VTCTORIA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 55, 8 May 1866, Page 3

VTCTORIA.

Abundant rains have fallen in every part of the colony as well as an tlie Biverina district. The entire face of the country has a changed aspect. Green now takes the place of brown. Farming operations are everywhere being actively prosecuted. The rivers are again navigable. The rains have had a most beneficial effect upon mining affairs, and the various gold-fields are yielding satisfactory returns once more. Ballarat sustains its character for richness, and speculation is rife as ever in the formation of new companies. The recall of the G-overnor has excited^ a great amount, of excitement and party feeling throughout the colony, and numerous public meetings have been held upon the sub-

•':' ject. On the 26th April a deputation waited ■ upon His Excellency, and presented him with a memorial and vote of sympathy, which had been adopted at a numerously attended public meeting held on the previous day at the Exhibition building. In reply Has Excellency said, " Gentlemen — I cannot receive the memorial which you have just placed in my hands, for transmission to Her Majesty, without offering to you my warm and heart-felt-acknowledgment of your just appreciation of the course I have pursued throughout the late political difficulty. I solemnly assure that large portion of the people who give me credit for having acted with truth and honesty, and a single desire to do my duty, that I have not myself taken, nor co-operated with others in taking, any stepß which I did not conscientiously believe to be within the legal competency of the Government to adopt. I cannot but be sensible that the circumstances attending my removal from the G-overnmenfc of Victoria, are such as to render it the probable termination of a course of public service of more than eighteen years as Her Majesty's representative in several possessions of Her crown ; and I pledge myself to lose no time after my arrival in England, in seeking to vindicate my administration of that Government, by soliciting a full inquiry into every part of it, through the medium of a parliamentary committee, unless Her Majesty should be graciously pleased to appoint some other tribunal for that purpose. C. H. Darling, Melbourne, 24th April." — Melbourne Herald. The Government employes are still without their pay, one of them in a letter to the Argus, on the 27th ult. says : — " Two months and twenty-one days now due, and not any sign of it. The amount of misery the Government have caused is almost enough to drive a man to commit crime. My family has been penniless for a long time, and without food, while my wife is at present confined. Really, I do not know what will become of us if it lasts much longer ; we ha^e nothing left to make a penny of." Great preparations are being made throughout the colony for the forthcoming exhibition. The different municipalities have i taken the matter earnestly in hand, and even some of our aborigines in the district of Coranderk, Healsville, have announced their intention of becoming competing exhibitors in the articles of opossum skin rugs, baskets, etc. The editor of the Argus, Mr. Jarrett, at the city police court, yesterday, charged Mr. W. H. Thompson, with having horsewhipped him on Tuesday evening last, in the parliamentary reserve. The defendant admitted that be had horsewhipped the complainant. Mr. Dawson prosecuted, and Mr. E. L. Smyth defended. The plaintiff declined to state who was the writer of the article published in the Argus containing certain allegations at which the defendant felt aggrieved. 3?or the defence it was urged that the defendant had committed the assault whilst smarting under the unmerited accusations which had been made against him, being also under the impression that he had not received fair play from the journal of which the plaintiff was the editor, as the insertion of a letter contradicting the injurious statements made respecting him had been refused. The bench held that the conduct of the defendant was unjustifiable, inasmuch as, if he had been wronged in the manner stated, he had his remedy at law. They, therefore, inflicted a fine of £5 and £3 3s. costs. The money was paid immediately. The manufacture of wooden houses for exportation is somewhat extensively carried on in this city. Mr. N. W. Dike, of Stephenstreet, has recently completed a substantial two-story house for the Bank of Australasia at Wellington, New Zealand, and it has just been forwarded to its destination by the barque Torquil. The framework of the building is constructed almost exclusively of Victorian wood ; but in other portions of the structure imported timber has been used. Although Mr. Dike has constructed several other buildings of a similar description for persons in New Zealand, this is the largest work of the kind he has yet undertaken, the amount of the contract being something like £3,000.-— Argus.

The following circumstance, though not strictly an item of agricultural news, is interesting to the farmer. The Geelong Register reports: — "The first steam flax and hemp dressing machinery ever established in the colony commenced "work on Thursday, at Bellerine, at the old mill near Drysdale. The trial result was very successful, about a bunweight of the retted straw being cleaned very quickly and perfectly. With the appliances which Mr. M' Andrew has at present he will be able to turn out a ton of fibre weekly. It now only remains for farmers to produce the raw material in sufficient quantities to keep the manufacturer going. In the neighborhood of Melbourne several persons hare for the last year or two been growing flax solely for the seed to fatten stock with, making use of the straw for litter."