OUR MELBOUENE LETTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 8557, 27 July 1889, Page 5 (Supplement)

OUR MELBOUENE LETTER

(Fhom Ora Own Cobbespondent.) July 17. THE POWEB OF TnE CIVIL SERVICE. A forcible example of the enormous political power wielded by tho civil service of Victoria has been before the country for about a fortnight past. There has been no such persistent and ouergetic log-roHiug for many a day as that brought to bear upon the l'ublio Service AmendmeDt Bill, now tediously fighting its way through committee. In this country all civil servants, even police constables, have votes, and there are something like 30,000 of them altogether, including, of course, officers employed in the Railways, Water Supply, Education, and Telegraph departments, &o. This gives some idea of the kind of pressure that has been brought to bear upon individual members of Parliament during these two dreadful weeks. Day after day and night after night the lobbies of tho House, and even the outside approaches, have been thronged with public servants gathered like vultures to their prey. Save by balloon there was no possible way for members to reach the scene of their legislative labours without passing through a double line of officials anxious that their wrongs should be redressed in this or that clause of the measure now before the House. Employes in the lowest class of the service, lockers and weighers in the customs, telegraph messenger acting as operators at country places, clerks of court in bush townships who wished to be eligiblo for appoiatment as police magistrates, all these have brought 'heir grievances painfully in evidence. Especially bos there been fighting over where- the hard and fast line between clerical and nonelencsl emplovts is to be. drawn. Tho l'r«ruier plaintively remarked the other u:gM, "Sim-ly it m not • «- mantled that tho man who digs the public gardens shall have facilities to riso to high oth'ce in ihx'. civil servioH?" But tli.it i" rrnlity >cry neurly expresses what is -wanted. E rery private insists upon his right to carry a marshal's baton in his knapsack, and finds any number of men}"

bers ready to earn popularity by backing him up. There have been some great fights oveif certain clauses of this bill, and the Government! one night this week narrowly escaped a defeat! that would probably have led to fchoir withdrawing the measure altogether. They rallied their forces, however, aud were saved. CLAIMS FOB PBOTEOTIOKjg The effects of a protective policy at all deserving the name "thorough," such as that which Victoria has bound herself to become almost comically embarrassing as time goes on, and the demands of manufacturers and wouldbe manufacturers, grow more frequent and exacting. One man's raw material is of course thu manufactured article or anath* 1-:1, «ml bence tbe C-JininitsionEr-of Trade iv d (■■:■•..:.»- iiads it ui3 destiny to act as buffer bev.ri-eiv :hs twocontending parties. Ho is besieged one cay by a company of artists who derire to be prou-ctscJ against the injury done them by the flooding of their market with cheap and nascr foni.(Qworks of srt. They are perforce sent away discomforted, but the uexc day coup's n. pptitjpman starting the manufacture of artisto'" materials who demauda incontinently that the brethren of the brush shall be supplied with a further grievance by having their prepared canvasses, their drawing board.*, their. T squares and the like, subjected to a protective duty. A duty of SU per cent, has also been demanded during the last tew days upon lithographic work and manufactured stationery, "tfjfty per cent," iiufith the Commissioner of Customs with grim humour, "is a duty unknown to oar tariff so far, but I don't know that it neaci frighteu anybody. In fixed duties we have already got as high es ISO ' per cent. The only difference is that in ad, valorem duties you ssc it, and in fixed duties you don't." THE COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS. This Commissioner of Customs, Mr Patterson,is a recent accession to the Cabinet, he having; been handed up during the recess while Mr Nimmo was hauded down, for what just causa nobody quite knows. There was none of the dust raised that signalised the exit from office of Mr Fisher in New Zealand. Mr Patterson went over from the Opposition to the Government " benches at the tail end of last session, and was quietly made-a Minister before the. opening of this. He is the same Mr Patterson who visited JNew Zealand on a holiday tour last year, and! woose utterances to newspaper interviewers read with a certain raciness. "You are so lovely and green," Mr Patterson remarked, addressing New Zealanders at large. This gentleman, despite a few eccentricities of manner, promises to be one of the strangest members of the ministry. He snubbed a deputation upon harbour matters unmercifully the other day so unmercifully that the spokesman ' remained behind after his fellows had retired to engage in certain recriminatory passages with the commissioner ; but Mr Patterson has atoned for this by treatiug subsequent deputations with a cer;ain enigmatical geniality. He may mean weH by them, or he may be laughing in his sleeve at them. That is to be discovered by-and-bye, when the Government bring down their tariff proposals. Mr Patterson, be it remarked, is a staunch representative of the Protectionist side in the Coalition Ministry; for all that his eyes are well open to the lengths to which Protection may be poshed, and to the glaring fact that it is selfish aims atid nothing else whichprompt those clamouring daily for increase* duties in this or that direction. He averred as much in round terms the other day. " Each of you," he said, " wants to be protected at the other's expense, but I never yet met with a ' Protectionist who would pay a sixpence extra for an article in order that his neighbours might flourish." Exactly so. The Victorian commissioner sees all this. His attitude seems to be expressed by the cheerful catch phrase, " In for a penny, in for a pound." THE BUDGET. However, snch trifling difficulties as abovementioned ars mer*!y the. straws that show the set of the wind. The real fight of the Parliamentary session will come, as I stated in a previous letter, over the Budget proposals, and the ticklish question involved in these proposal is how much or how little increased Protection shall ba accorded to the Victorian farmers?— that aggrieved claso who b.Rve to pay a greater duly on ail their commodities, aud be content [ with a lesser duty on all their productions." "Be content!" I said, they are not content, and will not be. Very far from it. They are tha ever- actiye menaeers of the present liappy order of things. The farmers'vote is distinctly in tha market at the present moment, and whether the Ministry or the Opposition get it depends principally upon which side,bids highest. In anticipation of trippiDg up the Government perchance over this matter, Mr Munro is leading the Opposition with remarkable sagacity and forbearance. He will strike no futile blows pending the airival of the real opportunity. Herein tha tactics of theOpposition are widely different from thoEe it pursued aforetime under the Isadership of Mr Bent, who would waltz jauntily into battle with little care how he aud his party might come out of it. THS CHIEF "LAND B005IEB." Talking of Mr Beet, whs came to grief on so glorious a scale in the great land boom, that gentleman's affairs are now practically settled oil a basis considered satisfactory by those who had transactions with him. Mr Bent was the biggest of all the big " boomers " in the time of the land fever. He and the partners' in his coups dealt in thousands as other men dealt in sovereigns, and their paper assets aud liabilities were for a period something fabulous. Latterly, after the crash came followed by the enormous shrinkage of values, Mr Bent called together those from whom he had made uncompleted purchases, and arranged, after a frank statement of his affairs, that all such purchases should be cancelled upon forfeiture of the deposits he had already paid. The maguitude of the transactions involved may be estimated by the fact that the deposits thus forfeited by Mr Bent aggregated over £100,000. Although he has sesigned the leadership of the Opposition, Mr Bent has still a seat in the Legislative Assembly. VICTOEIAAT THE NEW ZEALAND EXHIBITION. A start in earnest is just being made by the Royal Commission charged with the proper representation of Victoria at the New Zealand Exhibition. They are getting to work noco too early, but seem to mean business now. Circulars have been printed and despatched to all manufacturers and producers likely to be represented, and liberal advantages are offered for the conveyance and return of exhibits that may ha sent. THE CANADIAN DELEGATE. Mr G. E. Parkin, the Canadian apostle of Imperial federation, has met with an enthusiastic" reception in Melbourne. At his lecture in the Town Hall on " National Unity " the buiUiog was filled by a representative aadisnee, and at the conclusion of a very lengthy and remarkably eloquent address many of the people rose en masse and—not content with applauding— cheered heartily, and waved hats and handkerchiefs to the lecturer. It was a demonstration called forth partly, of course, by the oratorical skill of Mr Parkin, but even more by the conviction aroused by his glowing but most forcible arguments. FOOTBALL.—A WABNINQ. News was received here a few days ago of a disgraceful/racaj upon tha football field in Tasmania, where high words and blows were exchanged between a Melbourne player and the umpire for the opposing team. This is nothing at all surprising, but it provokes me to say a few words about football aud the scourge into which it has developed in Melbourne. Ten years ago the Victorian game wa3 s keenly relished sport, and was pursued as a sport ought to be. There were a few clubs, the personnel of which was generally good, and the public at large took a legitimate amount of interest in the game. To day the footballer is Dot'what he was. He is for the most parts roaring rowdy with some of the worst elements of the London rough and the colonial larrikin in his composition ;—unhappily, moreover, he is in overwhelming numbers and his iron heel is upon the neck of his fellow citizens. This is jn no sense an exaggeration. It is not too much to say that in the whole of Melbourne scarcely a handful of gentlemen would be found who now play football. Yet football, and nothing else, is the one staple of conversation, the one focus of attraction for the great mass of people in these winter months. Melbourne distributes itself over the various grounds upon a Saturday afternoon, au enormous amount of betting takes place upon the club matches, urchins and greyheaded men are alike ready to take or give tbo mid?, aud the grounds are a seething tumult of excitement anil foul language. Continually magistrates remark that the language upon the football field is " not what it ehouk! be." No, it certaiuly ia Lot — nob quite. The fact is that football hers has beeti degraded from a pastime into a profession. All the club matches in which much interest is taken are simply huge gate money concernsThe most prominent players are follows who will hang about the ground all the week training for the ono occupation of their lives, and get;, perhaps, a couple of guineas for playing for their clubs on a Saturday. Aud singular to say the great majority of the grounds ou whioh these club matches ase played aud admis- ■ sion charged for are actually public reserves, and the people are illegally week after week deprived of their right of access to them. .Why is this tolerated, it tnaj bo asked. Well, as rcgan's municipalities and t-hc jjtmeral Legislature itmust not 1.-f fiirgolton that there ha* come to be a solid football vote which has to liepcoit.v carefully looked after by candidates, such is the great number of votaries of the game. When the tyranny bceomes absolutely unendurable, as it very uearly it, parbaps some concorted effort will be made by tie Melbourne people to release themselves from the thraldom in which they sire held by " fearful football."

Therlcht to use the Mataurn Oafrv Factory's whey and yards for a year, with I lie option of nn extension to two years, was sold (he other day by Mr A. A. Mac Gibbon, mid renlised. 6.5 10s. Epps's Cocoa.—Grateful and Comfort tog.— By n thorough knowledge of tho natural laws ivlfic.ll govern tho operations if digestion and nutril ioo. ami Dy a careful application of the fine properties of wellselected Cocoa, Mr Kppa has provided our breakfaßt tables with a delicately-flavoured bever.ige nhicli niav save us very many heavy doctor's bills. It is by tlm judicious' use of such "nrticies of diet tliafc a constitution may be gradually built up unlit strong ouoiifh toresi6teveryteiulnnevtoiiiset.se. Mumlieds oibiiiitle iimliiilles iire lloRtin;: nrounrt us ready to attack wherever there is a weak point,. Wo may esc.i|>o inaoy a fatal shaft by keeping oimelveu well fortified with pure Wood and a propel ly nourished trame.—Civil Sci-vioe Oazette. Made simply with . :„.' bnillrii' waU-r >■!■ milk.—Sold iv Jib packets by Rrocefs. labelled thu6— "Jajiks Epps jltoOo, ' -. Homccopathio Chemists, London, England,"-:--' '•:"* [Atvt]. ' '■-'