ECHOES OF MELBOURNE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 524, 22 July 1881, Page 3

ECHOES OF MELBOURNE.

(From our Own Correspondent)

July 13 Will we ever have political peace? It! does not look like it. Mr Berry having by Jjio vacillation and mistakes of himself nnd bis ministers led up lo a political crisis, tbe bull has bec-n handed to the Knight, of Clare, Sir Bryan O'Loghlen; and% would almost f-eam auifhe willhohl it for a while, at least until his anemic;! "come to an agreement to ourft him, which ' may be a long time, for it will be dil.icult 10 them to agree up;) the division of the spoils. "liv a rismarkabfe biate of thh.gs! and I hardly think thnt a Kin is try ever took office mider such oircutnatana;:; ;n n British community. ■ They havo not n :-hi"h eupporler in -lbo Assembly ami way be said to form a party in themselves; be-

sides the leading men are those who have plunged the Colony into turmoil by betraying party after party. Much depends upon their policy and their re-election. As far as can be now understood they intend to take up the practical legislation which has been at a standstill during the agitation of the past few years, holding that no further political move can be made until it is seen next year what class of men will be returned to the Council under the new constitution, and if the result is not equal to expectation the electors will have a chance to return members at the general election to change the constitution. They intend to extend the area of selection on the basis of the capability, not the area of land, and will go in for a revision of the tariff to free commerce. One cannot predict what will result, for beyond a doubt great disintegration is taking place in the two great parties, and men on both sides are weary of the shackles of party diecipline. A movement is at present on hand on both sides to form a new coalition, putting aside the old leaders and taking office on the displacement of the present Catspaw Cabinet as it is called. Ihe new Ministry are pretty safe to be returned, all except Sir Bryan O'Loghlen, who will have a big fight for his seat. The offices at present are thus allotted :—Premier, Attorney-General, and Treasurer, Sir Bryan O'Loghlen ; Minister of Lands, David Gaunaon ; Commissioner of Customs, J. H. Graves; SolicitorGeneral (in the Council), Dr Dobson ; Chief Secretary and Minister of Education, J. M. Grant; Postmaster General, Mr Bolton ; Minister of Mines, Mr C. Young ; Minister of Railways, Thomas Bent; without salary, Dr L. L. Smyth,

It is somewhat remarkable that the lat>t Ministry did not contain a single Irishman and Catholic, while the chief of this Administration is both, and he has a companion in Mr Bolton. This fact will pro. bably lead to its speedy downfall, for Catholic Ministries—that is, Cabinets with a Catholic head—have ever been shortlived since Sir John O'Shanassy's time. By the bye this noted knight was one of the gentlemen who worked hard to get out the Beriy Ministry, mainly in order to -become for the fourth time Premier of Victoria. Sir Bryan, however, would not give him that position, which he kept for himself, though he offered him his choice of any other position, and the quondam friends parted in great wrath, Sir John telling Sir Bryan to go to a place where refrigerating machines are supposed to be an unknown institution, and immediately going off to Sydney in high dudgeon. It is to be hoped the Sydney people will retain him, for he keeps Victoria in hot water over the Catholic vote.

The Detached Squadron, minus the Bacchante, which has gone into dock for repairs to her rudder, left on the Bth for Sydney, with the Princes on board. There was no public demonstration to the Princss in Melbourne whatever, not even when they went away, but there were grand public receptions at Sandhurst and Ballarat, our two great inland cities. An amusing incident occurred at Sandhurst The Mayor is a plain tradesman, and the Upper Ten refused to go to his annual ball. When the Princes went up he gave a banquet and ball, to which he did not invite the aristocracy, who had to stand on the footpath and see the royal youths hand and glove with the men they despised; they did not even get an introductionThey will not.snub Mayors in future.

Eegarding Dixon's gas patent, the shares have fallen from 67s to 25s since tho process waa published, but the shareholders have the firmest faith in the venture. The cause of the fall is..maiuly the public expectation that Dixdft'dmd solved the problem of extracting"the hydrogen fitqm water. As it'ia the process appears-to be the burning of metals in a vehicle, kerosene. Some noise is at present made about a ratent brought from New Zealand, where a failure was made in taking it up, owing to a series of circumstances connected with the projectors. The invention is a Bimple one, and is a reaping machine which binds with its own material, namely, the straw. It is reckoned this will save the farmers 4s per acre, and do away with the danger to cattle from wire. A company is being formed to give the invention a thorough test.

We have had our share of tragedies tbis week, all traceable to the demon drink. A farmer was drowned on the Wangaratta flats, near where Dr Munro, his sister and a little girl perished recently. On tho day that the Princes visited Sandhurst, and indeed when Prince George was inspecting the underground workings of the adjacent mine, two miners were killed in the Great Southern claim by a fall of quartz. Their names were Daniel Fahey and John Myer. The ground above cracked and two men who were with them gave the alarm and fled to a place of refuge, but Fnhey and Myer got confused and ran right under tho fillinj quart/ IJoth must have 1 l n <■ U r o killed. A.nag' 1 1 "i 1 „oi n Bullock, a laborer, ivii'„ „ 1 lv, 1 ■ recently been on b; I t in mi 11 and lived apart. ' ' s cj-' cm v appears to have beo T t t 1 v 1' ' of Bullock's ste 1 ir'l'l ' 0 1 wife viuked him 0.1 IjT l v 1 < tlmy had a quarrel iiu v I the head thy, wit j 1 1 ' vvhil';. she v.'v!'! rmo 1 j 1 i from car Lo ear, 1 the :.<ane manner. > ' j I v tl n } returned home she found him kneeling at

the bedside as if in prayer, and. his wife ' lying dead on the floor. At: Mitiamo ap hotel-keeper quari:el]e.d-with a customer ;and after exchanging .-a few blows outside, ■ran in and brought out a revolver. The young man, Patriot Lynch, managed to flodgo the first shot, but the.second took effect, passing just" above' tho heart and put at the back. The would be murderer, a : ttian named Suginb, was arrested. His victim is likely to recover, being a vigorous young fellow.

Those who own shares in deep mines are elated at the diamond drill «triking a large goldbearing reef in a Stawell claim at a depth of 1700 ft. The diamond drills are doing wonders in this colony in discovering lodes, and I commend them to your people. The supply is far short of the demand.

We have, lots of ■" honorables " in our Assombley, that is gentlemen who have been Ministers, altogetber thirty, more than a third. No wonder there i.s a struggle for power.

Most people will remember Draper, son of the Eev Mr Draper who perished in tbe London, who served a sentence in Pentridge for embezzling tho money of the Colonial Bank, of which he was cashier. Tho affair caused great excitement at the time owing to the father of the criminal and his own position in tho Wosleyn Church. It is only to-day I heard that after an adventurous career Draper died by his own hand at Christchurch, Now Zealand, having taken chloral. What a lesson for the young,

No man noed be without music in the future, and tho settler in the backblock3 need not rely upon that hideous instrument the concertina", nor look to the jews-harp as his evenings solace. Our shops are full now of an instrument called the Orguinette, the price of which is fifty shillings. All that is required is a stock of prepared perforated pasteboard and you can sit down and grind out all the music that ever was written. It is on tho same lines as,the piano mecanique, which was so much talked of eight years ago.

A capital suggestion has been made here lately in regard to immigration, that the Colonies should form an Immigration Union, paying into a general fund on tho basis that wiil bo determined upon in the Postal.Union arrangement, the object of which will be to subsidise a line of steamers, to give cheap passages, and to keep lecturers in Engl.-ind and EuropeThis is what the United States do, and the result is shown in over 400,000 immigrants landing in New York during the first live months of 1881. Isolated action on the part of the Colonies is useless, immigrants roaming from one to the others. Theatrical matters are dull, but Mr Dowhurst, a rising tragedian, has arrived? and is to open a Shakeapeareian reason. We are, theatrically speaking, in the dead waste and winter of the year.