by the wind. The tail was
moderately long and much attenuated; at first presenting
a martial aspect, but subsequently dissolving into a pale
and livid complexion; the stream of rays was denser near
the head, and more rarified towards the extremity of the
tail, which at first pointed eastward, but as the comet
mounted to the north, the train took a southerly direc-
tion. This eccentric member of the solar system has
b
een conjectured to be identical with that mighty comet
which startled Europe in the year 1264, so particularly
described by Palwologus, Luinger, Calvisius, Matthew
Paris, and other chroniclers of the period. That por-
tentous visitant was first discernible near the sign Taurus,
behind the planet Venus; and it raged during the whole
summer season, until the 7th day of October. It was
originally observed in the twilight of the evening, but
speedily passing the sun on the Gth of July, at a rapid
rate (the place of its perihelion being 21 degrees of Ca-
pricorn), it reappeared shortly before the morning
twilight towards the eighth degree of Cancer, whence it
retrograded very quickly into Gemini, threading its
way between Canis and Orion, but ultimately retreating
into the latter constellation. Its movement from east to
wa st was more than equal to 50 degrees of latitude,
and hardly 5 of longitude. The inclination of its
parabolic orbit to the ecliptic was 361 degrees ; and the
distance of its perihelion (that of the earth being 1)
was 0'4450. At first it followed the morning star,
but subsequently preceded that brilliant orb. The
train or tail was very long and broad, re-
sembling a fan in shape, emerging from the
eastern horizon before the dimmer nucleus, and, when
fully ascended, stretching itself upwards, and shoot-
ing its rays to the meridian, the comet occupied
in length one-half of the heavens, presenting a fear-
ful apparition to the eye of the superstitious spec-
tator. As it swept along through space, the tail
diminished daily in breadth, but proportionately
increased in length and brilliancy. Contemporary
historians relate many terrible calamities as befalling
the nations of Europe during the year 1264; among
other strange coincidences, it is related in the Libri
Chronicorum (printed at Nuremberg, A.D. 1493), and
confirmed 'by other writers in the middle age, that
on the occasion of the first appearance of this
blazing star, the Sovereign Pontiff, Urban IV.,
was seized with an alarming distemper. which
confined his Holiness to his apartment during the entire
period that the comet prevailed; and on the night that
the comet disappeared the Pope expired. In 1556 its ap-
pearance was accompanied by similarly strange sublunary
events. The victorious Emperor, CharlesV., to the amaze-
ment of the world, suddenly resigned the crowns of Ger-
many and Spain, and betook himself to a monastery,
where he shortly died. It was in a paper read before
the Royal Society of London about the middle of
the last century (Vide Philosophical Transactions,
vol. 47), that Mr. Dunthorne hazarded the supposi,
tion that these two celestial strangers were identical—
a conjecture also countenanced by the eminent French
astronomer, M. de Lalande. This hypothesis has
recently found a sanguine advocate in Mr. J. R. Hind, the
discoverer of the new cateriod. But its return during the
current year (1848), although indorsed by these highau-
thorities, is very problematical; for the cautious Dr.
Hal-
ley has expressly in.cluded the comet of 1556 along with
five others, concerning whose elements he was sceptical,n
,
as the observations handed down by Paulus Fabr.is ofs
ciu and
the older astronomers (which formed thed
instruments
basl
computation) were neither made with
good
nor mathematical precision, so that gre;to accounts.
Adequate caunlntyn-uwa:
experienced in harmonizing their conflicting
to other heavenly
Adequate allowance should also be madefotrrathveelalemromuanyt
of the disturbing. forces which this eccentric
encounter through its approximation
.
was last bodies in its lengthened journey through
of
the
its
path
only
space. Besides, w.e possess exact
during one-fourth of the 50 days_ it tvisible. As
for the elements of 1264, founded upon the L%tin menu-