The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-05 00:00:00

When the house entered, upon the consideration of the
es'imates, the treasurer was asked for a revised budget,
his financial statement having been made three months
previously, and no discussion having been taken on it in
the interim. In reply, Mr. Sladen admitted a serious
falling off in some of the items of revenue, particularly
that prn-osoi to he levied on the squatters ; and when
arke►l ;I,e deficit was to be made up, he replied that

of asurn of X 270,000, which had just been voted bathe
ass ably in aid of the new immigration scheme, only about
1 20,000 would be actually expended this year, so that
there would be "a saving" of £150,000 under that
head alone. The house liatened with amazement to the
statanent that its deliberate votes were proposed to be
thug coolly thrust aside. In appropriating the amount
just _named for a special department, the house
ha 4 no other idea than that the money would be
sreii- exactly as voted; and to this new doctrine
f reiudiating the votes of the Legislature they could not
yield assent. The head of the new department, Mr.
Chilibrs, seeing the dilemma into which his colleague had
fallenl endeavoured to help him out of it by a plausible
explanation—which only made the matter worse than it
was I.P.fore, Mr. Haines next tried, and was unfortunate
enough to give an explanation differing from the two pre-
vious, ones, and flatly at variance with that of the
treastrer. In fact, the Ministry had got themselves into

a difficulty from which no explanati6n could extricate

_ .
The more they extdained, the deeper they got
nto the mire. Their conduct in this matter was the sub
jest of universal condemnation, both in the house and out

of it. Everybody felt it to be absolutely necessary that
the Mines 'Ministry should be displaced. It had become a
nuisatee which could no loneer he tolerated. Accordingly,

on the 3rd inst., when the House was moved into a Com-
mittee of supply, Mr. O'Shanassy proposed as an amend-
ment —" That before prodeeding to further consider the
estimates, this house feels bound to express its serious
disapprobation of the course pursued by her Majesty's
Government, in obtaining a vote for immigration for 1837,
which exceeds by nearly £150,000 the sum they proposed
to spend in that service—a proceeding calculated to create
confusion in the public accounts, and to render futile the
laborious efforts of the committee of supply to introduce
economy into the public expenditure. " The seconder of
this amendment was Mr. Michie, member for the city of.
Melbourne. A sharp debate of eight hours' length ensued,
in the course of.which Mr. Haines distinctly intimated, in
a half boasting, half threatening manner, that he would
accept the amendment as a "Vote of want of confidence, and
would, therefore, resign office if defeated.' When the division
was taken it showed a majority of six against ministers, the
numbers being 29 to 23. In the majority. the name of every
man of ability, influence, and position in the House (with
the exception of the official members themselves), was
included. The minority was composed of 4 Ministers, 6
subordinate paid officials; and only 13 non-official members,
amongst whom there was not.a single man of any mark in
the House. The defeat, therefore, was signal, decisive,
final. Whemthe division was announced, Mr. Haines rose
and intimated the intention of Ministers to resign. This
they did on the following day, and the formation of a new
Cabinet was therefore entrusted by His Exeellency to Mr.
O'Shanassy, the mover of the amendment. and acknow-
ledged leader of the Opposition.
THE NEW MtprisTriv.--=On the 18th of March the
Assembly met after the adjournment consequent
on the ministerial defeat, to hear the explanatory
statement of the new Prot-flier Mr. O'Shanassy,
in a spkeh of considerable length, entered into a
detail of the various steps he had taken towards
the formation of a cabinet, He had first applied,
he said, to the leading men amongst the twenty-
nine members who had voted in the majority against
the previous ministry. He had offered the Corn-
missionership of Trade and Customs successively
to Alessi s. Moore and- M'Culloch, who are eminent
members of the mercantile community; but both
gentlemen had been compelled to decline the offer,
not being able to withdraw from their extensive
private concerns. He had offered the two law
appointments to Mr. Michie and Dr. Evans (a new
arrival) respectively ; but these gentlemen had
also declined office for non political reasons. Ulti-
mately he had been able to secure the services of
the following gentlemen :
H. S: Chapman, EFT, Attorney-General.
J. V. F. Foster, Esq., Colonial Treasuer,
C. G. Duffy, Esq , Commissioner of Public Works.
A. F. A. Greeves, Esq., Commisioner of Trade and
Customs.
G. S W. Horne, Eql., Commissioner of Crown Lands
and Sutvay.

J . D. Wood, Eq., Solicitor-General.
These gentlemen, with Mr. O'Shanassy himself
as Chief Secretary, form the new Administra-
tion• _ _

IMMIGRATION —We may state the main features
of tn. Cuherllo, nlibtrattCd. 131 tl.lO
Haines administration. It. was proposed to expend
upwards of a quarter of a million of money on the
introduction of suitable immigrants from the
mother country. For this purpose a new depart-
ment was to have been created to supersede the
immigration commissioners in England. Mr.
Childers, the late Commissioner of Trade and
Customs, was to have proceeded to England at
the head of this department, with a salary of twelve
hundred a year. In addition to his immigration
duties, he was to have exercised a quasi ambassa-
dorial effice in London. Six sub-agents were also
to have been sent to England with salaries of five
or six hundred a year each. These gentlemen
were to have been located in various parts of the
United Kingdom for the purpose of selecting
and despatching suitable immigrants. A proper
proportion of Clerks, Messengers.? and Office-
keepers, were to have made up the department
in England. The announcement of this scheme
took the country by surprise. No less than seven
hundred persons applied for these six sub-agencies.
The selection of emigrants was to have been made
under three distinct heads :-Ist, Assisted Emi-
gration, that is the suuplementing of a sum to
bring out the friends of persons in the colony who
would pay part of the passat,e money themselves.;
2nd, A selection of railway and other skilled
labourers; and lastly the selection of female emi-
grants.
To organise this Department a Bill was brought
into Parliament. The measure passed the Lower
House, and a sum of ;t27o.ooo—which the Govern-

ment demanded—was voted to defray the expendi
ture, The Commissioner of Trade and Customs
resigned his appointment to take charge of the
Chief Agency—and the Bill was sent to the Upper
House for ratification. At this juncture, the Trea-
surer, Mr Sladen, committed the faux pas alluded
to, and the Ministerial crisis ensued.
POPULATION AND LABOUR•—By the population •
returns made up for the month of January, we find
that during this period there have arrived in the
colony of Vict'ria from foreign ports and the
adjacent colonies,7,oB4 persons, of which 4,876 were
from the United Kingdom ; while there have left
our shores 1,870 persons, of whom 504 were bound
for the United Kingdom. This shows an increase
to our population- of 3,006 persons, exclusive of
births, within the colony. The aggregate of our
population will shortly be ascertained by a
government census. The demand for labour
is well proportioned to the supply, and high
rates of wages are afforded to good male and female
servants, both in town and country. During the
last four months the. building trade of Melbourne
• has been brisker than at any former period. The
activity has not at all diminished, and, judging
from the large number of first class buildings now
in progress, both in town and suburbs, it will be a
long time ere there is a cry of no work. This state
of things has caused considerable demand for skilled
labour, and mechanics generally are now receiving
twenty five per cent. higher, wages for the day of
eight hours than they received twelve months since
for the day of ten hours. As regards agricultural
labour there is a good demand in every part of the
colony, particularly in remote districts, such as
Gipps Land and the extreme Western Counties. A
large number of Government contracts are also in
operation, and this tends to keep up the price of
unskilled labour. On many of the diggings
labourers can still command a pound and in some
instances even twenty-five shillings a day. It
must, however, be borne in mind that they are not
what weuld he called " labourers" in the old
country. They are men who can use the ate, the
maul and wedges, the adze, and. the crosscut saw.
They can go into the forest and turn out slabs for
a " on the gold:fields. They can furnish
paling for a hut, and build it and furnish it
to the satisfaction of the most fastidious of diggers'
wives.
TRADE AND SHIPPING.—The markets had been
glutted by excessive arrivals from England, and
the prices had been inordinately depressed.
Several failures had taken place, but they were
mostly among small firms of limited means, and
happily not likely greatly to influence the
markets. Yet confidence had been shaken, and
few but cash transactions were ventured upon.
As the banks had shown a disposition to accom-
modate firms of respectability, no permanent
interruption to the course of legitimate trade