OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 4042, 9 February 1876, Page 3

OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

Melboueke, January 26, Her Majesty is once more represented here bv her trusty and well-beloved, 4c., Sir George Bowen, who arrived on the 18th, and things go on exactly as if he hadn’t. Mr Mason, member of the Lower House, has also returned to Melbourne. His trip has been neither so prolonged nor so pleasant as Sir George's. In fact, he has only been as far as Gipps Land, and his object was, in plain language, to get whitewashed. He, as your readers may perha s remember, was the man who betted, and then thought better of it, and got thought worse of in consequence. He did get a vote of confidence from a meeting; but was not always so fortunate, and of bis gatherings pronounced very decidedly against mm. There is a rumor (but I will not vouch for its truth) that one of Mr Mason’s fellowleg'plators has also just returned from a trip of quite a different nature. So black had his hair and whiskers suddenly become, that in direct contra fiction to his name he was voted a regular vu'cahite. All at once he disappeared. So did a young lady at the same instant. The next appearance was that of a marriage notice which expla'ned the simultaneosity and helped to soothe the feelings of the young lady’s papa, who was described to me as raging, threatening, and calling incessantly for a revolver that he might be revenged on the vulcanite. However,, the vulcanite returned undaunted, and nothing has been heard of the revolver. | ,' The Yan Yean uproar subsided mildly, A Sublic- meefing sent a deputation with an inignant protest to the Minister of Public “Works, who was majestic and immovable. He would not withdraw his ukase, but he explained away part of it, and has not put any of it in force, so we sleep in peace. Some of his explanations were rather comical. For in>tanee, it had ben ordained that every bath must be fitted with a waste indicating pipe, and houseowners were annoyed at the prospect of so much additional expanse, on which no interest could be obtained. But Mr Jones graciously relieved them byexpla-’ning that a “waste indicating pip®” was a pipe which did not ind cate, but was ind : cated, and at last it was discovered that it really meant a pipe with an end to it, and that you could see the end I If only as much ingenuity were displayed by the Works Department in engineering as m philology, what a lucky peop e we Victorians should be !

The state of politics is a disgrace to us. The Ministry ask for supplies, and the Oppe sition nae the forms of the House to prevt-nt their getting them. Betry and his fellow-conspira-tors insist on a dissolution, and attempt to throw the blame if “no supply” on the Government by the childish cry, “ Promise a dissolution and we will grant supply at once Sir James M'Culloch replies that such an attempt of the > minority to coerce the majority is a direct violation of the Constitution. The strangest pleas are set up to rebut that accusation—chiefly that “the country ”is on the side of the minoity. The u ml Tory policy is ardently worked : sham meetings are got np, at which Berry and h's fellows are the speakers; they move and second resolutions in seditious harangues, and the resolutions so brought into exis.ence are ordered to be “ presented to the Opposition.” To give the greater effect to this “making of evidence,” as lawyers stigmatise it, a new indecency baa been invented. When the Hons° adjourns for dion.-r, a caucus is held in one of the lobbies. The Protectionist tools are there with the “resolutions”; the unhappy.newspaper reporters are swindled out of their runners to attend this ‘‘important dem nitration,” and Berry’s own “resolution” is solemnly presented to Berry with half-a-dozen speeches ; Berry replies in an appropriate tone; and after an effervescence of sedition under Mr Speaker’s, very nose (so to speak). Berry goes back to boast of the “influential deputation,” and so on, and so on, ad nauseam. Perhaps the mos,t disgraceful affa'r that has occurred for years arose out of the “stonewalling,” when one evening Mr Ldor, lately Chairman of Committees, and therefore well acquainted with the rules of the House and the proprieties to be observed by its m’tubers, picked out a very diminutive member—Mr Thomas—for personal insult (Mr Lalot is a very big, heavy man). In tne r freshmentroom he chose to crush Mr Thomas’s hat over his eyes, The little man rushed off at once shouting that he would fe! ch a revolver. However, he had the good stnse not to do that but to lay the matter before the Speaker, who, with much greater good sense and firmness than bis predecessor, ruled that the refresh-ment-rooms wtie within the precincts of the House (reversing an old ruling of Sir Francis MurphyV) and gave Mr, Lalor a severe reprimand, whereupon the latter apologised, And Mr i homos was satisfied.

As tc the future procaedings, nobody seems able even to guess what they will be. 'Sir James gives solemn warnings that he is able to knock down the “ stone wall,” and that it will bury its engineers under its in ns. But how this mo..t desirable end is to be accomplished he does not even hint He says he can get supplicant the proper time, even in spite of the Opposition. Of coarse the instant retort is, Ihen why don’t you ? Cease to revile us for obstruct ng payment of the public creditors; if you have the^means in your hand to get money to pay them it is not we, it is yourselves, who ®re to blame if they remain unpaid.” The Ministerial rejoinder is that so g.ave a matter must not be hurried —that it is not desirable that the Opposition should bo hasti y dealt with, lest they raise a martyr cry j and that it is desired to give them a locus penitmtke. The Opposition .are evidently uneasy under this, and try to prevent people from goring it by loud protestations that Sir James’s threats are empty wind. The most jrobable opinion seems to be that Sir James is gaining time for despatches to be received from head quarters. . Very little reliance can be placed on conventions as an expression of genuine public sentiment Nevertheless for as much as it is worth the decision of the Maryborough mock parliament may be mentioned. It was in total opposition to the stonewall.

De Murska is giving a few concerts, s’nging superbly and in Irgh favor. You in New Zealand will have a treat when she arrives on yoxu* short B,

Om* University gets into trouble a f ter t* oublo. Since Profes- or Irving left it nothing svems to go right. The calendar is a ways behind Jliand -one year it was omitted altogether, and no reason was ever given for it. The registrar and his assistants work very ha d and strive by every means in their power to get the business done. But inasmuch as they do not fix the books and have no power to compel the professors to do so in a reasonable time their effort* are «ll but thrown away. The truth is that the Pi of eternal Board is a stumb'ing block. It has neutralised every effort to extend tbe University’s usefulness and beiag ii responsible and out of s'ght there is rrat much Lope of amending it. The last speci min of bunging has been brought to light by the recent dittculty at the hospital. The Managing Committee of the latter institution declines to recognise the Melbourne M.B, degree as a surgical qualification, though the course include* more surgery th m most surgloal courses elsewhere. A petition is now eing got up by members of the Univeis'ty t > have this anomaly removed by proper leg station.

..In mercantile circles there is deep dissatisfaction with the new tariff for sea telegrams. The apparent reduction of charges is nure than neutralised by the provision that ten letters only shall be allowed to a w< rd, while the iniquitous system of charging customers for the rectification of operators’ mistakes arouses something moie than dhsatsf action. There 8 -U- bs little doubt that the Company are a'ming at a total destruction of all the private codes now so largely used, ostrich -like mind to the fact that it is only such codes that secure any telegraphing at all; And, after all, merchants

will be quicker to devbre cheap modes of expressing them»dlves than Compan’ei to devise modes of interfering with their ciutomsis, so that vexation < regalafionsonly arouse a f eling of revenge which the Companies will bitterly ue baling called forth, in that day when injured customers aie mad i the arb.fators is to the price to be paid for the lows, And such regulations do besides hasten the coming of that day. For some fine pait there have been iinconv brtable storici abo.it r.dating to the treatment of pathnts in the Lunatic Asylum. So long as these ■ ould be faced to discharged servants, no attention was paid to them ; bat lately some cases of death revealed on the inqu a l .a facts that corroborated the report?. The Ministry have therefore icsolvcd on mi inquiry into the discharg d servants’ tabs, the particular ca-'cs referred to, and the general management of the institution.

“Rejoice with me,’' said the woman in the parab’e to her neighbors, ‘‘for I have found my piece which I had lost.” So may Victoria cry to her sister Colonies under even mere prop tious ciccumitances. Mr Higinbotham has resigned ! I like to keep a piece of good news to fini-li up a letter with, and I cannot conceive of a, better than this. Excellent as he is in all private relations, Mr H ; ginbo ham was merely an intolerable nuisance in the House, and everybody ho es he will never come back. His reasons are, he says, that he cannot agrev either with the Government or the Opposition, and so washes his hands of both. The real loss is to the latter, and Mr Berry must feel unexpectedly and terribly weakened by it It is said that Mr Higinbotham, Mr Service, and Mr Casey are the real instigator* of the “ stono-Wdll policy ” —making tools of the protectionist faction—who can never return to office, and that on getting rid of the present Ministry the int-nliou is to form one on a new basis, to attract mercant le support to Mr Service by a free trade policy, and Roman Catholic ditta to Mr Casey—the real basis of the who’e being a deternrnation either to overthrow the Education Act. or to get concurrent endowment for Romanist schools. This sounds very w.ld, but there is an ominous aspect about the Ca ey-cum-Service coalition—even about their silence—that makes extreme measures look lik*ly, Whatever the plot may have been Mr Higinbotham’s defec ion will do as much damage to it as to the regular Opposition.