MELBOURNE. (from our own correspondent.) November 15th.

Otago Witness, Issue 1149, 6 December 1873, Page 6

MELBOURNE. (from our own correspondent.) November 15th.

The Parliamentary session is practically ended, and with it the life of the present Parliament. Afterwards we shall have to look on to the turmoil and bustle of a general election, The Parliament has had a varied time of it since it came together in 1871 under the Premiership of Sir James M'Culloch. The finances then were not altogether flourishing, and additional taxation became necessary. The M'Culloch Government lost office upon its proposal to impose a property tax, the best and most equitable plan ever originated by that Ministry. It had made capital out of its faiilts, and now it was brought to ruin by its tardy virtue. In place of the fair proposal submitted, Parliament preferred to lift Mr Duffy and Mr Berry to power, and accept from them a 20 per celit. tariff. Mr Duffy then had a reign which opened with brightness, but soon grew overclouded, and ultimately closed amidst general disgust, and the most sei'ious accusations that Avere ever brought against any Victorian Ministry. Next we had the Francis Government, which came to power pledged to carry out a liberal education policy. This it did manfully and well. With all of its faults and imperfections, this will remain to its credit as praise that is not to be gainsaid. The present session has been mostly devoted to fancy legislation, that has not been demanded by the country, and as a fact has not been to any great extent realised, most of those ingenious but unnecessary measures having come to grief in one house or the other. The result has been that very little work has been done this session, and that the great problem of modifying the constitution so as to harmonise the two branches of the legislature, remains over to be dealt with in the next session and by the next Parliament.

But the chief events of the last fortnight have been less of a political than of a social character. The time has been devoted to holiday keeping. Besides the great racing carnival of the spring, of which the culminating incident is the contest for the Melbourne Cup, there has been a constant succession of public and private amusements and gaities. The holiday of "Cup Day "was the greatest ever known here. The gathering, both in numbers and brilliancy, surpassed any of its predecessors. It was estimated that there were not less than 50,000 spectators of the great race collected there that day. The visitors from other Colonies were very numerous, among them being Sir Hercules Robinson, Governor of New South Wales, who had a horse, Fitz-Yattendon, in the race for the Cup. Sir Hercules, from bis known ability, and still more, I fear, from his horsey tendencies, has been a very popular favourite, and a victory won by his horse on a subsequent day was loudly cheered. The great race, as you will see by the newspapers, was won by Don Juan, from the bookmaker's stable kept by Mr Wilson, near Geelong. His victory carried a great deal of money to the Jewish ring of bookmakers, and saved them from very heavy losses. Horatio had been taken in so many doubles for the Cup with Lapidist for the Derby, that if the friend of Hamlet had pulled off the race, the ring would have been broken and bankrupt. The thing seems to have beeu managed exceedingly well. The horse was picked up in South Australia, where his galloping powers were remarked, and was brought to Melbourne, where he was allowed to win a small suburban race, and afterwards sold at a low price. Nothing was known of the secret condition of the sale, that the horse was not to be delivered till the Cup race had been run. He was entered for the Cup, and after his sale, the handicappers, thinking him a horse of small account, merely put on him the light weight of 6st. 121bs. In the meantime he was backed by the ring, and although before the race he nominally stood in the betting at 3 to 1 against, it was impossible to get any bookmaker in the secret to lay against him. " Book full about Don Juan," was the answer to all such offers. The thing havißg been worked in this way, the victory of the horse meant a tremendous coup for the ring fraternity. Of course the good, easy, unsuspecting public pays the piper, but then it is always so, and the public appears to be quite satisfied. The pleasure of cheating and being cheated is equally divided between the public and the ring, and each side is content with its own share.

In connection with the subject of racing there are one or two matters that have attracted a good deal of attention, and my letter would not be complete unless I alluded to them. One is the tremendous defalcations of R. J. V. O'Ferrall, a clerk in the Lands Office, and the other is the quarrel between the Victoria Racing Club and the Press. In respect to the former matter there was one day a quiet-looking paragraph in a Melbourne newspaper, stating that a clerk in the Lands Office had beea absent two or three days from his duties in an unaccountable manner. Soon rumours crept about town that the

clerk was one O'Ferrall, who had gone to New Zealand in the Alhambra under an assumed name, and that his accounts showed defalcations to the amount of about £20,000. These statements were very explicitly denied by the Lands department, and it was stated that the accounts of the absent clerk were quite 1 correct. A week or two passed, When one night the Audit Commissioners laid a report before the Assembly, stating that it was found that O'Ferrall had been embezzling Government funds at the rate of £3000 a year for the last three years, which was as far back as their investigation extended. I may add, in parenthesis, that there is reason to believe that although the actual extent of the deficiency can never be precisely ascertained, it is found to be nearer £20,000 than the £9000 first reported by the Commissioners of Audit. The murder was now out, and all at once it appeared that everybody had beeli expecting this for a long time* O'Ferrall collected rents due to the department for lands held on license, and was paid a salary of £350 a year. On this modest income he managed to keep several carriages of different kinds, six horses, many pointers, setters, and greyhounds. He was an ardent and liberal sportsman. He attended races, shot, coursed, and supported sport of all kinds with a princely generosity which stamped him as a fine specimen of the true Irish gentleman. Whenever a coursing match was coming off, O'Ferrall's smart drag was always ready to convey a party of sportsmen there, and the generous owner always stood the cost of the choice luncheon and the champagne that was packed in the vehicle. In every way a liberal, open-handed man — and all on a salary of £350 a year. Now it is found that his friends all the while grievously suspected that it was not honestly come by, but his official superiors at the Lands Office, with the simple-minded credulity of children, never imagined but that everything was right. The whole affair, however, it is regarded, can scarcely be viewed as other than most disgraceful alike to the Audit Office and to the Lands Department.

The other matter to which I alluded is the quarrel between the Committee of the Victoria Racing Club and the Press. Some time ago — at the time that the swindling attempt of the bookmaker Wallis was detected and .exposed by the Press — some hard comments were made upon the stewards, and evident reluctance with which the members of the Club Committee dealt with the case by ordering the offender from their course for a limited period. The comments were, however, not half as hard as the conduct of the Committee necessitated, "but they left a deep impression, and the Committee took the first opportunity of resenting them. The Committee is very largely composed of the "snob " and "cad" element, to whom it would at any time be a satisfactory thing to be able to show their contempt for " the newspaper fellahs," and actuated by these noble sentiments they determined to discontinue the practice of sending tickets of admission to the newspaper offices. This determination was carried out in a way suitable to the snobbery of feeling that had dictated it. No intimation was sent to the offices, and no explanation was offered. The gross discourtesy was properly resented, and the three metropolitan morning papers determined not to report the racing meeting. So the proceedings of the first day were reported merely by giving the names of the winning horses, not a word of description or narrative being added. This course brought the Brummagem aristocrats of the Committee on their knees, and a deputation was sent to explain that no discourtesy to the Press had ever been intended. Of course no one believed that this was true, and everybody remained convinced that a dis courtesy had been moßt deliberately intended. However, the quasi apology was partly accepted, and the papers consented to give a short description of the subsequent days' raciDg, although they have not returned to the expansive florid style of depicting in which the accounts of the great races are usually given. Putting the two matters together- -on the one hand, the fact that a gigantic series of embezzlements was carried on to enable a man to share largely in racing and sporting excitement, and that other somewhat similar cases have lately beea discovered, for instance, that of Wardill ; on the other, the fact that the Committee of the V.R.C. was very slow to take action to purge the Turf of open gross rascality, and that it resents to this day the compulsion which obliged it to do so — I think that it is extremely likely that a reaction will be produced in the mind of the better portion of the public against the too great devotion to these exciting amusements which characterises Melbourne life. A strong tendency to gambling — and racing such as occurs is but gambling, with fraudulent diee — can only be productive of great temptation to dishonesty^ We have in addition painful evidence that it is directly and largely provocative of such dishonesty. The recent great cases of embezzlement following 1 ip. rapid succession, must show employers the danger of gambling and betting practices amongst their employes, and should produce a resolve to abstain as much as possible in future from encouraging this tendency. It is more than likely also that the Press will see that by devoting undue attention to these amusements, it is fostering a gambling disposition in the public, and that it is in doing so incurring a great responsibility. So that it may be predicted with much probability that there will not in future be so strong and so unchecked a tendency towards abandoning itself to what after all is mere dissipation observable in the people of this community, Should that

be the ca=e, the late stern lessons we liavtf received will not be without fruit.

I think I have spoken before of the dis« position! to " gush " exhibited by our worthy Governor Sir George Bowen. This characteristic, combined with his inability to say "no," and his desire to be all things to all men, leads him into strange situations. But the strangest in which we have yet found him was the other day when he was assisting at the opening of some new Turkish baths. There is an enterprising man named Hosie, who has grown rich by making and selling Scotch pies. Lately Mr Hosie has added to his business that ( of large Turkish baths, comprising, I believe, a very fine establishment of its kind. It is provided with all the hot rooms and cold rooms and steaming rooms and such like gear. It also commanda the services of an experienced and talented chiropodist. Professor Somebody, I have no doubt. It also includes a hair-<cutting and hair-dressing department, and is in all ways complete. But then the Governor of the Colony ought not to go to open such places as this. If he opens a barber's shop kept by a pieman, why, where is he to draw the line? I declare I think a wrong and injustice was done to the Hebrew proprietors of the Monster Clothing Company's establishment that the Governor did not assist at the " inauguration " Of their new window and shop front. Really a Go* vernor ought sometimes to be able to resist the attraction of a cold collation, even, accompanied by the opportunity of making complimentary sj>eeches. The other day, at the inaugural banquet of the Mayor of Melbourne, His Excellency made a flattering reference to the superiority of the Mayoral banquet in Melbourne over that in London, it being a hot one with us, while the unhappy Londoners have to take theirs cold. Who but Sir George Bowen would ever have thought of this dexterous and culinary piece of flattery ?

In Sydney, Mr Parkes ia threatened with difficulties in reference to the way in which he has filled up the vacancy left by the re> tirement of the Chief Justice. Mr Parkes has appointed his opponent, Sir James Martin, to the post, and by this course has made an enemy of his Attorney-General, Mr Butler. The latter has resigned, and has brought forward correspondence to show that the office was promised to him by the Premier. Mr Parkes, in a spirit of wily Jesuitism, rejoins that he did not promise to give him the post, but only promised that he " would not put obstacles in the way of his getting it." Appointing another man to it is not, according to Mr Parkes, putting obstacles in the way. The issue of this unseemly hunting and jobbery about an office that ought to be beyond the sphere of such influences, is that Mr Parkes has got rid of a formidable antagonist, but has at the same time converted a friend and supporter into a bitter foe. He has also lost his AttorneyGeneral, and there is no barrister on his side of the House who can be promoted to the vacant office. It seems that one reason why Mr Butler did not get the Chief Justiceship, is that he is a determined Catholic and servant of the priesthood, and Mr Parkes was threatened with a powerful adverse coalition of friends and foes if he gave the office to such a man. Sir James Martin is a Catholic too, of a sort, but the sort is that of the indifferential, who have been declared by Pops Pius the Ninth, to be "worse than heretics and worse than Communists." Therefore it would be quite unfair to Sir James Martin to allow his religion to stand in the road of his advancement. It has never stood in hia way to anything, audit ia not likely to.

November 22nd.

We have had a curious exposure of the "•way in which the thing is done" by 8 >me of our unscrupulous members of Parliament. There is a man known to most readers of newspaper advertisements as Dr L, Lj Smith, who, besides being a member for Richmond, has a medical practice of a certain kind, and is the inventor, or, at any rate the seller, of a vegetable pill. Und»r the notorious Duffy administration this man started an advertising sheet, that also inserted puffs of the Ministry, and was rewarded for so doing by an enormous subsidy in the shape of Government advertisements. After the Duffy Government lost office, and this grossly corrupt transaction became known, Smith had the impudence to prefer against the present Government an aocount for about £1500, alleged to be due for these advertisements. The Ministry declined to pay it, and left him to his legal remedy. However, with a degree of backwardness for which no one would have given him credit, Smith preferred to forego this claim altogether rather than bring it into a Law Court. This was rather vexing to many of us who would have liked to have seen the figure which this brassy gentleman would have cut under cross-examination about this affair. We should also have been pleased to have heard a little from Erin's patriot chief, Sir Charles Duffy, on the same subject.

The opportunity we did not get then we have, in some degree, had since. The case of Armitage v. Smith, to which I have before referred to, afforded some interesting particulars of the Way in which the advertising doctor combines devotion to the duties he owes his country with a very decided and very unscrupulous watchfulness for his own interests. Armitage, the plaintiff, waa a contractor, who some years ago did some road work for the Government, work which left him the possessor of a disputed claim. There are a number of people who, by the ownership of a claim against the Government, manage to make a decent livelihood. It may be a very rotten one, intelligible only to the possessor, but tbis is no matter. The Go. vernment flatly rejects it, andthela.wOovirti

would treat it withficorn, but there is a way of turning it to account. You have only to get hold of some obtrusive, pertinacious ' member of Parliament, one who will not be put down, and wKo has a way of making , himself very troublesome and disagreeable, j Get him to take up the claim and make it the subject of a motion in the House for the "production of all papers and documents j relative to," &c., and afterwards another motion for the reference of it to a Select Committee. This is always sure ofa certain amount of support from a certain class of members, who like to be on Committees for the investigation of pecuniary claims. The more rotten they are the better, for j th<>re is the more merit, and the more demand on the gratitude of the claimant in safely engineering them through. So that, although Mr Armitage had taken his case into Court and failed, he did not despair. A propitious fortune one day threw him in the way of L. L. Smith, who at once addressed him about the claim, and offered to get it referred to arbitration on the condition that if it was allowed, he was to have £500. A part of this he explained would be required for bribing Mr C. E. Jones, who was then Commissioner of Roads, and who was known to be amenable to these forms of persuasion. Jones, however, refused to have anything to do with the matter. Jones only did business for cash, and there was no money in this case except in prospective. I should have said that the prudent Smith had taken the precaution to get from Armitage a power of attorney to draw the money, and aho a receipt for £500. Although the business could not be done with Jones, it became an easy matter when Smith's friends, Duffy and his motley crew, were in power. The Board was then appointed, and an award for £1640 was made. Armitage tried to draw the money, but found that Smith had lodged the power of attorney at the Treasury, and ultimately he would only get the sum by paying Smith the £500. Afterwards, thinking that he had been done out of the mone^, and being disposed to swindle the man who did his dirty work out of the payment for the unclean job, he brought the action to get the money returned. Smith swore that Armitage owed him about £350, or with interest, £500, for betting debts, &c, and affirmed that the sum was paid to cover these liabilities. The Judge put it to them that it was a question of veracity — two diametrically opposite statements were made, and it was for them to say which they believed. They said this in a very emphatic way by giving Armitage a verdict for the full amount he claimed. This leaves Smith under the imputation of bribery and perjury, and to any other man would be rather damaging. However, I cannot say that the reputation of Smith will sustain any harm by the exposure. But what a scandal to our political institutions, and what a disgrace to the many hundreds of Richmond electors who put this fellow at the head of the poll as their chosen and fitting representative.

The prorogation has been delayed by the course which our Legislative Council has thought proper to pursue with regard to the Land Bill. Nobody believed that the Council liked the Bill, and very few expected that it would pass it ; but I doubt if anyone was prepared for such an exhibition of pettifogging meanness as that foolish body has exhibited in dealing with the measure. It has not ventured to reject the Bill ; such indeed would have been an honourable course compared with that which it adopted. But it amended it in such a way as to ensure its rejection in the Lower House. It did more ; it opened an inquiry into the general administration of the Lands Office, the sole object of which was to show that Mr Casey, the Minister of Lands, had some years before irregularly selected some land himself. There was not one of these " representatives of the wealth and education " of the Colony that ventured to prefer such a charge in his own person, but they tried to elicit it from some of the tmfortunate officials whom they summoned to their bar. It was essentially a fishing inquiry, and it did not succeed in catching any fish. Throughout the examination and throughout the speeches, a bitter animus was exhibited against the Ministers and the Government; and if the question is asked why, we can only suppose that it was owing to the fact that Mr Casej has endeavoured to administer the Lands Office in an open honest manner, and has determined to deal rigorously with cases of dummyism and evasion. Hence the bitterness with which he is hated by these upright guardiaus of the liberties of the people.

Our North -Eastern Kail way has been opened to its terminus on the Murray, and the occasion was duly celebrated by a festivity given by the Government. Now that we have two railways running from Melbourne to different parts of the frontier of Riverina, the doubt has arisen whether we are not on the point of losing the Riverina trade. The Premier and Parliament of New South Wales, in pursuance of their policy of removing all restrictions from commerce, have abolished the ad valorem duties imposed Borne years ago by Sir James Martin. It is evident that this gives Sydney au hnmeDse advantage over Melbourne in supplying goods to thiß important province of Hiverina, and it is doubtful whether Melbourne merchants will be able to compete against their rivals in Sydney, hampered as out trade is with a2O pjr cent, tariff. Should this trade slip from our hands, the lesson, added to those we derive from other sources, will doubtless tend to hasten the day when the question of modifying our tariff will be seriously considered with a view to important changes in the direction of free trad?,

A strange case has just been heard, and admirably shows the value a British jury places on the rights and liberty of the subject. A man named Roberts, who is of a very eccentric and excitable character, j brought an action against Dr Hadden for getting him locked up as a lunatic by giving a false certificate of madness. A number of ■witnesses were examined with the view of showing that although the plaintiff was odd and queer in his ways, he was not regarded as mad or dangerous. At the end of the case the Judge committed the evidence to the Jury, and also requested them to give answers to a series of questions. The Jury soon returned in Court with a verdict for the plaintiff ; damages one farthing. The Judge with some difficulty then got them to give answers to the questions laid before them. From these replies it appeared that they considered that the doctor had given his certificate of insanity with great carelessness, tba"t he gave it with no reason to believe it was true,,; and according to another reply — with the full knowledge that it was untrue, that it was false, and that he knew it be false. This was their belief, and upon these findings they based their verdict. The case was summed up in a very caustic way by the Judge, who said, "This man (the plaintiff), has been locked up and imprisoned for six months, for which he gets a farthing damages. That is the verdict." From which, of course, we have additional reaaon for admiring that time honoured and quite infallible institution the British, jury.

The tightness of the English money market has sympathetically affected our position here. Our banks have decidedto raise the rate of interest on tixed deposits one-half per cent. Discount is unaltered, but the minimum interest on overdraft is increased from 8 to 9 per cent. The rates now paid on fixed deposits is 3i per cent, for six months, and 4 per cent, for 12 months deposit. Our University is largely increasing in usefulness as measured by the number of students. Those who are entered for the forthcoming matriculation examination, number upwards of 380, and of these 37 are girls. The authorities of the institution are understood to be framing regulations for admitting the young ladies to pursue their studies, attend lectures, and take degrees or their feminine equivalents.