OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4500, 23 August 1875, Page 3

OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

(euom otm ows coKUESPONnENr.) Melbourne, August 10,

Whatever complaints may have been justifiable hitherto as to the want of animation or public interest in political affairs, they can no longer be made. The attention of the whole colony and the voice of the entire Press is aroused by the remarkable crisis which has taken place, followed by the construction of a new and purely protectionist administration, the personnel of which reflects no credit either on Parliament or the constituencies that are responsible for the election of political tagrag and bobtail. Some time since you were advised of the violent fiscal changes which the Kerferd Ministry submitted to tho Assembly. There was really nothing new in them, and nothing that had not been discussed and anticipated by the Press for weeks, if not months, before the opening of Parliament. When therefore Mr. Service, the Treasurer, unfolded his scheme in his Budget speech, there was not a solitary note of opposition to it in a single organ of public opinion, and Ministers must have indulged in a considerable amount of mutual congratulation on the favor with which their proposals were received. An erratic effort was made by Mr. Graham Berry to overthrow the Ministry by a direct vote of want of confidence ; but as his action had been taken without consulting the froetrade party, which formed part of the Opposition, and as this party was unwilling to play into the hands of the protectionists, it failed, and the Ministry, in a thin House, scored a victory with a majority of ten. After this event the Age, which has a larger circulation than any other journal in Victoria, and is essentially the organ of the liberal party, tho protectionists, and the laboring classes, commenced to change its note, and to attack in detail the Budget it had as a whole approved. Prom mild attack it rapidly assumed a bold defiant tone, cautioned the Ministry, and predicted their inevitable extinction unless they gave way on certain details, one of which was the imposition of a duty on jute goods which was demanded by the protectionists. Mr. displayed a suicidal obstinacy in regard to this demand, for which ho is remarkable as a politician, persevered in denouncing the policy of protection, and received the support of the Argus for his behavior ; but that support, added to his own unwise remarks, seconded by the Solicitor-Ge-neral, who expressed a desire to ace protection doctrines buried, and to assist at the funeral obsequies, cost the Government its existence, and plunged tho country into a crisis from which it cannot emerge for some time to come. No one for a moment believes in tho stability of the present Cabinet, and no quarter will be given them on meeting Parliament. But to pursue the narrative of events. Mr. Service proposed to increase the duty on spirits from 10s. to 12s. per gallon, and avowed that the Government would accept tho decision on that proposal as conclusive of their ability to carry their financial scheme. A wearisome debate ensued, iu which vulgarity and recrimination were prominent features, the coarsest of the disturbers being Mr. G. P. Smith, who once afflicted the colony with his presence as Attorney-General. The debate, by a species of dodgery, and by using the iorms of the House, was spun out long after everyone knew how members would vote, and ended iu the virtual defeat of the Kerferd Administration, who secured thirty-seven votes against thirty-six

scored by. the Opposition. From this moment it became manifest that the Ministry could not continue to press their financial scheme, and that certain defeat lay before them. Under these circumstances the Premier took time to consider the position, and finally resolved to advise the Acting-Governor to dissolve the House, and to appeal to the country. An exhaustive minute was submitted by the Cabinet to his Excellency on the subject, and almost all the public journals of any weight concurred in the desirability of an appeal to the country. The Age was the great notable exception, and not only condemned a dissolution as being unneccessary and unconstitutional, but asserted that there was nothing left to the feeble Kerferd Cabinet but a graceful resignation. Tlie Acting-Governor, in a masterly and judicial reply to the Cabinet, refused to accept the advice tendered him, and the Ministry at once resigned. His Excellency then sent for Mr. Graham Berry, and entrusted that gentleman with the formation of a new Cabinet, in which ho experienced no difficulty whatever, although he has failed to secure a single man of mark in his team. It is not too much to say that there never has been in Victoria so weak and extraordinary a combination of political nobodics as Mr. Berry has contrived to collect. When the names were first announces! the list was looked upon as a practical joke, but. when the truth dawned people did not well know whether to laugh or grow indignant. The Age gave the new Ministry an enthusiastic support, whilst all other journals have either condemned it or assailed it, like the Argus, with a bitterness of vituperation it hardly merits, and which is sure to produce a reactien in the national mind.

The new Ministry is as follows : —Chief Secretary and Treasurer, Mr. Graham Berry ; Commissioner of Customs, Mr. Lalor ; Minister of Mines, Mr. W. 0. Smith; President of Lauds and Works, Mr. Longmore ; Minister of Education, Mr. Muuro ; Minister of Railways, Mr. Woods ; Commissioner of Public Works, Mr. Patterson ; Mr. R. Be Poer Trench is Attorney-General, without a seat in Parliament; and Mr. Grant is Minister of Justice. Now-, if we look through these names we are at a loss to discover on what possible public grounds they can be permitted to figure as Crown Ministers. Mr. Graham Berry labors under a public scandal of a serious nature. . When last in office he was accused in Parliament of having given an appointment to a man with whose daughter he had carried on an improper intimacy. A Parliamentary inquiry was instituted, which resulted in showing- that Mr. G. Berry had not been actuated by improper motives in making the appointment, although the relations between himself and the girl were not denied. Mr. W. C. Smith has obtained an unenviable notoriety as a “ land-shark,” the meaning of which is well known in Victoria by those, who have been preyed upon by this genus. Mr. Woods is a dismissed Government servant, remarkable for admitting that he resorted to the artifice of concealing cracks in the reservoir water-pipes with a tar-brush, when under examination; and the Argus denounces Mr. Grant as a confirmed dipsomaniac. Neither Mr. Munro nor Mr. Patterson is known to public life, and each has his spurs to win before he can merit the confidence of Parliament or the country.

Respecting Mr. Trench, it is stated on the best authority that, for grave reasons which must ever be regretted, he is precluded from taking a seat in Parliament ; and therefore, however useful in a professional sense to the Government, he is a numerical loss to them in the House, and an element of weakness. In spite of rumors to the contrary which are industriously circulated, I do not believe that opposition will be offered to the return of the new Ministers. They will be allowed to meet Parliament and exhibit their policy, which, if sound, will gain them a number of vacillators, but if not in accord with a large portion of Mr. Service’s Budget, will assuredly lead to their speedy evacuation of the Treasury benches. Sir James McCulloch is credited with having a Ministry already formed to replace the present Cabinet on the reassembling of Parliament, and there is a semblance of truth in this allegation, since it is known that two, if not three, members of Parliament to whom Mr. Berry applied in the formation of his Cabinet refused to join unless Sir James also entered as chief. Next Monday is the day announced on which Mr, Berry is to meet his constituents and disclose so much of the Government policy as may have yet been agreed upon. Being myself a staunch uncompromising freetrader, I cannot but view the accession to power of a purely protectionist Ministry as an excellent matter for Parliament and a great gain to the freetraders. Hitherto, at least for two years, party Government has been set at naught, and freetraders and protectionists sat cheek by jowl, either supporting or opposing a coalition Ministry. Now, there must be a plain, unmistakeable line of demarcation between the contending parties, and ultimately the country must pronounce definitely in favor of one or the other. If the country has returned to the possession of its senses after the delirium of the protectionists craze, all will go well, and we may count on a return to some measure of that commercial prosperity we formerly enjoyed ; if not, then protection will gain sufficient rope to hang itself, and work its own cure through the rough and hard lessons of experience.