OUR VICTORIAN LETTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12394, 2 July 1902, Page 8

OUR VICTORIAN LETTER.

(From Our Owx Correspondent.) MELBOURNE, June 25. Kyahram has carried tho day. Kyabram is a country village. Its inhabitants pronounco its name with tho accent on- the a^- J' s principal inhabitant is Benjamin loildard. He is tho storekeeper of the UtUo town and'king of the placc-in /act, 8 ,. 13 . Ky-" ab "-ram; • and in addition is n mi) o", c< Mity—always speaks of himself f , }'•) ' and talks politics all day long, •m night, too,' if anybody will listen to "m. Ho has engineered the Kyahram movc- : "l® I '''■ which has swept the country completely, and caught on like a new "fashion '•« v,'omen's clothes. The movement was reduction of the State Parliament,' and S a corollary for economy generally. Tho state Parliament opposed it; that;was natural; no member knew whether he wbuld not be one of the reduced ones. But tho People rose to it almost to a man. Now ku Parliamnet has robbed-the jstatc Parliament of so nmeh of its-work, l ,S i?° r^'( ;Ulous that tiie State Parliament should continue'', at its present size, and everyone sees this. The Ky::bram 'movement was so warmly supported in the country that even members of Parliament had to admit that tjigy could no longer'fight against it. The Irvine wovernmpnt hesitated u little. Mr Irvine returnetl a highly diplomatic answer to a kyabram deputation; but with the c'.itiro press and the entire country behind Kyahram, he had to bow; and at his Nliill declaration of policy ho gave in his . adhesion, to the Ifyabram programme—riot completely, but.enough to satisfy the leaders of the movement. They haci propcswl that the Assembly should be reduccd to 46 mombers. He has promised to reduce it to 55, which they have accepted. • Of course, his task now is'to persuade Parliament to accept also. Somo persons think Parliament will throv/ him out on the question, and go to a dissolution; but this seems improbable, tor this reason: In case of a now election the Kyabram organisation—now known as the Citizens' Reform League, with a branch in every city, town, village, and hamlet in \ ictoria, and its members the solid and responsible men of the community—would oppose overy opponent of its programme, and it is more than likely that its candidates would win the seat every time. Consequently members arc pretty certain not' to run the risk of a dissolution. The Irvine Government will reinai'.i in office; and Kyabram has carried the day. The movement .has been a notable and historical one, ami "B. G." and his compatriots are tho heroes of the hour. ; Lord Hopetoun has given 300 bottles of champagne to the Melbourne unemployed as a Coronation gift. Ho has also riven them £100 in cash. About the cash nobody grumbles much, but about tho champagne many do. Thoy think the champagne had better have gone to'tho hospitals. Even about the cash gift there is gome criticism, principally ai to the method of distribution. Many people doubt the genuineness of the " unemployed." In big cities ..there are always an army of "wastrels." Just at present in Melbourne tho army is a good deal in evidence, just because it has procured for itself n.• leader who is persistent and cnergetic to a degree, and conscientious withal. He is one Fleming—a repairing bootmaker in a back street, a member of the Trades Hall Council, a Freetrader (unlike most Melbourne tradesmen), and an .Anarchist. Every Sunday he harangues Yarra Bankers under the '"red flag." For the pure love aud delight of leading some? body, he has hnolced himself on to tho unemployed ; and though not unemployed himself, does all the speaking for them— organises deputations, waylays Ministers, writes letters to the newspapers, and so forth. To this amiable, misguided, un"ducatcd enthusiast Lord Hopetoim has entrusted tho distribution of both the cash "KVI tho champagnc. The. "Anarchist" side of Fleming's character sticks in the gizzard •v little. The G overnor-gcneral might have found a more respectable agent. Another point is that Fleming accepts his,followers at their own valuation. Lord Hopetoun'* money and wine will reach mairv sin imdosssrving recipient, no doubt. But. after all,' what's tho odds? Out of the £100 each married man is to get Si and each single man 2s. Even an undeserving individual can't get "on the burst" to any very lprg" "xtent on ss. As for the champagne, t J supposo each married man will get a bottle. If he.chooses to soli it, what matter?,- It would lie tho host thifig he could do. But if lie chooses to drink it, nod if it goes to his head and his wife's head, is there-any great evil? It's Coronation time, and ho and she can remember King Edward,'and his Governor-General too, all the more fondly if they have Vho accompaniment,of the only champagne epreo of their lives to vamcmber them by. So perhaps Lord Hopetoun is not so far wrctig after all. though tllero nro many good people who think he k—[Tho cabin has informed us of the iitifortuniite results which followed the distribution of the wine.] ■ The famous explorer, Sturt, drew a ■terrible. picture of Central Australia. His ■party passed a dreadful time, unable to advance or return. Tho heat was marvellous. They were unable to mite, as'Hho ink dried at onco on their pons; their combs split;-their nails becamc brittle and broke, and if they touched- a piece of metal : it blistered their fingers. Sturt must have struck a summer following upon some stich period of drought a3 Central Australia if experiencing now. Bourke, once a flourishing town in the north-west of New South Wales, has a sad tale to tell. As the resul 1 of no rain for years.' there are 260 uneccupie;' houses and slions in tho town; tho municipa-' rates have Mien from £1800 to £800. the. meat, works have closed down, and all the nojiulatiqn! that could left the town. Yet it is' only somo 10 years back that thousands of pounds were subscribed throughout Australia as tho Bourke Floods Relief Fund. The storm waters snrroumlinl 1 the town, and the inhabitants built hastiK'constructed' dam walls to keep them back. For days on days all Australia anxiously watehed whether tho dam would hold; but at length it burst, ft»ul dire dnmacje ' wa» don?. To-day Bourke could well do .with a drought r,e!iof fund, arid, indeed, is 'ask- ■ ing for Government assistance to help it ; ovflr a worse time of need than in the flood period. Surely Australia is a- country of contradictions. Tho Protestant clergv of Victoria aro up in arms against tho " Catholic vote." The Presbyterian Assembly mid the Wesleyan Conference: each adopted resolutions'at its last sittings in favour of "organising a permanent apposition to tho Roman Citliolie vote in regard to religious instruction • in State schools and kindred questions." The outcome is that a, has boon convened for .Tune 39 to form a league " for meeting and counteracting the organifed Roman Catholic influpnen on the legislation and Administration of this State, without in any way combating or interfering with the Roman Catholic religious position." The circular convening the meeting is signed by the Anglican hisl'ops, as well as the Presbyterians, Wes'.eyans, etc. This is the first attempt to organise any. movement, of the kind. - It is easy to predict failure for it, and for this reason: The Protostaiit laity not behind it. Thoy do not support thciv rlorgy on the religious education question. Qnly one section of the Protestant hity will support it—the Orange section: and that so'ctidn will, not respect, the clause that is to prevent the league interfering with i tho Roman Catholic religious position. IV ■ movomont, therefore, will have tho support ■ 'of Orangemen only: and if tho Orangemen are . prominent ill it nothing else will so ■ quickly discredit it. To do the clergy justice, theydo not now ask for religious education i in the schools: they .are for Scripturo les- ■ sons- only. But there is no enthusiasm I behind the movement. A handful of Kyi abram farmers started tho agitation for tl'ie ■ reform of Parliament, and thev infeetod the • entire community. The.wliolo body of clergy • has been' asking for religious education for i years, and aro as far off infecting the comI munily ns over. Earnestness and enthusiasm i somo-of-tho clergv have; but thoy have not > got right and justice on their side. ■ Mr Kingston, tho Federal Minister of Customs, is declared by tho Argus to take as much pleasuro in imputing criminality to an importer as an inquisitor in tho dark ages took in fastening a charge of heresy on a suspect. "Insoltiicc and incompctenc* in oflico" is how his administration of tho department is characterised. This is strong writing, but it would appear to have some justification-by the stories which arc told almost daily, of how importers aro harassed. For instance, 'a dining-room, suite was sent from Melbourne to Tasmania, and being described as manufactured within the Commonwealth. was free of duty. But a particularlv alert' customs clerk in Tasmania made the brilliant discovery* that tho tacks f and gimp used in ornamenting the furniture ) must have been imported from abroad, and he charged the consignee Is 9d duty on these s articles. Another case was the Eummoriim; 1 of Alcock and Col, the well-known billiard- [ tabic manufacturers, for describing n billiard ' table as- of their own manufacture, whereas ; the nails used must have been - imported. J The charge was dismissed in the PolicJ Court, but it is unbearable that respectable. t honourable firms should be treated in such [ ft way. A third case has just occurred in Brisbane. A leading firm. Chapman and i | Co., was nrosccuted by the Collector of I I Customs for falsely describing certain i | flannelettes as r-ottco-pieee good?. It was s: not even pretended that tliero was ail iutcn- ■ tion to defraud, and in tho end tho magistrate ■ held that on tho cviclenco of tho

prosecution's witnesses, with whioh his own common sense agreed, the gootls had been ' rightly described in the entry, so that if there was fraud it was on the part of the .Customs in 'endeavouring to extort illegal tolls, Cost?; were given against the Collector of Customs, who was simply obeying orders.