OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 8720, 12 January 1892, Page 4

OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

[Fbom Our Melbourne Cobbkspondent.] Wednesday, January 6, POLITICAL, The chief topio of political interest in Melbourne at the present time is the approaching appointment of a successor to Sir Graham Berry aa Agent-Goneral for Viotoria, As I have already informed you, the Munro Government have refused to appoint the old Liberal Leader in Victorian politics for a third term, and that gentleman is now on hie way from London to Melbourne to be nominated as a candidate for the Legislative Assembly at tha next general elections, His arrival is looked forward to with much interest, as it is expected that Liberals will rally round him, and form a strong party in tne Victorian Parliament. The secret has now leaked out that Mr Munro has all along had his eye on the Agent Generalship, and it rests with his colleagues to say whether they are willing to part with their Premier, and with himself to find a way out of his financial difficulties. In common with many other prominent Melbourne citizens who were a year or two ago wealthy men, Mr Munro has suffered considerably from the collapse of the land boom and tbe depression in all kinds of investment stocks, and at the present time Lia private affairs are somewhat involved. A good deal of pressure has bean brought to bear vpon him in banking circles tp go Home as AgentGeneral, as it is believed that his presence in London will do muoh towards the floating of the instalmentsof theL6,ooo,oooloan or the Treasury honds, which may be resorted to as a temporary expedient for obtaining funds from the great metropolis, and he is at present endeavoring to arrange his private affairs towards that end. The question of his appointment will be settled at a Cabinet meeting which is to be held next week. Should he bio unable to take the position of Agent-General it is not unlikely that Sir Henry VVrixen, the late Attorney-General, will be nominated for the position. Mr Wrixen's knighthood formed one of the honors accorded by Her Majesty the Queen at the New Year. Among other elevations has been that of Mr E. G. Fitzgibbon, the chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works, to a C.M.G.-shlp. It was anticipated that at the close of the Victorian parliamentary session there would be a rearrangerncot of the Ministerial portfolios to enable Mr Shisjs to resign the control of the Railway Department. This course seemed absolutely necessary owing to the strained relations existing between Mr Shiels and the chairman of the Railway Commissioners. It has transpired, however, that no such obange is contemplated, and that Mr Shiela is to oontinue to act as Minister of Railways as well as AttorneyGeneral. Arrangements are now being made for removing the construction branch from the oontrol of the Commissioners to that of the Board of Land and Works, aa provided by the new Act, The Viotorian revenue returns for tfy? first half of the financial year ended on the 31st December, 1891, give a total of L 3,790,684, or U»P,203 short of the estimate. The Naw South Wales return* for the year 1891 amounted to Jj10,057,124, being L 89.224 in fexo*** of the Trewnwr's forecast. . ■JCne new electoral rolls for the Vlotorien Legislative Assembly (unreviaed) have bees prepared, and sJww a total number of voters

of 290,02!), There has been an increase }a the number of ratepaying eleotors of 28,418, and of non ratepaying eleotors of 17,835. Complete arrangements have been made for putting the Purification of Rollb Act, pasHed during last session, into operation before the general eleotions take place in April. It is anticipated that there will be many changes in the personnel of the Assembly as a result of the eleotions. The main question which will be put before the eleotors will be the one-man-one-vote principle, as against the dual-vote proposal propounded in the Legislative Council. COMMERCIAL DEPRESSION IN MELBOBRNK. The history of operations in the stook and share market in Melbourne indioates the commercial depression which at present exists in Melbourne. A comparison of the closing prices of 1890 with those of 1891 shows a depreciation in values of considerably more than twenty millions sterling, and the fall is pretty nearly evenly divided between investment and mining stocks. In the Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus Stook alone the shrinkage in value for the year amounts to no less than L 3,000,000; while the Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company shows a shrinkage of L 3.650.000, and the Broken Hill Proprietary Silver Mining Company the seriouß one of L5,280,0d0. The year haa dosed with a decided depression, but it is generally considered that the worst has been experienced, and that the opening of the new year will witness a steady, if slow and moderate, reoovery. One of the most striking features of the year as regards the commerce of Viotoria is the divergence which has existed between the country and the city. The country trade has been good, while the Melbourne trado has declined. The productive seasons for several years past have rendered the country settler prosperous, and he has not felt the effects of the check upon enterprise which has come upon the metropolis, The direction in whioh this check has made itself most serioußly felt in trade circles is, perhaps, upon the importation of building materials, iron, and machinery. The timber trade particularly shows a record for the year of small sales, low prices, and overstocking. The soft goods trade was assisted for the greater part of the year by the country demand, but towards the close it suffered an unmistukeable falling off. The Customs returns, which are only available for the first nine months of the year, show that imports have undergone a considerable shrinkage; but this unsatisfactory feature, which is indicative of a dull condition of trade, ia to some extent compensated for by the marked increase in exports. Comparing the exports of the first nine months of the two yeara IS9O and 1891, the increase in favor of the la tier year btinds at close upon two millions in value, or over 30 per cent. A ROMANTIC SUICIDE. A strange suicide took place in Melbourne last week. The deceased was Miss Selina Palmer, aged twenty five, a lady-help in the household of Mr Alfred Dampier, of theatrical fame, and she is said to have poisoned herself on account of an unrequited attachment conceived for a scenic artist, who was recently engaged at the Alexandra Theatre, and is now about to proceed to America. On Monday afternoon of last week MiBS Lily Dampier, while pastingthe deceased's bedroom, heard sounds of vomiting, and upon entering duoovered the occupant of the room reclining on the bed and gasping for breath. Asked the causo of her illness, she replied: "0!i, I am so wicked. You will never forgive me. I took some poison at eleven o'clock this morning to end my miserable life." For the moment Miss Dampier could not realise the gravity of the position, but as soon as she ascertained that the girl had really swallowed a quantity of an arsenical preparation she sent for Dr M'Gibbon, and the usual remedies were applied. She grew rapidly worse, however, and Mr Dampier called'in Dr Neild in consultation, and prooured the services of a skilled nurse, The deoeaßed had been for five years in Mr Dimpier's family, by the members of which she was very highly esteemed, and everything conceivable was done to alleviate her sufferings, and, if possible, avort a fatal termination ; but, despite the attention of the medical attendants, she gradually sank, and died in great agony sixteen hours after the poison had been taken.

At the inquest Mr Alfred Tischbauer, scenic artist, employed at the Alexandra Theatre, depoßed that he knew Miss Palmer, and met her for the last time on Sunday, the 27th inst., in the street near Mr Dampier's house. He did not Bee her afterwards, or hear from her till Monday night, when he received a letter written to him by her which should have been delivered to him in the morning. The letter read as follows : My Darling,—For so I may call you for this once. You know on Saturday night you aßked me if I had said anything about you, and I said No. I was afraid to tell you that I had said that you had asked me to go away with you [to America] I knew you would be angty and cast me off for ever, but now I tell you I expect no mercy at your hands. I little thought when we parted last night that it would be the last time on this earth I should see the face I love so well, for I have done what you would do were you In the Bame difficulty. God forgive me for it, but I cannot live without you, bo I must die. Send me a line back quickly by the messenger, jußt to HI me you do not curse me. Only gay you will forgive me and I shall leave this world happy. God bless you, my dear love. Goodbye. Yours for to.-diy, but afterwards I shall, I t.uppose, belong to God.—Your poor lost Sbuka.

P.S.— I was to leave next Monday, but I go to my God to-day. Oh, God t It is bo hard to die, and life with you seems so happy. The Coroner: Did Miss Palmer ever give you reason to suppose she was of unsound mind ?—No.

The letter appears to Indioato that your relations with her were intimate, Was that so ?—Yes.

Was there any love between you ?—Only on her part. I never made love to her, and I only met her from time to time. Was there any unpleasantness on the occasion when she last saw you ?—No,

Do you know of anything whioh was likely to have prompted her to kill herself. —No; I know of no reason, adequate or inadequate, for such an action on her part. Was it true that you were going away ? No, After your last meeting did she show any signß of great emotion ?—No, none whatever, Miss Lily Dampier, in the coarse of her evidence, said that Mr Tischbauer had often visited her father's house, but not lately, The Coroner: Were yon aware of any attachment between Miss Palmer and Mr Tischbauer ?—No, When she spoke of him I thought she did so in terms suggestive of disparagement rather than affection. The jury returned a verdiot of "Selfdestruction whilst of unsound mind." A SHIP AMONG IGKBEBGS. The crew of the ship Gainsborough, which arrived at Melbourne on Saturday from Antwerp, witnessed a wonderful sight when their vessel was a little to the westward of the Cape of Good Hope. The ship passed from the western to the eastern hemisphere in the latitude of 43deg south, the weather, though cold, being fine and olear. The winds were favorable and of moderate power, and the ship waß travelling at a fair rate of speed. As she drew to the eastward the weather became unpleasantly cold, and at 5 a.m. on the 30th Gotober one of the sailors reported an iceberg right ahead. The vessel was kept on "her course and rapidly approached what proved to be a field of ioe. In two hours the ship waß in the dangerous predioament of being surrounded by over fifteen ioebergs and numerous ice floes. Through the ioe were narrow ohannels, and the ship with no other way of esoape was compelled to pass through them. The crew, fully alive to the danger of their fiosition, stood by the braoes, and trimmed he yards to catch Jche wind, as tbe vessel's course was altered, to pass through the tortuous passages.' The .cold was intense, and the sun's rays striking on the white hillocks almost blinded the men, The master of the vessel, Captain M'Phail, had two of his best men at the wheel, and carefully picked his way through the many dangers. All that day the snip was in the midst of the ioe ; the strain on the nerves of all on board was terrible. The waves caused the icebergs to rook, and as the vessel passed a great crash astern would draw attention to a white mass falling to pieces. The icebergs were from 10 to 200 ft inbeight, and the latter would drift, down ahead of the ship in the most alarming manner. At times great fiat pieces of ice would be discovered almost under the bows, so near in faot that they could be touohefl with a boathpok. As

evening approaohed the ship's position beoame more dangerous, and had a storm oommenoed the vessel would certainly have been lost. Fortunately the weather oontinued fine, and, the night being dear, tho master was enabled to steer dear of the many obstructions. At 9 p.m. the last iaeberg was on the quarter, and, with open water ahead, more sail was set, and the Bhip was soon far away. It is a moat unusual thing to find ice in any quantity in 9deg 30min E., and the faot that the ioebergs were close together and extended to 12deg 40min E. leads Captain M'Phail to believe that the ioebergs were the remains of a large ice island. On sth December the Gainsborough spoke a ship, the master of whioh reported that he had come aorosß nine large icebergs about the same latitude. The Gainsborough met with many storms in the Southern Ocean, and was frequently in great danger \ but the orew were never so uncomfortable as they were when passing those great white derelicts from unknown I regions. SUICIDES IK MELBOURNE, Several auioides have recently taken plaoe in Melbourne. A week ago Mr Lawrence Levy disappeared, and some days afterwards his body was discovered in the Yarra. The deceased gentleman, who was an auctioneer and estate agent, carrying on business in Elizabeth street, left his home in Carlton about 10.45 p.m. Thence he proceeded, so far as can be ascertained, to the shop of Mr Joseph Josephs, tobacconist, Swanston street. There he smoked a cigar and perused the evening newspapers, ultimately expressing his intention of visiting the Solo Whist Club in Collins street, of which ho was a member. Mr Levy remained at the club for a short time, and Mr Rappiport, J.P., of East Melbourne, who was an intimate friend of tho deceased, and who waß also present, states that just as the deceased was leaving he tugged his (Mr Rappiport's) coat sleeve, as though desirous of saying somothing. As Mr Rappiport's eyesight is defeotive, he was not in a position to fully estimate the significance of the act at the moment. Mr Levy then passed out of the club, and was not heard of again until the dhcovery of his body. The circumstances of the cabo seem to point to suicide. For some time past deceased has been in a greatly depressed state of mind. For the last ten years he had been an active speculator in real estate, and his financial loaaes, his family state, were enormous. These losses, continuous and heavy, seriously preyed upon his mind, and when at length the bauk stopped his overdraft quite recently the crisis arrived, and he sought in death a refuge from hia financial embarrassments. The deceased aleo suatained a severe shock by the recent death of a favorite Bon. Mr Thomas Patrick Fallon, a gentleman well known in commercial circles in the city, and the consul for Chili, as well as consulgeneral in Australasia for Columbia, committed suicide on Monday by shooting himself through the head at his lodgings, Salisbury House, Nicholson street, Fitzroy. M r Fallon, who was a son-in-law of the late Mr Matthew Dawson, and consequently a J brother-in-law of Mr E G. Fitzgibbon (the chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works), has of late years been unfortunate in his speculations and investments, and it is believed that the worries and perplexities of finanoial embarrassment and probably financial ruin proved too muoh for him to bear up against, and led him to end his life. His wife, to whom ho had been married for about sixteen years, is just returning from a lengthy trip to England, and reached Albany in the R.M.S. Massilia on Sunday, Mr J. W. Burley, thirty six years of age, importer and commission agent, hanged himself at his residence in Spring street, on the night of tho 29th ult. From the evidence given at the inquest it appeared that Burley, who occupied a separate room, wont to bed in ordinary spirits after bidding his wife good night. When his sister-in-law, Miss Sarah Gibson, went to oall him for breakfast next morning she found that he was not in bis room, and that the bed had not been slept in. Deceased was then discovered in a back room hanging by a hay band from a cross beam, and quite dead. Deceased some three months ago attempted suicide by swallowing nitrate of glycerine, but on that ocoasion his life was saved by a prompt resort to emetics, "For somo time he had been ill and worried in his mind by money loseea inourred in his business and mining speculations. A SHOCKING ACCIDENT. A terrible accident occurred in Howie place, off Little Bourke street, in Melbourne, last Wednesday. The viotim was Joseph Stanley, aged twenty-eight, employe" of the Now Australian Electric Lighting Company, Limited, who, while engaged in fixing a cable to the top of a telegraph pole, lost his foothold, and was pitched head foremost on the edge of the kerbstone. It appears that a gang of men from the company's works, ia charge of Thomas Jones, foreman, was engaged in running an insulated cable down Collins etreet, Joseph Stanley, one of the party, being direoted to ascend a ladder to thread a wire through a bracket to oonneot with the insulator. Stanley had been ill throughout the previous night, and had been unable to secure more than a couple of hours' sleep, and, knowing him to be weak and unstrung, Edward Barber, one of the line men, proffered to take his place. Stanley refused the offer, however, and having been speoially oautioned by the foreman not to in any way interfere with the " live" wires, he ran nimbly up the ladder and commenced operations. Barber was standing at the foot of the pole, and suddenly raising his head, he was horrified to observe Stanley swinging in mid.air and holding on by two of the existing electric lighting mains. A number of people rushed up, and several of them seizing the ladder, foolishly placed it in juxtaposition to Stanley's feet. Barber forcibly wrested it from thorn, and replacing it against the pole, had half ascended it when Stanley lost his hold, and, falling at an angle, pitohed head foremost a distance of 25ft, Btriking his temple against the edge of the kerbstone. He was picked up in an insensible oondition, and upon being admitted into the Melbourne Hospital was found to be suffering from concussion of the brain and a fractured skull, He never regained consciousness, and died on Saturday. GENEBAL. Cricket is at present monopolising the attention of the greater proportion of our population, The intercolonial matoh between New South Wales and Victoria exoited a good deal of interest, but nothing like what has been created by the match with Lord Sheffield's English team, The attendance during two days was not loss than 20,000, and there is a prospect of a revival of sustained interest in a game whioh has gone somewhat out of fashion of late. The Balient details of the matches wilt have reached you by cable, so that it is not necessary for me to enter into them. The marked loorease in the passenger trade to and from New Zealand during the present summer months is noticeable in the well-filled inward and outward passenger lists. The Mararoa leaves to,day with a full complement, and in order to keep pace with the demand for accommodation the company's a,a. Waihora, another of the company's favorite boats, will return from Dunedin direct in plaoe of the Hauroto, so as to leave here during the middle of the onrrent month. The Te Anau, which leaves here for New Zealand before the Waihora, also has her berthing accommodation nearly all taken up, The Te Anau left yesterday on an intermediate trip to Hobart with visitors to the Science Congress. j Mr Trenwith, M.L.A., of Viotoria, is at J present airing his eloquenoe in Brisbane. A meeting of over 1,000 persons was held in the Centennial Hall on Monday night to hear him on the conspiracy laws and the sentences passed by Mr Justice Harding on the Queensland shearers. Mr Glassey, M.L.A., was in the chair. Mr Trenwith went fully into the Bnbjeotof master and servant, dealing with the matter of conspiracy from the framing of the first statute in England. He severely oritioised Mr Justice Harding's sentences. At the oon> oluslon of the address Mr Glassey said he would like to get up a constitutional conspiracy to remove Mr Justice Harding, and put a wise and judicial judge in his place, A new development has taken plaoe in oonneotion with the affairs of the Land Credit Bank. Soon after the arrest of the manager, G. N. Taylor, his wife sold her residence at Prahan for a sum of L 3.000, the money being paid by a oheque on the Commercial Bank. As this house was held as collateral' security against Mrs Taylor's acceptance of L 43,000, striot inquiry was

made by the directors into the oiroumBtanoes of the sale, and it was found that the purchaser's cheque had been cashed by an old Jamaican friend of Mrs Taylor's—a Mrs Haldane, now living in Domain street, South Yarra—and that L 1,900 of the sum, whioh was paid in LSO notes, had been subsequently oredited to Mrs Haldane's account in the Bank of Australasia. Under these oircumstances, it was aßsumed that the payment had really been made on behalf of Mrs Taylor, and accordingly application has been made by the directors of the Land Credit Bank for an order to attach the sum now lying to Mrs Haldane's oredit in the Bank of Australasia.

A strange accident ocourred at the Hopetoun races on Friday. After the official programme had been gone through the owners of several horses arranged an impromptu consolation race. As the four horses engaged were about half a mile frpm the winning post a well-known looal rider, Reeoe Jenkins, although not a starter for the race, was observed to out across a corner of the oourse and run his horse into the two leading horses, all three falling in a heap. Reece Jenkins was killed instantaneously, and his brother John, riding one of the i leading horses, was fatally Injured. He oontinued insensible all night, and died on Saturday. The other riders escaped without injury. Bush fires are raging in the Riverina district. In some localities an enormous amount of damage has been done. It will be two or three seasons before the grass completely recovers from the effeots of the fire, and thousands of sheep are now without grass. Stock are btiDg removed as faat as poßsible by the owners who have been burnt out to the mountainous districts, where grass is plentiful, but this work is attended with great difficulty. The ship lolanthe arrived at Newoastle from Normanton, Queensland, on Friday night, after a protracted passage of seventynine days. Captain Stanton states that the lolanthe reached Normanton on Ist January last year, and for nine months lay iu the anchorage, unable to get rid of her cargo. During this time the vessel's bottom got covered with dirt and huge barnacles. This, with the prevalence of light airs, calms, and head winds, accounts for the protracted passage. The lolanthe left the anchorage as far back as the 14th October, with light S.E. monsoons, which were carried to Northwest Cape, On rounding, the vessel stood on her southerly course for Cape Leeuwin across the trades, whioh proved very light. From thence to Cape Leeuwin light airs and calms prevailed, In the straits strong winds were met with, and from Cape Howe there were strong head winds, with a current setting to the south at the rate of three knots per hour. On four occasions the vessel made Sydney Heads, and each time she was carried away south again, but eventually reaohed this port after fourteen days' continuous taoking up the coast. Assaults by prisoners on warders at Fentridge are becoming painfully frequent, and it would seem that flogging will have to be resorted to in order to suppress them. The other day Senior-warder Kelly, whilst exercising a gang of prisoners, was assaulted by a convict named Everard. The man waß walking close to the official, when, without the slightest warning, he struck him with his olenched hand in the faoe, and was following the attack up when the other prisoners oame to the rescue, Kelly's assailant struggled with them furiously until he was overpowered and looked up. Some commotion was caused by the attack, but the prisoners generally behaved very well and made no attempt at insubordination. So far the man who so brutally assaulted Seniorwarder Dily some little time ago has not been discovered, and there is little probability that he will. The prisoners who were in the gang at the time are still kept under lock and key, There is a feeling among the officials that the prison is undermanned, and many of the warders assert that such a policy of economy is fraught with danger to them.

On Thursday last a two-roomed tenement in Ballarat East was burned to the ground, and on an examination being made afterwards the oharred body of the owner, Herbert Norria, a miner nineteen years of age, employed at the New Normanby mine, was found among the debris. From its position it was evident the deceased had been aroused from sleep and had made an attempt to reach the door. Charles Wm. Fourdrinier, the ledgerkeeper of the Armadale branch of the Federal Bank, who disappeared on November 4 last, and for whose arrest a warrant was subsequently issued on a charge of embezzling L 317, made his appearanoe at the head office the other day, and after a consultation with the manager, Mr Priestley, surrendered himself to the detective police. A man named Berman, who was re cently stabbed in Adelaide, has laid an information against Mrs Amelia Codd, his landlady, on a charge of initiating grievous bodily harm, Berman Btates that he was awakened between 12 and 1 o'clock on Thursday morning by someone cutting away at the wood around the lock of one of the drawers. He states that he struck a light and saw the landlady, who attacked him with a knife. Mrs Codd is the widow of the late Henry Codd, a well-known builder, who died some years ago, and who was Mayor of Unley at one time. She entirely denieß the charge.