LETTER FROM VICTORIA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5491, 1 November 1878, Page 3

LETTER FROM VICTORIA.

(from a correspondent.) The cause of liberty is being pushed bravely on. Our Legislative Council, not content with introducing the political guillotine, the rack, and the thumb-screw, have in years gone by stood by the pastoral interest, and even carried their stiff-necked obstruction to the point of insisting on the absurdity that wool and mutton are of some importance to the Victorian community, and that men who have spent the best of their lives in the solitude of the pioneer "runs” rbughing it through droughts and scabs, should not now be heavily taxed because a large population has spread throughout the country and given them at last a magnificent market. The holding of such preposterous doctrines as these has brought the right-thinking elector to the state of mind which displayed itself at the general election of the 11th May, 1877. The pastoral interest was made the subject of special taxation, whi'st all other forms of realised wealth went free. Having compelled our Upper House to pass this obnoxious tax, and having also “raised trouble” enough to induce them to pass a “ tack,” the next thing our victorious leaders laid themselves out foP was to take away from the Council all voice on financial matters. They “may pass, but not alter or reject” money Bills. The measure is really tantamount to “ your money or your life, but we don't want your life ” The great Reform Bill was passed in the Assembly last week by 50 to 20; but as the Upper House has taken time to consider it, the tug of war will not be felt for a week or two. That the Upper House will reject it is expected on all sides, the only speculation now being what steps the Government will take to make the measure law. Two proposals are discussed. The first and most probable step will be an attempt to obtain a big success ra a general election at tbe end of the year, and in the event of a second rejection by the refractory Councillors there is a plain course open—Graham Berry, Professor Pearson, and either Sir B. O'Loghleu or Sir 0. G. Duffy will hastily rake a “ few things" into a carpet bag, and make a rush for the Sandridge pier. The chief supporters of the expedition will wring the patriotic hands of the “ three fishers going sailing away to the west.” A few tears —few, but salt—will drop on each other’s coat sleeves, and then,- with solemn assurances of fighting the people's cause as long as it yields a fair profit, the insurgents will step on board and remark to the captain, “ Just run this boat to England, will you—no hurry, you know—let’s be Home about May,- when things look green.” Two months will see them, as they expect, at the bar of the House of Commons, and the greatest deliberative Assembly of the mightiest nation on the earth will sit in rapt attention as the bronzed voyagers hour after hour recount the horrors patiently endured for many years by a people whose. dearest wishes have been thwarted by a wealthy oligarchy. Beaconsfield and Sir M. Hioks-Baach will whisper confidentially, “ Suppose we must let them have then.’ way to save trouble.” Childers and Lowe will open their eyes to the fact that all oratory and statesmanship did not leave the south whoa they wended their way to England. Country squires will open wide their eyes at finding these Australian or Fiji fellows make fine speeches in proving that they have a grievance. Then comes the climax, when Graham Berry raises his voice till the old ceiling shakes, and demands, “ in the name of the liberty of the people, in the name of tbe institutions which this venerable Chamber has always upheld, in the name of every sex, age, and race, and lastly, in the name of the community which pays the expenses of this trip, we demand, in all confidence, that your honorable House will give us full power to pass our new Reform Bill into law in spite of the Upper House, and that a popular Ministry shall bo thus placed in uncontrolled power of the public purse, and enabled to carry out those measures which we know the Victorian people havo’set thJir hearts on, because we put them up to it.” The other solution, held probable by some politicians, is that a conference of the two Houses will be held and a compromise arrived at. What compromise is possible, when one House maintains that it must take all financial power from the other or the country is undone, whilst the other maintains that with such a restriction on their powers as is implied in preventing them from having their say on the national expenditure their House would be virtually a nonentity, perhaps Hew Zealand readers may be able to conjecture. At present I have mot with no Victorian who can see where the compromise is to come in. The last week of the debate was lively. A Ministerial supporter named Williams—member for Mandurang—professed to see as much danger of tyranny and corruption in lodging absolute financial power in the one House as has ever existed with a divided responsibility. He argued that “neither” House should be left unchecked, that a Ministry with a powerful majority might go any lengths in corrupting the constituencies in the fight for the retention of office, and that the final power should be lodged with the people. He would have exceptional financial proposals submitted to a plehiacUuni in just the same manner as Ministers propose with general measures on which the two Houses cannot agree. His proposals, although receiving strong outside support, came to nothing in the House, which the division list showed, as stated above, From lack of exact historic precedent, and from the magnitude of the colonisation projects now being carried out by the Saxon race in this new world, the procedures of our Legislatures receive an amount of anxious attention from thoughtful observers that would probably otherwise bo devoted to the nearer concerns of agriculture, mining, and commerce. Of course every colony has its burning questions; but the issues at present so bitterly contested in Vio; toria a-opoar to mo to have special significance for all colonies. Our history, wants, and people are similar; and if I can succeed in sotting before yonr readers from time to time the various stages to which popular questions arrive, together with what appear to me to be their relation to similar questions agitating your community, I shall better fulfil the useful functions expected from a correspondent than X could do by stuffing my letter with notes of unimportant events and personal memorabilia ; which interest hero, but fall into shadowy , twaddle amongst people busied with their own ! local and public queitiono. Whilst the reform question rests qniet for a j few days, here comes the eternal education I question, and the debate on Sir J. O’Shan- ■ proposal for breaking up our secular system promises to bo a hot one. The present [ Ministry, whatever their faults or capacity, at least have shown that they aro men well able

to judge the drift of popu'ar opinion. They judge that the people wish to keep the churches churches, aud the schools schools, and there is very little doubt about tho correctness of their judgment. The Denominational party have two bishops, and clergymen Uy tho dozen, holding forth at the corners of streets and on tho house-tops, that unless religion is taught in schools, woe awaits the coming race ; and this in face of the fact that when,. previous to the Education Act, 1872, coming into force, clergymen were generally the patrons of the schools, and could walk in at any time and teach their Catechism ; but very few of them ever showed their Of course the Catholic party are the irrecouciliable, but wherever the clergymen keep quiet, the children flock to the secular schools, and the parents gladly allow them. The Church of England Bishop of Melbourne has stood up recently as a champion for the party which wishes to introduce the Bible into the schools, but the clergymen of that Church have no great power over their flocks, and their agitation will come to nothing. The Catholics want separate schools ; aud that also, for some years at least, will bo settled against them this week. About 15 members in a House of is all they expect to side with them. The Ministry will vigorously oppose the measure. The leaning to the sectarian party recently shown by the i* looked upon more as an inclination to give tho Ministry trouble than as an expression of sympathy with the party it fought against so long. The long-talked-of diamond drills are at last to hand, and will be used for testing likely country,” Tho Minister of Mines speaks in a most sanguine manner of the probable results which will follow from their introduction. The great scheme for draining what is called the Sebastopol plateau—a great table-land from which moat of the gold which made Ballarat famous was taken—is now fairly under way. Government has promised to advance £7OOO a-year for three years, and the local municipal bodies will raise an equal sum. The money will be spent in the construction of an “adit” seven or eight miles in length, aud will render workabb a vast extent of country abandoned years ago by companies unable to cope with tho water.