VICTORIA.

Colonist, Issue 90, 31 August 1858, Page 3

VICTORIA.

The Melbourne correspondent of the Sydney Herald, dating July 26, writes :-—

All political questions are dormant for the present. There is no agitation on any one of those which were kept so prominently before men's eyes during the session of Parliament. The Reform Bill is almost forgotten. The Land Regulations Bill is quite so. Neither the abolition of the system of State aid, nor the introduction of that of payment of members finds one single corner in one single newspaper among the eighteen dailys and twenty-seven weeklys and bi-weeklys that are published within the colony. The Upper House is no longer threatened. The Osborne and Don school is at work in bringing to perfection the idea of a "People's" paper, one that will satisfy every want and meet every grievance half way, in a single sheet of demy. When that aim is attained, then truly will The People rejoice. But such very strange events take place in newspaper life, that I shall not be surprised to see the day (or the night perhaps with a torchlighted procession) when The People is burned, as tlie Argus and Herald have been many a time, and as the Age is now being on the goldfields.

Our railway works are not, as I have already informed you, proceeding so satisfactorily as could be desired. The workmen are in many instances being paid by insignificant instalments instead of in full, and the truck system has been introduced in more than one locality where large numbers of men are congregated. The contract contains a clause expressly forbidding the introduction of this system, and the Government have also reserved, to themselves the power of paying the workmen and deducting the sums so paid from the amount, due. to the contractor.'. Public notice has been-given to tlie Vice-President of the Board of Land and Works of the intention of the Government to interfere for the protection of the workmen, and the consequence may be that our lines may once more be in the market. . Practical men are beginning to think that the contracts have been taken too low, considering the immense capital that must be provided by the contractors to enable them' to carry on the works. They are very different in their nature from English railway works, in which a contractor is enabled to supply himself with money for the payment of labor by the extended credit he obtains on the materials used. Here it is all labor. The contractor must make his own bricks, quarry his own stone, and saw his own timber, and the labor for all this has to be paid for long before the materials can be used.

The telegraph between Melbourne and Adelaide is now in constant work. . Messages are exchanged daily, and considering the newness of all the works, and the want of experience of the operators, with very little loss of time. Speculators have tried to make the most of the commencement by trying to get up movements and fluctuations in the markets, but nothing has come of this. When the whole line from Sydney to Adelaide is completed the effect will be to render trade steady rather than fluctuating, as on matters of business especially the wires will instantly put our capital in possession of what is being done iv either of the others.

We have really nothing doing in trade. The weather is wet and boisterous, and there has not been any loading going on for the interior. The only change to record in prices ia in oats,

for which just now no rate can. be named, but no reasonable cash offer is refused even for small parcels. The arrival of the Mary Robinson with a cargo from California, and with the intelligence of others being on tlie way, has led to this movement. A curious mistake was made in the leading columns of the Argus on Saturday last. The writer, in perusing the evidence on the sour flour investigation held in Sydney, had mistaken 50,000 barrels of sound flour, mentioned by one of the witnesses, fu* 50,000 tons, aod had built an argument on the false assumption. The error was pointed out on Monday, and corrected on the following day.

The Ovens Constitution, in reference t) the proposed mining leases, after canvassing the merits of the several conditions, arrives at the following conclusion:—"lt would be better to have no leases at all, than leases under a system which will introduce iuto this free and independent country, one of the worst features of the over governed countries of Europe. Freedom of action not inconsistent with the safety and health of society, is what we d -mand, and must have in mining, as well as in every other pursuit in life ; but this it is which the regulations of the liberal and democratic Solicitor-General will imperil."

Doa's Tails.—A few days since, a cheque for the amount of ,£2l 10s. was paid to the Sandhurst police force for 172 tails of unregistered dogs, which bad been destroyed during the month of June last,, through''^the praiseworthy exertions of our constables in checking the dog nuisance. .Other facts not unworthy of note may also be mentioned respecting this subject. The skins of many of the animals destroyed are now under the operation of the tanner and currier, and we are informed they make not only most durable, but soft and beautiful leather for use and ornament. What becomes of the tails after inspection we are not accurately informed, but it is reported that certain Mongolian "Chow Chow" shops, or restaurants, have lately been famed for the production of a most delicious soup, termed "Waggy" in Chinese lingo. The simple-minded race are famed for their frugality, but we hardly expected to witness such a stretch of frugality in their concoction of delicacies.— Bendigo Mercury.