Our Correspondents.

Otago Witness, Issue 1324, 14 April 1877, Page 6

Our Correspondents.

NEW SOUTH WALES.

Sydney, March 26th, 1877. Contrary to almost general expectation, we have not been saddled with the expenses of a general election. At the request of the defeated Minister, His Excellency granted a dissolution contingent on a vote of a month's supply, but on asking the Assembly to perform that important function, Mr Roberteon's motion was met by an amendment, put by Mr Piddingion, to the effect that, in view of the resolution under which the Ministry had been defeated, such a vote would be unconstitutional, and. that a supply be not granted. This was carried by 33 to 27. A very animated, not to say acrimonious, debate ensued on the Governors minute being laid on the table. That document, in referring to the necessity of providing for the expenses of the country, suggested that it was not usual in the House of Commons, under similar circumstances, to show any factious opposition to the grant, whereat the prominent leaders of the Opposition declined to be lectured on constitutional law even by His Excellency, and with a firm front, carried its amendment. It was fully expected that the Ministry would have resigned without more-ado ; but the Robertson Government had already received scores of defeats without flinching, and, true to its character for tenacity, it tried to adjourn for a week, but was driven, in the midst of all sorts of jeers and scoffings, to be content with a day. On the following afternoon His Excellency took the initiative, and intimated to Mr Robertson that he withdrew his consent to a dissolution, and the Government at last tendered it 3 resignation. Mr Parkes at pace undertook the construction of a Cabinet, and aftet one or two adjournments, announced that he had succeeded. Mr Robertson then, in deference to the wish expressed in a special message from the Governor — but not at all graciojs^y — moved a month's supply, which was carried. The new Cabinet is composed as follows : — Mr Parkes (whom Sir Charles Gavan Duffy lauds as the only statesman in New South Wales), Colonial Secretary ; Mr Piddington, Treasurer ; Mr Sutton, Minister of Justice; Mr Hoskins, Minister of Worts ; Mr Driver, Minister of Lands ; Mr Windeyer (member for the University), Attorney-General ; Mr Saul Samuel (of the Legislative Council) Post-master-General ; and Mr Lloyd (member for Newcastle), Minister of Mines. Of the eight chosen, four besides the Premier have held office in previous Cabinets. Mr Piddington was treasurer during the Parkes regime. Mr Windeyer acted for some time as Solicitor General, an office now abolished Mr Samuel distinguished himself somewhat as Postmaster-General, and Mr Lloyd once held the keys of the Treasury. The three remaining gentlemen are novices in departmental work, and, at present, but little is expected from them. Writs for the new elections are returnable on the 19tb of April; the polling days are fixed for the 31st instant and 7th April, and the House stands adjourned to the 24th. The new Ministry is not, however, to be allowed to run an unobstructed course, as antagonistic candidates are already in the field to contest four of the seats, and hot work is looked for. Mr Parkes's election address contains the policy almost of both sides of the House, and I therefore give you the heads of it : — The extension of railway communication and the prosecution of public .works ; the submission to Parliament at an early date, and in time for the next general election, a comprehensive Electoral Bill; a searching and thorough reform in the lands department, which is charged in so large a manner with the vital interests of the country ; the consideration of a wisely-regulated system of immigration from the United Kingdom, so as not spasmodically to disturb the relations of labour and capital ; and no change in the educational law of 1866, until the constituencies have had an opportunity to declare their views on the question, which can only be done by submitting the Bill to Par liament before the general election. The Colony has suffered an irreparable loss in the death of the Roman Catholic Archbishop Folding, which iook place on £he 16ih instant. He was born in Liverpool in 1794, and was consequently in his 83rd year. From the age of 13 he was educated for the priesthood ; at 17 he was admitted to the order of Benedictines, and towards the close of 1835 arrived in Sydney, with the title of Vicar Apostolic of New Holland. He visited Rome in 1840, 1846, 1854, and 1866, and was on his way in 1869 to attend the Ecumenical Council when he was taken ill ie Bombay, and compelled to return to the colony without accomplishing his object. In 1841 Pope Gregory XVI. raised him to the then newly-created Archiepiacop»l See of Sydney, and the present Pope made him a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, and Bishop Assistant at the Papal throne. Dwelling for upwards of 40 years in the midst of diversified faiths and religious opinions, he kept aloof from party politics and religious discords to the last, and succeeded in passing through a long and useful life without provoking an angry thought or making a single enemy, A brave, kindly gentleman, he maintained the affection and respect of all creeds and classes from one end of the colony to the other. His death occurring on the day preceding St. Patrick's Day, the Hibernian Society decided that the usual manifestations of festivity on tbe Safot's day should be dispensed with ; and 1 can say that it was the first 17th of March I have ever witnessed without some indication of Hibernian cheer. The Government closed all the public offices, and the whole day was given up to the solemn ceremonies of the interment. A procession, vehicular and pedestrian, in which were juages, legislators, professions, and trades, followed the hearse to the cemetery in a stream extending three miles, and between twenty and thirty thousand people gathered to do the old friend of the Colony a fitting reverence. As you will have learned ere this, the level match between tbe All- England Eleven and the Combined Colonial Team came off on the Melbourne ground on the lbth, 16th, 17th, and 19fch, and resulted in an unexpected and marked victory for the Colonials. The ab-

sence of Spofforth, Allan, and Evans — three of the best of our Colonial bowlers — was not considered satisfactory, and instead of the well-remembered enthusiastic crowds wont to assemble on the occasions of the Lockyer and Grace visits, there were but poor audiences, considering the oagnitude of the event. I Again, the Englishmen have not reached the standard expected by the colonials. The general feeling seams to be that they display too much eagerness about gate money, and do too little honour to the game. Then, their many unexpected defeats, and the manner in which book-making on their play has been popularised, have thrown cold I water on the enthusiasm of our cricketers i pure and simple ; and altogether they do not "go down " half as well as might reasonably | have been expected. Their conduct in arranging the associated match, without consulting the N. S. W. Cricket Association, i gave offence in the beginning; and tbeir lately expressed determination, after makipg another Sydney match for the 31st, not to play it, has led the Sydney men to refuse tbeir patronage and play in the proposed combined match in Melbourne for Easter. The Melbourne men now propose to invite a visit from eleven gentlemen players. Subscriptions are being made both in Melbourne and Sydney for Bannerman, and about £150 is already subscribed. The match with twenty-two Bendigonians was withdrawn, the Sandhurst men evidently having the best ot it. The Sydney Morning Herald now publishes a daily weather map, compiled from telegrams by Dr Russell, the Government J Aatronomer. It indicates, at a glance, the weather state of the preceding day from all points of the compass, and cannot fail to be a valuable guide. Several important legal cases have lately been decided in our Supreme Court. The trespass cases — free selectors against Crown tenants — of Joachims v. O'Shanassy, are at length decided in favour of the selectors, the \ full Court having refused to set aside the verdict given for the Joachims. In an important case of Campbell v. the Commercial Bank of Sydney, a verdict for £3000 damages was given for the plaintiff. The oause of action arose from the neglect of the Bank to comply strictly with a rule under the Real Property Act, which requires that a mortgagor shall have a month's notice to renew before his property can be sold by a mortgagee. In another case, the full Court has decided against the power of the Minister of Lands to grant timber- cutting licenses in respect of land gazetted as reI served for the preservation of timber. An interesting issue left to a Jury from the Probate Judge, as to the validity of a j i second will purported to be made by ! a man named Robert Hancock, an aid resident of the *' Scotch Jock" type, has just been decided in the negative. The principal persons concerned in connection with the ! discredited document are a Mr Ferguson, whilome ot the Thames goldfield, where he ' obtained some notoriety in companionship with the perpetrators of the celebrated j Green Harp mining swindle, and a Mr Braithwaite, a civil engineer, once of Dunedin, a witness to the alleged will. The property involved and sought to be diverted from the deceased's next of kin, one of whom, a Mr Hincksman, is in New Zealand, is said to amount to £100,000. The case is I involved in such an intricacy of probabilities and the reverse as to make it one of our causes cciteores. Art id not healthily cultivated in Sydney. Nevertheless, we are to have an exhibition of the New Sonth Wales Academy of Art, which opens on the 28th. At present there is no public gallery of pictured created by and open for the enjoyment of the people. The Government annually votes about £1000 towards the purchase of the works of modern artists, but in its normal condition the socalled Academy may be said to be private property — five-sixths of its exhibits (not a hundred in all) being loaned from art admirers for public view. One of the paintings purchased with Government money is "Peace be to this House," of which one of the English Art Unions presented its subscribers with an engraving. Trickett has not yet accepted the chal lenge of Rush to row for the championship on Parramatta River. Trickett awaits the i arrival of the boat in which he rowed against Sadler on the Thames On the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th, we are to have the Australian Jockey Oiub meeting, the great event of which will be the Sydney Gold Cup and 500 so vs., for which most of the renowned horses of the day are enteied. The latest betting prices are — Pride of the i Hills, 100 to 13 ; Viva and Meteor, 100 to 10 each ; Deacon and Sterling, 100 to 8 each ; and from 100 to 7, to 100 to 3, v. any other. The Australian Blondin, a native of Sydney, who has been for some time successfully performing the rope feats of the " man "who crossed Niagara," announces that on the last day of the month he will cross I one of the small bays in Middle Harbour on a rope 1420 ft. in length at a height of 340 ft. Most of the plying steamers are engaged for the occasion, and it is expected that the novelty and risk of the attempt will draw a large concourse of sight-seers. It may well be supposed that our late | Colonial triumphs have not tended to reduce I oar capacity for " blow," and there is really j no saving when we shall be satisfied to rest jin claiming superiority over our EnglisK parent. Trickett's victory over the Thames waterman has now been followed up by the triumph of a Colonial eleven ever a picked J cricketing team from the English counties ; our riflemen have beaten the Canadians, and gone near to the displacement of the sons of Erin, and now we have a simple Sydneyite rivalling the world-renowned Blondin, whose decorations, received from Foreign Powers, | ate said to be numerous enough to fill an orI dinary carpet bag. So high runs native feeling, that it is even proposed to incite a native and Victorian prize-fighter, named Foley, to challenge Jim Mace, the champion middle weight of England, who now happens to be here on a visit, to try fistic conclusions for the belt. Spiritualism has taken a new form, which promises a short popularity. Our lateßt delnsionist is a young man named Thoma3 i Walker, who professes to be a medium, and a tranceist, through whom departed spirits communicate with human beings on earth, j At his leances slips of paper are distributed

amongst the audience, who are invited to write upon them whatever subjects they desire a lecture upon, and the choice of the nomination is left to the votes of the persons present. On the first night the matter selepted was the " Origin of Man," and persons competent to express an opinion say that the discourse on it was an excellent one, delivered in concise language, and with more incisiveness and prompt illustration than is usually found in a lecture crammed for the occasion. A second gathering took place a few evenings ago, when the subject selected was "Jesus Christ: Who was He? Where is He now ?" and though the lecture on it smacked much of the Spiritualistic outpourings of the day, and contained nothing that we have not all heard before, yet it was rendered with the same pointed clearness, and with singular promptitude and freedom from hesitation. After the lecture, it was stated that the tranceist had been controlled by the spirit of his great grandfather — A Dr Stuart— a Presbyterian clergyman, of England. The seances have been attended by a large number of respectable people, and there is, of course, the usual amount of easy faith and credulity, without which these performances would be unprofitable and insipid. Walker is said to be quite uneducated. Apropos of illusions, no doubt many ofyour readers have witnessed with astonishment Keller's clever cage trick exhibited by the "Illusionists," and wondered how it was done. Here it created considerable interest, and incited one humanitarian to address the Sydney Morning Herald in the hope of stopping the destruction of canaries, which, he contended, must necessarily follow the performance of the trick. Keller, however, denied that his bird suffered at all, and offered to perform the act of slight of hand anywhere apart from the stage, and toreproduce the canary. The secret, however, has been divulged by a discharged property man who attended Keller, and who sued the lessee of the Victoria Theatre for breach of service agreement. It appears that the cage collapsed, and that the bird of the evening was invariably killed. The Albury people have forwarded for transmission to England a petition, praying that the Governor's term of office — to expire this year — may be extended, and in the reply, or rather acknowlegment of the letter accompanying it, His Excellency adds " that he feared the Imperial Government may not be disposed to establish an inconvenient precedent." Sir Hercule3 has displayed so much ability in his office, and has steered so clear of party conflicts, that his merits are recognised over the length and breadth of the Colony, and as it is known that his own desire is to stay, hopes are entertained that the general wish of New South Wales may be acceded to. The long talked-of experimental shipment to England of Mort's frozen meat is to be made by the ship Norfolk, to sail on the 15th of April. The firm purchased 500 bullocks, at £10 each, for the experiment. In Mudgee the other day, a private volunteer named Drinkwater scored 79 out of a possible 80. The Registrar General's report on vital statistics for February last records the death of a colonist aged 105. The highest reading of the thermometer during that month was 90.1, and the lowest 50.2. ; The Government Astronomer reports that j for three days— the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd I March — he has looked in v»in for the hypothetical planet Vulcan. He observed, however, several spots of hitherto unseen fire on the sun's surface.