Contributor.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 2, 8 April 1893, Page 5

Contributor.

(By H. Jaggebs.—Continued.)

IMPRESSIONS OF AN OLD INYERC ARGILLITE.

The country districts of Victoria require more notice than Melbourne, because of the mistaken ideas I held when I went there, and which I find are held by the people I have met since my return. As I said before, I was under the impression that there was no green grass, no good butter, or meat. My business has taken me over a considerable portion of Victoria—North Gippsland, South Gippsland, to the end of the Great Southern line ; in other directions through the Western district, Camperdown, Colac, Warnambool, Port Fairy, across country to Hamilton and down the line to Portland, and again into what was called the “Kelly Country.” Now let me say, that in respect to the green grass, that if I entirely reversed my old ideas I would be nearer the truth. So far from there being no grass, the country for almost nine months in the year is LIKE AN ENGLISH PARK. The other three months the grass is seeding, and of course is brown and apparently parched, but the condition of the sheep and cattle is first-rate. I need scarcely tell you about the butter. Three seasons ago the Melbourne market was barely supplied with good buttei’; but Government offered a bonus of so much per pound on all exported, with a result that has amazed everybody. This season the export has nearly reached 4000 tons. I was in Mansfield—an inland town —some time since ; the railway was not then made. I saw some oats in a store, and inquired the pi ice—2s per bushel. At that time they were about 3s in Melbourne. I mentioned this to the storekeeper, and he told me that owing to cartage, railage, etc., it paid better to sell the grain on the spot than to send it to Melbourne. The railway is now open, and of course the oats grown in that district will be sent to Melbourne. The Government, pursuing its protective policy, has placed a heavy duty on oats, and with the great extension of railways, there can be no doubt the farmers of Victoria will be able to supply their own market. In South Gippsland, along the newly opened Great Southern line, settlement is going on very fast. This seems to be the case all over Victoria. Do I think THE MELBOURNE FAILURES have greatly affected the outlying districts ? So far as I am able to judge, and from the enquiries I made I do not think so.. The trouble seems to be confined principally to the city. No doubt it must have a certain bad effect, but not to the extent supposed. By the way, this brings me to another thing I have noticed —the Victorians are very bad losers. I suppose if properly analysed,-the human nature of Victoria is no different to the human nature of any other country, but the customs make them appear different. I don’t know whether I am going to libel the Victorians, but I. think, taken as a whole, and in the orthodox sense, they are A GODLESS PEOPLE. There is only one thing they worship, and that is success. They are great in horse-racing. It is their religion ; everything is impregnated with it. In the shops, in the banks und warehouses in fact, nearly everywhere it is the universal Subject of discussion and conversation. You will hear boys of ten years, and old swells of sixty, discussing the pedigrees of the racers. Every Cup Day is an era. They measure time from the last or to the next Cup Day. Their politics and businesses are run and managed as they would a race, and you must win, and keep winning, or down you go. I do not understand anything about racing, and to me this at first was rather bewildering. I saw a country that without a doubt has been well governed, notwithstand-

ing its present depression, and to me it seemed extraordinary that a people given over so entirely to what I always considered was a terrible vice, should progress and prosper. This set me thinking, and the conclusion is forced upon me that this so-called vice of betting on racing is a I!MASSING IX DISGUISE. I know I have had men working for me who would have spent their wages in drink, or have refrained from work, had they not desired to put their money on their favourite horse. In a climate like this, where there is every incentive to evade hard Avork, is it not a blessing that there is a counter incentive to induce the people to do so ? The cost to the country is simply the keep of the jockeys, trainers and bookies, because they usually get the most of the money. Mind you, I Avon’t sAvear this is the correct way of looking at it, hut it is one Avay of doing so. I have said that the Victorians run their politics as they do their horseracing, and so it appears to me. When I first Avent to Melbourne the Gillies party was in power. I attended the sittings of Parliament, and heard the debates. The Opposition, headed b} r Mr Munro, Avas in an utterly hopeless minority. All at once the Age discovered that Mr Gillies was manipulating the Budget so as to shoAv a surplus Avhen there Avas really a deficit. From that moment the Gillies Government Avas doomed. Gillies had lost the race, and down he must go. They forgot the six years of unprecedented prosperity they had enjoyed under him, and he could scarcely he less remembered had he sunk through the floor of the House on the night he Avas defeated. In Ncav Zealand or New South Wales this AA r ould not occur. The people Avould still worship the man, although he AA r as a failure. Take the case of Sir Julius Vogel. He could not have existed six months in Victoria. As soon as the}' discoA'ered the political failure that many considered him, he Avould have become a political corpse. The great curse to Ne\A r Zealand has been its one . man Avorship, or as Carlyle Avould say its Hero worship. In the old Provincial days the people thought the country Avould go to perdition unless its superintendents were a Peatherstone in Wellington, a MacandreAv in Otago, or a Menzies in Southland. Noav these men Avere utterly incapable of guiding the destinies' of a country. Still they Avere kept there. At present New Zealand is suffering from the influence of Sir Robert Stout, although he is not now in poAver. I have a great admiration for his ability in some things, but I think it Avould be a good thing for Ncav Zealand if they could do Avith him, as the old Roman used to do Avith men like him—ostracise him. Of course, I mean politically. He has been in the political race and lost, and should stand aside for fresh men. This, then, I think is the cause of the success of Victoria —thej' manage their politics as they do their racing. The favourite must win, and keep Avinning, or out he goes. They Avill not put up with shams. (To he continued.)