MELBOURNE.

Otago Witness, Issue 654, 11 June 1864, Page 11

MELBOURNE.

(raOJC THE ttAIiY TIMES CQHRB3PONDEHT. )

Melbourne, Thursday, 2nd June. After lingering 'throurif fifveral months of an exist -are without anything like a fixed olijeei in view, and with tin most microscopic amount of usefulness, the present Parliament of Victoria— sofar at lea^t as the Lower House ia roncernpd— will be by- this time to-morrow amoDj? the things that wer.C On looking back at the mt results of flip Session, the wonder is that the two Houses could h-ive sat so Ions: and. done so lit'le. • "Afcer thp defunct Land Bill, Mr Sullivan's ■ Mining' Bill was the.fcreat gun of the Session; sintlthHlmeasure after struge;lin^ into a partial and fuller existence in the Assembly, was sunmarily dismissed to the slaughter bouse of the innocents by the > Legislative^ _ Council. A Publicans' Bill; which will do neither much good nor tiiueh harm; a new Post Office Bill embodying a few unimitoitant alterations in the present law,; Do* Bill that by imposing a registration fee of 5s per annum on sVery member of the canine species for which an owner can be found, and consigning to a watery grave those curs unclaimed by any one, comprise nearly all the legislation worth mentioning that hae been effected during the whole term, if we leave ont of the calculation a large batch of consolidation bills, Since the rejection of the Land Bill by tbe^ounci}, the cMefarttjety of members- has been' to get all their estimates passed to bring the session to a dose m ,8.00.n as_tUe y could poflsibJydo so 'with' any show of decency, with a view to maturing fa. fresh-Hand bill, and appealing -to the /country upon- it, at the ensuing genera! elections. 80 far a<J the shutting up of the doore of therUarliametfr ! gfles, they have at length' achieved their object, and Sir Charles. Darling ,will,dismfss bisinfembera to their respective, homes at half -past four o'clock this 1 afternoon' - minyjof them l • never ' to; • hope again" for a seat in the Legislative Assembly cf Victoria; for, it has been calculated by shrewd' politicians here that' even with all the influence that the resuscitated Victorian Associations may. be able to bring to bear upon the forthcoming elestions, ' at least, thirty members of the defunct Assembly will find their present constituent eies ehutagainst them. So much for ratling and political tergiversation. - Having intimated that the notorious Victorian Association is likely to be revived. I may, as well state that a Reform League -is, in course of organisation, for the purpose/of.counterbalancing the effects of the first-named formidable squatting cabal. One of the 'chief 'cards of the new League, is the advising of 'a protectionist policy ; but in' this particular, they .are not tfkejy, to meet wUhTery^n^ support, «JhvJaroe, mteUhg held lately^fSt'. Gcor^WH/dL/pr the. purpose of Ventilating tjife pbjectaipf.the, league.) was so tor 'sucietafal Wto bnngiogether a considerable number of persons, but with the excep-