THE ELECTIONS IN VICTORIA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 27, 1 February 1871, Page 2

THE ELECTIONS IN VICTORIA.

o — < — The first general election in Victoria, since it was decided that members of Parliament should be paid £300 a year, is now taking place, and, for the 78 seats in the Legislative Assembly, there are between three and four hundred candidates. The Argus warns the electors against allowing themselves to be led away by specious schencers, and gives them the following sensible advice :— " The whole country may be looked upon as an estate owned by a joint-stock association, io which each of us holds a share, and the general management of which' we entrust to a committee called a Parliament, which nominates from its own body a body of directors, entitled a Cabinet. In the choice of our committee, therefore, we should exhibit the same deliberate" reflection,! forethought, and discrimination which ' we should employ if we were a mercantile company. In such a case, every shareholder's vote would be cast for those candidates, who were in high repute on account of their capacity, integrity of character, and prudence, and of their zeal in the performance of whatever -duties they undertook ; and if a man had been skilful and successful in the conduct of his own affairs, and had commanded the respect and esteem of his neighbors, these would be regarded as additional recommendations ia his favor. Many such men there must be in this colony who have had an opportunity of signalising their aptitude for public life, aud of conciliating the good opinion of their fellow-citizens, while serving the public as presidents or members of shire councils, road boards, or municipal councils. The satisfactory discharge of these functions is a very good proposition for the fulfilment of legislative duties. We want men of business habits, men conversant with the wants of the country, men more capable of forming solid judgment sthan of indulging in vapid and superficial talk, and men who will prefer loyalty to their party to a servile obedience to an arbitrary chief. * * * The electors must remember that they have not only to ensure wise legislation and honest government for the time to I come, but to retrieve the errors and follies of the past." Pigeon Post to Paris. — The winds have this month favored the balloons from Paris, though several have been captured, shot, and hunted down. The attempts to convey news into the belea« guredcity have not been so successful; but an endeavor has been made to organise a system of communication by means of pigeons. These birds are first trained in Paris, taken short distances from home, and then allowed to return j and when sufficiently matured have been carried in balloons beyond the lines, and conveyed to Tours and other pieces to await their turn for use as messengers. It is estimated that the jouney from Tours, which is 330 miles, should occupy a little over eight hours. The art of photography has also been pressed into the service, so that a long message can be condensed into microscopic space ; and has many as 3500 despatches each consisting of 20 words, or in all 70,000 words can be easily carried^ by a single pigeon. Accordingly, the Director-General of the French Post-office has given notice to our Postmaster-Ge-neral that, under certain conditions, letters may be forwarded via Tours to Paris at a charge of sd. for every word, ia addition to the ordinary postal charge for a letter to France. The letter must be without cover or seal, and duly registered ; it must I not consist of more than 20 words, including the address and name of the sender; and ; at must relate entirely to! private affairs ; or a message may be telegraphed to Tours, and then sent on. In. either caserne microscopic system is brought into use, the message or, letter is carefully rolled up, and then securely, fastened to the, centre, feather of the. pigeon's tail,-' which Remains stationarj^vnen -the wings are spread' for flighty* Other feathers are stamped withthe-ptace of departure^ num- ' her 6f,the;,'^biifaj.:..and like, matters, qf interest^ i. To' hinder: this irigehiou's' scheme th| Germanß?have^brought a nutn> "• ;berVqf hawks Jnto the ; environs of Paris, in the hope that ; tfiey : may " pounce upon 1 ; from tfcis - cause forces Kisjmore' probJable, ftom others, ; Je&^seii t:^^^|^|b))nß|; '•^e'a'th|r^

already 226 private despatches bad been received. It is no uncommon thing now to receive cards and letters from Paris by the bajloon prsts, but the complete" severance of the city from the outer world has to the inhabitants been one of the most oppressive consequences of the siege— the sending letters into the air and receiving no answer creating a feeling say some, as though they were written to the dead. A letter from Paris in the Pall Mall Gazette says : — i( It is strange and painful to see groups of well-dressed women looking in at the windows of pork butchers and tripe shops with the same eager curiosity with which they used to gaze at ribbons and bonnets.*' House propr itors of Paris have been deprived of their power to sue for rents,, consequently a family needs but little ready money to subsist on from hand to mouth. A correspondent writes : — *• My landlord every week presents me with my bill. The ceremony seems to please hinjM and does me no harm. I have place 'Bj upon my mantel-piece the decree of the Government adjourning payment of rent, and?the right to read, and re-read this document is all that he will get from me until the end of the siege." Postal Cards. — The halfpenny postal card — an idea borrdwed from Germanyhas recently come largely into use iato England. They are of very thin creamcolored card- board, the size Of an ordinary letter, and impressed on one side with a stamp and border in violet-colored ink. The address must be written on the stamped side, the sender being at liberty to make what use he pleases of the reverse side. Victoria thinks of adopting both systems — at leasfc the Age says the Postmaster-General has expressed himself favorable to their introduction there. The use of the cards in England has been extraordinary. On the day they came into use in London no less than 80,000 passed through the metropolitan offices alone ; and in one week between two and three million cards were posted in London. In Liverpool 240,000 were distributed in one day ; and similar accounts of enormous sales come from other parts of the Kingdom. A Chicago paper contains the following record of a single day's doings in that city :— Confession of embezzlement by two responsible cashiers. Attempt to burn down a house full of people. Escape of prisoners from a police station. A police sergeant accused of various misdemeanors. Burglary at the Opera House. Arrest of a woman- counterfeiter and a railway swindler. A riot. A man garotted. Twenty thousand men out of employment. Country laborers out of work crowding the city. Disastrous consequences to industry and public order.