Our Contributors.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 533, 23 August 1881, Page 2

Our Contributors.

ECHOES OP MELBOURNE.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

August 10, 1881.

The new Ministry have passed safely through their difficulties which some thought insurmountabe, and after pass ing a Supply Bill of nearly a million, and transacting important business in one day vrere given a recess of six weeks, to the 20th September to propose theif measures. The principal'matter, of debate in the viceregal speech was the clause promising a Royal Commission, on the Education Act, and though the Ministry got over the difficulty by stipulating tljat the House itself should deal with the question, it needs no prophet to tell us that the next great battle in Victoria will be between the Secularists and' anti secularists, in other words between the Protestants and the Catholics; the champ clos being the Education Act. Sir John O'Shanaesy is the prophet and leader of the Catholic party. He began the warfare in 1879 and the success with which he has met emboldened him to make a speech on Thursday last that was defiant in the highest degree. What the party aimed at was to alter the third principle of the act, that education shall be secular so that any person can 'claim so much for a child if it is educated up to tho required standard, no matter who is the teacher and where it is taught.

The speeches delivered on Thursday in the House on this subject were bo remarkable that I am tempted to give a few extracts, because there are few English colonies where the question is not a live one. Sir John O'Shanassy boldly stated that five Ministries had been wrecked, because they had refused to take up the matter, that Mr Service, the late Premier, had driven into exile because he had said this was a matter of cash, not conscience with the Catholics, and Mr Berry chastised because he had been promised a Commission and had failed to appoint one, and the Catholics would continue to throw out Ministry after Ministry, and render Government impossible until their grievance wns removed. This speech, has drawn upon him the threat from the two leading papers, the Argus and the Age, that if he continues Chat business both parfte% will coalesce and treat him as the common enemy he makes himself out to be, thus driving himself and his contingent of followers out of public life. The speeches on the other side were equally rabid. Professor Pearson after an onslaught on Sir John, said in conclusion : " He (Sir John O'Shansissy) had boasted that Ministry after Ministry had been turned out because they had not yielded to the Catholic claims. Under his #uManw one section of the community had disclaimed the obligations of citizenship, and had announced that they would consider no question before the country unless their demands were granted. He made Government impossible and set clags against class. He told them the perfect truth when lie said it was not a local question, for the Catholic Church were intriguing all over the world in the sarre way. If this was allowed to procce i any body of fanatic could act in the same manner. All other hon members were bound at a time like this to unite against the Catholic Church, because that was the only way it could be fought." He went on to argue that if the Church gained this point it would at once formulate other demands. Mr Munro was even more truculent. "Under such circumstances," said ho, " the Catholics were dangerous to the community and it was the duty of all parties to join together and put them down," These extracts will show the bitterness of the controvery and the character of the political warfare upon which we appear to be undertaking.

The death of Mr Marcus Clarke, the leading litterateur of Australia, has profondly moved the community, with whom he ever was .1 favorite, despite his eccentricities; the surroundings being more than ordinarily sari ■ Young as he was when he died, Mr Clarke's career was most eventful. He belonged to a good femily in luigland, the cadets of which have played a prominent part in Victoria. One of his uncles was judge in the Maryborough district, the other, Sir Andrew Clarke, who was one of the first surveyor generals in Victoria, arid who is now a Minister of the Imperial Government in India. The deceased came to the colony when a mere lad, and was for about four months in a bank. He then went on a station in the Wimnifra, But the caeoethes scribendi was strong upon him and editor of the Australasian being charmed with some sketches ho forwarded, he obtained un engagement upon that paper and was a popular writer at a very early age ; indeed ho became sub-editor of

the paper when he was twenty. He started a column of gossip under the head of "The Peripatetic.'.Philosopher," which raised the Australasian to the head of Australian weeklies, and was the model for all the v social" column?, that are now to be found in every weekly journal. Mr Clarke soon • became famous and his " writing's, conimantjed. ready attention. Were he possessed' ot worldly prudence and balance he would have had a brilliant career before him, but he was possessed of neither. He

*» • . . ■ . vwz also a bitter wriiorand unscrupulous in attacks, and so.made enemies of men » who had befriended him. He also_ got mixed up with a fast set of Bohemians. He lost his position on the Argus, but the Into Judge Barry, who throughout remained his steadfast friend, obtained for fh'm the Secretaryship to the Trustees of the Public Library, and after that the sub-Librarianship. Had lie been at all careful ho would have been Librarian, hut he could not restrain his pen, and having ridiculed Mr Berry in the "Happy Land " prologue, he was shut out from that position. Besides, though his income must have reached £1000 per annum ho was always in monetary difficulties. He was three times insolvent, being in the Court at the time of his death. His latest escapade was with the wellknown money-lender, Mr Aaron , Waxman, whom he accused of having worked up a debt of £25 to over £500, and who forced him into the Insolvent Qourt. Mr Waxman wrote to the trustees, pointing out Mr Clarke's position, *" rind as the rules of the civil service do not

allow insolvents to retain their position, Mr Clarke received a civil intimation that his resignation would be accepted. He had lost by death his old friend «, Judge Barry. Mr Clarke then projected a country correspondence, and joined with Mr G. A. Walstab, another literary man, but his various troubles "•weighed upon a delicate frame He caught a cold, and being neglected, it ran on to internal inflammation, and he succumbed almost before people knew he was ill He was unconscious for some time before death, but the ruling paspion was still strong within him, for €yen when he could not hear or see his hand moved as if writing. He married when about twenty-one Miss Marion Dunn, daughter of the well-known actor, John Dunn, and left six children, the eldest boy attending the funeral. Thus in darkness closes the page of a bright and promising young life, for ha was only years when he died. As a writer Mr Clarke was gifted with li«ht, airy, epigrammatic style; modelled upon the French, of which language he was a master. His first novel,' published in 1868, was "Long Odds," a racing story ; but his great work was " His Natural Life," which has appeared'in book form in Australia, England, America, and Germany. It was a story ot convict life in the old days, and was told with almost the power of Victor Hugo in " Les Miserables." Just before his death he had written a short

ptory, "The Mystery of Major Moly"neux," dealing with the mysteries of denth. He seems to have had a pre-

monition of his end, for the week before

his death, when quite well, he repeatedly ""told a friend that his time had gone by, that he was only%aiting for a boat from the next world—if, there was one. The latest freak of Mr Clarke, who was confessedly an atheist, was to entor into a cniiToversy with Bishop *Mo>rhouse on Christianity, He was also a writer for the stage, and recently produced a piece in which his wife, once a theatrical celebrity, appeared. He left his family destitute, and his nrtistic and literary friends are warmly taking up the matter of making a provision for the widow and the orphans.