OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 4075, 18 March 1876, Page 1 (Supplement)

OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

February 28. The Oollingwood election is O'er, and ended in a great tiiiimph for the Mira ms party. Th-* Constitutionalists do not attempt to conceal the fact that they have had a severe beatin?. But it is by no mean's creditable to any of the party except Mr Look, the third “ Liberal” party. Seeing the tactics of the “Liberal'” leaders, their ferocious assaults on the persons of their opponents, and th*ir unscrupulous conduct toward their own ‘supporters, he withdrew before the poll was taken, exp-easing very plainly hia disgust at the whole affair. Gaunsod, the second “ Liberal,” was oomrl.tely thrown overheard by his party, and polled so few votes that he lost his LSO deposit. Thus the fight was wholly between Carter, the Constitutionalist, and Mir.uns, Secretary to the Protection League, and prottgt of Brrry, Longmore and Co. The Utter candidate strained every resource. His committee went even further, ahd his unavowed agents exceeded them all. Air Carter’s meetings were packed and Invken up. A band of rou hs, on. one occasion, destroyed th- seat’, and with the fragments att. m .ted the literal and phys cal destruction <>f the orde-ly i-art of the meet ng. o* : e giganfc ruffian struck Carter so severe a blow with the leg of a broken form tint that gentleman’s hat was crushed ; had it not been for the hat the skull beneath dt would have been crushed instead. Mr Mirams had the want of tact (for one cannot c.nsi-tently accuse such people of bad tas'e) to proclaim these facts at his own meeting, to justify them, to glorify thm, and to declare that “ Career only got just what he deserved.” And Mirams was el c'edby very nearly two vo'es *o one. Such be thy gods, O Democacy! Carter’s friends attempted several apologies for his defeat, but none touched the real ones Partly, no doubt, it was owing to Cart r’s being a publican and Chairman of the License 1 Victuallers’ Association. Many respectable • people, who would vote constitutionally, think we have already too much of the beer interest in polities. Something, perhaps, was owing to the candidate’s lateness in the field and consequent inability to canvass with sitisfactory minuteness; some thing too may be owing to the political apathy of the better class-to their dislike of mobs, offensive epithets, bad smells, and personal violence. But far above all these stands preeminent the fact that the mass of people in Oollingwood do deliberately prefer all these latter things, toge:her with, “protection,” mob rule, and wind-bags, rather than decency, order, and honesty. Recognising this fact there remains no more to be slid.

But the victory was rhorn of all its practical results by the passing of the Government financial proposals a mo-t in globo. The speed with which they went through when they did begin to move was the more n markible because of the contrast which their “ stonewalling” presented a month ago. The new Standing Order by which debates can be summarily closed has already been putin force, but by whom ? bot by the Government who passed it, but by the r opponents. With a seeming insanity that can only be acco-nte i for in one wsy, i he Opposition rctualy r- sorted to the “gag, as they christened it, in order to pss the Government measu ev I presume they are preparing to make [a Hideous cavil at the general elect'on over the wickedness of the House that usvd the “g'g” thus, deliberately suppressing that it was themselves who did it.

The doctors’ fight is not over yet. Hospital practice continues to furnish the Press with fresh mat'rial for commeut, and the o'd dispute is kept up by Beaney from a distance, for he, has'gone to Tasmania (I suppose to see the raced, and dates bis letteis thence.

The Kew Lunatic Asylum Board pursues its inquiries —with much no'ae and little result. Some statements have been made before it that looked at firrt as though gross cruelty could be proved against attendants as a habitual practice, but some features about them suggest that thev have their foundation much more in the malice of one set of warders against another than in truth. Bit membeis of Parliam-nk, with their untrained min is, their paudedn? to popular prejudice, and their tendency to jump at conclusions and stick to them, are not the right men to carry on an investigation of such a character.

Very different is the other inquiry—that into the conduct of K B. Smyth, the .-ecreiary for Mines. Public interest was before so inuch excited about a Civil Service matter. Since nty last not much additional evidence has been given, bicause the mail arriving so late gave only just time to answer letters f r return, consequently the Board adjourned for a week. Every witness, however, adds something to the vividness of the picture, and arouses ei her f esh mirth at the ab unities of Air Smyth, or fr sh sympathy with his victims. On more than one occasion, lam told, there was not a dry eye in the Board-mom," and rumor has it that. the effect produced in high quarters is that of great astonishment that the sleek, bland secretary 1 could" put on so Meet a face. Which proves'that some people in high places must be either very deaf or very ignorant of human ca'ue—perhaps a litt'e of both. The Intercolonial Cricket Match between Victoria and New S m'h Wales, , now, being played at Syduey, is exciting much attention. The ‘ Age’ has special telegraths sent oeca- •- ' ‘ '-' L - ; • V l ."''*' ’

sional’y throughout the day, and crow T s assemble in E izah th street, to hoar thejKwa.. Our men are being soundly be .ten. It is rath r amusing to hoar the comments on them, a wry remark bing, “I’m veiy glad th y are gettii g a< th. ashing— it was a one abed thing for to many ye>r* t ” a'nd a vary favorite subject of sp cu a.iou is how the team will f -el when they co.ue back. (ne sympathetic individual at a r.“ tourant went so ‘aras to propose that special arrangements should be ma le with the s earner’s agent* that the boat may a r rive in the n'ght, so as to spore our champions the discomfort of a Wayli ht entry. The o; ening of a telegraph c nnectlon be tween Sydney and Now Zetland has passed with woauenully little notice'here. A few years won d hj ve made talk for <he p o< yeibial nine days, bur. I ausp-ct our “ protective ” pol cy has protected away all our former trade with you. so the cable exd es proponionately little mtet est. A gr od story about Parliamentary amer ities is going round the town. In the lato di-pltys of g' on taste and “ iigant ” mann rs that the Lower House indulged in, with closed doors, Mr Li'lyvck ra’le I Mr Venus a pup.” Venut and his fr ends were of cours i ind : gnant, whereupon J Jilyvick capped ’he joke by go ng to the To*n Hall and r gistenng a young dog, b-«ck and tan, etc, e‘c., under ■.the. name of Venus. Are we m t highly civilis. d g.-ntlv-men ? And would nut an un brist anised Samoan or Mandan be su pri-ed at our gentlemanly behavio. ?

March 6.

After a long period of good luck the P. and 0. Company seem t« have c me to the turning of the lane. The double breakdown of last month’s steamer has been foil wed l>y a case of small-pox on b6ard this month’s One of the firemen is the vi-tim. If it be any consolation tO'him in h ; s mi«erv, he may delight hims If with ibe reflection that he is detaining ab'shop, a bright, an M L.C., squatters, attorneys, and other great t enple. 'J he company ate having the terms of their’contract with us criticised or the score of time • The Aust alia, sister Ship to the Zealandia, arrived on S >tutdvy morning direct from Ingland, via the Cape, beating the mail by one day, If she had come through the eand, the gain wqu’d of coarse be mil hj more, and so peop'e are asking why we cannot get our letters m thirty five days instead of fortyfive.

t Legislafoa i* stj.ll d layed though the financial scheme and the estimates are all but dwpo " d of. P***-s mal bitterness s'o m the way. Thn House, which usudy never warmed up ti l aler dinner, has, since the Berry catty were kicked out, risen to boiling point wit un ha'f an-hf-ur after the Speaker hast ik-n <be chair. Mr M'Kean, member for North Gipps Lmd, a constant disturber of order, hasbten prominent in that capacity to an unu-ual decree, and at last overs'epped the limits of endurance by a round Accutatn-n of favo-itisnd ag.iiii t the Chairman of Committees He was to be called to account formally by the Speaker, but left the H"us-s and is to attend in hie place ” on Tuesday text. With a perseverance worthy of a bttter cau e, the ecclesiastics fight »g-*unt education _ in their Lenten Pastorals all the h : gh functionaries attack our present system, and < f course systematically misr< pres nt the fa-ts of the case as wed at the motives of the educationists. With all their n< r-everance, however, there is a cons iousre-s that they will be beaten,'and a few da-e even to say so, fur wh : cb, of cour e, th y get roundly abu«edby their moi e bigoted fellows. Yeste day I heard an amusing instance of the way in which they “ecu e contributions. At the tiine when the co’lection is usual’y made, the worshippers n a Roman Oh >pel in one of the suburbs found that the clours were locked, and nobody could get out till the priest, satisfied that no more ca*h was ju t th n forthcoming, gave the word for his congregation to be releaseq. The Lunatic Asylum inquiry drtgs its slow length along —a. m’ess, - helpless as a decapitated s.iak-. Its slow progrtss gives time for a l sorts of underplots to be hatched, and each meeting is the scene where new nrnes are sprung by the one'faction under the feet of the other.

The Brough Smyth bo.\rd meet to-morrow, when the. la*t chapga wid he heard, viz., that of presenting to Parliament a false return of the c st of Smyth’s book— 4 The Goldfields of Vi«q-m.’ It is hoped that this wil be conclnflßin one day. An adjournment for a whuwiortnight is in isted upon by Smyth’s counsel—to the great disgust of the Board, who, bowev- r, feel bound to grant it, since it is put as essential to justice in the preparation of Smyth’s case. Popular feeling iscoitainly very bt'oug, and were the Boa-dV decision given just now no M h'sterial action short of' instant and contemptuous disniis'al would be taleia'ed

Ihe drought continues. About Fort Bourke the cal tie are *ai i-l’y dying, ard notwithstanding all the capital laid out «n dams, machinery, &c., to irrigate Ihe 44 back couhtry •’ and to store water there, it seems p‘o* able that very UHle stock of any sot.t will survive unless run fall within a day or two.