VICTORIA.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, Issue 66, 14 November 1855, Page 2

VICTORIA.

A public meeting of the citizens of Melbourne and residents in the vicinity was held at the Criterion Hotel, on Monday, October Bth, for the purpose of expressing the sympathy of the public of Victoria with the Legislative Council of Tasmania, in their resistance to the attack upon their privileges recently made by Sir Henry Young and the Executive Government of the colony, and to assure the Council of their cordial support in maintaining the rights and liberties of the people whom they represent. The meeting had been convened in pursuance of a requisition numerously and respectably signed, calling upon the Right Worshipful the Mayor to convene a meeting for the purpose. His worship the Mayor took the chair, supported by Messrs. Chapman, O' Shan assy, Hodgson, Nicholson, M'Culloch, Snodgrass, Home, O'Brien, Drs. Embling and Greeves, all members of the Council, and the majority of the principal merchants and influential residents in the city and suburbs. The meeting was unanimous in the expression of its feeling, the nature of winch may be gathered from the resolutions passed, which were as follows : — That the power recently claimed and asserted by the Legislative Council of Tasmania, to compel the attendance of witnesses to bo examined before select committees of the said Council, is indispensable to the due exercise of one of the most important functions of the Legislative Assembly. That the arbitrary conduct of Sir Henry Fox Young, the Governor of Tasmania, in suddenly proroguing the Council for the purpose of forcibly suppressing inquiry into the conduct of certain officers of the convict department of the colony, charged •with the grossest malversation of their respective offices, and the unprecedented mode of prorogation adopted by him in going to the Council at a late hour of the night, in the midst of a debate, without the usual formal notice, is an abuse of the powers confided in him by her most gracious Majesty, which is calculated to bring her name and authority into contempt, and which would, if successful, be utterly destructive of the independence of the Legislature. That this meeting sympathizes with the Legislative Council of Tasmania in their conflict with an arbitrary and irresponsible Executive, and tenders to the said Council the assurance of its cordial support in maintaining the rights and liberties of the people whom they represent. That the right worshipful the Chairman be re- | quested to forward copies of the resolutions passed at this meeting to the Honourable the Speaker of the Legislative Council of Tasmania, to his Excellency Sir Henry Fox Young, the Governor of that colony, and to his Excellency Sir Charles Hotham, X.C.8., Governor of Victoria, with a request that Mb Excellency will be pleased to transmit the same to her most gracious Majesty.

A public meeting was held on the 16th October, at Collingwood, for the purpose of devising measures to gain a suspension of the clause in the New Constitution Bill, which allocates a 650,000 annually to the support of religion. The meeting was well attended, and the proceedings spirited. John M'Cabe, tried for the wilful murder of Louis Walker, at Snake Valley, had been found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. The Geelong Advertiser says: — "We are now enabled to point out where the rich specimens of gold, copper, &c, which have caused so much excitement, were procured. The| shortest road from Geelong is to pass Colonel ! Kelsall's station, cross Sutherland's Creek, follow the well-defined dray road to the left of the creek till you come to the old shepherd's hut, when you are within two and a-half miles from the diggings, which are situated on a point or tongue of land between Sutherland's | Creek and a tributary creek flowing from the ■ Anakies. The distance by the road, which is good in all weathers, is twenty-four miles ; and in a straight line, only eighteen miles. From Melbourne the distance is about double.