HOME OPINIONS ON COLONIAL PROGRESS.

Southland Times, Issue 617, 11 January 1867, Page 3

HOME OPIN l ONS ON COLONIAL PROGRESS.

(From the Argus, 2nd Jan.) The Ti net, as will he seen by an extract which we publish elsewhere, has been commenting with astonishment on the circumstance that Australian progress should in so many pirticubrs bear a curious resemblnnee to progre=s in England. "The questions engaging the puMiV mind at the antipodes are precisely such as mi'iht have been discussed at our own social congress, or taken ur> by our own domestic reformers." There is a good-naturpd but lively wonder over the periodic; 1 " corr sroidence from Melbourne and Sydney" — o^er the fact th.it " the voluntary system in religion ; the price and supply of food ; the game laws, water supplies, workhouse, industrial schools, and juvenile reformatories," should be subjects of action and legislation in communities " not fifLy years old." Herein the journalist very accurately represents the current impressions in the old world. It is difficult there to realise the fact that people and circumstances at the antipodes are not in all respects unlike their own ; and in that old and slowgoing world it is almost impossible to understand the rapidity of change and of growth in the new. It is hard to bring thoroughly home to the mind of the stay-at-home man, whose only travelling has been once or twice an eventful railway trip over the beaten •routes of Prance or Switzerland, the little difference that may exist between the wants and habits of people of the same stock at opposite sides of the globe. It is not of course thought, as in past generations, that people at the antipodes must of necessity walk wi;h their heads downwards, or that the bulk of the population are veritable anthropophagi, " whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders ;" but, nevertheless, the idea has not quite departed, that somehow or other there ought to be a considerable and fundamental difference between the denizens of countries " which are the creations of yesterday" and of those which are the old seats of civilisation. Moreover, there was so very considerable a difference only yesterday — that is, a few short years back — that it is quite intelligible that these quick-paced illustrations of social development should take them by surprise in England. There change is an affair of time ; here, for better or for worse, it is a matter of no time. In that respect, at least, there is a contrast — an antipodal congruity. How brief a period it appears since attention was amusingly drawn in Printing House-square to the dissimilarity in" the ways of nature and man between Australia and Europe — the perversity of the trees here, growing their leaves in perpendicular not horizontal fashion — the peculiarity of shape and oddity of movement in our wild animals, wholly heterodox and historically unprecedented — and the mad freaks of the diggers, quite sui generis, and so much in keeping with animate and inanimate nature arouud. By authentic report, infants were then weaned on mutton chop? and brandy, and there was no saying positively whether the human species might not, in Eldorado, ultimately assume a nrireupial shape. How brief a period has elapsed since those days — since the colony was in grotesque confusion, admitting and indeed suggesting all sorts of quaint comment, and yet here we now are talking and busy about industrial schools, health of towns, works of irrigation , piseiulture, price and supply of food — in a word, "occupied with questions supposed to be incidental only to ancient systems of civilisation." Astounded by a transformation which has upset all preconceived notions, the Times seems now quite determined to guard against understating a progress which is so hard to calculate, and which admits of such sudden and surprising manifestations. " Five years ago the "population of Victoria was barely " above half a million," and the conjecture is modestly hazaaded that " it is probably under a million now!" The previous month's news, of course, furnished the information of our census table being slightly in excess of 600,000, but there was really no knowing what intelligence of multitudinous increase the next mail might not convey, and the writer prudently abstained from committing himself to figures which might chance to be ridiculously below the mark. The evident wonder and caution of the journalist are natural and intelligible, bat no less amusing on that account. It is very reasonably a matter of surprise to visitors as well as to observers at a distance, this smultiplieifcy and variety of resemblanee^clready between a colony and the mother country. Not only our requirements and public questions, but our cities, have acquired an English aspect. The British stranger will see little in Melbourne or Sydney, except the stronger unshine in summer, to remind him that he is 16,000 miles from home. There is no indigenous or foreign population, as in most other colonies — at the Cape at the Mauritius, in New Zealand, in Lower Canada — to stamp the crowds in the thoroughfares with any novel character. Evan the architectural aspect of our streets has nothing peculiar though that is not wholly a subject of congratulation, for, in obedience to the climate, we ought ere this to have been possessed of street fountains and shaded boulevards. But the wooden edifices of the city's early days have gradually given place to others of brick and stone, and our public buildings are worthy to vie with those of many towns in the TJuited Kingdom. Even the bullock-dray is fast ceasing to be a feature, now that macadamised roads are in every direction getting to be substituted for bush tracks. There is, however, one hapry difference which immediately strikes a stranger walking through our towns. He sees here no pinched faces and ragged garmentshunger and penury personified. The necessaries of life are always within re&oJ} of the industrious in this happy

country It is not after all so wonderful that there should be this resemblaaee in the aspect of our cities to the English, and the .similarity in so many wants and social qutstions, in which the Times alludes. Mau does not necessarily alter his tastes and requirements with' a change of sky and scene, nnd the g old-fields and the. extraordinary facilities of communication which mark' the dav, fully account for the peoulias rapidity of our progress and for the peculiar phases of its development, in contrast with colonies of the old time.

TERTCTBLTC TV^^i'-Mt h J > TV9TOWN. The iV<?w; TO/-& Herald thus describes a fearful accident which occurred at Johns town on the occnsion of the visit of the President and his party: — "At Johnstown a very large concourse of people awaited the train bearing the President. The railroad at this place runs on the north, bank of the old canal (now dry), about 30 feet from its channel. The canal was bridged over for several rod 3 in front of where the train stopped, and was used as a platform for business. A bridge for crossing one of the streets, and two raised sidewalks were improvised. In consequence of being slightly elevated above the ground between the bank of the canal and the cars, the audience could obtain a tolerably fair view of the rear pi ltform of the train on which the President and others were standing, and therefore crowded on it in a mass so dense that there was no standing room left unoccupied. Just as the train was about to move* away, and those on the bridge atid around the depot were rending the air with cheers for Johnson, .Grant, and Farragut, an awful crash arose above the roar, of the huzzas that startled all within hearing, and silenced many voices for ever. The timbers in the centre of the bridge, fully a foot square, suddenly snapped in twain, precipitating every soul on it to the bottom of the canal, a distance of at least 15 feet. The balance of the sidewalks and platforms over the canal came down with the bridge, and filled the bottom of the canal with timbers, planks, and the struggling mass of men, women, nnd children, all hurled together in inextricable confusion. Those on the bank between the now yawning gulf and the railroad track were frightened into a stampede, and added to the confusion by screaming, yelling, and tramping each other into the mud in their frantic efforts to escape. A more frightful scene was scarcely ever witnessed. A few moments sufficed to reveal what had actually transpired. Men, women, and children; fathers. mothers, husbands, wives, sons, and daughters, were now rushing in every direction seeking relatives and friends, and crying aloud with grief and ter ror. As soon as the sinking falling debris had settled to the bottom those intheneighborhood sprang to the bed of the caoal by scores, and commenced assisting those least hurt to extricate themselves, and to pull away the rubbish and timber that had covered and confined the others. As the bridge broke in the centre, its two halves formed an inclined plain, along which all were-slidwifchlightening speed and pitched on the top of those who stood in the middle and went down first. Probably not leas than 400 persons were on the main bridge and 1000 on the whole structure. Severalmembers of the Presidential party assisted actively in removing the dead and wounded. As far as could be ascertained within an hour after the acci dent, 13 persons were killed and 90 injured. Many others were undoubtedly injured or killed who were missed in tiie hasty and hurried enumeration that was alone possible during the excitement and confusion. The killed were mainly crushed to death by those who fell upon fhera ; but few were hurt by the timbers or planks. Splinters darkened the air in every direction, and caused a large proportion of the flesh cuts and contusions. From the manner in which the mass of people was precipitated, struggling, clutching, and grasping, to the ground beneath, a great many arms and legs were broken. The women generally fell head foremost, owing to their inflated style of clothing, and their contusions were chiefly confined to the head, face, and shoulders. One remarkable fact was that no infants or small children were known to be hurt in the slightest, although many infants in arms were among those who fell to the bottom, and a still larger number of both sexes, ranging from six to ten years of age. As soon as partial order could be restored, lines were formed to protect the sufferers from the outside pressure of the crowd, and to extricate them from the wreck of the bridge and platform. One man was found dead, with a huge beam resting across his neck, and his eyes protruding from their sockets." An American paper describes a duel between Mrs Martha Stewart and Mrs Roberts, of San \ntonio, Texas. The weapons were revolvers. Mrs Stewart is stated to have been bad 1 ? woun Jed. Mr Disraeli, according to the t% Pall Mall Gazette," is preparing a comprehensive Eeforra Bi 1, which comprehends household suffrage and a £20 franchise in counties. Intelligence from Hayti states that the arsenal of Port-au-Prince has been blown up, involving in its destruction not less than 200 of the adjacent houses. No loss of human life is reported. ihe " Augsburg Gazette," of the Ist iust., has a long article upon recent literary publications in England. The names of the books are given in English, and among them we observe a wort mn h praised by the writer, which is called Felix Solt, the Rascal. A.M. Perrot, a Frenchman, has discovered hree terribly destructive engines — the first, a three barrelled air-gun firing 1,000 bullets per minute, the bullets dropping from a hopper without i itermission into the gun ; the s 'cond is similar, but mounted on wheels ; and the third is a steam locomotive, discharging 21b. weight of projectiles per second, and capable of killing 17"i,800 men in twenty four hours, if but one man was killed to every hundred shots discharged. Keeping- Her Word. Miss Caroline Brewer, aged about seventy years, died in the Almshouse in Portland, Maine, on the 28th ult. She had been an inmate of the honse for the last thirty-five years, and had not spoken a word in all that time. Having been disapointed in love in early life she made a vow never to speak another word, and s*> e religiously kept her vow till her tongue wag par^yaed in cleatl^" $few ' Y O rkTj»w," .