OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4530, 27 September 1875, Page 5

OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

(from ouk own correspondent.) September 16. A mixed entertainment is going on at the Apollo Hall (late Haymarket Theatre), in which Herr Tolmaque, the conjuror, is the chief attraction, assisted by Miss Isabella Carandini and Mr. G. Cotterell in music, and in a drawing-room entertainment, entitled, " Quiz ; or, Faces and Fancies." The " Spelling Bee," an American institution, has lately been acclimatised amongst us, and for a time became a perfect rage, but the interest in the amusement is now gradually dying out, and is only tolerated at present in connection with amateur concerts, .oratorical displays," and the hundred other ways for raising money for benevolent purposes. The Intercolonial Exhibition is, of course, the great attraction in Melbourne at present, I and the attendance of visitors averages absut 4000 daily. It is a matter of very great regret that New Zealand did not avail herself of the opportunity of displaying her natural productions and the results of her industries. In mineral wealth you have a reputation, as well as in cereals, flax, timber, &c, that is surely worth maintaining and expanding at so small a sacrifice as the cost of sending exhibits to Melbourne. However, we must suppose that every colony knows its own interests best, but in Melbourne we have inhaled a good deal of that Yankee spirit which loves advertising and living in the broad light of day, and which makes us believe " our produce can't be licked nohow, sir !"

By the way, it may interest you to know thot Messrs. Sharp and Sons, of Malvern, gained the fourth prize at our Intercolonial Exhibition, for samples of New Zealand ropes, cordage, lines, and flax. I have not ascertained from what part of New Zealand the exhibits were obtained.

You will shortly have the opportunity of seeing the Ringarooma s.s., which is the latest addition to Messrs. McMeckan, Blackwood, and Co.'s line of steamers. The Ringarooma made the passage from England to Hobson's Bay in the remarkably short period of fortyseven days, and this was done, it is stated, at a speed never exceeding three-quarters. Yesterday, after having been docked, cleaned, &c, she made a trial trip down the bay with a full company of guests, including the leading merchants and citizens of Melbourne; and although her screw propeller was at least eighteen inches out of the water during the voyage, owing to an insafficiency of ballast, she accomplished the trial at a uniform speed of fourteen knots an hour. Captain John McLean, who is well known both in Melbourne and New Zealand, ,has been appointed to the command of the vessel. The Ringarooma is fitted up with the latest improvements for the comfort of passengers ; and also in her machinery, the absence of all vibration having been attained. She is pronounced to be the fleetest steamer of her size which has ever entered our waters. At the close of the trip, Captain McLean's health was enthusiastically drunk, and the company returned to town much pleased with their excursion. ' •

In trade there is an upward tendency in feeding grains, and a large parcel of New Zealand oats was sold under the hammer at 3s. lljd. Flour is rising Blowly, and is now quoted at £ll to £ll 10s. Wheat is very scarce at ss. Bd., including bags. u I have reopened my letter to send you some important items of information which have just developed themselves. Rumor has it that the Opposition has agreed upon a plan ol attack on Mr. Berry's Administration, a caucus meeting having been held, at which heads were counted, when it w s ascertained that the Opposition had a strong majority. I have ■little doubt that in my next budget you will hear of the downfall of the Graham-Berry Ministry.

Sir Eedmond Barry, Acting Chief Justice, has applied for a year's leave of absence, with a view to attending at the Philadelphia Exhibition as Commissioner for Victoria. The application, it is said, will be willingly granted. Should this occur before the fall of the present Ministry, Mr. Trench, the present AttorneyGeneral, will be raised to ■ the Supreme Court Bench.

September 17. The postponement of the sailing of the Albion enables me to add a few items to the intelligence posted yesterday. Yesterday evening Sir James McCulloch moved a resolution in the Legislative Assembly, condemning the financial scheme of the Government as being unreliable. There is little doubt as to the result of the motion, and the consequent retirement of the Graham Bery Cabinet.' Sir James McCulloch is said to be prepared with a new Ministry already, and it is averred with some show of truth that Mr. Kerferd and the late Ministry will be left out in the cold. If this be so, and if, as is reported, G. P. Smith is to form an element of the. Ministry, no long tenure of office can be predicted for the projected team. A dissolution seems the only course now open in order to weld parties together. You will remember that a few weeks ago I related an extraordinary robbery of £2128 from the Bank of Victoria. Yesterday the robber was discovered and arrested, and £I6OO was found in his possession. It appears that two exchange clerks were employed by the Bank of Victoria at the munificent (?) salary of £1 per week. They were both mere boys, under eighteen years of age, and belonging to highly respectable families. There names were Griffiths and Ghin. On a morning not long ago they left the Bank of Victoria, with about £17,000 in notes of other banks for exchange. After delivering a number of the packages at various banks, they called at the Commercial Bank, and there discovered that several packages were misßing. They immediately retraced their steps to the Bank of Victoria and reported the loss to the manager. After some inquiry, the services of the detectives were called in, who, in overhauling the accounts of the receiving teller, Sawyers, discovered that he had appropriated on the 26th and 27th August, sums of money amounting to £I4OO, altogether independent of the £2128. Sawyers was at once arrested, confessed his guilt, and was committed for trial. Meanwhile no trace

coidd be discovered of tho stolen notes, and the bank offered a reward of '£4oo, whilst the Government offered a free pardon to any accomplice who would give information. Nothing in the way of discovery resulted from tliese offers. Meanwhile Sawyers was tried at the General Sessions, and pleaded guilty, but solemnly averred.that he knew nothing whatever of the abstraction of the £2128.

Yesterday it appears that Ghin's sister discovered in the pocket of her brother, during his absence from home, a £IOO note. Feeling that he could not have come honestly by this money, she acquainted her father with tho circumstance, who taxed the youth with the robbery, which ho at once confoßsed. On searching his boxes £ISOO was found, and in his pocketbook £7O more. Ghin, sen., who seems to have a touch of Brutua in his composition, or a strain of Spartan blood in his veins, at once gave his son into custody, leaving him

in the watch-house to reflect on the vicissitudes of life. It then transpired that the young scapegrace had bought a horse for £ls, which he was keeping at livery, a breech-load-ing gun and accoutrements for about £2O, and revolvers for £lO. Young Ghin displayed the most consummate cooluess over the affair, confessing everything, and stating that he had long contemplated the robbery. That whilst Griffiths' head was turned from the bag for an instant, he stole the notes, and transferred them te his private bag, which he left with a friend whilst the two were on their rounds. It is said that others are implicated in the robbery, and one or two more arrests in connection with the matter will be made during the day. The wine show is a grand one, a kind of protest against the sentence of Dr. Thuddieum, pronounced at the Vienna Exposition, in which that notorious savant, condemned all the Victorian vintages submitted to him, and reported laconically of the wine of Mr. Francis, late Chief Secretary, "It stinks." Of other samples, he wrote, " A mistake ; not wine at all ; only vinegar of bad quality," &c, &c. Of course, Victoria put on her frills at these criticisms, and a wordy war ensued, in the course of which it was shown that Thuddieum had a down on our wine, and that the samples sent to him for analysis had been standing in the sun, and had undergone any amount of shaking and change of temperature during their journeymsjs in Europe to reach the Vienna Exposition. Some of the blame fastened itself on .the secretary, Mr. G. O. Levy, for allowing such wine to fall into hostile hands.

Reliable news, has reached Melbourne that the Magdala Company, working at Pleasant Creek, have, after sinking to a depth of over 1800 ft. during the last six years, at last struck a large and good-looking reef. Small gold has been already seen in it, but the question as to its payable character or otherwise cannot be determined for some days. In the mean time the discovery explodes the, theory that reefs cannot be found at great depths, or that wedgelike, they run out at a given distance from the surface. This discovery, together with the raising of several enormous nuggets at Creswick and other places, has added an impetus to the tide which had already set in again in favor of mining enterprise. One of the nuggets unearthed weighed nearly 4000z5., a cast of which has been taken by the Government, and a model of the litil-3 stranger is shortly to adorn the exhibition, which is so ill represented in the department of gold production at present.