CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 135, 9 June 1877, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

VICTORIAN POLITICS. < To the Editor op the 'Eveneskj Mail.' Sib, — For ;aome weeks past your paper as well as those of your contemporaries bave abounded in extracts andi satirising or abusing tbe "personnel of the new Parliament and 'Ministry reoentiy elected in Victoria. Satire and abuse are both. needful and: useful in political warfare, but as the extracts are all one-sided, tbey are* likely to mislead and prove mischiev-; ona. Indeed the Daily Times founded • <& leader on the subject on the 31st of May, introducing Lord Macaulay's opinion thirty-five years ago against, universal suffrage, Now the recent election in Victoria turned on two points, Free Trade versus Protection, ' andl the representatives chosen, , if " ignorant," " Incapable," and \{ bad characters,'' &c., &c, as represented io 'your extract from the Otago Daily "JVntwin Wednesday's Mail represent v 6ne or other of those principles. For years tha.vfigbt has been going on and increasing in bitterness, and the present state of things waa long since foretold .by far-seeing men. Five years ago the M'Culloct- Ministry brought in a moderate property tax, but the squatting and banking interest combined with the Berry Opposition and threw it oat. At she same time "Dummyism" was rampant all over the colony. Every session attempts by amended Land .Bills* were made to check it, but Still the squatters continued to increase their vast territories. Squatters holding fifty or sixty square miles of land "only employed ten or fifteen hands, and paid but little more tax to the State than a couple of workmen with large families, while their revenue was thirty or forty thousand pounds per annum. Large fortunes were annually remitted to absentees from their estates, still no concession was made. The squatting in<j banking interest stood firm.. Last session the Berry party proposed what is called the "bursting up" policy— Anglice an agrarian law. The squatters became alarmed, and Sir James M'Cullooh put forward a counter pro-posal—-a property tax, income tax, stamp tax, &c. , &c— but it is too late. That the prospect is almost revolution' ary is true, but it must not be laid to Universal suffrage as the Otago Daily Times does, for without universal eutfrage there would have been a revolution before now. The ballot-box is a safety-valve. As to the rejection of Mr Langton and Mr Murray Smith— they are both strong free-traders, and by their creed (free trade) they must atond or fall. As Mr Murray Smith waß candidate for the aristocratic suburb of St Kilda, I do not suppose he had a very ignorant opponent* neither had Mr Langton for West Melbourne. It is a question if Dr Heame, with all his learning, would be an acquisition to apy representative assembly, as bas a craze about politics— minorities ruling to wit; and I think I saw some very queer election speeches of Professor Pearson's some weeks since, but I do . not know him. In con. elusion allow me to remind your readers there is an inevitable Nemesis in human affairs — the monieet- classes in England and the colonies have got the laws so made tbat they can acquire almost any quantity of land they like, and without any condition of occupation pr improvement. The spirit of the age is opposed to this, and some day what haa been obtained by fraud will be reclaimed by violence. But iv the meantime the greater part of the community suffer. The colony stands still because the available land is locked up, and not put to its proper use, and thousands of willing men are idle because the capitalist has possession where he ought not. I am, &c, Traveller. P.S. — As to the " literary garbage supplied to filthy and obscene Melbourne prints," I think that partisanship has justified a deviation trom the truth ; " filthy and obscene " prints have certainly not existed in Melbourne for years. There were none such in existence two years ago, and a pretty constant correspondence with friends on the press would certainly have informed me bad any such come into existence lately. It is political rancour tbat has so designated some opposition paper I fear.