Hobart Town Courier (Tas. : 1827 - 1839), Saturday 2 February 1828, page 3


TRADE AND SHIPPING.

SAILED. January 27.-The Brig Java Packet,

Frederique A. Mace, Commander, T. J.

Pitman, Esq. Owner, for Sydney, chiefly in ballast. Passengers, Mr. R. Davison, and three others.

On Thursday the Currency Lass arrived at Ho-bart town, from Launceston, with wheat and other goods.

LAUNCESTON, Jan. 28, 1828. - On Tuesday the Cutter Caroline sailed, for Sydney, with a cargo of wool.

On Wednesday the Fanny arrived from Circular

head.

On Saturday the Van Diemen's land Company's ship, Caroline, arrived from England, which she left we learn, nearly six months ago, and therefore brings no news. She will proceed it is understood to Cir-cular head, but we have to complain of the Company and all its resident officers, that they keep us, and consequently the public, wholly uninformed of their proceedings. Whether this silence is caused by the magnitude of these proceedings, which engross all their time and attention, or whether they be of too little moment to record, we will not pretend to say, but the company is a public body from whose opera-tions the colony has been taught to expect great things, and the public has a right to know them what-ever they may be.

On Saturday the schooners Resolution and Henry, arrived from Hobart town, and the Hetty from Sydney.

Remain in port, the ship Caroline, brig Tranmere, schooners Resolution and Henry, and cutler Fanny.

The ship Caroline had been so long on the voyageI that considerable anxiety was entertained for her

safety. About the equator we learn she was board-ed by a Spanish privateer, who robbed her of some articles, and exchanged some valuable sheep for others of less value,

Among the passengers by the Greenock, who remain in this colony we have remarked, Mr. and Mrs Hep-burn, and eight children, Mr. Taylor, son of Mr.

George Taylor, of the Macquarie river, and Messrs. Wilson and Manifold, nephews of W. Barnes, Esq

Launceston.

Mr. Shoobridge's hop garden, at Providence valley, to the left of the New town road, is now in full luxu-riance, and will well repay an evening's walk from

Hobart town to visit it.

We have had occasion, this season particulaily, to remark the great luxuriance of what is called the

Kangaroo apple, or New Zealand potato, a species of Solanum common to this country and New Zealand. One plant of an inch high, with three leaves, which was planted this spring, is now a beautiful evergreen shrub, with dark verdant leaves, of at least a yard in height, and three in circumference. It is covered with small round apples, which when ripe eat exactly like bananas, and a sort of yams grow at its root. It

is both ornamental and useful.

Fifteen and sixteen shillings a head have been offer-ed for fat wethers during the week.

The harvest goes on rapidly, though many settlers are lamentably in want of hands, and after many have reaped the good crops, they refuse to cut down the bad and short ones but at an advanced price, which the settler can ill afford. Three or four weeks may be calculated to conclude the whole, which may in gene-ral be estimated at half an average crop.

Notwithstanding the accounts in the Sydney news-papers,some of which we have copied, respecting the discoveries made by Captain Dillon, of the wreck of Perouse, great doubt still hangs upon the subject Captain Dillon, we learn, having appointed a parti-cular day for a numerous party to come on board the Research, to view his relics, was obliged to disappoint his visitors with the apology, that he had left his key on shore, and all that was shewn we hear, was a dol-lar stuck in a piece of stone.

We last week copied from the Monitor newspaper of Sydney, a short paragraph which we had not time to comment upon, that the new bishop of Calcutta would call at Hobart town, on his way to India ; but the readers of our journal were already informed that he had long since passed the Cape of Good Hope, and must long before this have landed in India. It is however, we believe, his Lordship's intention, to pay triennial visits to this part of his diocese.

Judge Best has given it as his opinion that it is illegal to lend money to foreign potentates.

The tonnage of the United Slates vessels now en-gaged in foreign trade is 900,000 tons, in the coasting trade, 700,000.

American vessels of war are now chiefly manned by English sailors. Out of a crew of 300 on board the Boston sloop of war, at Rio Janeiro, there were only twelve Americans, the rest being all English.

The Criminal Court has been occupied during great part of the week with that most painful trial of Fow-ler for the assault on the little child Emma Groom, who was found murdered in the precincts of the town in July last, and which trial was postponed until the 4 boys who were chief witnesses should be taught the nature of an oath. He was found guilty.

The Court of Quarter Sessions at Hobart town opens on Monday, but we can scarcely uccount for the small number of causes that are brought before it.

The first term of the Supreme Court for the pre-sent year also commences on Tuesday. The civil law business of the colony appears, however, to be gradually decreasing, with the exception of convey-ancing and other regular matters of legal employment. That ardent spirit of litigation which a few years ago so generally prevailed, has now, we trust, subsided, and matters of no small intricacy have been, and are daily decided by the less expensive mode of arbitra-

tion.

A soldier of the Veteran Company has lately been successful in discovering some of the mineral curiosi-ties of the island. On the summit of Mount Welling-ton he has found several angular pebbles of a reddish brown colour, which on being broken in two by a stroke of the hammer, shew a beautiful petrifaction of a small moss or lichen, so arranged in its natural position as to present to the eye a pleasing landscape of sylvan scenery. . We should be happy to learn the opinion of scientific men and geologists on the forma-tion of these interesting objects of natural his-tory. We shall next week present our readers among our literary notices, with a short view of the theory of Messieurs Quoy and Gaimard, of the French Corvette Astrolabe, respecting the formation of sub marine coral in these southern seas.

Yesterday Wiliam Burton, formerly watchman in Elizabeth street, near the Ship Inn, and Thomas Henley, tailor at Mr. Cox's, were fully committed for

trial, for robbing Mr. Cox of a large quantity of cloth,

wearing apparel, &c. This robbery was discovered by the ingenuity and activity of constables Rhind and Byron.

The formation of Davey street is now considerably advanced, and from its beautiful, terrace-like situation, and command of the harbour, will be one of the most desirable abodes in Hobart town. Not however until the nuisance we have so often alluded to, proceeding from the gaol and factory, be removed. The Engineer will probably give some attention to this subject while the labourers are in that quarter.

On Wednesday the funeral of the late Lieutenant S. Collins, of the Royal New South Wales Veteran Company, was performed with military honours, and attracted a large concourse of the inhabitants to view it. The funeral service was read by the venerable the Archdeacon, and His Excellency the Lieutenant Go-vernor, and most of the civil and military officers at-tended in procession. When the multitude was as-sembled in the church-yard, scattered over the rising mounds of the dead already interred there, a sensation of wonder forced itself on the spectator, how so great a number of civilized inhabitants should have been collected on a spot, which so lately was known only to the wild savage. And, yet, but a very short time must elapse before every one of the moving multitude before us, must be laid in the silent grave. So short is the life of man ! that life which seems so long in prospect, and so short to look back on the past ! A view indeed of time most indicative of our immortal state. For, a speck of time may, by the Almighty power, he expanded into a thousand years, and a thou-sand years be contracted into a single moment. Three score years and ten, the most lengthened life of man, can appear no more to the Angels of Heaven, than the evanescent hours of the ephemeral fly seem to us.