OUR AUSTRALIA.N LETTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10360, 15 May 1895, Page 4

OUR AUSTRALIA.N LETTER.

'■'■'.''.' '. tt.. ■ .-'•'■ (Fbom Ora Own' Correspondent.). _ Melbouene, May 8. THE DEPRESSION OVER. There is no question that things financial and commercial have taken a tarn for the better in Melbourne.. Naturally the property market, which suffered the most in the crisis, is the hardest to.move, but even it is brightening. The Argus, which can never be accused of painting commercial matters in too roseate^ a hue, contained the following paragraph in its commercial columns last Saturday :■*—■■ Estate and house agents in _ Melbourne are beginning to report a somewhat improved condition of affairs. Rents, which have indeed beeu nominal, enough in all conscience, have commenced to; harden, and it ha 3 also become possible to pick tenants, which in itself is a great gain. The i brick companies are making better deliveries, although not yet at paying prices. Small properties arc bein; more freely purchased, a consequence of the greater confidence now felt in the future. Up to the present, however, the improvement as compared with the old conditiou of things is but slight, the principal source of encouragement being that it is improvement, and that there is no longer retrogression. In connection with" this siibiect we have received the following communication, which we regard as reliable:—"As an indication of the return of confidence in sound rent-producing property, the sale - during-. last week of the terrace of shops: known as Bu'rchill's Buildings, in Glenferrie road, Hawthorn, at a casrh price running into several thousand pounds, and satisfactory to buyer and seller, may be mentioned. The negotiations, successfully tarried through by a local banker, were based not on past or prospective values, but simply on the net rent return, which, after providing for rates, insurance, and repairs, will yield the purchaser over 61* par cent." •■■''-. But it is not only in property that an improvement is manifest. In Flinders lane the month of March was the most satisfactory for the last two years. The grocery trade has not been so brisk. Tbe failure of Lawrence and Adam has caused a considerable tightness, and there have been some half-dozen failures aniong subutbsn tradesmen in a somewhat big way. The wool houses are doing well, and thebett.r out.ook in wheat is enlivening the grain trade. But it is oa the Stock Exchange th-t the c'ouda show | the greatest lifting. All the principal stocks have had a, rise. This is partly due to the increased confidence on the London m.rket in Australian securities, and partly So the increase in the price of silver. The volume of business during last week has been very large— that is, comparatively—and the broker- have all had smiling faces. Block 10 at Broken Hill, Mount Lyell in Xasmania, and Silverton Tramway show a total rise forthe week of £150,000. There has been no talk of this kind possible since the boom time. Several gold stocks have also participated in the rise. Melbourne is unquestionably inclined to hug itself in the , happy hope that bettor times ace dawning. I THE RINGAROOMA COURT-MARTIAL. . Sydney has had a fresh sensation to follow quickly on the Dean poisoning ctse. This is the Ringarooma couit-martiil. Surgeon Lee ordered the captain of the Ringarooma on the " sick list" on the ground that he showed symptoms of mental disturbance. He held j that the captain was unfit to take the vessel to sea. Ths captain thereupon had him placed under arrest, and now a. court-martial has dismissed him from the naval service. There is a universal opinion that the surgeon has hjen- most unfairly dealt with. In the first placs the constitution of the court was against him. It was compossd of captains— men of equal rank with his opponent, and naturally therefore in sympathy with that opponent. But tho ohief poiat was the narrowing of tbe issue. Trie court would allow no question to be raised whatever of the captain's health, mentsl or physical. The result was therefore never in deubt from the first. The simple issue, according to this most one-sided bench, was. Did the surgeon order the captain on tbe sick list ? He admitted that he did, which set-led the question. Away with him. Whether the captain was fit to take the vessel to sea was a separate question. The poor surgeon could not get a word in edgewise on this most important point. Yet he is statsd to have had 35 wit__e_M.es to corroborate bis impressions about his superior officer. The only witnesa who did get in a word iv support of the surgeon—Lieutenant Macdonald, who is declared to hava givfen his evidence in a most manly and straightforward way—was " censured "by the conrt. Poor Surgeon Lea, who objected to go to sea under a captain whom he considered more than a shingle short, has bean dismissed because he took what seemed to him the best means of making his objection. '

Captain Johnson continues to command thfii Ringarooma without question, though he does fish out of ths cabin porthole and pky imaginary golf on the quarter deck. SHALL ENGLAND GO TO ROME ? St. Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne has never had a larger crowd within its walls to hear a sermon than on Sunday night. The aisles and altar steps were full of people standing, and beyond the seat 3 there were rows of standers right to the outside doors. The attraction was the reply by Archbishop Carr to the synodal address of the Anglican Bishop of Ballarat, Dr Thornton. Bishop Goe has had enough of Archbishop Carr since their notable duel on the apostolic descent question.„ and he trails hia coat no longer. But Bishop Thornton rushed in all eager for the fray. Ec is of the bigoted order of Christian, and likee to rake np all the scandals of the centuries long gone by rather than to deal with the present doctrines bf the church. Dr Carr has apparently lost some of his front teeth, and chews his words, with the consequence that he is very difficult to follow, unless the hearer is right under him. His address, therefore, was not effective as an oration, but it reads amazingly well. He set himself to confute Dr Thornton out of the mouths of Anglican speakers and writers, and produced an able and scholarly defence of his church from the "insults," as he termed them, heaped upon it. Dr Thornton . contented himself with an intimation that he does not intend to reply.