VICTORIA.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 84, 6 March 1884, Page 2

VICTORIA.

(FROM OUB SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) Melbourne, Feb. 19, 1884. The Wairarapa not leaving till Wednesday this week will enable me to write of anything interesting up to a day later than usual—the usual day on which the Union boats leave here being Tuesday. There is one peculiar feature in a correspondent’s difficulties in writing from a big city, and that is how to collect from the thousand and one subjects of interest that surround him those that will prove most entertaining to his readers. From the memoranda before me I have just eighty items on which I should like to sav something, but as it is impossible to crowd them all into one letter, I must let some of them “ slide,” as the well-edueated Australian youths term it. From a social standpoint the item of interest excellence that has happened during the past week has been the marriage of the Hon. Ivo Bligh with Miss Florence Morphy. It is unnecessary for mo to say that the bridegroom captained the last English Eleven of the team of cricketers who p’.ayed against the fourth Australian Eleven last year, when several of the visitors hung up their caps in the halls of society leaders. Lord Charles Scott led the way, by returning and claiming his bride after a short stay in England; but, though he was a sailor, and not amongst the cricketers, it is significant as exemplifying the fact that though Colonials may go Home sometimes to look for a bride, the Colonies are able to supply wives fitted to adorn the best circles of English nobility. The young lady just wedded, and who stands a reasonable prospect of becoming Countess Darnley, is of lowly birth, and, owing to the death of her father some time since, her widowed mother, in straitened circumstances. Consequently the happy realisation of the auspicious event was preceded by a romance which we seldom hear or read of except in a shilling “ yellow back.” Miss Morphy is possessed of no ordinary personal attractions, mental as well as physical, both of which are conspicuous by graceful bearing and loveable, engaging manners. She was a protege of Lady Clarke, at whose mansion her husband became enamoured, and who without stooping to the consideration of mere birth, or that his future Countess may be regarded as a piebean,—or, again, that his mother-in-law holds a humble appointment under a Colonial Government —manfully resolved to follow the dictates of his heart, and let the rest of the matter take care of itself. The marriage has had a wonderful effect in upholding the “ honorable intentions ” of our visitors and in inspiring our marriageable maidens with a hope that some such a “fate” will one day be theirs.. “ From grave to gay, from lively to severe.” It is only a step from a subject that is supposed to make life happy, to one which both preserves life and takes it away. The regulations for the new militia, or, as some call it, “ military” service have been issued; and, as the playing at soldiers is now over by the disbandment of the Volunteer forces in the colony, as we are shipping real, live military and naval colonels and commanders from the Old Country, and moreover possess a political “ Minister of War,” we may be said to have commenced soldiering in a more serious and responsible manner than hitherto. It is quite time that the Colonies took this step generally, for there is no knowing how soon we may be called on to defend ourselves. It is gratifying to know that the Colonies are regarded in England as a power of the Empire, and it is satisfactory to find that our Agents-General are upholding their honor and dignity; but does it not savor of a pedantic swagger that Mr. Murray Smith, our representative, should so ostentatiously flourish his importance in offering to assist England in her Egyptian difficulties by placing the two toy gun-boats recently built for Victoria, and now at Gibraltar, at her service? Only fancy Sir Samuel Wilson, Colonial lord of Hughendon Manor offering to assist Mr. Gladstone’s exchequer with the loan of a few thousands sterling. Truly, such popularity is cheap and—worthless, It strikes me one of the bones of dissatisfaction connected with our new military system will be that of provision for a soldier’s relatives in case of death in action. So far there is none, and on other grounds the conditions of service are not popular. Very few in proportion to population are enlisting. The engagement is for five years, with a sliding scale for “ purchasing out”—the first year, £4 ; second, £2 ; third, fourth, and fifth, £l. Members of the service are forbidden to write to the Press; to praise or censure their comrades, particularly their officers, and the latter are very properly debarred from accepting testimonials from their men) and taken generally a Colonial or Victorian “ military man” will, as such, be obliged to relinquish his civilian rights of citizenship.

It may sound strange, but it is a fact, that the super-abundant yield of cereals nearly all over the world, especially wheat, the staff of life, by means of which men live, and move, and have their being, is regarded with feelings of dismay. One journal in South Australia (a district where prayers have beeil offered up for the Divine blessing of plenty and fruitful fruition) now turns alarmist, and warns wheat farmers that this is an unpalatable state of affairs. The average production of the world during the past two or three years is said to have been much in excess of requirements, which the writer says is sufficiently appalling in itself. From a grower’s point of view, your immediate neighbors are not interested in this question, or I would send you some valuable and teachable statistics. But I may allude to the one fact that prices are not likely to rule high, inasmuch as the insignificant production of the whole of the Australias cannot possibly affect the market, which is reckoned to have, at least. 1,500,000,000 bushels of wheat at its command. Whether cheap bread is a sign of prosperity, or whether dear bread is a sign of poverty, are still moot points; but it is a strange anomaly, and causes serious reflec* tions on the apparent and inconsistent ingratitude of man, that while our Colony resounds with songs of praise, and thanksgiving services are offered in our Churches, in recognition of the Almighty’s bounty—while offerings of corn, and wines, and oil are made in testimony of our “ faith in the abiding goodness of God”—the dealers and “ rings” of middlemen should be found proclaiming from the housetops that the prosperous yields we have prayed for are grudgingly received, and that the Hand that giveth hath given too abundantly. There is no wonder that F reethought people regardjwith a well-grounded suspicion the “religion” that is based on such tangible evidences of blasphemous thought. Their prayer is “ Give, give, not so that the hungry may be fed, but that we may make our pile, and in our own good time, O Lord.”

Your Minister of Lands is determined that no effort of his shall be wanting to make the Colony of New Zealand well known in distant parts. I see from the list of exchanges that come before me that “ The Crown Lands G uide” has been copiously supplied even to the most obscure journals on this continent, all of which advertise some portion of its contents. I perused the number for 1884 with much pleasure, and find much wellcollated information in it.

One of the principal and important works undertaken by the Government for a long time is the projected bridge over the Yarra, at the site of the present Princes Bridge. Melbourne, and especially the metropolis, now-a-days, does not do things by halves as far as buildings and public works are concerned. Public interest is not manifested if anything is projected inside a cost of scores of thousands of pounds sterling, consequently it will not surprise you to learn that this bridge will cost over £lOO,OOO (I have mislaid the exact cost). The vehicular width of the temporary bridge just erected during the demolition of the present structure is 28 feet, and the footways 5 feet. The “ Falls” bridge leading to the South Melbourne and Sandridge districts is slowly progressing, owing to the necessary removal of the huge holders impeding the foundation of the piers, and which originated the name of “ The Falls.” (To be continued.)