VICTORIA.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2703, 16 October 1871, Page 3

VICTORIA.

The most important political event of the month has been the holding of an Intercolonial Conference in this city, which commence 1 its sittings on the ISth, and terminated them on the 30th nit. Each of the colonies of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania was represented by two members of its Government; the Chief Secretary of Victoria presiding as chairman. The subjects of discuasioq werp the following :—The future postal routes to, Europe, tho border customs duties, the Earl of Kimberley’s despatch with respect to an intercolonial tariff, the extradition of absconding debtors and runaway husbands, and the formation of a joint expedition to Northern Australia to. observe the solar eclipse. But with the exception of the postal services, upon which there was no approach to something like unanimity, the members of the Conference were unable to arrive at aqy agreement as tq the subjec s in debate. ” The results of the Conference may be briefly stated On the postal question an agreement had been arrived at which may not be quite satisfactory all round, but is thought to be a fair outcome of the representations made. The Queensland delegates do. not, however, appear to have joined in this compact, condition that Brisbane should he tbe terminus of one of the lines not having been allowed. A joint reply to the Earl of Kimberly’s despatch on the question of an intercolonial tariff was adopted by the representatives of all the colonies sa,ve Queensland. The delegates' from thence were not authofisotl to deal with that question, aqd w hep they telegraphed tq them colleagues! in the local Government fov permission to sign for that Colony it was refused. The border customs treaty question has led to a difference which is likely to produce further misunderstanding'. The Victoi ian delegates made a proposition which they considered a fair one, but it was unhesitatingly rejected by the Vew .South Wales delegates, whose terms were in like maimer rejected on behalf of Victoria. In the matter of dealing with absconding debtors and runaway husbands, it was found that no agreement could he arrived at. Further, the other colonies refused their assent to join in the expense of the projected expedition to a northern part of Australia, in order to observe the solar eclipse. The Haymarket Theatre, situated in the principal thoroughfare of Melbourne, and immediately adjacent to the Eastern Market, was destroyed by fire between eight and ten o’clock on the evening of the 22nd ult. It was unoccupied at the time; and the fire, which appears to have originated in the kitchen belonging to the hotel in front of the building, had acquired such a complete mastery over the inflammable materials constituting the stage and auditorium of the theatre, at the time it was discovered, that all the efforts of the firemen were ineffectual to do more than restrict the flames within the four walls of the edifice. This they were successful in doing and although some small shops in the market arcade were destroyed by the toppling down upon them of a portion of the eastern wall of the theatre, no further damage was done to any of the external property. All that remains of the Haymarket is its blackened shell. It was built by Mr Coppin, with capital partly raised by the issue of debentures, about nine years ago. Badly planned, and badly arranged, it was never popular. It enjoyed brief gleams of prosperity during the engagements of Mr Joseph Jefferson, Mr and Mrs Charles Kean, Lady Don, and Madame Celeste, as also during its occupation by an opera company ; hut of late years it had fallen into complete disrepute, and for some sime past had been tenanted by rats and spiders. “ The centipede along the threshold crept, The cobweb hung across in mazy tangle, And in its winding-sheet the maggot slept At every nook and angle,”

When it became a heap of ruins, therefore, nobody mourned, and nobody suffered to any great extent. The original debentureholders had long ago lost tbeir money, and had suffered the building to fall into the hands of the ground landlord. Only two fire policies were in force, amounting altogether to L2OOO ; and there lias seldom been so large a conflagration attended with so little disaster.