VICTORIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 801, 6 April 1867, Page 13

VICTORIA.

(from our own correspondent.)

Melbourne, March 28th, 1867.

Although we are still without any official announcement of the final resolutions arrved at by the delegates who took part in the Intercolonial conference on the subject of postal communication with Great Britain, Europe, and the East, it is stated, upon apparently good authority, that the following arrangements have been

agreed upon. In the first place it has been decided that the three mail routes in use for same time past shall be adhered to, namely — those via Galle, Panama, and Torres Straits respectively. In the last named of these routes only is there to be any change of stations. Hitherto the boats running on this line have called at Batavia 5 but it is proposed by the conference that in future they shall not call at any port between Singapore and Cupe York Queensland, in whose interests this route is perhaps the most important of the three, undertakes to extend her line of electric telegraph to Cape York, and to buoy and light the passage inside the reefs. The present contract with the Peninsular and Oriental Company is to be terminated, and fresh tenders called for. The aggregate cost of the three lines is set down at L 400,000 per annum, one half, of which sum the Imperial Government will be asked to pay. The other half of the subsidy it is proposed to apportion between the

various Colnnicr, as follows :— Victoria, L5O,0OO ; New South;. Wales. L50,Q00 • New .Zealand, L 50,000 ; Queensland, L 24,000 ; Tasmania, L 14.000 ; and South Australia, L 12.000. Presuming that this is a correct account of the main features of the proposed postal scheme, it cannot be said that the result of the sittings of the conference have given anything like general satisfaction in this Colony, since there exists a very strong belief here that it would have been far more conducive to the interests of Victoria to provide for a fortnightly Bervice via Galle, and to have bad nothing whatever to do with the Torres Straits route, the benefits of which, to us, are very problematical. There are others, however, who hail the proposals with pleasure, as embodying the germ of the principle of unity and federation as regards the, various Colonies, and this latter class is i probably in the right. ■• i

The Amended Land Act promised by the Government has not yet been introduced ; but, in the meantime, the House has recently been engaged in discussing the effects of the administration of former Acts upon the same subject. A few days ago an hon. member of the Opposition introduced a Bill for the purpose of Quieting Titlea to land obtained under what is called Cummins's clause of the Land Act of 1862, which provided that holders of land purchased at auction prior to the date of that Act, could take up under certificate 320 acres, or less, upon fulfilling the ordinary couditions under which agricultural settlers were allowed to select their holdings. The act of 1865 confirmed the right of selection under certificate thus provided for; but stipulated at the same time that the right must be exercised within a certain limited period. As a consequence of these provisions, a great deal of speculation took place in the certificates, which;were bought and sold much in the same way that mining shares and stock are dealt in, and with similar fluctuations of price. A question then arose as to whether the v assigns" of the original holders of these documents were liable to the conditions imposed upon the grantees. The conditions of selection under the present Land Act — that of 1865— are that the selector must fence his land, cultivate one acre in every ten, or erect a habitable dwelling on his allotment; while the holder under certificate could, if he chose, compound for neglecting to comply with those conditions, by simply paying a penalty of five shillings per acre. The Bill to Quiet Titles proposed to do away with all these conditions, in favor of the certificate holder, and thus to place him upon an altogether different footing from that of the ordinary selector. Shortly after the measure had been brought under the notice of the Assembly and the public ugly rumors got afloat to the effect that a certain r umber of members had laid their heads together — it would be scarcely parliamentary to say, conspired — for the purpose of obtaining two objects, the first being the passing of the Quieting Bill in question, and the second, the prospective relief of the ordinary aaricultural settler by an enactment converting his rent of two shillings a year per acre into a part payment on account of the price of the ice simple of his allotment. It was said that a number of members had agreed to give their support to the Quieting Bill, upon I the condition that the promoters of the measure repaid the good turn by supporting the sweeping measure which they in their turn intended to bring forward at an early date. The second reading of the Bill was carried against the Government by the narrow majority of two ; but by this time the pre 63 had taken the matter up, the cry of repudiation was raised, and the Argus spoke of the'measure as " evidently a fraud upon the Assembly." The consequence was that,' after a fruitless debate in committee, the Bill was got rid of, for the present at least, and probably for ever, by a motion " that the Chairman ' do leave the chair." Since then a member not noted for wisdom or discretion, has signified hi 3 intention tq re-introduce the subject, but it is not likely that he will meet with much encouragement at the hands of the House.

In addition to discussing the merits of the Quieting Bill, the Assembly ba3 been engaged upon some useful amendments in the law relating" to lunatics, a class unfortunately very numerous m this colony. Several useful alterations in the present system were proposed and adopted, but I refer to the subject chiefly for the sake of noticing &a entirely novel feature which has been embodied in the measure. I mean that portion of the Bill under the provisions of which confirmed drunkards are to be taken charge of at the public asylums for the insane, with a view to their cure. That "dipsomaniacs," as it is now the fashion to designate them, may, according to the terms of the new Bill, be admitted upon their own declaration, or at the request of the members of their own family, provided that in the latter case it' can be proved that the drunkard is in the habit of wasting his means, neglecting to maintain his family, or any of ita members.

The period of detention is limited to one year. The project is regarded by the majority of persons here as a piece of "fancy" legislation, which is not likely to conduce to any useful results, even if the scheme should not prove entirely unworkable.

New facts have recently come to light with respect to the management of one, of those public institutions to which the children of poor or criminal parents are sent by our Government, one which, in addition to the disclosures made some considerable time since respecting the Sunbury schools, goes to prove the absolute necessity for constant Government supervision over establishments where a number of helpless children 1 are placed under the care of officials of a subordinate class. In the instance to which I now refer, the persons ta whom was entrusted the management of the Girls' Industrial Schools have brought down well merited public censure upon themselves by allowing numerous cases of ophthalmia to develope themselves amongst the inmates without using proper precautions against the spread of the disease. As a consequence of this culpable neglect it appears that at least one girl has become blind for life, while the sight of many others has become seriously injured. The matter was mentioned in Parliament a few days ago, and although the Chief Secretary, in a perfectly ministerial fashion, rather pooh-pooh'd the charge brought against the Institute, he shortly afterwards found it necessary to take active steps to obviate the evils complained of.

Mr Makinnon, one of the proprietors of the Argus newspaper, leaves this city for England by the mail steamer, which sails at two o'clock this afternooa. A farewell banquet was given Jo this gentlemen by the members of the literary and commercial staff of the paper at Scott's Hotel, on Saturday evening.