VICTORIA.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 86, 11 March 1884, Page 2

VICTORIA.

(from our special correspondent.) (Continued.) Melbourne, Feb. 19, 1884. Matters in connection with railway management are no more forward, if we except the arrival and induction of Mr. Speight from England, both of which took place on Monday last. I hear that that gentleman is perfectly amazed at the state of matters here, and there is one fact he has learnt, and that is the excess of supervision required of him over and above what he expected. The Mid l and Counties line, over which he prepresided in England, has only 1,400 miles of rail, running 1,000 trains per day; while here in Victoria there are over 1,500 miles, and, on account of the suburban traffic, the trains number nearly 1,100, exclusive of “ specials,” which can easily be obtained.

The hop-harvest and adulteration of be6f questions are occupying a large share of the Victorian mind just now. Last year, as I have before told you, the hop-growers’ greed knew no bounds. Hops were abnormally high in price; in fact, three or four times above ordinary market quotations. Still, so strangely unaccountable does avarice assert its prerogative that these over-top prices were refused, and the market “ hardened” to such an extent that the “ thaw” did not come to soften it. Most undeniably the brewers were in the hands of the producers, but it was only for a season, and as in all other struggles, the weakest must go to the wall. The Melbourne brewers are a powerful phalanx. They are wealthy to boot, and have a large proportion of the smaller, and some of the bigger hotels under their thumb. Hop-growers, on the contrary, are comparatively poor. Like most of your sheepfarmers—until the Hon. Mr. Tollemache, and later still, the Public Works Policy of Sir Julius Vogel, came to their assistance—their early struggles arc with borrowed money, while, after their crops are ripe, they are in the hands of the banks and “rings” who dictate exactly what they must do. Tins year the brewers have their opportunity, and they arc determined to take advantage of it. Those who would not pay the exorbitant prices demanded for the last year hop, largely fell back on the various substitutes known to the trade, most of which are held to be deleterious, and all as cheap, if not cheaper, than low-priced hops. Melbourne is full of them just now, and there is no longer any doubt about their use, for the Brewers' Journal, a special advocate, offers an extenuating plea for their use. I have recently visited one of the principal hopproducing districts in Victoria, and I found the greatest alarm existing, and those who made such unmerited asses of themselves a year ago are now moving the Government, in conjunction with a section of the public, to take steps under the Public Health Act, so as to condemn the use of substitutes. A deputation has waited on the Minister of Customs, and the agitation, with a view to legislative action, is commenced. With this powerful alternative in hand, the brewers are agreed to keep the price of hops down, and it is not expected that it will reach above a shilling a pound, as a rule. That it will rise above that is doubtful, for the market reports state that there is a six months’ supply now in warehouse, which, with what the brewers hold themselves, brings the total up to about 3,000 bales. Some of the growers will be glad to sell at one shilling or less; others will be forced to do so by their lienholders, while, I fear, the majority will come to grief. As a kind of last resource, the Gippsland growers, representing a growth of over 700 acres have determined to ship their earliest crop to England and Germany, where, as the accounts are favorable to Australian hops, they may stand a show, as their stock will forestall the English supply of thia year’s growth. To give an idea of what kind of engine the brewers are driving to coerce t he growers, it is stated that one pound of substitutes called lupuline, at 45., is equal to 56 pounds of hops, the average price of which ranges from 15d. to 20J. I tasted some of the villanous compound the other day, and all I can say it is, indeed “ villainous.”

Apple tree blight is prevalent in your district I know, and as many of your readers may not see the Melbourne it occurs to me that the following “ discovery” may be of service. It consists of a mixture, in equal parts, of lime, potash, and bone dust, applied to the bare roots of trees. Mr. Johnston, the analytical chemist says that non-blighting apple trees contain7morc7lime than others; and potash, combined with grease, has been found to prove an effectual insecticide. One of the present crazes of Melbourne just now is the formation of a “ Kalizoic” society. If you wish to know what a “ kalizoic” is, I must claim an ignorance which will be convenient. From one of the Melbourne journals, however, I am able to state that “ Kalioicism” appears to be Astheticism in another form, and is mainly dependent on (1) Encouragement and cultivation of the beautiful; (2) Tree-planting and flower-growing in promenades and public reserves; (3) Placing seats and benches amid the umbrageous foliage, and the erection of “ kiosks” for al fresco refreshment; (4) A cultivation of taste for birds of song ; (5) Correct principles and cultivation of drawing, architecture,<fcc. (6) The preservation of health, and removal of all that is inimical thereto. (7), Promotion of morality, and window and cottage gardening. (8) Sanitary observances; “domestic architecture” (the real meaning of which is, I suppose, the rearing of a family) a promulgation of the “ objects of society,” and a host of other things “ too numerous to particularise ;” but which I thought already obtained in any “ society” worthy the name. But one is rather apt to forget that in Melbourne good is not done by stealth, and what little is done, no one blushes to find it fame. Good deeds come singly—bad ones in battalions. Visitors to this city by way of the river Yana will be glad to find that at least some portion o/ its horrid filth into be done away with, tenders for improvements therein having been accepted. Tlie lowest was £63,000 odd, and 1 think the Harbor Trust Board will see to the work beinfe carried out so effectually as to remove the abominable stinks that pollute passers-by. It is proposed to dredge the river from the “ Falls” down to the Fisherman’s Bend to a width of 300 feet, and a depth of is feet. Another channel will also be dredged thence to Spottiswood Cutting of ab >ut the same dimensions; but the chief work on the contract will be the cutting of a new canal, long talked of, from what is known a < the steam ferry to a point opposite to the railway-pier at Williamstown. This latter forms part of Sir John Coode’soriginal plan. Il is estimated that near a million cubic yards of stuff will be removed in the undertaking. (To be continued.)