OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

Otago Witness, Volume 11, Issue 2280, 11 November 1897, Page 44

OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

(From Otra Own Cobkkspondeni.) October 27. The election of Speaker has been the topic of the week. There were two men in the r unni og — Mr Mason, of Gippsland, and Sir Bryan O'Loghlen. Mr Mason has been Chairman of Committees for some years, and an excellent Chairman too. He keeps the House well under control, and knows the rules and regulations. But he does cot -completely come, up to the standard of what a Spsaker ought to be— a gentleman and a scholar. Oat of the chair he i* without dignity, whatever he may be in it. Consequently there was a feeling that a better man might be got. fiir George Turner did not care for him, and he would have supported Sir Bryan O'Loghlen, Sir Bryan, who is a baronet, ib at anyrate a gentleman and a scholar. But Mr Mason had tte advantage of hating been in tbe last House, while Sir Bryan had not. Aud he had turned this to account by canvassing extensively. This is an infra dig. proceeding on the part of a Spea!t«r, but Mr Mason has no dignity ; and when the Government made a *• wbip " for Sir Biryan they found that Mr Mason had received about 60 promises, •o they dropped Sir Bryan, and Me Mason was elected unanimously. x ■ ~ Why tta* Government did not ran Mr.Duffy for the position is not cleniv He stood before and wis defeated, but he still has the ambition, , and, everybody 'siys— including. the Age — that the" Government would gladly fee him out; of , the Cabinet. / But just at, present Mr.Duffy is very unpopular. Nobody knows pxictly why. * He is John- Gavan Duffy, sou of tbe famous Charles Gavan. He suffers for the sin of his father, and ■ his father's sin againct Victoria is that he remains alive — he will not die. How is this a sin ? Well, he draws a pension as an old civil servant of £1000 a year. -Itj*as a glorious old latr in this colony that gave retired civil servants a pension for life. They have repealed it now. Charles Gavtu Duffy has £1000 a year under it, and he lives in London and Dublin and Nice and Rome and Paris, and wheresoever he listetb, and hss for a quarter of a century, aad married a young wife, and will live apparently for another quarter of a cent ury ; and all this at the yearly cost to this suffering country of £1000 a year. Now Jobn Gavan Duffy is his ton, and one way and another he has had a food deal of public money too, having a knaok of getting into the Cabinet no matter what party is in power ; and as the Minister in charge of tbe Post Office he has been away at the Washington Convention, and when that was over he took a spell in Europe, paying a visit to his father at Nice, or somewhere else, and the country heard nothing of him for some months, and all the while was paying him £1000 a year too. So he really was the son of his father, and grew so unpopular that he only just scrambled into Parliament again by the skin of his teeth sgdinst an unknown man, acdniembers concluded if he should be made Speaker he would never leave the chair and its £lpoo a year except for his coffio. ' With a man like Mason anything may happen to give someone else a chance some other day,/ but the. Duffy s are limpets, and hold on for '. ever. So the G >v6rntneht were afraid to pub Johti Gfcvan fot'watd, ' * Sit.Bry*ff O*L'ogblen won' hi* seat in the , Bouse this election in"& very carious trey. PoTt Fairy i« bis constituency, and always has been. Sic Bryan i*' ai Roman C4.ib.olic,' anxi.sPbrt Fairy "; is' the most Catholic constituency in Victoria, 'full of pot»to-gVowio& Irishmen. But io/1894 Sir Bryan, was jut out by > _B«senaclr— 'one Duffus. .This time he summoned faithful Tom Bent tcr his aid. B'etot and Sir Bryan always have been churns. The Bent-O'Loghlen Government remains to thin day the by-word for incapability amongst Victoti&n Governments. 80 Thomas Bent gravely announced himself as a candidate for Port Fairy too. Sir Bryan Stood and got the Catholic vote in globo ; Mr Duffus stood and got the majority of the Sassenachs ; and Mr Bent stood and got the ttinoiity of the Sttsßeunchs. The Sassenachs divided were not equal to the Cutholic* undivided, aud'Sir Bryan got in. Was it not a pretty little scheme ?

SPORTING ITEMS.

Golf has been claiming a share of attention. The Royal Melbourne Club had held ite championship meeting, and Mr Hugh Macneil came over from Sydney to try his skill against the Melbourne men. He competed in- the championship, bat made a disappointing score. The winner was H. A. Howden, who repeated his fast year's victory. He is almost the youngest member of the club, and is in the London Bank. His fonr rounds were : 88, 90, 83, and 87— or 348 in all. In his last two rounds he went "butboth times in 42. How easily he won is shown by the second score, which was 381. Mncneil's was 389, which was far behind his New Zealand form ; but he did much better in»the handicap match on the last day. He had a handicap of 2, and iti'lhe two rounds his score was 96 and 86. In his -second round he went cut in 46, but came in in 40 ; and tbig won him the match. Second to' him was Bruce (with a. handicap; of 11). His firrt rcudd was 94; but he felt away to 108 in the second round, which made hii ■ total 2 behind Macneil.

In cycling also a New Zenlander hu been doing good "vwork. This in E. Reynolds, the amateur champion of yowr colony. He met W. L. Park, the Australian amateur champion, at the St. Kilda ground on Saturday last, and the two had a splendid contest, with honours easy. They met (says the Argus) in the One and. Five Miles championships, and each had a win. In the mile Reynolds and Park sat at the rear of the field watching each other. At the bell, the New Zealander came with a Porta sprint, and gob going at such a strong pace that She seemed to have the race well in hand at the back of the track. Park was riding beautifully, however, and though he lost a length tiding wide for tb« top of the bank at the home turn, ho came down the bank with a terrific sprint, and beat the New Zealander all out by a good length. It was a floe race, and a brilliant fiuish, and the winner well deserved the hearty applanse he received from the crowd. Park kept on racing during the afternoon, and his half-mile from scratch in 64-sec •tamps him as a rider fit for the but of " cash " company. Reynold*, sore at his defeat, waited Cor the five-mile evenfc »fc the end of the programme, and he got his revenge. There wna big field, but Park and Reynolds watched each other, and took no heed of the others. For a number of laps Park sat behind Reynolds. Then the visitor cleverly manoeuvred P«rk into the' ' lead, and for the balance of the journey nevet moved from his wheel. Park had . a friend to pace him ioto. the iast lap and round the few ck mod into the straight he led fr6m Reynolds, riding -splendidly* On the home tarn the face '«eextfed * ceufcainty Sot Park* but Reynold! «ot in an extra ounce or two, and watt, soon on nearly er«n' teranr. XTp the straight the two fought a -splendid fight, And with a- Ja«t kick Reynolds landed his wheel home fleet by «n inch or two. The two contests hare seldom been excelled on the ground, aud Don. Walker, Ken. Lewis, C. B. Kellow, J. B. Parsons, and other

well-known cash racing men who were present; were delighted with them.