OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10264, 23 January 1895, Page 4

OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

(FitoM Oor Own Coimespondent.) Melbourne, January 16. THE FINANCIAL POSITION. The banking retrains for Victoria for the last quarter of 1894- are just published, and it is satisfactory to note that they show a slightly more favourable state of affairs. The Argus, in its review of the figures, points out that two striking movements are exhibited. While current accounts have increased, by £469,215, fixed deposits have fallen off by £586,069. It is evident that a low deponit rata is causing money to be left at call, which augurs well for enterprise.. It would appear, for the first time for several quarters, that naw money has been deposited or left at current account with the banks—in other words, the colony is again saving, and adding to its accumulated resources. At the same trims, it is to be noted that the increase in current accounts is in favour almost entirely of three institutions—namely, the Bank of Australasia, the Union Bank of Australia, and the Bank of New South Wales'. This fact would eeem to show a want of confidence in the purely Victorian bar>ks, a supposition which is borne out by the cable news from London of a fall in Victorian 4 per cents., owing to the circulation of rumours about those institutions. The financial distarbances of the last three years have left their traces very plainly in the number of compositions with creditors registered in the Melbourne Bankruptcy Court. Forthelaat 10 years the figures are as follow :—lßß*, 2; 1885, 3; 1886, 0; 1887, 1; 1888, 0; 1889, 1; 1890,0; 1891,2; 1892,83; 1893, 51; 1894,41. This last year 3d in the pound was the favourita rate of composition. Fifteen individuals paid this rate to their sorrowing creditors, three paid 6d, and eight Is. The 15 who paid 3d had total liabilities of £609,000. I VICTORIAN POLITICS. We have had something very nearly approach" ing a crisis. Mr Turner, the new Treasurer and Premier, is really very anxjons to set the finances of tie colony straight, but he is hampered on every hand in his efforts to do so. The Patterson Government fell through attempting to retrench the civil service too severely. Mr Tnrner has-nearly fallen through attempting to retrench members of the Assembly. At present the honorarium is £270, and at the general election there was a big cry for a reduction of members lio 60 and of the honorarium to £200. Mr Turner tried the other night to bring the honorarium down to the figure mentioned, but failed lamentably ; and losiug his temper late at night, adjourned the House, determined to resign instaates:. But when he grew cool next day and consulted his fellow Ministers, he determined to hang on. The Governor was up-country and came to town hurriedly upon an urgent telegram from Mr Turner—so far had the matter gone. However, on reflection Mr Turner has remained in office. It was the labour members who riled him. They were determined not to let the honorarium drop below £250. • They boldly declared that £300 (which it used to be) was little enough; they would only agree to £250 on compulsion; but to £200 they could never agree. They could not; afford to remain the public servants at so low a salary. Eventually after & very hard fight the amount was carried at £240 by the casting vote of the Chairman of Committees, the voting being 37 for and 37 against. Another source of trouble to the Government has been their proposed tax on the unimproved values of land. This was carried in the Assembly, but the Legislative Council has thrown it out with only one dissentient voice, that of Mr Cathbart, the Government representative in that Chamber. The country, too, by nnmberless public meetings, resolutions of public bodies, &c, declared strongly lagainsfc it. The main argument against it is that the present is no time to add burdens to the land: the producer has enough to bear without additional taxation. In the history sf legislation in Victoria there is probably no instance on record ot so complete an opposition to a proposal as was shown in the Legislative Council to this land tax. No w the Government -will fall back on the income tax and reduction ef the municipal subsidy. Though the Labour members could not suffer a reduction of their own salaries, they jumped at the chaace of reducing the Governor and the judges. Future Governors are to be reduced from £10,000 to £5000, and the judges (not the present occupants of the bench, however) by £500. The Argus deplores the 50 per cent, reduction in the case of the Governor, and holds that 25 per cent, would have been sufficient. It also expresses a wish-that the British Government could see its way to provide for the payment of colonial Governors, which wonld make them more truly Imperial and independent officers. Sir James Patterson has made an extraordinary speech for the leader of the Opposition. He s&id Mr Turner was a great worker and a good man. He stood pre-eminently sbova many men in the community and deserved- the position he held. If the financial affairs of the colony were adjusted and prosperity regained, Mr Turner might rely upon his support. The firot consideration must be for the country. Everybody wonders what is Sir James's little game. Does it mean a coalition ? RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. This perennial subject of discussion has been revived to some extent by the Bishop of Salisbury in a sermon at St. Paul's. His Lordship said: — "He who creates or supports a system of merely secular education, in which the teacher is forbidden to touch the most necessary of all subjects, and in which access is practically denied to a large proportion of outside religious teachers or permitted in the scantiest measure— such a man, I say, is laying up in store for himself a terrible awakening at the last day, i when the results of his actions will be made known to him. He is relieving parents of a ■ sense o£ responsibility without supplying the 1 most important element of parental duty; he ;is telling children that they sre educated when ' they are merely filled with a little knowledge and have no habits of reverence or principles of self-control outside self-intereat and fear of ' man. He is creating an artificial and hollow I ! peace which may some day bs shivered to a thousand fragments by an explosion of selfish passion; or, worse still, ho is introducing a block of spiritual deadncss which will obstruct ! the coming of the Son of God." It would be too much to say that these remarks have been taken up politically. There is really no prospect of legislation on the subject; but they have led some of the churchmen to once more formulate tbeir demands. Archbishop Carr urges that the education difficulty should be met by means of decentralisation, which he explains as follows :—" I mean giving the power of taxing for all local purposes, including education, to the municipalities. Let them tax themselves for all ordinary requirements, except such matters as postal service, which mast be centr.iliged. Then the educational system obtaining in Canada could be adopted. Wherever there was a suffioiont number of children of one denomination—-I think in Canada it is 30— j oa the application of the parents the school tax could be paid to that special denomination, which would be responsible for providing the children with the State standard of education." NEW SYSTEM OF BUTTER PRESERVATION. The cable message from London giving news of the success of the Sewell system of butter preserving, which enables batter to be shipped afi ordinary cargo, has attracted a good deal of attention. Mr Sewell, the patentee, was formerly a locomotive inspector in the Railway department. The ton of butter sent Home in the Thermopylre under the process was packed in brine in 561b keg?. It wag placed in a circular cage of upright wooden laths, snrrounded by hoops, and made of such a size aa to )e*ve a space of lin between the inner cage and the keg. The brine was poured into this space. The bottom of the cage was perforated, and sbsccs were left between the laths. Mr Wilson, the Government dairy expert, says the brine system is an old idea. The objection to it is that the brine had a tendency to draw the sap out of the wood, which then tainted the butter, unless tbo casks bad been well saturated for i come weeks beforehand with brine-aud tin; sag

well exhausted before the batter was pub into the barrels. This entailed expense, £»nd more^ over there was the risk of the hoops coming oft the casks or becoming loose and allowing tha1 brine to escape, in which case the batter would no doubt be spoilt. Besides, he points out thaM small shipment via the Cape of Good Hopd was not a fair trial. He would like to see tha experiment with several tons by way of the lied A TERRIBLE DEATH. Two line repairers met with a terrible death' on the railway bstween Melbourne, and Rich* mond the other morning. There are threa' double lines of rails over this section, and tha trains are very numerous, rendering the work decidedly dangerous. The two men, O'Hal-< loran and Smith, were engaged screwing np »' bolt on the outside rail of the down Oakleigb track. The bolt was a stubborn one, and the task was harder than usual, and in consequence' of this fact they became so absorbed in theii work that they forgot about ths Oakleigh train; due to pass them about 9.33. They turned their backs on the train and screwed away at? the bolt while the Hawthorn train, ruiminginto1 the city, thundered past them. The noise of the Hawthorn train prevented them from hearing the Oakleigh train as it bore down on them round the curve. No one observed the danger till the last moment. The fireman of the train* on whose side of the line the men were working, was firing, and did not look up till the engine was within a stroke of the men. It was too late to do anything. He could only shout out a horror-stricken exclamation, and clutch the enginedriver by the sleeve while he pointed to tha rails. The driver understood, shut off steam and put on the brakes, but a sweep of the engine carried the train over the unfor« tunate repairers, crushing them beneath ths wheels as it passed, and when the train palled up a few yards further on all that was left e£ the two men was an unrecognisable mass. MISCELLANEOUS. Lord Hopetoun, the Victorian Governor, W staying for the holidays near Camperdown'ia the Western district. He has been earning high praise as a polo player. Lady Hopetoun, who has quite recovered from her hunting accident, has been delighting the Camperdown people by driving in to their races with three ponies abreast. She is an accomplished whip. Lord Kintorehas been i arewelled at Adelaide with great enthusiasm. In his speecb7he urged' that federation should ba eievated into a live question, and secured hearty and continued applause by insisting upon the maintenance of the tie with the old country. - The friends of Mr H. W. Stockwell, whore, csntly left Melbourne for England (says the Argu3), will be glad to hear that he is making steady progress as a vocalist. Twoipf his la6t ; engagements were to eing the tenor solo music' in Sulliv&n's "Golden Legend," at the Corn Exchange, Coventry, and to take part with the Bolton Philharmonic Society in its annual performance of " The Messiah." A firm in. Sydney have received orders-front Europe for some 3,000,000 ft of local timbers for tha European markets. They have also been advised that their tenders have been accepted for large quantities of railway sleepers and flooring boards, Rational dress for women has spread to Vie* toria. Eight ladies and seven gentleman spend the holidays camping out at Fernshaw, and the ladies donned knickers forthe occasion. When tbey reached civilisation in the shape of a traia again, tbey covered the knickers with & skirt. The Melbourne detectives believe that they, have broken np a daring gang of tobacco thieves. The robberies were most extensive; From the Latroba bond in June last noleaa than £4-50 worth was stolen; at Connell, Hogarth, and Co.'s £200 worth was all ready for removal, when the robbers were-interrupted; and from Henry Berry and Co.'s on Cap night about £250 worth was stolen. The tobacco was made up by the gang in small parcels, and got rid of to,retail dealers. The leader of the gang was " Buck," Millidge, who has bees hanged in Sydney tor the attempted marder-ol a police constable; but the detectives have arrested one Alfred Marks as a participator in the Latrobe bond robbery, and three other men along with him for the robbery from Henry Berry and Co. During the voyage of the Bulimba from Heli bourne to Adelaide an appalling accident bap* pened, resulting in the death of a young woman named Mrs Evans, who was killed instantly in the screw ahaf t tunnel.' Under the guidance of one of the men, Mrs Evans, whose husband waa also on board, went over the machinery comi partment, finishing up with the screw tunnel," On returning ts the engine space the woman's dress was caught by the bolts of the shaft couplings, and in a moment she had been taken round the shaft;and was dead. The engines were stopped, and the body removed to the; deck and brought on to Fort Adelaide. Mrand; Mrs Evans were going to Adelaide to mestiheiij child. At the inquest a verdict) of " Accidental death " was returned. If the rabbit peat does not eventually become; a thing of the past its increase will to a large extent be stopped. During th« last few weeks over 40,000 rabbits have been forwarded to thq refrigerating works of the Agricultural depart* ment at Flinders street in Melbourne for shipment to London, but only about one half oi them were considered to be in good enough condition for export,^ and 20,160 were-prepared for shipment. ' Sergeant -detective Lomax, of Melbourne,; died suddenly at Benalla, from a paralytic, stroke. Lomax was noted as the prince oi " shepherds," and the best pickpocket detective in the service. Being small of etature—only sft 3£iu —he easily followed or "shepherded" criminals from place to place without attracting notice, and three years' solid practice added to bis-natural advantages made him invaluble in that branch of work.