On Tuesday the ministers of the different Presbyterian congregations in and around Melbourne, met in the Scots Church, for the purpose of forming a local Presbytery for the government of the Provincial church. The ministers present were the Rev. James Forbes, A. M., Melbourne, the Rev. Thomas Mowbray, A.M., Campbellfield, and the Rev. Peter Gunn, Gaelic Minister, Melbourne. The only elder in attendance was Dr. David Patrick, as ruling elder of the Scots Church Melbourne. The Rev. Andrew Love of Geelong, was prevented being in attendance by the detention of the steamer at Geelong, and the Rev Alexander Laurie of Portland was also absent.

The meeting having been constituted by prayer by the Rev. Mr. Forbes, the senior minister, an extract minute of the proceedings of the Synod of Australia, authorising the ministers resident in the province to form themselves with their ruling elders, into a Presbytery, to be called the Presbytery of Melbourne, was produced and read, and in pursuance of these instructions the Presbytery was formed; the Rev. James Forbes, A.M., being unanimously elected Moderator, and the Rev. Thomas Mowbray, A.M., Clerk, until the next meeting of the Synod of Australia, in October.

A call to the Rev, Mr. Mowbray from the Presbyterians resident on the Merri and Darebin Creeks, in the vicinity of the church lately erected at Campbellfield, was read and sustained, as was also a call to the Rev. Peter Gunn, from the Presbyterian inhabitants of Melbourne speaking the Gaelic language, and of others desirous of the formation of a second Presbyterian congregation in Melbourne.

Mr. Forbes having brought under the notice of the Presbytery the Governor's instructions to his Honor Mr. Charles Joseph La Trobe, on his appointment to the office of Superintendent of Port Phillip, in connexion with a letter addressed to the then principal church court, the Presbytery of New South Wales, by the Honorable the Colonial Secretary, requesting that all communications from the provincial Presbyterian Church to the Government might be transmitted through Mr. La Trobe, it was resolved that the Moderator should be instructed to conduct all correspondence between the Presbytery and the Government through the medium of his Honor the Superintendent.

The Rev. Mr. Mowbray drew the attention of the court to the fact that a large number of Presbyterian immigrants had arrived in the Colony in 1840-41, and were likely to arrive as soon as immigration to the Australian Colonies was resumed, which would now be in the course of another month or six weeks. The Rev. gentleman said he should like to see these immigrants received by the Church here in the same kind and friendly spirit in which they left the Church in Scotland. He proposed, therefore, that an address breathing the same affectionate spirit which pervaded the address of the Colonial Committee of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, to the emigrants from the mother country, should be prepared and addressed to Presbyterian immigrants on their arrival in the Colony. Mr. Mowbray's motion, having been seconded by the Rev. Mr. Gunn was unanimously agreed to, and the Rev. Messrs. Forbes, Gunn, and Mowbray, (the latter Convener) were appointed to prepare a pastoral address.

The Rev. Mr. Forbes, in moving the appointment of a Committee, consisting of the Rev. Messrs. Mowbray, Gunn, and Forbes, and Dr. Patrick, elder. (Mr. Forbes, convener), to take into consideration the state of education in the district, spoke to the following effect:-

From documents with which he had been kindly favored, it appeared that during the year 1841 the Government paid a sum of about £960 for education in Port Phillip: to Episcopalian schools, £154 7s., as nearly as he could judge, but the return was so far incomplete that he was not aware of the exact amount given to these schools for the last quarter of the year; he calculated for that quarter, £40; Presbyterian school, £369 2s.; Independent ditto, £113 8s. 4d.; Roman Catholic ditto, £199; Wesleyan ditto, Melbourne, £52; ditto, William's Town, £18 14s. 9d.; ditto, Geelong, £54; and for this large sum, implying a previous contribution of like amount from the public, the number of children educated was only about 487, of whom about 427 belonged to this town. By reference to the population returns, made up in March, 1841, it appeared that there were in Melbourne alone -

Children, 2 years of age and under 7 . . . . . . 424

Children, 7 years of age and under 14 . . . . . 418

Assuming that one-half the former ought to have been at school - all above four and a half years of age - there ought to have been at school then 630; in June of that year there were 355 learning. Even on the supposition that the population returns were correct, which they were not, and on the farther supposition that no increase had taken place between March and June, the appalling number of 275 were then uninstructed: by the end of the year it would seem the number of pupils at school in Melbourne had increased from 355 to 427; but this was entirely out of proportion to the actual increase of the juvenile population during the same period; for, by reference to the "Melbourne Almanac," it appeared that from March 1, to December, 31, 1841, there arrived -

Children, under 7 years of age . . . . . . . . . 1,047

Children above 7 and under 15 . . . . . . . . . . 490

Say, for instance, that of the former only 2-7ths should be at school, and of the latter 7-8ths -

2-7ths of 1,047 is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

7-8ths of 490 is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .428

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .727

But to revert to the population returns; the number he spoke of were in Melbourne alone, but he must glance at the state of the entire District of Port Phillip generally:-

There are of males, 2 and under 7 . . . . . . . 479

Of females . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .904

Of which half should be at school . . . . . . . 452

Add those above 7, under 14 -

Males. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

Females . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

Sub-Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,242

To whom add the importations . . . . . . . . . 712

And we have the youth, at end of 1841 . .1,969

But in the whole of the District there were only 487 at the schools supported by the Government; and though to these we add 50, or even 100, which is much beyond the mark, as educated at private institutions, there will still be 1,382, or more than two-thirds of the youth of the Province receiving no suitable instruction; and yet, at this momentous conjuncture in our history, the Government have enacted a measure which threatens materially to cripple, if not to annihilate, the existing seminaries.

Mr. Forbes' motion, with an additional resolution, requiring the Rev. Messrs. Love (Geelong,) and Laurie (Portland,) to report to the committee, having been put and carried, the Presbytery adjourned until the 1st Tuesday in August; and the Moderator having pronounced the Apostolical benediction, the Presbytery separated.