trifle that comes to my share from trading with whalers (which, of course, my sons transact for me)-for clothing and other articles of importation for my family, which consists of fifteen persons actually residing under my roof; and I have written to Mr. Arthur Mills, who most kindly invited me to do so, to know whether, should my health be spared for a few years longer, my stipend from the S.P.G. would suffice to purchase an annuity for the time. when life shall become a burden. My sixtieth year will be completed on the 16th of this month, and, of course, in a few years, humanly speaking, I shall be laid up on the shelf, and the last move I desire to make on life's checkered board is to obtain an annuity of fifty pounds for the days of helpless senility. As I suppose my stipend from the society will cease with my services, and that portion I am to receive from the wool will, of course, go to my successor, I shall be without resources, and I have an Englishman's horror of dependence. .

"A certain Mr. King, the commander of a whale-ship out of Sydney, has proposed for Jane, and she, with the consent of her mother and myself, is inclined to accept him. I know nothing of the young man, beyond his occasional visits of a few days when touching here for supplies. I wrote to Forty,* requesting him to make inquiries, which he promptly did. The result of which was, that King, when second mate and mate, had been a wild chap, but since he had become master he had conducted himself very satisfactorily. We expect him here next December, when, if he has been successful, he will return to Sydney; and the owners have promised to give him a better ship than the one he now commands. He will probably return in March or April next, when, I suppose, if nothing transpires to the disadvantage of the young man, the wedding will take place. Now, as Jane's dear-est and best of friends, you will anxiously inquire, why does not the silly girl marry one of her own people?

* Fortescue Moresby, son and secretary of the admiral.

Well, the reasons are not very reconcilable, and may be answered very briefly. In the first place, there are but two men near Jane's age unmarried. One of these is of deficient intellect, and the other is of so taciturn a disposition that he would scarcely speak for months, if not spoken to; in fact, no girl ever expects Robert Buffs to make them an offer. Jane is now twenty-three years of age, and any of the lads four or five years younger than herself would be rejected with contempt. I suppose, if she don't marry an Englishman or an American-and she has had offers from both-she will remain single. The matter is a source of anxiety both to my good wife and myself, and Forty seems quite averse to the match. However, I will use all prudence, with a prayerful attention to my duty as a parent, and will then leave the result to Him who has graciously said, 'I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.'"

Letter from His Excellency Sir William Denison to Rear-admiral Moresby, relating to the management of the island resources:

"Government-house, December 28th, 1859. "The step which I have taken of placing the sheep, etc., which belong to the Government in the hands of the storekeeper, and only allowing him to kill a certain number, whose carcasses he is to sell and account for, will, by compelling the people to work, in order to get money to purchase, stimulate their industry.

"You must not expect too much from these people; they are uneducated, and, though simple and kind-hearted, have exactly the same passions and feelings as other

men.

"Temptation has been kept from them, but should it come upon them, their very ignorance will make it more difficult for them to resist it. All that we can do is to strengthen their intellects, while at the same time we give them good and sound principles to guide them. They will then be in a position to fight against the temptations

to which they must necessarily be exposed. The question of a successor to Nobbs will be a difficult one; the inducement which we can offer is but small-a house, some land, fifty pounds per annum from the Island Fund, and perhaps fifty pounds from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. I confess, however, that I should gladly see a tithe imposed on the inhabitants, or rather such a tax as would not press unfairly on the industrious, the proceeds of which would be applied to the support of the clergyman and school-master. We must wait for this, however. "Believe me, yours very truly, W. DENISON."

Sir William Denison speaks in another place* of the Pitcairn people in the following terms: "The opinion I formed at first of their kindness and amiability I am, on further acquaintance, quite willing to confirm, and to attribute it to something better than a mere kindliness of disposition-in fact, to the operation of religion on their hearts. Then the apathy and listlessness which I was disposed at first to impute to a positive disinclination to work, I now believe to be the result of ignorance, and of the absence of sufficient inducement to labor. Their only object now is to obtain a supply of food for themselves and their families, and when their potatoes are hoed, they feel they have nothing else to do. I asked myself whether, if I had all that I could wish for, without any effort on my part, I should work for the mere love of work, and I was obliged to reply that I should not; this has hitherto been the case with these poor people.

"The gift of land in fee-simple, the obligation of fencing it, the necessity of finding the means of purchasing much which they hitherto have received gratuitously, will give rise to new wants, and offer numerous motives for exertion."

* "Varieties of Vice-regal Life," p. 414.

One of Mr. Nobbs's younger sons having gone to Sydney to study gardening, Sir William Denison very kindly placed him for instruction under the head-gardener at Government-house, Sydney. In a letter to Mr. Nobbs, Sir William gives the following excellent advice:

"When your boy comes back to you, I think he will be qualified to take charge of your garden, and the most profitable use you can make of some ten or twelve acres of your land will be to plant oranges. You may be sure that in the course of a few years the demand for this fruit in New Zealand will increase very much, and vessels will run up to you from Auckland and elsewhere to take back a cargo of fruit. It will take some ten years or so for the oranges to produce a full crop, but at the end of that time you may reckon upon a return of 30,000 dozen from ten acres of land. I should recommend others to follow your example, as there will be an ample demand in Victoria and Tasmania for as many as you can grow. The ground must be carefully prepared, must be trenched two feet deep, and should be well manured with animal refuse every fourth or fifth year. The stuff from the boiling down of your whale-blubber will answer admirably. Bythe-by, I hope that you will be wise enough to reserve not only the refuse from the try-pots, but the whole carcass of the whales for manure."

Extract from a letter of the Rev. G. H. Nobbs to Mr. Fortescue Moresby :

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"Norfolk Island, July, 1860. Poor Frederick is in great distress from a dreadful accident by which he lost his eldest son on the 2d of May. A little before sunset on that day, the lad (a boy of ten years) went to bring in his father's horse, and took with him a stout line, some five fathoms long, for tethering the animal during the night, as Frederick needed the horse to go to the Cascades on the following morning. At dusk the lad was observed galloping by the slaughter