VICTORIA.

Southland Times, Issue 998, 5 August 1868, Page 2

VICTORIA.

(feom otjb own cobeespondbbtt.) ■' Melbourne, 25th July, 1868.. ', The Victorian dead-lock is now a thing of the past, all parties here accepting the settlement of the Darling; grant p: the manner it has been arranged. Still political tranquility cannot be considered to have been restored. The strife between the Loyal Liberals and the Con- "... stitutionalists is hushed but not destroyed.F; ; Mr M'Culloch has formed a new Ministry, but it is an infinitely inferior team to his old one, and not satisfactory to a large number of liis supporters. The Constitutionalists are now Well organised and prepared to put forward candidates to contest thd re-election df most of the members of the new Cabinet. . The Council is again showing its teeth, but it has not yet done much harm. A Ways and Means Bill for £1,950,000 was passed by the Assembly ._ on Monday, the 13th inst., and sent to' the Council for endorsement. That body did not refuse to entertain it, but took exception of the phraseology of the preamble, upon which an animated debate, ensued. However, the Bill was passed, and on the 14th July, it received the sanction of the Q-overnor. The treasury chest is therefore once more unlocked, and as anxious and needy creditors are. 7 getting their claims satisfied — political excitement' is subsiding. The ranks of the Loyal Liberals have, however, beett broken, the disappointed place seekers evincing indignant displeasure at the choice made by Mr M'Culloch in his selection of colleagues. He is called despotic because he chose to form a cabinet without haying a meeting of his supporters, and adopting the Brooke system of ' pin pricking' for the plumbs of place and pay. The following is a list of the new Ministry :-— Mr M'Gulloch, Chief Secretary and Minister of Finance ; Mr Q-. P. Smith, Attorney-G-eneral ; Mr Casey^ Minister of Justice;; Mr Grant, Minister of Lands ; Mr Vale, Commissioner of Trade and Customs ; The- Hon. Alex. Eraser, M.L.C, Commissioner of Public "Works; Mr Sullivan,: Commissioner of Mines ; Mr Jones, Commissioner of Bail ways ; and Mr Gv V. Smith, Postmaster-G-eneral. Mr Higinbotham will be Vice-President:\of the Board of Land and "Works without salary ; and Mr Francis will have a seat in the Cabinet without office. — On f.hn 1 st.h ins* ifaejgritg for the__ ministerial elections were issued, and until the elections are over no more parliamentary business will, be taken. The Constitutionalists are putting forward some good opposition candidates but I think all or nearly all the ministerial candidates will be returned. To turn from politics, if I may use the expression, to questions of material and commercial importance that have been, during-the two years of the dead-lock, sadly neglected, and attracting general attention, viz. — railway extension, the sea-postal service* and immigration. With reference to the 'first of these subjects Mr M'Culloch in an address to his constituents, says: — ".It is the intention of the Government to submit a Bcheme to Parliament for the construction, of railways to the Upper Murray, 'tho Western District,, and Gipp's Land." This is with some thought too good news to be literally true, but there can be no doubt that a scheme for railway _ extension will be brought forward. ; The public have learnt the value of railways as a means of settling the country^ and found out that every mile that is. made goes to lessen the working expenses of the lines previously constructed, and general support would be given to any ministry who. wished to realise even another eight million, if it was to be applied to railway making. The European Postal Service is generally considered to be unsatisfactory, and there is much discussion going on as to the desirability of securing a fortnightly mail from ■England via Suez, or continuing that line as at present, and accepting the offer of a newly formed Steam Packet Company's proposal to run a number of powerful steam ships from England direct to Hobson's Bay via . the Cape of Good Hope. This project is in high favor. Upon this subject Mr M'Culloeh expressed himself very distinctly at a recent meeting of his constituents. He said: — ' The question of fortnightly communicajtion_jadth—England haa—jof— late been prominently brought under public consideration. Speedy and frequent means of communication with Europe is; of great importance, and I will do all

■within my power to effect tbat object; but I have no hesitation in expressing my decided preference for first-class powerful steamers via the Cape of Good Hope rather than a fortnightly service via Suez. The Cape route will not only be of much advantage for postal purposes, but will afford great facilities for immigration.' It is generally thought that there will be two monthly services, one as at present, the othexwcLthejCapo. ~ The~system of getting rid of unsaleable stock by lotteries or raffles has been carried on in New South "Wales and Victoria to a large extent, and the Governments of both those colonies are adopting stringent measures to Buppress them. A few weeks since a judge of the Supreme Court (Mr Justice Meeke) so far &>r-< got his position as to advertise the disposal of his extensive stud of biood horses in this objectionable manner. This appeared too much for the Attorney-General to bear, for he gave notice that if he presisted in going on with the proposed raffle, all the penalties provided for in ;an act for the Suppression of lotteries and raffles would be rigidly enforced. Another raffle of racing stock which had been advertised to take place in Sydney was stopped. The tickets were nearly all sold, and to return the money the projectors of the drawing were exceedingly disjnclined. They hit upon the happy idea of having the drawing to take place in a Victorian border town. The new AttornyGeneral here did not relish the idea of this colony being made such a convenience of by our neighbors, and has taken steps to prevent anything of the kind being done again. In the " Gazette "of yesterday, a notice is published by the AttorneyGeneral intimating that it is his intention strictly to enforce the provisions of the 31st section of the Police Statute of 1865 against lotteries and raffles. It is notified to all offenders in this direction that after "this notice" any of them " found offending against any of the said provisions" will be prosecuted " according to law." It is to be regretted that some such step as this was not taken before. Mr Smith deserves credit for having promptly grappled with an evil which was calculated to demoralise the whole community. I think there are few more items of interest to send. Mining is steadily progressing, all the old workings maintaining their average yield, and some new reefs of promise have been discovered in the Gipps Land and Ballarat Districts. : Melbourne, 28th July. As the Tararua leaves for your port to-day, I have thought it well to send you a short letter, although the news is of an unimportant character. We are in the midst of the Ministerial elections, and as far as they have yet gone the Ministerial candidates have been successfol — Messrs Grant ?nd Casey have been returned without opposition. Opposition candidates are in the field for the Ovens, Ballarat, and Mornington, but I do not think they have a chance, for although the Constitutionalists are gaining favor, the M'Culloch following is still allpowerful. The speeches made by the majority of the Ministers have been somewhat vague and inconsistent, one clashing with the other. Mr M'Culloch, however, has given some idea of his policy on a few leading topics. At a meeting held at Mornington he announced the policy of the Government to be the extension of the principle of the 42nd clause of the Land Act of 1865 ; or, in other words, as he distinctly put it, free selection before survey, all over the colony. He also declined to pledge the Government to a renewal of the squatters* leases after 1870, for any definite period, and congratulated the public on the fact that the land policy of his late Government had placed 14,000 persons as selectors and settlers on the lands of the colony. As to the railways, he admitted that there was no present intention to make the G-ipps Land railway, although it would be an easily constructed line, the intention only being to borrow in England some £2,000,000 for the Ovens railway, which the engineer-in-chief calculated would give the best and most immediate return on the outlay. The Panama Mail Service is daily becoming more strongly denounced as expensive and useless, as far as we are concerned. It may be of utility to you in New Zealand, but it is of none to Victoria or South Australia, and I think the Governments of both colonies would gladly see the line discontinued. If the Company is to continue its operations it is to New Zealand that it must look for the funds to do so. You may imagine the estimate in which it is held here, from the fact that the "Argus" has declined to publish a summary for transmission by this line. In this morning's issue it states its reasons for so doing. It says : —"We had intended, as we intimated yesterday, to publish to-day a summary of the news since the departure of the last mail via Suez, for transmission to America and England by the branch Panama Mail steamship Tararua, which sails for Wellington to-day. On further inquiry yesterday morning, however, we found that the postal arrangements as regards the Panama line are so unsatisfactory that they place an effectual embargo on our intentions. The postal rate on newspapers via Panama to the United States as well as to Great Britain, is Is. 3d. per ounce, while via Suez it is only Id. per paper to Great Britain, and 3d. to America. As the postage on a single copy of the " Argus " sent via Panama would thus have amounted to about five shillings, it was obvious that none would be sent. For the present, therefore, we must content ouselves with the monthly summary via Suez." In domestic affairs there is little new. One horrible case of murder was tried at the Castlemaine Circuit Court last week, a report of wHoh I eubjoin. in. this letter. The news of the probability of a renewal of the M^aori war in your country has caused some excitement,, and I believe that if your government would solicit volunteers

to come over from here, and treat them liberally, two thousand well-trained men woxild respond to the call and with your own men would soon show the Maoris that the Colonies have pluck and strength enough to teach them a lasting lesson without foreign aid. The fol-. lowing is from the " Argus," 28th July : — ■ At the Casflemaine Circuit Court yesterday, John HojMrn_waa_fli«algja<>^ror"Ciie" Tvitroi murder of Martin Eooney, at Dukes-flat, near Bullock Creek, on the 7th of June. Mr Martley, instructed by Mr Wrixon, Sandhurst, was deputed to defend the prisoner; Mr C. A. Smyth prosecuted for the Crown; The evidence revealed the perpetration of a coldblooded crime. About the beginning of May, a gold-digger named Martin Eooney arrived at Melbourne from Greymouth, New Zealand. He stopped a few days with a relative at Brighton, during which time he lodged £180 in the Union Bank, [ and afterwards proceeded up-country I with a balance of £20. On his way to ! Bullock Creek he met the prisoner, and they agreed to be mates. They arrived at Dukes-flat on the 6th of June, but Booney was not seen in company of Hogan until the 7th. They called at several stores purchased some necessaries, partook of some liquor, and I left Henderson's store together about seven o'clock on the evening of the 7th. After this date Eooney never was seen alive. During thej three following days Hogan was going about the different stores drinking, playing cards, and spending money freely. This conduct excited suspicion, because it was known that he had sold a watch and chain to a storekeeper for 155., stating at the time that he wanted the money in order to induce his mate (Eooney) to spend money because he had plenty. On the 11th June, a man named Cameron was attracted to deceased's tent by a peculiar smell. His suspicion was aroused, and having communicated the fact to some neighbors, search was made at the tent, and the body was found lying on the face, covered by a blanket, with the skull fractured, and beaten in by blows. Hogan was arrested at Henderson's store while playing cards, and on being searched portions of the murdered man's property were found in his possession. He denied all knowledge of the murder, and persistently stated that Eooney had gone to Melbourne or Ballarat on the previous Monday. The evidence was altogether of a circumstantial nature, but of unusual clearness and uninterrupted connexion. Beyond the facts stated by the principal witnesses, the evidence was purely corroborative, and the cross-examination unimportant. Hogan was found* guilty by the jury, and sentenced to death without hope of mercy.