MELBOURNE

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 459, 28 March 1857, Page 4

MELBOURNE

(From the Correspondent of the Sydney 'Morning Herald.') Febetjaey 12th.—The probability of an early change of Ministry, or of a. complete reconstruction of the present Cabinet, is still the principal topic of conversation in political circles here. Ever since the commencement of the Session;-it has been obvious that a catastrophe might at any moment occur; and a long series of ministerial crises has kept public expectation constantly on- the alert. Trusting wholly to the cross benches for support, as the Haines and StaweU administration has been obliged to do, its tenure of office has been nesessarily exceed-, ingly precarious; and the want of a reliable working majority has crippled it in their opera-tions-and rendered it: exceedingly up-hill work to carry on the business of the country at all.

It is now on all hands received as a fact that Mr. Stawell has accepted the Chief Justiceship, and pretty general satisfaction is expressed. .' When. Mr. Stawell retires from the representation of the city an. avenue will be opened by which some distinguished lawyer might find his way through the Assembly into the Ministry, but as yet there is no rumour of any one entertaining such designs, excepting Mr. Chapman. He would stand a very fair chance of being elected for Melbourne, for he stands high in the estimation of the electors, and it is rather looked upon as a mistake that he is not in Parliament. Whether he would suit Mr. Haines is not so clear.

The end seemed very near on Tuesday evening. ; The House went into committee on what has been called the unauthorised railway expenditure, and Mr. Greeves proposed that the sum should be voted, but: with a strong expression of disapprobation of the conduct of the Mimistry in having spent the money. From some blundering on the part of the Opposition the question was allowed to be put to the House, almost before the debate had proceeded any length, and the amendment (containing the censure) was lost by seven votes; the numbers being 29 and 22; and thereupon Mr. Duffyproposed : another amendment/ differing only slightly from the first, and the debate was resumed. Several hon.;- gentlemen on the extreme rightmade stronganti-ministerial speeches; and Captain Pasly ably defended the conduct of the Government, chiefly on this groundthat by_ a vote of the old Council it had been determined that certain lines of railway should be constructed, and that in sending to England for plans and materials the Government had only done what it was necessary to do in order to prevent, great deiay when .the work- came to be taken in hand. About eleven. o'clock the House divided, when there appeared* for the amendment 26, against it 27. Here was rather a narrow margin. Within four of a majority of the whole House concurred in a direct vote of censure upon the Government; and that in a matter upon which, apart from party consideration, it does not appear that any blame attaches to them. It was not shown, that in ordering the railway plant, any want of skill or of reasonable care had been exhibited, nor that any jobbery had been practised by the Government; and it is plain, that if we are to have

the railways, it was in the exercise of prudent forethought that the Government took measures for having the material upon the ground in tiriie.

Our Legislative Council have at length got possession of .their legislative chamber, and they are magnificently lodged. All the subsidiary offices and apartments are exceedingly commodious and comfortable, and the hall itself is spacious in size, elegant in its proportions, chaste and. beautiful in its decorations. The most striking thing about it is that it is altogether disproportioned to the purpose to which it is to be put, or rather to the accommodation of the thirty humdrum gentlemen who are to be its occupants. They look quite lost in it, and that notwithstanding that the architect has contracted: the centre area as much as possible with a view to obviate such a result. The seats are arranged in the semi-circular form, with the bar in the middle, and behind are some rows of pews for the accommodation of members of the Assembly when they choose to expand their ideas by listening to the debate in the Council. - The arrival and despatch of the mails is occupying all the attention of traders just now, and few transactions are occurring. The European's mails do not appear to have affected prices of imported goods in any degree. Wools have advanced, and the bidding at this morning's sale was more spirited.

The following reference to the Victoria potato crop is from a recent number of the 'Argus':—■ Potatoes are not likely to be so plentiful as they were last season. At Circular Head and other places, trusting to Melbourne for a market, there have been comparatively few planted. The supply of those grown here ought to be almost sufficient for our wants, as the crops are likely to be large and of good quality. Aetesian Speings.— When reference was made to this subject a .few days since, it was little expected that the finding of an artesian spring would so soon be " a great fact." At that time it was not even known that a shaft was being sunk to a depth likely to effect this object. It now appears that the Chairman of the Mining Commission, Professor M'Coy, had great hope of finding these springs, and that the boring was commenced as much to test the existence of water as of coal. The shaft—we may now call it the artesian well—is situated about six miles at the other side of Brighton, on the shores of the bay. The depth is less than 200 feet.; The first fourteen feet are sunk through loose sand and soft sandstone; then there is a crust of hard sandstone, mixed with quartz four inches thick ; after that, a soft clay sandstone, quite impervious to water, for thirty-four feet, at the bottom of which some, water was found, but bad in quality and insufficient in quantity. A bed of solid blue clay, 138 feet deep, was then passed through, and a stratum of lignite was reached, three feet in thickness, then clay again for three feet; the next stratum was a dark green sandstone, containing small calcareous fossils, two feet through, when a blue sandstone rock was reached, one foot in thickness, on passing through which the water rushed up with such force as to put a stop to further sinking. . .Tubing was let down through the first fourteen feet of loose sand; the remainder of the shaft is not lined as yet. The standing point of the water in the. tube above the surface" of the ground is eight feet above high-water mark. Two feet above this latterpoint a pipe was inserted in the tube to measure the supply, which is found to be 24 gallons per minute, or 34,560 gallons in the twenty-four hours, of-water beautifully clear and pure. The importance of this discovery is very great. The first and most immediate effect is the doubling of the value of properties in. the neighbourhood; and no doubt, now that the existence of these springs has been proved in one part of the country, they will be found in many more. As a record of the interest taken'by Professor M'Coy in this subject, the first well is to be called'after | him.— Argus.