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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4250, 3 November 1874, Page 2

The Free-trade Party in Victoria seem at last to have plucked up heart of grace. For a long time past they have been without any organisation, and—deserted by Mr. Langton, when he consented to join a Protectionist Ministry for the sake of office—they wore without a head. Hope was entertained that when Mr. Service obtained a seat in the House a leader had been found ; but he, too, deserted those who had looked to him as their head, to join a coalition Cabinet of very modest pretensions, as their Treasurer. The passage of the last. Tariff Bill, however, and the defection of their leaders in debate, appears to have aroused a new spirit in the Free-trade Party. The latest advices to hand are to the effect that the party —so far as Parliament is concerned —has been ro-organised. The basis is said to be the reduction of the twenty per cent, duties to a maximum of ten per cent.; and the protectionist organs argue that “ the success of such a policy would be a death-blow” to many of the manufactories that are now struggling for an existence under a policy of high duties. Sir James McCulloch will head the new party in the House of Assembly.