NEW SOUTH WALES.

Press, Volume XXXI, Issue 4287, 26 April 1879, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEW SOUTH WALES.

[3PBO_£ OXm OWN CORR-SPOND-NT.] S-DKBX, April 12. The event of the past month has unquestionably been the passage of arms which has takes place between our Premier, Sir Henry Parke*, and. the 'Victorian Commissioner of Customs, the Hon. Peter Lalor. That weary border duties question was the ratus belli. The question has dribbled on year after year iv sue- interminable driblets that it is little likely to he understood outside the two colo-r-fis'conesr-ed. But it is actually a question whioh f ♦hould be understood aa a warning, and ai it is capable of being put into few words,"and the recent incident] will be made all the clearer thereby, I shall mate the attempt. ___£ well-informed type, "every schoolboy," snows that the colonies of New South Wales and Victoria adjoin, having an extensive frontier common to both. Al«o, that the tract of New South Wales which border* and adjoins the Murray River, and is popularly known as Biverina—a frontier district, very rich in flocks and herds—is considerably nearer to Melbourne than to Sjdney. Moreover the rukrs of Victoria in years past poshed their trunk line of railway right up to their frontier, their terminus being at Echuca, a town on the bank of the Murray. Naturally, they have been rewarded by gtttiug all the Biverina trae'e. Biverina indeed becune quite Victorian. Access to Sydney involved lorg distances on horseback or in Cobb's eo*ch before the railway could be reached. All over the distric the people cot only bought Victorian supplies, dealt with Victorian merchants, and aent their woo! to Victoria, but they actually took Melbourne papers—which, be it noted, have always been much more enlivening reading than the corresponding journals published in Sydney—and they talked Victorian politics to a man.

Now of course, when certain classes of imports are brought into any colony which relies upon the Custom House for any part of its revenue, duty has to be paid on such goods, aid accordingly Custom. Housjb were established on both banks of the Murray by the two colonies respectively. But this was found inconvenient and costly, and a treaty was arranged whereby the preventive officers were withdrawn from the border. Victoria undertook to pay New South Walesa lump turn in lieu of the revenue she was entitled to, and made her own arrangements for collecting the duties. This worked smoothly enough, but after a while Victoria abolished the treaty, and the eld practice had to be returned to, and has subsisted ever since, ihe collections made by New South Wales amounting to about £100,000 per annum. Now, rote this—not one penny of this amount comes from any tax specially imposed to protect our producers against the producers of New South Wales. In fact, we hare no anch tax in our tariff, free trade being the principal of tbe colony. But, per contra, Victoria has imposed several such taxes, notably the stock tax, which was avowedly imposed to keep out New South Wales sheep ar|a cattle from the Melbourne market, so as to enable Victorian graziers to get first call and an enhanced price. Another is a wine duty, which, as Mr Laler rather blunderingly remarked in the recent correspondence, is. in . effect prohibitory ; , and there are others also. Mr Lilor's mission waa to renew the former treaty upon a basis adjusted to the times. What impelled him, he and his colleagues best know; but there are some facts warfji nie_iio_ing. In the first place, during the last few years New South Wales has been j steadily pushing on her railways in the direc- | tion-J the- border, and is now approaching ; very near to it—so near, in fact, that it was" seriously asked of the contractors now engaged in constructing the last section necestary to connect our lines with those of Victoria (barring a bridge serosa the Murray) whether they could accelerate their work so, ap-.cto have the through route by rail av_S_He for the Exhibition time. The contractors said it was more than they could manage, hut the incident serves to indicate that ths supremacy of Victoria in Biverina is no longer uncontested. In fact, a very con-•ul-f-Ms. proportion of the Biverina wool came last year for the first time to Sydney instead of going to Melbourne, and the " drumEfters 1 ' from Sydney mercantile houses have been-roaming over the contested district of late; offering supplies at free trade prices, now that railway carriage is available, or likely soon to be. Moreover, the stock tax has not only failed to produce revenue to Victoria, but ifc has done infinite damage to a lot cf meat.preservers, fellmongers and others, who whatever their previous principles may have been, begin to find protection a sham, when it breaks them in order to coddle graziers great and small. Well, under these circumstances, Mr Lalor comes to Sydney and* addresses himself officially to Sir Henry Paries, with a view to a fresh treaty, and offers on the part of Victoria £50,000 and abolition of the stock tax, wine tax, and other productive taxes. Sir H«*|y very naturally said, in effect, " No. This won't do. Let us both start fair. We have no protective taxes, aimed especially at your people, that we can set off against your taxes. Beaute* we have not forgot that your leader, Mr Graham Berry, in justifying the s|ock tax on its being pasted into law, made a point by saying that one reason for enacting it .would he that it would be something to give up when the time came for a removal of the border treaty.'' Sir Henry, in diplomatic language, required that as a basis these enactments and any revenue derived from them s-ould be considered a* non-existent, and required the full £100,000 per annum which we fcai-ff.'beenrcollecfi_g on the border, without atijr deduction for Victoria surrendering duties which were established for the purpose of placing New South Wales and her producers ata disadv-ntege.

At this rebuff, which was civilly sweetened by being covered with courteous language and matter of fact style, the Hon. Peter Lalor exploded, and gave the astonished publio of New South Wales a benefit by writing offensive and violent rejoinders to Sir Henry ParkeV cool and by degrees rather contemptuous,, "though always polite, notes, and by publishing the correspondence. Nothing could .poesi-ly have better served to bring before thejmblic of New South Wales a pLc-tu-3 of Victorian political life than this episode. _Mie b-Uyicg tone in which Mr Lalor insisted on a bad case, his'rspid loss of all temper, his gratuitous allegation to his opponent of corrupt motives, hia bluster, and finally the ers-s uenstness and conceit which prevented htm from seeing that he had much the worse of the argument and had besides disgraced himself,. _nrl which prompted him to send to the l: Herald " correspondence which a wiser man would have tried to suppress, all these ti__tg»have bees noted, and have made a deep impression. * "While the tendency of (he foregoing experience undoubtedly is to make us thaukful that our public men are not as other public men are, we are not quite at ease about the ousiity even of the former. One of their own number has just turned Queen's evidence against the whole body. Mr W. H. Suttor, member for East Macquarie, a few weeks ago intimated to hia constituents that he purposed retiring at the end of the present session. This a matter for rsgret, because Mr Suttor is a man of character of average ability, and of independent means. He hat occupied the position of Minister in the late FarneU Cabinet, and has had ample experience to giro Mm value .as a legislator. But here is what he says in his -njaanneement of intention to resign, as adTertiaed in the local paper:—" An experience of four years has shown mc that to ensure popular favour, political life mutt be one of mean a_d cringing servility and of thankless aiavery. A private station is of more honour and need not be teas patriotic.** It is amusing to know that only a couple of weeks after tha appearance of this notice, wh|cJi_.!Bjojt people would regard as making 4-et-rn to Par__me_t_ry life impostible for the writer without a tremendous stultification, a requiiiUon was sent asking him not to .resign. :■■.•■■

As for tho Asaembly, ready as many of ita -atab«a"B»u_lly are fco give tongue on the

(■lightest pretext, not a remark has been made about this very uncompromising manifesto. I don't pretend to fathom the reason. It may be di?daio, it may be shame, or it may be that the House centres its efforts on providing against similar attacks i.i the future. There has been a free conference between repreientatives of the two Chambers to discuss the Council's insistar.ee on their amendments to the Privileges of Parliament Bill concocted and passed by the Assembly. The Council had asserted a large principle by confining tbe punitive powers of Parliament te offences committed within their precincts, but it is now understood that they are prepared to concede this important point, and consequently there is every possibility that, before I again write yon, there will be enacted a law which will compel all future Suttorajto keep their opinions to themselvci, and even myself, writing to a colony across the sea, will have to be cautious in what terms I express any contempt I may feel for either House or any of its decisions or acts. I imagine, however, that language is capable of sufficiently subtle management to enable anyone who deliberately sets himself to convey a contemptuous meaning, to do so without laying himself open to the lash of the new power* taken by the Chambers. It will only be unthinking, haety, or angry victims who will be likely to be caught.

.In the meantime, while yet one can say a favorable word without suspicion of doing so under compulsion or fear, I take the opportunity of recording my conviction that the Assembly very fairly represents the country, and that its faults and irregularities, its intrigues and log rollings, Bre simply the natural fruit of the condition of morality and principle throughout the community. As to this Privilege Bill, ths _Mt striking abuse of the powers it gives will involve ita repeal. The cable will have conveyed to you tha news that a prize fight came off on New South Wales anil, close to the border, between two men, Foley and Hicken, claiming to represent New South Walea and Victoria respectively. The notorious Mace, pugilisticchampion of the world, lent the affair the support of his battered but influential coun tenance. Hicken waa pounded to the proper consistency to justify his seconds to admit that he was conquered—he never had a chance from the commencement of the fight— and all parties returned to Melbourne, where Mr Hicken was obliged to take to his bed and waa honored by Mr Foley occasionally calling to enquire after his health, and leaving his card with due ceremony; and was also favoured with intimations that another visitor, erysipelas to wit,iwas not unlikely to put in an appearance. Meanwhile the machinery of the law revolved with even more than normaljslowness, and the conqueror, with Mace and Thompson, had already Bailed from Sand ridge pier before a warrant for their arrest was issued. Bven then tbere was time to board the steamer at Queenscliffe, but this was bungled, and not effected, and many persons are satisfied that the police authorities i were not anxious to distinguish themselves by I acthity on this occasion. In consequence of this fiatco, 3ydney had the distinction of a visit from the trio—Mr Hicken remaining confined to his bed in Melbourne. The visitors were Boon arrested on warrant and brought up at the Police Court*, where they were bound over to appear at Moama to a-awer. for their sport in that neighborhood. In the interim they had three public " receptions " at the Victoria Theatre, where they appeared on the boards as a sort of interlude or accessory to a shocking play' called " Formosa," and were cheered to the echo by crammed houses. I thought of going myaalf, in order that I might moralise afterwards with a knowledge of all the facts; hem—but the fact is I do not care for pugilists. It is a convenisnt thing for mc, as it is considered proper to express such sentiments justnow, and plenty of people do so who secretly sympathise with the bruising business. : The conclusion of the prosecution has been in keeping with the rest of the sham. The defendants were discharged, as the Bench held that the police had failed to prove that the encounter waa a prize fight 1