Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-09 00:00:00

VICTORIA

From the summary for Europe, in the Melbourne
Ar y us, we malic; the following extract° :--

All our politicians are looking forward with strong in-
terest to the events of the next few days. Parliament
re-assembles to morrow, and the Parliamentary verdict
upon the O'Shanassy Ministry will then be given. Hither-
to, since the sudden and unexpected overthrow of the
Haines' Administration, which we chronicled in our last
summary, almost all political topics have been purely pro.
spective. Speculations have been rife as to the reception
that Mr. O'Shanassy will meet with, and indications have
been abundant that the country has no faith in him as
the head of the present Cabinet, but whether he will be
tolerated for the present still remains to be decided, and
round that question the political feeling of the time accu•
mulates.

The most engrossing topic of the past month—one
before which even the interest of the Ministerial crisis
grew dim—has been of a very melancholy kind. On the
26th ult., the Inspector-General of the penal department,
Mr. Price, was brutally murdered by a number of convicts
at Williamstown, who set upon him and maltreated him
with such ferocity that he never fairly recovered his
senses, and died the day after the onslaught.
The excitement among the convicts, both in the stock-
ades and on board the hulks, became exceedingly great
atter Mr. Price's murder. The greatest insubordination
prevailed, and on board the Success this reached to such
a height that the warders were unable to go among the
prisoners, who maintained a continual uproar for several
hours. It was deemed necessary to place the Victoria
war-steamer with shotted guns alongside of the Success,
and there can be no doubt that had the mutiny among the
convicts gone much further, orders would have been given
to fire into the hulk. Since then quiet has been restored
without recourse to such extreme measures.

' A numerously attended public meeting was held in the
Protestant Hall, Melbourne, on the 9th instant, when the
artisans and mechanics of this city mustered in great
force, for the purpose of discussing the immigration scheme
of the Government, which has received the sanction of the
Legislative Assembly, and awaits that of the Council.
Resolutions were passed condemnatory of the scheme as
unjust in principle, bad in practice, and injurious in its
results. It was urged by some of the speakers that
there was plenty of labour in the colony ; that there were
numbers of men upon the gold fields who were able and
willing to undertake the work of constructing railways if
the Government would give them employment, and it was
unjust to the working classes of Victoria to relieve the
pressure upon the labour market in England, arid glut our
own, at the expense of the colonial revenue. The whole
proceedings of the meeting were very creditable to the
temperate feeling and intelligence of those who took part
in it.

The yield of the gold fields continues to be subject to
the fluctuations with which the current year commenced.
The mildness of the weather and the scarcity of water
have been protracted over a longer season than usual, and
the escort returns have not been maintained up to the ave-
rage of the year 1856. It is, however, satisfactory to
know that they have been considerably above the average
of the years 1854-55. The receipts by escort and the ship-
ments for the first three quarters of the following years,
were : FIRST WIRER SIONTRS.
1854. 1855. 1856. 1857.
oz.
Receipts by escort 482,901 407,394 748,303 527,z154
Shipments 627,116 497,173 842,428 682,819
The greatest falling off this year, as compared with
1856, is, it will be observed, in the escort returns. The
shipments, under all disadvantages, still keep up to the
average of 10 tons troy per month, or 120 tons per year. a
sum total not to be despised from a colony so sparsley
populated. The decline in the escorts is to be attributed
to the fact that the improved state of the roads enables
coaches to run through to Melbourne in a day,
quite as
much as to the undoubted temporary fluctuation in the
yield.

When the wet weather has set in sufficiently to flood
the creeks and the old water holes, the escort returns will
show a decided
improvement. At present comparatively
few puddling machines are at work, and large hoards of
rich
Some Line washing stuff"
ts were are in the hands of the miners.
Line nugge
tonnont:rought into town last week from
Korong and from
The departures of gold ships
since our last summary have
March 3, Joseph Tarra been
March for Bombay, 1,576 ounces;
7th, Susses, for Lon
; Bth, T. _
; for_t Bombay, 1
Kong, 7,260 ; Bth, Persia, 844 A. Cole, for Hong
caster, for Calcutta, 2,669LontoMonarch, for Sydney, 45;
,445 ; Bth, Lan-
-Bth. Stebonheath, for ''''
; 14h5,254 ; 14th, Walmer
LoEuro
Castle, for London, 38,123;
10,704: 20th, Frances Henty, for Feat], for Suez,
Tudor, for Liverpool, 14,502 ; 91st,
rtnodon, 24,732; 21st,
Launceston, 20 ; 23rd, Jeannette, for Royal Shepherd, for
25th, Kent, for London, 69,221 ; 29th, 1.:If Kong, 2,831 ;
Dream, for'
Calcutta, 2,311 ; April 3, Challenge, for Heye
6th, Champion, for Liverpool, 32,831; 7tlgl,l(Roxburgh
Castle, for London, 30,267 ; 9th, Cornwall, for gong
Kong, 596,
The population of the colony on the Ist of January was,
according to official returns, 351,000 souls. To this, if

we add the balance of arrivals over departures since, and
the increase of births over deaths, we shall arrive at the
following calculation :
Population, Ist of January, 1857 ..... ... 351,000
Balance of arrivals, January .. 5,214
Ditto, February • • • 7OO
Ditto, March
Increase by births over deaths for three months 1,400

Total

A census was taken on the 29th of March last, from
which, when completed, valuable statistics can be drawn.
Hitherto it is admitted the information on the subject of
population has not been very accurate.