Our Contributors.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 546, 7 October 1881, Page 3

Our Contributors.

ECHOES OF MELBOURNE.

September 21, 1881

After a short recess our Parliament has ones more assemb'ed and signalised its first evening by blathering about all sorts of subjects over a motion for adjournment. The evil of overtaking is at present the groat feature of nearly all colonial parliaments, and the result is that no real work is done. Our house talks and talks and fights until the end of the session, and then hurriedly passes a lot of measures and adjourns. Last session the Assembly squabbled over Supply until the end of the financial year, and then had to vote all the money because it had been spent. There is every indication that ere long this evil will work its own cure, and that our Assembly will follow the example of the House of Commons, and adopt the cloture, or something of the kind, which will restrict the flood cf talk that now renders business almost hopeless. Would you believe it, that for four years we have not passed above four measures other than those which may be called purely

merely to ventilate their personal quarrels or to show their constituents they can talk.

As to the future, of politics in this colony, if I am at all a judge, there are storms in store. The House is divided into four parties, no two of which are likely to coalesce, and there is so much persmal ill will that there can be little hope of peace. The Liberal party is broken up and the Conservative party is no better. The Reform League is in a bad state, and Mr Berry is inclined to throw it over and form a coalition with the disaffected Conservatives. The Age is trying to raise up its own men, and the leader of th© Catholics, Sir John . O'Shanassy, is ill at ease, because Mr Thomas Bent, the omnivorous banqueter, said at Ararat that the Ministry would not interfere with the Education Act. What will come out of this chaos no one can tell. Most people think we'll have a dissolution before the end of the year, but that would not mend matters, as the people are in as divided a state as the Assembly. We must wait until public opinion becomes more clear and defined ; at present there is no public opinion, so to speak.

The inquest on the railway accident at Jolimont has closed, with a verdict condemning the management of the Hobson's Bay line in toto and in the strongest language. Mr Smyth, who appeared for the Crown, had frankly to admit that there was not proper supervision of the rolling stock. The feature of the inquest was the vigorous denunciation by the Coroner, Dr Youl, of Mr Elsdon, the general manager of our railway system, whom everyone thought a don. The Coroner said he was the worst witness he had examined for twenty five years*; he seemed to do nothing and to know nothing himself, simply leaving everything to his officers. Now, observed the coroner, if a man had a station and wanted to know how his sheep and cattle were getting on he would not go to the shearer or the stockman, but would expect his superintendent to inform him about their condition. This was hot on Mr Elsdon, who is a splendid specimen of the typical Australian superior civil servant, who knows nothing of what is going on except what red tape affords. Several of the sufferers are still far from being out of danger, especially Messrs Geach, Moore, Alexander and others. The Government has arranged with some of those only slightly injured about compeneation, but will have a big task with the rest. It will be a costly aff.iir to the state) all caused by tbe carelessness of their servants. It is now clearly shown that the accident was caused by the tire being too worn ont to be used, but so loose was the management that the blame could not be fixed upon anyone.

We are nearly always in trouble with our Governors, who are accused of being parti.d and always aiding the Conservatives. Mr Vale spoke of this at Ballarat and Mr Longridge speaking at Collingwood the other night made an even graver charge, which if correct is undoubtedly open to question. He stated that the Marquis of Normanby had taken an active part against the late Ministry, in fact prompted the opposition, and that he could always detect at the meetings of the Cabinet that the Governor had a personal feeling against the Ministry. The Governor, according to Mr Longridge, had carried this feeling so far that when they asked him to come to their last Cabinet Council on the Saturday, he point blank refused, telling them to call on*i for Monday, stating he could not come that day yet on that very Saturday he came to the Treasury and swore in the new Govern ment, This certainly was an extraordinary proceeding, if true. It prevented the outgoing Government from completing their work.

A report has just been circulated that small-pox has broken out in a town close to the New South Wales boundary, but it may only be a case of chicken-pox. However we are not very much troubled by small-pox scare here, for having dealt with the diseas • previously we know how to manage it. Cur mode of dealing with the epidemic is to destroy everything with which the patient comes into contact and to vaccinate every person with whom he may communicate, and those in the immediate neighborhood. In Sydney they have pursued a ridiculous and irksome system. My correspondent there tells me the scenes at the quarantine grounds are dreadful, the place is a hell upon earth. Coffins are used by the patients as seats, and in one case a coffin was made for a patient and put by her bedside, but as if to spite the authorities she recovered. As many as thirty coffins were to be seen at the quarantine grounds at once. These are stern facts. Many persons have fled from Sydney in horror. Here we have taken steps to have the best lymph from heifers and are so prepared that the smallpox, if it comes, won't bave much show. Vaccination has also become general, and should the epidemic break out all our people will cheerfully consent to the operation.