MELBOURNE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 3863, 4 July 1874, Page 5

MELBOURNE.

(from our own correspondent.) June 27th. The Legislative Assembly-is still discussing the Constitutional Amendment Bill, which is now in Committee. It is becoming more and more apparent that tho Government and its friends and enemies alike were all very imperfectly acquainted with the drift of the measure that is devised as a cure of all our constitutional difficulties. While it is denounced by some as an attempt to destroy tbe Upper House, it is attacked by others as a measure to undermine the power of the Assembly. Some see in some of its provisions the intention to give to the Council powers it never possessed before, while others consider that its effect will be to reduce the Council to a mere sham and laughing-stock. It is rather difficult to see one's way clear around these conflicting arguments. A noticeable point about this debate has been the number of charges of gross inconsistency with which it has teemed. Many members stand charged of having distinctly or indistinctly pledged themselves to .their constituents to support the scheme of the Government, and with having in the debate announced their intention of opposing it as the most dangerous measure ever introduced into any Parliament. That there should be such charges as this is not new, and is not surprising, but it certainly is strange to see so many of them. The fact is a great many I men permitted themselves to give their judgment on the Bill before they had looked into its provisions and their effects, and on doing so found that they had to take a different position from that they had first assumed. " How to prevent conflicts between the two Houses " has always been the problem which our slicking legislators have put before themselves in election speeches', and each man has had his own infallible recipe for solving it. The question is by no means an easy one, as it involves a good many questions and conditions that only men of practical acquaintance with the subject are competent to appreciate. But every young politicion in the country felt himself inspired to give an answer to it. A favourite form of solution was the adoption of the Scandinavian system—the two houses to act together and vote in common. Dr Madden, a young dandy barrister, who always presents that admirable appearance of unsurpassable millinery and hairdressing, described by many as "looking as though he had just come out of a bandbox," in his election speeches put this forward. Indeed, he almost seemed to make his audi ence to believe that he had originated it, re gardless of the fact that it had been proposed

hundreds of times before. However this may be, when he spoke on the second reading of the Bill, Dr Madden had altered his miud. He delivered a long lecture on the democracy of Athens and the p'ebe'ans of Home, showed how unfit "the masses" were to exercise political power, and pointed out how much more wisely they would be governed by the pure azure blood of our aristocracy of wholesale grorers, soft goodsmen.^jind others of the nobility. Naturally, Dr Madden is somewhat roughly taken to task, not so much for the nonsense as for the desertion of his "principles." But his case is only one of many. They have advocated the adoption of the Norwegian scheme as the only remedy of our difficulties. Well, the Government says, " Here is your Norwegian scheme, now vote for it." They never expected to have it put before them in this practical way, and now that it is, they don't know what to do. . The Sydney P srliament is prorogued, and, indeed, it was nearly time. Matters were getting too warm in that Assembly, and if it had gone on much longer, vio lence might not have been restricted to words alone. Members have been getting into the way of making disturbances, interrupting the proceedings, stopping business, and behaving generally in a very unruly manner. It is all owing to this miserable business of the release of Gardiner. The Opposition thought that it saw in this affair an opportunity to inflict a deadly blow on the Government, and was bitterly enraged to find its coup a failure. To show the rancourous personality that has lately imparted a liveliness to these debates, let me give a few of the gems which adorned a recent discus sion. Glancing through the report, I find Mr Parkes, the Colonial Secretary, attributing the arguments of an Opposition member to "a criminal disposition." He also thought them characteristic of " a low and mean nature." This would have seemed rather hard, but by way of pacifying matters, Captain Onslow said that nothing of this sort was worthy of notice '■ coming from a man who had deceived his colleagues, and swindled his creditors." Another member pleasantly referred to Mr Parkes aa '• Gardiner's showman." Some discussion arose on the question as to whether some of these expressions were deserving of the notice of the House, and it was resolved by a large majority that that they did not call for notice. Later in the evening Mr J. Robertson returned to the charge, and made use of a few- pleasantries in reference to Mr Parkes. He called him "a boasting impostor," and said that " the hon. gentleman went out of his way to blackguard the hon member for Oamdeu, whose boots he was not fit to clean. The hon. member had not the courage to remain in the House while he (viz., Mr Robertson) was speaking, but was forced to rim away.—(Hear, hear.) The honourable and cowardly sneaking, snivelling, cringing hound could not stand fire, but slunk out of the Chamber. He (Mr Robertson) listened to the hon. hound's abuse, but the hon. hound (Mr Parkes) now sneaked away. The hon. member the Premier, who had delivered himself of the grossest falsehood that had ever fallen from the lip 3of any snivelling, whining fellow, now ran away." The hon. and courteous member, in the course of his remarks, observed "it was no U3e talking like a lot of fishfags across the table," and after this specimen no one would venture to deny the hon. gentleman's capa- ! bility to offer an opinion on this question As 1 before said, when matters had come to this pitch, the best thing was a prorogation, and the remedy was applied in good tin,e. The mysterious disappearance of a young ! lady from her school in East Melbourne, having given rise to endless conjectures and small talk, has almost passed out of common conversation. The rewards offered for information leading to her discovery have been withdrawn, but not a trace has been fo-md of her movements after leaving school. She is the daughter of the late Mr Pettetfc, one of the wealthy lower orders of the Colony, and is closely related to the rich land-owners and squatters, Winter Brothers. This being the case, naturally the first conjecture was that the disappearance was an elopement, and that it would soon be satisfactorily explained by a notice in the first column of the Argus, under the head of "Marriages." This idea has, however, been given up; and ns the girl had but very little money with her when she went away, the remaining conjectures open are very few. There is a disinclination to accept the painful one of suicide, although that too nas been entertained, and the Police have for some time been dragging the river. It has been thought that she may have gone away into. the bush and taken a place as a servant somewhere beyond the reach of newspapers, but that appears a very wild guess indeed. In.its present mysterious aspect the case is a very singular episode in Melbourne life. A good deal of inquiry has lately been made in Parliament as to the way in which eases are dealt with in which the Customs authorities find that importers are presenting cooked or fraudulent invoices to avoid payment of the duty leviable upon their consignments. The present system is that in such cases the Minister takes evidence in his office, and fines the importer the amount that he thinks proper under the circumstances. It is easy to see that this is a highly objectionable proceeding. It is done, sa3's the Minister, because in many cases, although there is a complete and undoubted case against the importer, it is not one that could be made out in a court of law. On the other hand, it is evident that this course is highly unfair to honest importers, and that the fraudulent one avoids the exposure that he deserves, and is perhaps only called upon to pay as fine a fractional part of the sum of which he has cheated the revenue. An important case of thiskind has just arisen, in which, however, circumstances have operated so as to lay the whole matter before the public. Messrs Callaghan, boot and shoe importers, were charged with having systematically, during a series of years, swindled the revenue by false invoices, and of course covered the swindling by repeated perjury. The firm .have a defence, it is understood, and until that defence is heard, it is unfair to judge their case. As the Messis Callaghan are prominent Wesleyaus, pillars of the Church; eloquent and fervid orators at teasoi ees and similar means of pious dissipation, it may readily be understood that there is in religious circles a strong disbelief that they have been guilty of any wicked transactions of the kind suspected. Possibly in outside circles the same inference is not held with the same strength or warmth of conviction. There is reason to fear that Victoria is not very much loved by the other Cilonies, and also that this is very much our own fault, or at any rate that of our Government. There seems to be a rough, hard coarseness in the tone of our diplomacy that naturally i.ffead: and irritatesthefeelings of other communities. Our Government, in their negotiations, appear never to be able to forgtt that this Colony is as big (in population) as any two of | the others, that we have a fleet of warships, ■ and that Victoria is the premier Colony of Australasia. Recently, this overbearing feoling was rather unpleasantly shown towards South Australia. The Government of that Colony lately renewed to our preseat Government an old application to have the boundary line between the two Colonies accurately determined, as it is believed at present to be incorrectly laid down. By an Imperial Statute, the base is fixed at the 141 st meridian ; but the contention of the South Australian Government is that the old determination of the meridian is incorrect, and that we have appropriated a slip of territory two and a half miles wide that does not belong to us. Mr Francis replies that he is willing to give instruct ons for an aecarate survey to be made in conjunction with South Australia, provided that it be understood that the enquiry is undertaken in the "interest of science simply," and I that there is no other object in view. Of j course this is not the object of South AustraI lia, who wants to reclaim land, of which it considers it is now unfairly deprived. But this affair would not be much in itself were there not reason to believe that it is an average sample of the spirit and the tone shown by our statesmen in. dealing with our neighbours. We have again a theatrical monopoly" established, and probably we shall soon feel the usual results of a depreciation, if that is possible, of the character of our theatrical entertainments. The Italian Opera Company having left the Opera House and gone on to Sydney, the management of the theatre has passed into the hands of the managers of the Theatre Royal, so that now we have the sight of two theatres on opposite sides of the street working in competition with, each other, but both managed by the same men. Not at all a healthy condition, either for the interests of the public or for those of the profession. At tbe Theatre Royal they are playing Yankee melodrama, aad at the Opera House Offenbaehian buffo operas, the

one at present running being the Princess of Trebizonde.

There is no prospect of any improvement in the manners of our members of. Parliament. There have been several disgraceful scx-iies this season already of members using their position to give them impunity while th ;y utter infamous slanders, and attempt to damage the characters of better men than themselves. The worst case of the kind is the 1 itest. A member named Longmore, o ie of the greatest offenders in this direction, has stated in a discussion in the House that a Police Magistrate, whom he named, had " gob his position by murdering people on t ie goldfitkls in cold blood in the early da\ s " The slander arose from a charge pro ferred against, but disproved by, the gentleman in question, that he had in a riot struck a man with a sword and caused his death. This clearly refuted charge has since been several times brought forward by members of slanderous propensities, simply because they can do it with perfect im-, ptinity. They will probably go on in this way till they goad some one on to the only retaliation the case admits of, and tilt some highly privileged representative of the people is pounded into a jelly by some one whom he has infamously traduced. Then, possibly, but hardly before, shall we have this privilege of free irresponsible speech, which our members are clearly not to be trusted with, restricted and confined within proper bounds.