OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7916, 6 July 1887, Page 4

OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

Melbourne, June 28. The jubilee has been the leading event of the past week. Parliament made public business give way to it. Mr Bent withdrew his no-confidence motion, for which, if he had gone to a vote, he would have found only 13 supporters. Thereupon the House adjourned for a fortnight. This will enable the jubilee to be got over, Mr Deakin to be banqueted, and the Adelaide Exhibition to be visited by a parliamentary party. Mr Fitzgibbon, the town clerk of Melbourne, who failed to find favour for his proposal to send a crown of Australian gold, set with 50 gems of purest ray—one for each year of her reign—to the Queen, has contented himself by writing a poem—a jubilee ode. It is to be sent with the address from the corporation as a tribute from the city. It is scarcely to be expected that the town clerk will cut out Mr Lewis Morris from the reversion of the laureateship, but his poetical tribute ought at least to bring him a knighthood. The dominant sentiment of his by no means poor effort is " Let us be joyful." With " Jubilee, jubilernus," he begins eacli verse. And in Melbourne, at any rate, his exhortation has been obeyed. The big splash was of course on jubilee night, when Melbourne burst into a blaze of light with nightfall. Some of the banks spent as much as £200 on glass globes, devices, and transparencies; the Princess Theatre went to an expense of £150; the Town Hall devices cost £100; and so forth. It would be idle to estimate the number of people who filled the streets that night. Collins.-Burke, and Flinders streets were packed. It was with much dread of accident that vehicle traffic was allowed in the streets, but it proved a benefit; for it divided the people into two streams, one going up on one side, the other down on the other. The horses were of course kept at a walk, and were not allowed to break line in the route mapped out for them. Unfortunately about 7 o'clock rain came on. In one way it did good ;it laid the wind and allowed the gas to, bum reely. But it drove the sightseers back home in thousands, and at the suburban railway stations an extraordinary scene of crushing was witnessed. There was a stream oager to leave the platforms, and another eager to gain them. The railway officials had not'calculated for a contingency of this kind, and dire confusion was the resu.lt. But all's well that ends well, There wore no accidents ; the sight in spite of the rain was an entrancing one; and Melbourne never saw suoh an orderly, respectable gathering in her streets before, Another notable gathering was a Sunday schools demonstration in the Exhibition building. There were something like 25,000 children in one mass on the vast floor. When they sang the National Anthem to the accompaniment of waving of flags the sight was an exhilarating one. But the most notable event of all was the fancy dress ball at Government House. There wore about 3000 guests. Except when Mr Butters was mayor, and the Town Hall was the soone of a similar festivity in weloomo of Prince Alfred, nothing ovor held in Melbourne approached it for magnificence. Temporary ballrooms had to be built at a cost of some £2000. The principal room of these was like a fairy bower. It would not have disgraced Windsor or the Tuilleries. The walls had been contrived to take in the beautiful fountain in Government House grounds and many of the most beautiful flower beds and plats of rare shrubs. The floprjpg wonnd in &x\d,

out amongst those beds and around thy fountain. The electric light was laid or/ From the shrubberies and ferns and sliininjs through the sparkling waters of the fountaif: tiny globes of bright light gleamed. Ttfvast roof was lined with red and blue clotl'; round the walls being myriads of gay flags-;' more than one could count. Over portions <£ the floor where space was too confined id dancing silken carpets were laid. Througs this scene strolled an endless host of AraJ maidens, Spanish ladies, Greek virginf Roman matrons, with courtiers, officers, an; operatic characters. Dancing was out of tli question; the spectacle was altogethe too pleasing. No one who was there bi? had a good word to say for it. Sir Hem] and Lady Loch's jubilee fancy dress ball w? linger in the mind as the most enjoyable arc successful gathering marvellous MelbourJ has ever seen. ': In that very extraordinary" case known i the Bermagui mystery the interest has bee' revived in Sydney, and indeed throughoi the whole of Australia, by the finding of son human remains at Bermagui. The mystei was comprised in the complete disappea' ance, seven years ago, of a Mr Laraoi1 Young and his party of three. Th{ were engaged in geological surveys for tl' Government at Bermagui, about 40 miles fro1 Sydney, where a small rush had broken oil There never was a more complete disappeu: ance in all history. Not the remotest traj did they leave behind them. Fo' play was suspected, but the only e^ dence to justify such a belief was th; a bullet was found in the planki;' of their boat. At first there was an absolu1 conviction that the remains were those | the party, but later news leads to the beli that the skeletons are those of aborigina* or at any rate that they have been mv! longer buried than seven years. A sonwhat sensational story has been unearth' about a German named Schneider who w with the party, and who disappeared alois with them. But there is strong evidence th' he was afterwards seen both in Sydney at Melbourne in a state of disguise, and ttheory ia that he murdered the party. S{ ho was only one man against four, and in ad; tion to that no motive can be assigii against him. The discovery of the boi' naturally roused great excitement. It vj concluded that the singular mystery was to solved at last. But if the bones, as is pro! ble, turn out to be those of aboriginal^ solution of it is as far away as ever. t The inquest in regard to the serious fa railway accident at the Hawkesbury river' New South Wales is proceeding, but it ],' none of the sensational features of the inqii into the Windsor collision at Melboui There have been six deaths in all as j result of it. One point which tells agai' the department is that the train had! brake van ; an American car did duty fo{ Though the guard had thus less direct d trol over his train, it is a disputed pc whether the train was rendered less sec< The roll of the injured reaches to about 3^ A notable libel action has been decided, Western Australia. The Eev. J. B. Grib] who had charge of a district in the far Not west for the Church of England, fell out\v his bishop and came to grief with { parishioners, who starved him out. j posed as a martyr, and set,off arof the colonies on a vilifying tour. 1 told the most: dreadful stories abj the usage of the blacks—how they were s; down, treated as slaves, corrupted, flogf and the rest of it. His allegations recei! much attention from the impressiona' They reached the ears of the Exeter ] people, and were the subject of questions the Houseof Commons. In.Western Austrr where the man was known, his charges v estimated at their proper value. The "VI Australian newspaper summed him up 1 " tyingi canting humbug." He sued '; paper for libel, claiming £10,000 dama; The trial was an extended one. Mr Grit broke down under cross-examination, j got a wigging from the judges for his 1 dency to shirk the questions! Hissensatic stories were proved to have been manul tured. What small abuses had come urS his own notice he exaggerated; he listc* to all kinds of gossip, which he also er' gerated in reproducing it; and where! could not make his stories black enougll exaggeration he did not scruple to invj For instance, black girls who were " cru! flogged," according to MrGribble, turned' to have had their ears boxed; and he ha| admit that this was perfectly well knows him. The trial under these circumsta] 1' could only result in a verdict against l{ Mr Gribble's character for veiacity hasf thereby been improved. j