Our Correspondents.

Otago Witness, Issue 1248, 30 October 1875, Page 6

Our Correspondents.

MELBOURNE.

October 13th. j Political matters continue to afford us an endless topic of profitless discourse. A week ago we were speculating what would be the voting on the amendment of Sir James M'Culloch, or how far it would be confused by the crafty amendment of Mr Casey. When that \ was decided came the question whether the Government would get a dissolution, and now ' that has been decided too. There has indeed been an attempt to get up a discussion whether the Government would try to carry on in the face of a decidedly hostile Legislature, on the slippery foundation of resolutions passed at impudently factitious public meetings. The endeavour would be unconstitutional, insane, suicidal; but with a Berry Government all things are possible. However, although this last contingency is not yet absolutely settled, the public refuse to regard it as a possible case, and conclude that the Berry Government havbeen ousted and refused a dissolution out it must go. Matters have fallen out in this way. The amendment of Sir James M'Culloch condemning the Ministerial policy being before the House, and a second amendment being moved upon this by Mr Casey, with the intention of confusing the issue in the interest of Ministers, they were put to the vote on the 6th inst. The ' amendment of Mr Casey was lost by 38 votes to 35, and it was then proposed to divide on the amendment of Sir James M'Culloch, which now became the substantial proposition before the House. But this very fair and natural and logical course Mr Berry resisted. He had a belief that the voting would, on the second amendment, be more hostile to the Government than on the first, and .desired to prevent ! this result, so aa to be able to state the majority I against him in its smallest form when applying to the Governor for a dissolution. The trick was a very petty, paltry one — a mere piece of political wriggling to avoid the impending blow. But it was characteristic of a Government, the remembrance of which will for a loug time be the most humiliating part of our history. However, the attempt was fruitless j the finessing and the foaming — not at all Olympian rage-^-of J£r Berry were alike in vain, ana the division was taken, when it increased the majority against the Government to five — the numbers being this time 39 to 34. When the Government saw that the result was inevitable, it telegraphed to its agents throughout the Colony, who had been working the public meeting dodge with more or less success, to send in the resolutions, in which they requested that the acting-Governor would grant a dissolution. These resolutions were all of one pattern, and which was drawn up at a Bourke street hotel, where liberal patriotism 1b accustomed to imbibe sound politics, and doubt- ! i ul beer. In the meantime Ministers gave ' themselves up to the preparation of a minute, intended to convince Sir William StaweU of i the imperative necessity of a dissolution. Amongst other bad courses into which we have drifted, is this, that whenever a Government is beaten, it at once, instead of accepting and acting upon its defeat, tries to escape its consequences by obtaining a dissolution. Perhaps there is not the slightest reason to believe that a general election would at all altsr the constitution of Parliament. But at any yate, it is always three or four months gained, aud enables an unscrupulous Ministry to stick to power for nearly half a year after it has been constitutionally defunct. So the attempt is always made. This time the attempt was boktersd up by the crowd of deputations that came down to present their resolutions to the Actiii™-Go\ernor. Of course there was no weight to he att iched to the wishes expressed In theaa (kcumenta. At the best, they only represented the wishes of one party, which the meetings had gone to show is not a very | numerous one. It bad been the wish of the d^putationitts to present themselves in a crowd before His Excellency, but Sir William Stawell rather "sat upon" this arrangement by insisting ou each delegate appearing singly with the resolutions of which he was the bearer. When the lesolutions were presented yesterday • &» the Acting-Governor he received them all w?th the formal reply that they would be conside^l; and a re yty returned through Mb advijo^ The reply was given in Parliament a fey hours' afterwards. When the House met air Bern- tM the minute he had addressed to j the Acting-Governor, and His Excellency's w.-lv, in which A dissolution" was refused. Thsreunon a wrangle ensued of a not very fteemly character, and the House adjourned tall to night, when it is to be presTJ^Wi that Minister:* will announce their resignatiofief. Among«st other reasens for desiring to" ftvwd an uncalled for dissolution at the present ftroe is the fact that it would give a great oppor*- J tnnitv to the Catholic anti-education party. W inle the constituencies would be trying to choose cither Ministerial or Anti-ministerial jn<"i" the utmost exertions of the Catholic priesthood and their blind followers in < every oMitituency of the country would be directed to .-.ecuring the return of any man of any politics whatever who would promise \>3 wek to modify the education system. It would hardly fail that some enemies of e^u-Ml Jon would be returned by such means, aa.. 1 considering the fact that the last two *c-<ii>n!< of Parliament have been almost wholly wasted, aud that public business of t?\':ry kind is terribly in arrears, we certainly ■do not want to waste mow time in resultless •?nuri.H!ilin!js over our education system, got up in the interests of an aggressive priesthood. It ft becoming more and more evident that there art? )'.<> "ther interests in It is quite ■ti] iif that if they were let alone by the'r in-: -.t-! the Catholic laity would send their ci-il'lreV £'» the State schools with pleasure, and «v?-> r.ty.v tii<? most rigorous use of the priestly iuMt ;„ required to prevent them from doing so. r Jh<2 name of Weechurch can hardly f be wholly to any reader of Australian news. This uneuphomus appeU*oon is that of a i risoner in Pentridge. who, eotM few years ag.v made a deliberate attempt to muwsr the Inspector General of Prisons, and went very near doing so. Mr Duncan's life was saved by "a narrow chance, and the ruffian Weechuxcn ■ life was saved by the imbecility of a Jury, who, •on ground* to this day unintelligible, refused to him of the attempt to murder. Since then he- has made two or three deliberately murderous attacks on some of the warders, and jt i* flifncult to know what to do wifcb the scrtiinnr.iL He already ha» to undergo w« heaviest punishment that can be given short of hanging, and Juries appear to be too sentimental to convict a prisoner of the clearest and joot-t apparent attempt to murder when only ft warder S the victim. So that we have in this WeecUurch a difficulty that we can see no means of getting over, unless we could release him ami present him to New Zealand by way vf exchange for the amiable Mr Suluva«, or vrkuia at present there is no chance of our being able to lid ourselves. H M S Pearl visited this port the other day, bringing Mrs Goodenough, widow of the late Gtfluoefae, as * P»«enser, m l«r way to

England by the Durham, from Melbourne. The Magdala gold mine, the shaft of which three or four weeks ago struck the reef at the unprecedented depth of nearly 1700 feet, has not yet been tested. Men have been at work in breaking out stone, and opening out the reef, but nothing has been done yet to test the stone that is being raised. In the meantime, the shares of the company have undergone great fluctuations in value, rising and falling by some mysterious law of their own that had nothing whatever to do with the prospects of the mine.

The Exhibition continues to attract large ' attendances, and it has not yet been found j necessary to add to the attractions by giving evening concerts. Since the first flush of excitement and admiration is over, one or two features \>i the show have drawn not wholly complimentary attention. One is the shamelessly shoppy character of the whole affair. You Bee, for instance, here and there, large quantities of imported goods set out as in the show room of a shop, and ticketed all over with the names of their exhibitors. Well, one is inclined to ask what articles of this kind do in what purports to be an exhibition of Australian productions. The of things of this description in the collection is enormous. The only answer that is to be given to the question as to their right to be there, is that it enables the exhibitors to advertise themselves at public expense, and gratifies the Commissioners by filling the building, if not with proper articles, yet with something. Then it has at length become obvious to the dullest that the " Japan Court" at the Exhibition is a great imposition on our credulity and simplicity. It, in the first instance, seemed complimentary to us to be told that Japan was going to honour our Exhibition | by sending a very large consignment of contributions. When the exhibits were ranged in order, the first enthusiasm on the subject was ' somewhat- checked by finding that they consisted of hundreds of vases, dishes, ornaments, &c, in porcelain and enamel, looking marvellously as though they were the clearings-out of some large crockery warehouse in Japan. The object of this curious choice of exhibits soon became manifest when the exhibition opened, and the Japanese began to trade off their exhibits, which were all duly ticketed for the purpose. It wa3 then seen that the Court) which was a shop in aspect, was also a shop in fact, that the contributions were mere trade importations, and that the Japanese were merely using our Exhibition as a well-advertised sale room. In fact, these astute heathens afc first began their saleß without going through the formality of paying Customs dues on the articles, which were admitted to the Exhibition as to a bonded store. And the chief traders in this affair, the Japanese Commissioners, high officials of Government, as we were told when they came here, have been living in the best rooms of the best hotel in Melbourne at Government charge, besides getting free tickets for the railways, ana for everything that they like. Certainly, if those semi-civilised Mongolians display such diplomatic ability at the present time, they will be dangerous customers to trade with when they have acquired all the arts of the civilisation they are so strenuously labouring to appropriate. Mademoiselle de Murska, after a very successful season at Adelaide, where the people on the occasion of her farewell concert threw her upwards of 150 bouquets, has returned to Melbourne, and is giving concerts in the Town Hall. Madame Bistori and her company have gone to Sydney, and the burlesque and opera bouffe coirpany of Mr Lyster is now playing at 1 the Opera House. Miss EmiUe Melville, a j clever, dashing young actress, of American j origin, ia the chief attraction. Before leaving here Madame Ristori made application to be granted the use of the Town Hall on her return from Sydnsy in November, but the \ managers of the Theatre Royal and the Opera House protested, and as one of the Royal managers, Mr Coppin, is a member of the Assembly, and could vote at a late important division on which the fate of the Government hung, the Chief Secretary at once refused to grant the TownHailatheatrelicenseonthegroundthat there are already enough theatres in Melbourne. Itwas > a disgraceful thing for a Premier to commit so flagrant a breach of courtesy and injustice, for the sake of catching an odd vote, and after all the end was just the same, and he must still quit those sweets of office, which he and his hungry crew so well appreciated. The latest on the matter is that the vote in question having been for the moment gained by the refusal of the license sought, the Chief Secretary has since " reconsidered his decision," and has granted the license. The New Guinea exploring expedition, of Mr Macleay, which sailed from Sydney some months ago, amid a good deal of pic-nicking, champagne drinking, toasting, and trumpet blowing, has ended in a fiasco. Mr Macleay went # to New Guinea, entered a river, steamed up it, found a tree lying across the stream, and came back again. It is a great pity that no better result was reached at a time when news from New Guinea is looked for with such interest, and when the annexation of the island is regarded by Australians as a matter of such practical concern.