Cargo Of American Flour.

An excellent passage was made out to the infant settlement by the Company's fast-sailing schooner named the Balley, Captain James Sinclair. She was only a little bit of a thing, 163 tons register, and to-day one rather wonders why the authorities would go to the risk of sending out such a small craft. She did not carry any passengers, and was loaded entirely with American flour, in barrels, which was shipped in London. She left the Thames on December 23rd, 1840, and arrived at Wellington on April 10th, 1841. Unofficial news by the schooner was the first announcement in the settlement that the British Government had decided to sever the colony from New South Wales and give it a separate administration of its own, with Captain Hobson as Governor. As nothing could be done until the news came through official channels, the announcement was not proclaimed until May 3rd. The name of this little schooner may still be found on the map, as it was given to a rock off Point Jerningham, in Wellington Harbour.