VICTORIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 484, 24 June 1857, Page 6

VICTORIA.

We have Melbourne papers to May 14. They contain little general news from that colony. Messrs. Michie and Moore, the Government candidates, were elected for the city by a large majority over the ' people's ' raen on the 13th. Mr. Fellows, another ministerial candidate was elected the previous day for St. Kilda. There were New South Wales advices to May 9, hut they do not contain anything of interest to our readers, We add some interesting speculations on pasture and agriculture in Adelaide, taken from the columns of the ' Argus,' May 14 : In the late Adelaide papers we find a long correspondence on the rights and advantages possessed by the pastoral interest. Their champion says that it is unjust to give the power to resume portions of their runs which may be required by agriculturists, and that the so-called fourteen year's lease does not give sufficient purity, and that to this is very much owing the high price of meat, the squatters constantly removing their flocks in search of more distant runs. He also says that this is the cause of many of the wealthy stockholders having left South Australia for New Zealand and other countries where the pastoral interest is more fostered and encouraged. After instancing the low price of meat at Geelong, on account of its being m the immediate vicinity of a pastoral country, the writer continues:— Of course prices must shortly advance there, as they have an mcreasing demand, with a limited and decreasing supply of meat as clearly shown by Mr Goodman m Ins speech to the Council, and admitted by Mr. Clarke, and the officials of Victoria, to whom the statement made caused no small anxiety and co-.-, B i,lerabie uneasiness about the matter; and the rapid decrease of sheep in Victoria 2,000,000 le» since 1852-notwithstandingXe*7----trodi.ci.oii of one million last year for the Melbourne market from Sydney, ought to draw the attention of every legislator in the colonies to the M^Sum 1 I). reSemrate of consumption in .Melbourne, and not in an increased ratio, in a few years sheep there will become extinct. J t j, 80 ZTLu b% re? retted *h* more inducement, wer« pot held out to people some years since to en'er into pastoral pursuits, and that the skill energy ,nd i ndus.ry displayed by our agriculturists, which has obtained for them a world-wide celebrity, was wholly concentrated in producing corn, for which

there^ has always existed but a limited demand, and that subject to competition. Had only one-half of . them been engaged in pastoral pursuits (and there is country enough for that portion, and more yet untaken and lying waste), we should now be in a very different position. England would absorb all the wool we could send her for years, at high prices, and the the Melbourne market would for a long time to come prevent our having recourse to boiling down to dispose of our surplus stock ; and it is to be hoped that the talented ministers of "the Crown here, with the assistance of our legislators now in parliament assembled, will devise means by which increased facilities will be given for the extension of the pastoral interest, in order that our young and enterprising men of all classes may have a profitable sphere of exertion opened up to them, and make productive that great area of waste land yet remaining in South Australia, By the late advices we have received no account of any change in the price of wheat, nor does there appear to be much probability of it. In Sydney some persons are inclined to hold in expectation af higher rates bat the stocks on hand are very large. At the port of Adelaide wheat is worth 6s. per bushel, and there is said to be a considerable amount of business done at that price. We find no mention of barley in the Sydney papers, and 'it is only referred to in the Adelaide papers as being in demand for seed. The Sydney market is said to be quite bare of oats, and in Tasmania the demand is beyond all expectation, in consequence of the deficiency here, and the unfavourable accounts of the_ maize crop in New- South Wales, So, great is the scarcity of horse corn that split peas have been lately bought up for this purr pose. In small quantities they may be used with advantage, but it is really too bad that we should be driven to such expedients in a country where corn of all sorts can be grown so readily, We must only hope that the proportions in which the principal kinds aye grown next season will be better regulated,