VICTORIA.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2133, 8 March 1870, Page 2

VICTORIA.

Announcements have appeared in the advertising columns of the Melbourne journals, from the Britisb-Indian Submarine Telegraph Company, stating that the line from India to Great Britain is expected to be opened for traffic in the middle of March, and giving instructions and information with respect to the transmission of telegrams from Australia to Europe. No doubt the new line will be made considerable use of by merchants and others in the colonies interested in commercial pursuits. Thomas Webb Draper is not to be allowed to expiate his multifarious swindles by eight months’ imprisonment only. The authorities of the Commercial Bank have resolved upon instituting another prosecution. The small edition of a Norton-Folgate dinner of Australian preserved meats, which the “Victoria” Meat Preserving Company got up the other day, was so far successful in mak ng Melbourne people acquainted wii hj the article which is being sent from here to feed the hungry multitudes on the other side of the world, that another imitation of Mr Tal'erman’s penny dinners is to be given in a few days on a larger scale. In the meantime new companies are getting into active work, and with these and the extension of the “Melbourne” Company’s works, our capabilities of supplying the English market with the Australian meats in the varied form in which they are preserved are being largely increased. The inauguration of the new Land Act, which came into operation ou the Ist February, was not unattended with anxiety to the Land Minister and the officers of his department. The regulations which bad to be framed by the Government, and were as essential as the Act itself, could not be issued until the Ist February, and it was not until the 3rd, and in some p aces the4ih of the month, that the machinery could bo set fairly going. In the meantime there had been great rushes to the cent es of the agricultural districts to get the first chance in the new scramble, and, as hundreds of persons were thus kept in a state of anxious su-pense while the preliminaries were being settled, there were strong symptoms of dissatisfaction. The fault, however, was not with the department, for both the political and practical heads had been making almost superhuman efforts to bo prepared with the regulations as early as possible. The Age, as a matter of course, endeavors to show that the regulations are framed with a view to neutralise, and not to develop, the liberal intentions of the Legislature, as embodied in the Laud Act; but the country will bo very slightly influenced by representations so obviously dictated by a spirit of political partisanship, and will wait to see the result of the practical test to which the regulations are being subjected. As might be expected, there was much confusion in the public mind, especially in some localities, as to the course to be adopted by intending selectors, the officers being in many cases new, as well as the Act and the regulations which they had to administer. The head of the department did all he could to overcome these difficulties, and telegraphed to all the country offices instructions and explanations for selectors, and special directions to the surveyors and officers." In addition to this, the Assistant Commissioner has gone into the Western district, where the rushes are the greatest, and is travelling from one office to another explaining the regulations, and instructing the officials. At the same time he "wdl be able to render important aid in cases where reserved lauds have been improperly selected ; for we learn by the papers and telegrams that almost everywhere lands of exceptional value, such as town commonages, water reserves, &c., have been pounce ! upon by the eager multitude who regar.l tfle new Act ag an authority for their appropriating the pick of the territory. Some of the settlers are regarding this racket with consternation, for they begin to fear that every reserve will be seized upon and enclosed, and that travelling stock will be impossible. . Of course the intentions of some of the ’cute selectors will be frustrated, for the necessity of keeping many of these reserves for public use will be recognised by everybody except those wh*

have put their pegs into them. The scenes ■which have been enacted during the past few days—and nights—in the agricultural districts have been amusing. It is said that in some quarters every carpenter has been employed for some time in making the regulation pegs, and that groups and individuals have been seen wandering about the bush at night with candle and lantern, spade and mallet, in search of pegs, or in desperate attempts at marking out choice bits of land. The confusion and entanglement which the Local Boards will have to unravel before they can finally decide on the claims to many of the allotments, will be something frightful; but when the first great rush is over, the working of the Act may be expected to be smooth enough. Settlement on a large scale will doubtless be promoted by it; but there cannot be a doubt that much land will be obtained by fortunate schemers at merely nominal prices, which, if submitted to the hammer, would h:.ve realised a handsome price, and materially benefitted the public exchequer.