MELBOURNE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1340, 4 August 1877, Page 7

MELBOURNE.

July 16tb. ' The present Minister of Lands is a Mr Longmore, one of the extreme Radicals, and a leading light of the party of giving everything to everybody. At the same time, he labours, like many of hu party, under the inability of seeing more than a few inches before his nose, and in taking a step is never able to torse* where it will land him, or what wOl be tha next.' Soon after entering on the duties of his office he determined to refuse all applications to mortgage selectors' leases, on the ground that by means of these leases money lenders got a hold on the selectors and often , dispossessed them of their holdings, "merely because they were poor men." All this was to be rectified under the new regime of universal philanthropy, aad th 6 obnoxious money-lender was to find his occupation gone. A benevolent scheme, no doubt, but the effect of it was to stop at once all advances £o the selectors, and to reduce them a* a dan to a condition of extreme necessity. 'They were compelled on the one side to make improvements and to work their land, and, on tjia other, their supply of funds waa absolutely cut off. Tho selectors throughout the Colony took the alarm, and one or two colossal deputation! came to see the Minister on the subject. The unfortunate Longmore by this time saw that he had made a fool of himself, and tried "everyway- to shuffle out of tha difficulty without rw*lnng & direct retreat. In despair, he even invited the managers of the banks to come and meet him, and suggest any foutlet if possible, and finding there was nothing to do but to retrace his steps tried hard to induce them to £ive » guarantee not to charge more than 10 per cent, interest to the settlers. The banks - declined to permit any interference in their way of transacting business, and Mr Longmore has since had to mike an abject and unconditional withdrawal of the plan of philanthropy which turned out so badly when bronght to trial However, all this is to be remedied now. One of the adherents of the Ministryhaa given notice of a motion affirming that the Govern ment ought to advance money to the selectors to work their holdings and to keep them out of the hands of lenders of money at exorbitant rates of interest. Of course the principle is capable of much wider extension. Why, for instance, should the State show more favour to settlers than to the promoters of jfifcw industries in towns, whose claims to parti.pate in such advances of funds for the purpose of thoroughly grounding their undertakings would be quite unchallengeable ? Indeed there are many deserving and needy people who would very soon find some way of bringing themselves within the category of those to whom money is to be lent on easy terms, without questions being asked. The incident is noteworthy as showing the road we are going and the rate of progress we are making. The means adopted by the Ministry and its party to work up the feeling on their side were comically illustrated the other day by a soiree given at Clones by the Liberal party. There was a special train given gratis by ths Government, to take some of the orators from Melbourne to the town where the meeting was to be held. For the purpose of giving importance to the gathering, it was held in ths local Wesleyan chapel, and measures were taken to give a semi-rehgious character to the affair as far as powible. Indeed, a decided Chadband flavour pervaded the proceedings. A number of memben of Parliament — among whom was the notorious Gaunaon— were placed on a raised platform, to see and be seen, and were waited upon by a troop of fluttering, trembling girls, all muslin, and amiles, and timidity. At a very early stage it was mentioned that the speeches would have to be short, m "the ladies " were very desirous of hearing Mr Gaunson, the most notorious brawler and rowdy, without exception, that ever disgraced our Victorian Psvrliament. In the meantime, that delicious old noodle, Mr French, the Attorney-General, delivered a highly Hibernian address, in which nonsense and wild eentiment struggled for the maatery. At last Mr Gaunson giatined the ladies by addressing them specially, and enlarged on the intimate relationship of politics and religion, ending by calling on the mothers and young girls of the Colony to devote attention to politics. This seems to have immensely delighted the "ladies" of Clunes, and the Liberal vote in that enlightened district is Baf c fer yearn to come. The wont of it all is that

by means of these wretched tricks of bunkum and claptrap there is worked up a spirit of party and_ of class feeling, which, when the constituencies are appealed to, ensures a victory to the charlatans and mountebanks who pull the strings of our political puppet-show. The report of our Lands Office for last year shows the rat* at which the alienation of the public estate is proceeding. We have about 12,000,000 acres of available land for selection, and this we are getting rid of at a rate that will dispose of every acre before this time twelve years. We now have from the lands a revenue of about L 1,200,000 a year, and at the rate we are now going in about 20 years this will come to an end or be reduced to a tithe of its amount. So that there is a pleasant look-out for our successors who will have no estate to look to for settlement, and who will have to bear burdens of taxation from which they might have been relieved had we administered our lands in a more economical, wiser, and more rational manner. It is characteristic of our Liberal party that it has a notable way ot meeting this difficulty, It declares Lhrough its leading Press organthat this colony has not its fair share of territory, and that it will become the duty of the Government to take some measures towards redressing this unfairness by annexing Riverina. What measures these are to be is not very clear. On the other hand, the equity of the arrangement is abundantly clear. It is, indeed, as " clear as mud." It ia as though a landowner who had ruined his land by wasteful tillage and overcropping should propose to repair the ruin by appropriating the land of his more careful neighbour, and that in proposing this course he should never give any hint of believing that the neighbour could have any voice whatever in the matter. Nothing ia more noticeable in Melbourne than the vast improvement that is proceeding bo rapidly in the chief streets of the city. In Collins street this is especially observable, and if continued for some years it will really place Collins Btreet high in order among the great streets of the world. In several parts there are great blocks of buildings in course of demolition to make way for large handsome structures that are to take their place. There are very fine Insurance offices now being built ; a large bank is about to be erected on what was the old Criterion Hotel, at one time the chief hotel in the city : an Arcade is to be built, of which very magnificent descriptions have been given ; and one or two large trading establishments are constructing their premises in a style adequate to their business requirements and the architectural progress of the city. At the same time there are two or three large private houses in progress, one of which is, I think, the finest mansion erected in Melbourne proper. The City Council has a scheme of improvement under consideration, and if this generation is not able to repeat the boast of Augustus and aay that, " I found the city brick, and ieft it marble," it at any rate will be able to point to a degree of progress such as has been made by few cities in the same time.