Our Contributors.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 511, 7 June 1881, Page 2

Our Contributors.

ECHOES OF MELBOURNE

(Fkom our Own Correspondent)

Melbourne has never been so pros- [ porous for years as it is now. The money brought into the country by the : Exhibition, the expenditure on railways in all directions, which draws the surplus labor from the capital, the splendid wool season, the grand wheat crop, and the revival of mining, coupled with the cheapness of money, the banks being compelled at last to break up their r'ng, have resulted in general case and prosperity. For some years building operations have been at a standstill .except in the city proper, but they have now received such an impetus, that in Melbourne and ali over the colony timber merchants and brickmakcrs have found it impossible to meet the demand. At Balhirat, the brickmakers complain that their hands are scorched with having to handle hot bricks. In the city itself, two new banks are in course of erection, and a number of handsome hotels and stores. A coffee palace of great size is to be erected on. the site of seme old rookeries in Bourke street. In fact, as the leases in the city block fall in handsome buildings are being erected. Mr Stanford, the brother of Lclaud (Stanford, ex-Governor of California, and the Railway King of that fctate, has bought a block in Bourke street, and is about to erect upon it a. magnificent hotel on the American principle. So thnt, altogether, when your good people visit this city again they will find a great change. Position is everything, Mr David (iauiuon, M.L.A. and Chairman of Committees, addressed a public meeting in the Hippodrome in f«*vor of reprieving Ned Kelly, and advanced the remarkable argument in his favor, that it was not murder on bis part to shoot the police if he earnestly believed that they came to shoot him ! His brother, the noted " Willie," a vain, feather-brained boy < f ;)5, gathered the filth of the eil.y together, and inflamed them to howl along the streets with torches in their hands, and to roar in front of the Treasury to intimidate Mr Berry ; yet nothing was done to these persons ; Mr David Gaunson was not even reproved

b; his fellow legislators. Mrs Jones, a poor widow who kept an hotel at Glenrowan, who by virtue,of fear was compelled to accommodate the Kellys, had lier son killed, her dangher wounded, and was twice trial in Circuit Court for laboring and assisting the outlaws, and finally acquitted by the evidence of the very police officers upon whose report she was indicted, who said she was a respectable woman — Mrs Jones has been thoroughly ruined, and she is now about to make an admisericordiamappeal to Parliament. Fortunately her husband is employed on the railway, else she would starve. So, you see punishment entirely depends upon whether you have friends and position.

Our brave police are much troubled in their minds as to the possibility of another outbrenk in the NorthEastern District, and this idea has received some confirmation from the fact that the leading members of the Kelly clan—there are 79 blood relatives of the dead outlaws m the colony— assemble at the historic farmhouse' at Greta every Saturday evening, each man bringing his whiskey bottle. Now, North-Eastern whiskey is as famous in Victoria as '' forty rod jim jams " is in America, and undei the influence of this compound of fusel oil and vitriol, the clan become excited, and being dulj worked up by bush ballads with the chorus —

Oli, Ned Kol.ie, Oclioiie, maehreo, A bou'tl man was lie, King of the North Countrce ! and the recital of the deeds and wrongs of the clan, vows of vengeance are registered and treason spouted. But with the morning cool repentance and bad headaches come, and the men slink away. I don't think there is anything in these meetings. Mrs Kelly an I her daughters, Mrs Skillian a lid Kate, live on tho selection.

The Police Commission has hold a sitting at Benalla, and inspected the scene of tho fight at Glenrovan. The ( ommissioners were utterly puzzled how it was the police did not shoot, one another, owing to their positions. It seems the brave Lieutenant O'Connor and his black trackers made at once for a trench or drain, and remained there under.cover,, though the gallant O'Con-

nor wps implored by the brave Sergeant Steele ami others who were fighting in the open to come out and take charge of the forces, he being next in command to (Superintendent Hnre, who had fled to B'lialla wounded. The Commission don't 'hink this conduct justifies the appointment of Mr O'Connor as second in command io Mr Montfort in the NorthEast. Two other facts elicited by the Commission have stiggered people. Platelayer T?eardon gave evidence' that during the early part of the fight frequent appeals for mercy were made by the innocent imprisoned people, and they called out and signalled for a, truce with -white handkerchiefs, but were answered with volley upon volley. The police made no offer to the innocent non-combatants until half-past n ; ae o'clock on the Monday morning, four hours after the outlaws had agreed to let them go. How half the people were not killed, seeing the quantity of bullets picked up on the site of the hotel, is inexplicable. The other sinister fact was that two sub-officers 'endeavored to get some of the police to send in cooked reports about the celebrated " cave party," that is to say, they wanted these men to report that the party's being in the cave was unknown to the sympathisers, while as a matter of fact it was known to everyone in the district. This cave party lived like fighting cocks, consuming tins of preserved meat, fish, etc., and drinking in a few weeks -200 bottles of ale, not to mention other " comforts." Mr Berry grumbled at this, but the officers said it was neceseary, as fires could not be lit.

The visit of the Royal Commission, headed by that dour politician, Longmore, to Mrs Kelly, was so remarkable that, at the risk of offending some readers by dwelling too much on the Kelly business, I must give a few lines about it. The hut in whicl: the women live is a dilapidafed affair of slabs, roofed with bark, the sashes dirty and the glass broken, A saddening aspect of ruin, desolation, and unthrift hung over the scene ; it looked something like one in the poorest Irish district. There was no sign of industry ; the only farming implement w. s an old cart, over the wheels of which the grass had grown. The hut stands in an open space, so that the inmates can see every approach .to it. The M.L.A.'s were not allowed to go in, and Kite Kelly would not come out, saying she was no , dressed to receive visitors ! Mrs Kelly and her youngest daughter, Grace, however, stood at the door and talked to the " gintlemin." Mrs Kelly complained that the police had annoyed her daughter and knocked things about, but she was very reticent. Grace said a detective had pulled her out of bed, and a superior officer had repeatedly come there drunk. These are old yarns. The Commission left without obtaining much information, but depiessed by the place and its surroundings. Above the plain on which the hut is built rise the frowning masses of the Australian Alps, capped with snow It was there the outlaws took refuge. The visit of the Police Commission to Bcnalla was characterised by some broadly farcical occurences. The Commission was in such haste to leave Benalla to vUit Mrs Kelly and Glenrowan that the Secretary was unable to provide a hamper with eatables, consequently when lunch time came nothing was produced but some bread and cheese. There were two tee otal members on the Commission,

the Chairman (Mr Longmore) and MiAnderson. After Mr Longmore had swallowed a crust and mi Ley bit of cheese he feebly asked for some temperance drink—the dejeuner was spread on one of the logs which had sheltered the besiegers of the lvelL.s —and was told that Mr Anderson with admirable foresight had annexed the only bottle of gingerade ; ho had, therefore, to be satisfied with a glass of Glenrowan water and looked on enviously at the other Commissioners who were swigging beer and porter. The Commission were driven out by larrikin-looking Benalla young bush swells, and while the grave and reverend senators were taking evidence, prior to lunch, these youths coolly ate up the sandwiches, and purloined a bottle of whiskey, with which they toasted each other behind a~ bush. The result was unfortunate; the whiskey .soon began to have effect; first they embraced, in the loving stage, and then becoming fighcing drunk they pulled off their coats and went to work in presence of the august M.L.As. Mr Longmore,soured by his meagre fare, pointed to the exhibition and read a lecture to his fellows on the inevitable results of imbibition. The end of the affair was that the police took the drivers in charge and escorted them to the " logs," there to spend a repentant night, and the Commissioners had to walk to the station.

Recently a bank manager who liked his locale in a pleasant country township, was ordered to remove, much to his regret, and of course a banquet was held in his honor. The local poet read a piece of doggrcl in praise of the guest comprising only 250 lines, and after hearing it the banker said, with a sigh of relief at tin , close, that now he was perfectly reconciled to leaving the district. Orpheus could move stones, but thispoit beat hin.—-'.ic could move a bank manager.

There is nothing now theatrically ; we are all waiting for the Pirates of Penzance, who arrived from Sydney to-day with, piratical intentions on the pockets of the Melbourne public. Since writing the above Mr Berry has decided to substantially accept tho Reform Bill as altered by the Council. He will propose som?. amendments which he thinks will be accepted. The Radicals will raise a great war-whoop, but for all that reform is substantially settled.