The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JANUARY 14,1878.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 12, 14 January 1878, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JANUARY 14,1878.

A dead act i 3 being made at the Upper House of the Victorian Parliament by the present Premier, Mr Berry, and his colleagues, the casus belli being the question of payment of members./ This system was authorised by ah' Act passed some three! or four years ago, which was only to be in existence for a limited period thatMaas how expired, and consequently a new Act had to be passed, or, like other items. of ordinary expenditure, the. sum required would have; to be placed on the Estimates. Knowing that a Bill intro-, duced for the purpose would be rejected by the Council Mr Berry placed the aum on the Appropriation Act. This being aanoney Bill the Council had not. .the power, to amend or alter it in any way, but. they, were compelled to pass it as sent up, to. thenx.or to throw.it out altogether, and so. much, importance did they attach to the principle inrolved in the payment of members that they did not hesitate to adopt the latter alternative, and the Bill was rejected without a single roice calling even for a division. Th» consequence is that- there are no ; funds available for the payment of the officers of the Government. and,they are being dismissed in.) a wholesale manner, overiour hundred, including Judges of the County Courts, Police Magistrates, and Civil Engineers, having been informed that their services were dispensed with/while, as our telegrams tell us,, the whole of the Civil servants are living in a state of suspense, not knowing when their turn may come. Of jcourse the object Mr Berry has in view- in acting in this manner is to render the Coun;cil unpopular, but it is quite powible that he may have gone a little too far, and may yet ihave reason to regret having taken a step so s revolutionary as, th« stoppage of the machinery | of Government. On the other hand it must be supposed that the Council knew full well : what they were about in" throwing out the Appropriation Bill,' and that they are prepared to justify their resorting to so extreme a measure. So far as we. can ascertain their reason was that the payment of members was not popular with the country, and that they were anxious to bring about a dissolution, feeling sure that an appeal to the country would result .in ; a condemnation of the ; system., How it is all to end it is not easy to •foresee. It is not, however, so difficult to i imagine the confusion, the inconveuionce, ; and even the misery that must be occasioned ; m Melbourne, where there are hundreds of j officers, many of them no doubt with wives ; and. families, of a sudden, and without, the ! slightest warning, deprived of the mean's of | earning, their daily bread. Add to this the • stoppage of the wheels of Government,' no Police Magistrates, no fudges of the lower ■ Courts, no Eugine'ers— - every dep artment ; indeed in the wildest 'confusion, and some idea may be formed of the result of this \ political quarrel. [Since the above wan in I type we have received a very clumsily worded , i telegram, the purport, of which appear*, to be that there is to be a disiolution'of the ; Assembly, and that a Bill for the reform of , ; the Council it to be the first measure sub- < : mitted^ to. the Parliament. There is a con- ! I fusion of dates which renders the menage almost unintelligible, and we do not profess ! ,to understand it very clearly.] ... !