ECHOES OF MELBOURNE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 516, 24 June 1881, Page 3

ECHOES OF MELBOURNE.

(From our Own Correspondent)

June 7. I tiust your reade.s will excuse me for the unavoidable hiatus that occurred last week. Steamers are very uncertain in this port; sometimes they go, sometimes they don't. There is no set time for them ; all depends, as the jockeys say, upon " circs.," which means cargo and passenger lists. Therefore your humble servant missed the post. Peccavi.

Politics, perhaps, may not greatly interest your people, especially when they are to some extent foreign. Still, as there is a calm in the politics of every colony except ours, perchance I may be forgiven for prefacing my letter with a few remarks on this, to us Victorians, all-important subject. We have at last in this colony reached a deadlock that seems insoluble. Not only are parties almost equally divided in the Assembly, but they are so outside. Where doctors differ, who can decide? When the country is divided against itself, who will step m? No one. That is our position. The Premier and his organ, the Age, which alternately cringes to him , and " bosses " him, have discovered that

if the Council's amendments are passed with the aid of the Opposition the discontented Radicals will at once vote against the Government, and to avert such a fate they decided to endeavor to effect a " rally," and changed their tactics. This object was to be attained by insisting upon a £10 franchise all round for the Council, and the destruction of plural voting by an amendment providing that only ratepayers should vote for the Upper House, thus preventing persons with property in the various provinces recording their votes on the strength of that property, if they had tenants. Of course the Council won't have this ; the blue blood of our heretofore bullock-drivers won't allow that. Sir, 'tis monstrous that the hodcarrier of 1881 shall have a vote to balance that of the elegant bullpuncher of 1851. Things look very unsettled indeed. What will happen I cannot tell. I look forward to a dissolution, which will not result in anything, for the Catholic party in this unhappy country are determined not to allow any peace until their claims are settled. I heartily congratulate your colony for the immunity from the evils which distract our unhappy country. Some people say that our neighbors have no politics ; that they are led by the nose by a knot of interested oligarchs. Better to be so than to be disturbe I by the fury of contending parties. There is nothing but trouble ahead of Victoria.

While our politicians arc fighting Victoria seems to get on pretty well. The old leases are falling in in Melbourne, and in consequence tne city is undergoing a metamorphosis. Every site where the expiry of a lease allowed of improvements sees the change. When your people visit us again they will hardly be able to realise the change. The amount of building that is going on has made Melbourne the paradise of brick makers, timber merchants, and the like, who never did so well since the digging days. A dissolution of our Assembly is imminent. I see no solution to our difficulties in this step. The Catholic party in Victoria is getting power every day, aud should a dissolution take place the result must be nugatory. Sir John O'Shanassy will so arrange his forces that there will be at least fourteen or fifteen men returned to support him. This will be sufficient to turn the tables in any Assembly. I see no hope of settlement until the Catholic difficulty has been got over. Our Exhibition still lingers on the stage. Balls and concerts have been given, and have proved attractive, and the grand ball recently held, albeit the Princes were not there, was one of the most enjoyable I have ever attended in Melbourne. South of the Line there is no place where a ball can be held to such advantage as in the Exhibition building. I remember distinctly the splendid coup oVceil afforded by the electric light lit panorama. The decorations of tho hall were really beautiful, and as the dancers gyrated under the changing light I thought I was in 1 agdad in the reign of the good Haroun al Raschid. Two executions for murder have taken place in this city since I last wrote. There is little to writa about them. There was the same bimvado until the last solemn scene, and then followed the horror of death that is inseparable from the last act of the tragedy. Both men, however, seemed to be callous to the moral teaching of the fearful ceremonial. They met their fate in fear and trembling, though anxious, as are all the criminal classes, to meet death bravely. But it was merely assumed ; the awful Spectre had for them its most awiul terrors.

We have had two scan. mag. cafes that have moved the cummunity to its depths. The first was perhaps the most peculiar a jury ever had to deal with. A much-married lady of 47 sued a young fellow of 30 for a breach of promise of marriage. According to her own statement the lady had passed an eventful existence. Married in 1855 to aMr Wilson, she had emigrated with him to Sydney. In that city Mr Wilson tired of his wife, and left her to shift for herself. Here she became acquainted with a draper named Coutts, who offered manage if she obtained a divorce. The lady set the law in motion, and after she had obtained a decree married the naaiesake of the great banker, and went off to New Zealand, where she started a business with him. Shortly afterwards she received intelligence that she had married too early for the New South Wales divorce law, and consequently her union with Coutts was illegal. In this dilemma she asked Coutts to again marry her, but that gentleman refused. At this time Mr Smith, who is a Yankee book pedlar, appeared upon the scene, and, hearing of the embroglio, oftcred, according to plaintiff, marriage if she left Coutts. She deserted all for him, to find that he deserted her in Melbourne. The defence was of a very mean character. Smith said the woman had left New Zealand to obtain the gratification of her passions in a trip with him to the Blue Mountains. Judge Stephen was, however, of a different opinion. He told the jury that it was incredible that a woman should leave all to follow Smith, after her virtuous lite and at her age, for the purpose of sexual gratification, and the jury agreed with him. Mr Smith has therefore to pay £200 and look pleasant.

The other case has occurred at Ballara+. Ellen Tolisher proceeded against M. Hart, postmaster at Smythesdale, for the uiriiiite-ianofi of his child. The plaintiff stated the defendant had seduced her in the post-office. Gross perjury took place on either side. The case has been adjourned. We are~un

awfully moral community—when we are asleep. Mr Chirnside, our great land monopolist, has bought that old paper the Ballarat Star for £3300, and it is to become the champion of the 1 nided interest. Mr H. K. Hall, who accompanied Mr Chirnside, jun... in his travels in Africa, where he discovered the laches of the missionaries, is to be editor. The theaties are dull. "Antony and Cleopatra" has been produced at the Royal with all the adjuncts of Hening's pencil, and it is a beautiful picture, with bad actors. Mr Marshall still amuses us at the Bijou, but with poor plays. The " Pirates " are a failure.