THE STATE OF THE MINISTRY, RESIGNATION OF MR. HALL.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 385, 24 October 1868, Page 3

THE STATE OF THE MINISTRY, RESIGNATION OF MR. HALL.

Mr Hall, the Postmaster General and Acting-Colonial Treasurer, has resigned office, and is no longer a member of Mr Stafford's Ministry. Mr Stafford, our telegram informs us, stated that he had only resigned temporarily. But the excuse is a curious one; -"temporary resignation" at a time like the present—when war and finance are such as to demand the best attention of Ministers—is, to say the least, a course of action which, if it is properly stated, ought to make the retirement permanent. The House has refused Ministers permission to negociate with Captain Vine Hall and Captain Blane, for terminating the Panama contract. The House is evidently inclined ;to leave the entire burden on the shoulders of the Company. The session is expected to close this week if no difficulty arise from the resignation of Mr Hall. The last shred of anything like a Ministerial measure, the oft-produced and oft-rejected Road Boards Bill, has been thrown out by the Upper House '■ and thus even this poor remnant of a policy has disappeared!— Colonist.

Judging from the telegram from Christchurch, the recent shocks of earthquake appear to have been greater on this side of the island than on the other. Accounts from the Caledonian and other terraces, and Addison's Flat, bear witness to the strength of the shocks felt at those places, the ground in many claims being much shaken, and in some cases the working have caved in. Our Charleston correspondent reports that the shocks were severelyfelt in that neighborhood, and a telegram which appeared yesterday in our evening contemporary says that very just alarm was experienced by the inhabitants of Hokitika, large numbers of whom rushed to the terraces and remained there for the rest of the night, though there was no ocean or tidal disturbance to create any danger. Here, in "Westport, there appears to have been a receding of the water to some extent, and a gentleman who walked across to the sea-beach immediately after the Earthquake oecurred, states that the ocean receeded about eighty yards. By the Kennedy, wo learn, that while lying in Wanganui, she experienced a very severe shock of earthquake, which commenced at ten minutes past twelve on Monday morning, and lasted a minute. One of the Nelson's passengers informs us that when lying in the cave, where they took shelter, they felt the earthquake very violently. The highest tide ever seen in Nelson, by the oldest inhabitants, was that of Thursday night last