ECHOES OF MELBOURNE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 503, 10 May 1881, Page 2

ECHOES OF MELBOURNE.

[l-'ltOU null OWN CORHESrONDKXT.]

It is understood in sporting circles that Captain Standish is to bo our new secretary to that great institution, the , Victoria Racing Club. When the enptiiin was got rid of by the Government, after mismanaging , the police department for years, his cronies circulated the report that he was to become the secretary of Sir Hercules Robinson at the Cape, at a salary of £1000 per annum, and Unit he was to marry Sir Hercules' daughter. This, however, has turned out a canard. Those who knew the CAptain are well aware that he could not liao away : from the- Melbourne Club, the great Conservative institution of the Southern World, and that if transplanted beyond its magic circle he would wither away like a hothouse plant in the Arctic regions. His salary while in the Government employ was £000 per annum, and the honorarium attached to the secretaryship of the V.R.C. is £000, and may be raised to £1000. Who will not say that the captain is a lucky man? While on racing topics I may note that a section of the sporting world say Messrs Long and Wilson have entered into a kind of partnership to win the principal races alternately, as suits them, and that this was plainly shown at the last Sydney meeting. Whether this is true or not can only bo known to the gentlemen themselves. It was Mr Long who was hooted on the Flemington racecourse fur scratching a favorite at the last moment, and who wrote to the Argus, defiantly telling the biclvfis oi his lioi&e tint he ian his lnmiJils to t i " nrt \n - i ' i

AlKhnt lias chained, the census show- ! < ing that, there sire now in the llondigo ! metropolis 17,791 niiile- a.n.i 17,669 females, .in excess of males of only 122. The increase of opuhition -sine." IS7I is 40 per cent. The i.'hiu":-.' !i;rv .<ocreased If) pei , c'\\t. in■ .•■ ■<'■•>■ ! •■'•"> Chinese tvoni' , !) in the yivu' .:Oi'.!li>':iis city, the total population of which is 46*,0G3. The significant fact shown by the census, however, is the proportion of persons under 19 to those over that age, there being 18,195 persons under 19 out of a population of 35,460 (excluding Chinese) or more than one half, and the females in this class are 405 over the males. These figures may be taken as generally indicatory of the population of the colony, and tallies with the experience of all countries as they get settled, especially when close to less settled countries which absorb adventuious males, which is that the females preponderate, and that persons under age increase. This has especially ■ been the experience of the New England States, the young men going off to the West. Victoria is evidently becoming a nursery for the less settled colonies. This large number of non-producing persons are a heavy burden to our adults. The Lamont will case, promises to be one of the Australian celebrated cases. The deceased, Geoige Lamont was a successful reefer and crushing machine proprietor at Stawell (Pleasant Creek) ; his partner b.?ing the brother of tlnj lion J. M. Grant, late Minister of lands. Mr Lamont never married, and like so many of our successful miners, not being possessed of other resources to amuse himself, took to dissipation, spending months on the spree in Melbourne and suffering repeatedly from . delirium tremens. It is thought these excesses unhinged his mind, or at least greatly weakened it He chanced to be in Melbourne no the time the spiritist revival took place, and became inoculated with the doctrines of the spiritualists. He fell in with a Mrs Jackson'who claimed to be imbued with the spirit of God, in fact an incarnation, who led what was called a magnetic circle in Flinders street. The woman was in reality a magnctiser, and by a species of what is now called hypnotism, otherwise suggignoskism, brought woak subjects entirely within her control. She got power over Lamont by sitting in the parlor tapping his head for hours together, thus reducing him to a cataleptic state. Lamont became the great patron of spiritualism in Victoria ; he it was whose money enabled James Smith to cany on the Maryborough Advertiser as a spiritualist organ, and afterwards to publish the "Two Worlds," the principal doctrine taught, being that of incarnation, Smith claiming to be the. incarnation of Moses, Mahomet, etc. If so they must have been very ugly persons. Mr Lamont became so attached or rather so overpowered by Mrs Jackson and her " husband " Mr George, that he left the home of his si.-ter, stopped with them, built a splendid villa at Hawthorn for the two, and made a present of it, and on his death willed the bulk of his property over to them. His relatives naturally objected to this, as they held improper influences had been used, and his sister had been k.'pt from him when he was dying. The case is coming on shortly and will bo of interest to see what view our courts will take. In England a spiritualist was severely dealt with in a similar case; but in France the courts allowed the will in a case brought before them, and Paris is likely to become the head quarters of spiritualism. The religious world is in a turmoil just now over two new developments. The Presbyterian Church has the Rev. Mr Strong on hand, owing to an article that gentleman wrote to the Victorian Review. The article was generally opposed to Calvinistic views, especially in regard to the atonement, and, putting it briefly, seemed rather to teach that many parts of the Bible were to be taken symbolically and morally instead of historically. The " unco' quid " clergy with, the Rev. Mr M' Eachcn, a true blue Presbyterian at their head, were at once in arms. At first they tried to get at Mr Strong by writing to obtain from the Melbourne Presbytery a command that tho Shorter Catechism should be taught in the Sabbath schools. They felt sure Mr Strong would object to this, and so he could be got at. However, the Presbytery only went as far as to, " recommend," not command, and the Calvinistic section had to take up an overture, asking Mr Strong to explain. The Argus, an atheistic journal, which has an awful "down" upon strict religionists, took up Mr Strong's case, and his friends urged in his defence that he had in the article expressed no opinion of his own but merely summarised that of others, The case is now going on, but it is not likely to come to anything, not at least till the General Assembly meets. The real fact is that the Calvinists are right. Mr Strong is not a Presbyterian, and does not teach Presbyterian doctrines though he preaches in a Presbyterian Church. He belongs to that increasing section of Ministers who believe in a moral and spiritual religion that is altogether apart from dogma, and accept the Bible rather as symbolic than historical. These men who are to be found in all churches, should really have a denomination of their own. Quito different is the case of tho Rev. Air Spirer, of the Anglican ' • ' , . \ i Saints. The i -ili t {.I'd cilice- /> h ii' '\ —tin

east, etc., are all to be found there. Tho anglican community is so Catholic, that it embraces all shades of thought, but Mr Spicer's ideas are h little bit too liomish for the taste of the Evangelical section of the church, and so there is ■! sunion, and a long and acrimonious (hscussion in the Argus. Mr Spicer and Mr Potter have told the dissidents to cleur out if they don't like the services, and the dissidents have replied it is Mr Spicer who ought to go ; lie could join the Roman Catholic Church without violence to his feelings. Ritualism is spreading in the Anglican Church in Victoria and sincere members of that communion are in some dread as to the results. The Japanese man-of-war Rinji is the great attraction in our bay now. I have never seen such an imitation of* an English man-of-war. Even the men look like British tars, barring the dark color of their skins. They are a nice pleasant set of fellows, merry as grigs but sober and sensible ; not one of them has been before the Police Court, nor , has one been seen drunk. The officers are thorough gentlemen, and nearly all can talk English well. * One American item of interest I cannot omit. The Banking Record here recently published a list of Victorian dividends since mining began, making the the amount £5,000,000. This is totally incorrect, many defunct companies being omitted. I see by the Californiaivpapers that the dividends declared in the States from gold, silver, and copper mines for the past 20 years amounted to 206,571,859 dols or £42,035,783, 19s 2d sticling. The silver mines in Nevada paid £28,666,411 of this. Of individual mines, the consolidated Virginia (Com-" stock lode, silver) paid £8,943,707, the California (ditto) £6,264,000. Both these are in Nevada. In the State of California (gold) the highest dividend known is the Idaho £489,644 16s 8d ; in Michigan (copper) the Calumet and Hecla, £3,687,916 13s 4d. So Australia can sing small in regard to dividends. A few words about the Kelly business before 1 close. The whole .Press of the Colony has condemned the awards of the Police Board, but ifc does not seem that this will be of any use. The Board allowed Sir Charles Macmahon, an old military mairiuet, to have lib way, and he insisted that the rules of the Imperial army any navy service should be adopted in making the awards. Probably the Government will have to step in and supplement tho awards to make things right. I can state authoritatively that (he Glcnrowan affair and the death of Sherritt arose through a person in the district sending word to the police that Byrne used to visit at a house close to his mother's, and advising them to take Sherritt with them. Sherritt went and was seen by the Kellys, hence his death and the Glcnrowan fight. Sherritt knew his dangii" well and would not have gone with the police lincl he not thought that the Kellys would have been exterminated that night. The Torpedo Board has at last found a -satisfactory explanation of the cause of the accident which caused the death of the men at Queenscliffe, but it has not been so far made known. Tanbour Major has run 101 nights at the Opera House, the longest ever known in Australia, entirely owing to the per fection with which it was placed upon the stage, the music being poor, and the words rubbish. The troupe lias gone to Adelaide. The Opera House is to be re-arranged and the Pirates of Penz.mce will ,'be produced. , After 20 years Shakespeare's Winter's Tale has been produced at the Royal with a splendor of scenery and accessories that I have never seen equalled south of the line. Mr Hennings has out-done himself in the scenes, which are Greek in style, and the management have spared nothing in dress and accessories. Tho result is a grand success. ] may notice the peice at length next letter ; at present I must conclude.