MELBOURNE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1159, 14 February 1874, Page 8

MELBOURNE.

(from our own correspondent.) January 31st.

A singular question has arisen in connection with the Border Duties Treaty between Victoria and New South Wales, which, as the case at present stands, throws a shade of doubt upon the personal disinterestedness of the Premier of the latter Colony, Mr Parkes. I desire to use very mild words, but you will be able to see that really the matter is one of a serious nature, and one that it is highly desirable, for the credit of Parliamentary Government in the Colonies, should be satisfactorily cleared up. It will be remembered that a couple of years ago Mr Parkes was travelling from Colony to Colony as the business agent of Mr Hall, of the Califorman and Sydney steamers. It will also bo remembered how easily; the contract for the present service was slipped off with by Mr Hall with Mr Parkes as Premier. It is necessary to add that Messrs Cameron and Dunn, the great American tobacco firm recently established at Sydney, are Mr Hall s sureties for the performance of the contract. Some months ago, when the New South Wales budget was under discussion by the Ministry, it was contemplated to materially increase the duty on tobacco. The intention got wind, or was guessed at, and a very large quantity of tobacco was taken out of bond by some of the principal holders— amongst them the firm in question. Still the Government—that is to say Mr Parkes— persisted in the intention, and laid the proposal before the House ; although to adopt it would, owing to the action of the tobacco importers, entail a loss to the revenue of about £14,000. However, the monstrous character of the attempt was too plainly visible, and to avoid a certain defeat Mr Parkes reluctantly determined to withdraw the proposal. _ To continue the thread of the story, it is necessary to refer back to the agreement made relative to the Border Treaty. In framing it, as our delegates foresaw a possibility of the Sydney firms trying to import tobacco wholesale into Victoria under its provisions free of duty, they insisted on taking the right of excepting tobacco from the operation of the treaty, if it should be seen to be necessary. Mr Parkes reluctantly conceded the demand, but required that three months' notice should be given of such exception. To see the su&picious nature of this demand it is needful to remember that one month's notice is all that is necessary to abrogate the whole treaty. Our Ministers, Mr Francis and Mr Langton, good men and easy, resisted this demand on account of its strangeness, but did not sec any particular drift of it, and ultimately, to save the treaty, consented. Guileless men ! they now sec the trap which was laid for them by the elderly vulpine practitioner with whom they had to deal. The next thing we hear about the tobacco is a few months ago, when Messrs Cameron and Dunn, the sureties of Mr Parkcs' friend Mr Hall, sent a number of telegrams to Melbourne inviting Melbourne houses to take their tobacco made up to resemble "Haven's twist," and imported here from Sydney across the border free of duty. As New South Wales has a different duty _in favour of the Native grown tobacco, which Messrs Cameron and Dunn manufactured into the genuine Raven's twist, it is easy to see that this would amount to a gigantic fraud upon the revenue of this Colony. The Melbourne men thought the business was too fishy, and informed the Government. The Government telegraphed to Mr Parkes, who, after at first protesting that there was no ioundation for the report, ultimately assured Mr Francis that though a small parcel or two jni^ht be sent just to try the Melbourne market, there was no intention of sending a quantity. However, the Government, having been made uncomfortable by the matter, gave notice of tbe exception of tobacco from the operation of the treaty. Later still, the abolition of the New South Wales ad valorem duty induced the Government to give notice of the abrogation of the treaty as a whole. Matters having been thus arranged, • we beard the other day that ten tons of tobacco, on its way from Sydney to Melbourne, had been stopped at the frontier, and that this was only the first instalment of a very large quantity that Avas approaching, some of which has since arrived. .Singularly enough, Mr Parkes was not so unconscious now of the movements of this tobacco as he had been a few weoks earlier of the operations at Syd- 1 ney. Still more singularly he was aware of the seizure of this tobacco the day before it happened. What was the cause of his intense interest in the matter wo cannot tell, but it is certain that he telegraphed a complaint to Mr Francis about the detention of the tobacco the day before our officials had taken notion. The contrast between the former blindness that would not see, and the superhuman vigilance and acuteness that, as the hosa say, could " see double," is highly suggestive. Gathering up all the threads of this long story, the relations of Mr Parkes to Mr Hall, and of Mr Hall to Messrs Cameron trad Dunn, the recent affair of the .New South Wales tariff and the tobacco importers, who were to have been bonehteel by the stroke that was so unluckily spoiled, the strange and auspicious precaution to secure tbe three months' notice in favour ot the tobacco— the palpable incorrectness one will B ay of tho information convoyed by Mr Parkes to Mr Francis that no larsje quantitieß of tobacco were to be sent— his keen interest in the consignment sent .by Messrs Cameron and Dunn arriving safely in Melbourne—putting all the facts together, asflWeclly we get &p»ej!hing psora than 9 cloud

of suspicion shading the hitherto spotless' purity of the crafty Sydney Premier. Possibly we are not fair judges of the case. We are irritated by the feeling that we have been jockeyed on all sides. Our ministers went to the Conference prepared to meet any political interests or competitions, and to hold their own against them. They were perfectly competent as mercantile men and as politicians to watch our interests ; but considering the circumstances, if we could have sent an Old Bailey lawyer and a veteran detective, it would have been more to the purpose. Our friends the English cricketers, whereever they go, succeed in leaving behind them the same ill odour. It is evident that Mr W. G. Grace, the "gentleman" player, only claims that title by virtue of getting a good deal more pay for his work than the professionals do. Certainly he has no right to it by a superior degree of courtesy, politeness, manly independence, or any of the ordinary qualities of a gentleman. The Warrnambool visit developed many of the unlovely characterestics of the great batsman — his vulgar snobbery, his abusive manners, his spirit of loaferdom. For instance, the mighty cricketer left his hotel bill and account for champagne and cigars unpaid, for the Local Committee to defray if it chose. It did not choose, and Grace or some of his friends have since had to pay. Then at Sydney he managed to get into a row and almost into a fight on the cricket field. The Eleven, you have no doubt} seen by the telegrams, have been again defeated by a Colonial eighteen. The Sydney men gained an easy victory, although not so triumphant a one as that of the Melbourne men. One philosopher who has taken notes of the successive matches finds the curious fact that in each case the result has been opposite to the betting. That is to say, where the Elevens have been largely backed they have lost, and where the odds have been against them they have won. If this is given as a mere statement of facts, it is probably correct enough, but if it is intended to convey a suggestion that the play has been shaped in this way in consequence of the betting, I don't believe that there is the slightest foundation to the idea. There is quite enough against our visitors without inventing groundless calumnies of this sort. Their visit to us will, I believe, have a bad effect upon the morals and manners of the cricket field for some time to come. I don't mean that anything they have done will tend to directly demoralise our high toned colonial cricketers. But the behaviour of the Eleven will deprive our sporting journals of the bright example of English cricket that they have been accustomed to hold forth for emulation. There has often enough a tendency manifested itself to rowdyism and blackguardism in some of our more exciting contests. On such occasions, the writers in the papers, after rebuking our cricketers for their disorderly behaviour, contrast their conduct with the high-bred, gentlemanly, uniformly courteous, and chivalrous manners of the English cricketers. Mr W. (!. Grace has thoroughly dispelled this myth, and our writers will in future be debarred from quoting the English "gentlemen" cricketers as the pattern of all that is manly and elevated in sport. 80 that there is another illusion gone from our coming into too close contact with the actual fact.

We have of late had a number of cases of embezzlement, some of them of a serious nature. Several of them 1 have mentioned in recent letters, but the list still lengthens. Thisweekwchavc two bank managers charged with this crime. One is a person earned Belcher, manage]- of the Bank of New South Wales at Wodonga, who seems to have carried on a systematic series of embezzlements for some time by falsifying the accounts of customers. He is committed for trial. The other case is that of George Maurice Drummond, manager of the Provincial and Suburban Bank at Richmond, who is charged with robbing the bank of some £1000 or £1500. He has absconded with the money, or the greater part of it, and there is said to be, as Coppin says in "The Wicked World," a "lady in the case." That is t:> say that tho defaulter is accompanied by a female named Ellen Austin, who is stated to be his cousin. Nothing has yet been ascertained as to the direction he has taken. The man Walters, the Castleinaine mining manager, who was brought back from New Zealand for embezzlement, has been taken before the local police court, and tbe evidence against him having been heard, he is committed for trial, In this case the cireiunstauco3 have had a very disastrous effect on the local mining. Walters was manager in so many companies, and his operations in falsifying accounts and issuing unauthorised shares have so complicated matters, that a sevoro blow has been struck at all mining progress and speculation, and has almost, for the time, extinguished mining at Castleinaine. This is a very unfortunate effect of the scoundrelism of a single man. The Clunes miners are at their tricks again. A man has taken a contract from tho Clunes Company at a price which the Miners' Association consider too low, so they have intimidated the man to such a degree that he has thrown up the contract. It is not pleasant to have this condition of lawlessness existing in the midst of a British community, and it will soon be necessary for tho Government either to resolve on enforcing the law, or to give the CJuncs men permission to form themselves into an independent canton like Carthagena. The Ministry has gained a good deal of discredit by its cowardly disregard of its duty in reference to the former affair at Clunes. There is so much time-serving, bo much truckling to tho mob, amongst ow

Colonial politicians, that doubtless they will act this time in just the same way as they did at iirst.

We have had further revelations of the incredible confusion and ruinous disorder in the Land Office, brought about to a very great extent by the shameful maladministration and jobbery of Mr Grant. It appears that the surveys are in some cases shamefully made, in others not made at , all ; that in other cases the plans have been intentionally destroyed to conceal the fearful blunders they contain. Thus, for a great deal of alienated territory there are no survey plans in existence, no records of sale, and no titles ; while in other cases there are contradictory titles, occasioned by the land having been sold to two or three different parties. All these evils will develope more and more in time as the land changes hands, and the titles become investigated ; and the sums that the country will some day have to pay as the price of the luxury of having had Mr Grant as a Lands Minister, are fearful to contemplate. It is evident that turning a Lands Office into an infamous agency for trafficking in votes and political support, is not to be done without incurring some slight disadvantages. In the ueighbouring island of Tasmania, local politics do not afford sufficient subjects for the newspapers and for general talk, so they supplement them by what can be made out of the politics of the churches. This is, generally speaking, very poor, profitless staff, and it is certainly so in Tasmania. Tbe Church of England contains some clergymen of very weak intellects, who have " gone in for" all the absurd upholstery and millinery and theatricality of ritualism. Amongst these is the Rev. Mr Bromley, who has been appointed by his father, the bishop, to the charge of St. David's Cathedral. Let us hope that the appointment was a perfectly disinterested one, and made on strictly Christian principles, solely for the good of the Church. The younger Bromley — a poor feeble creature — wants to introduce intoning into the service. On the other side the parishioners do not think that religion is much advanced by a man singing in a slow monotonous way through his nose, and oppose their minister tooth andnail. Hence a condition of wranglirjg andlowpettyquarrclling that is most edifying to witness. The Bishop has shown on many occasions a sympathy with Bitualistic practices that lie has not the manly courage to avow and to act upon, and some very pitiful trimming, and time-serving, and juggling with language have been the consequences. While the Episcopalians have thus been affording abundant material for the mocks of the scoffer, the Presbyterians have been acting with an equal disregard of the restraints usually kept in view by till decent people. At a recent meeting of the Synod of Tasmania, a clerical rowdy named the Reverend Mr Storie, who has made himself notorious on former occasions, was permitted for several hours to insult his fellow ministers, threaten them, bully them, call them liars, and generally to act what would be regarded in a less reverend personage as very much like. a blackguard. Instead of being kicked out of the room, or handed over to a constable, he was allowed to proceed in this way as long as he liked and wholly obstructed the business of the meeting — as far as there was any business. While all this is going on in the south of the island there is a Presbyterian congregation at Launceston who have some time been prayerfully engaged in the Christian task of starving out their pastor, the Eev. James Gardner, *vhose offence is that he has not sufficiently toadied and cringed to some of the "bigwigs" of the place. Anything like manly independence in a minister is promptly and properly checked. While the churches are acting in this way we need not be much surprised to find the Wesleyan Conference bewailing the decline of the churches, the decay of religious feeling, and diminution of the number of worshippers. Their ministers propose to appoint a day of humiliation on the subject, and, on condition that it is self-humiliation that they mean, their proposal is not at all unreasonable.