OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER. Melbourne, June 8.

Otago Witness, Issue 1805, 25 June 1886, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER. Melbourne, June 8.

The startling information which comes from New Caledonia in regard to the projected annexation of the New Hebrides has caused quite a sensation. The acting British Consul no doubt had good grounds for his belief that the French mau-of-war has gone on a tour of annexation, for believe it he certainly does ; and at anyrate he did well to call attention promptly and strongly to the occurrence. But it is hard to believe that annexation has really been determined upon. Before this letter reaches you, cable news from the English Government will no doubt tell decisively what are the French intentions. If these are to grab the New Hebrides, then there is only one opinion here, namely, that England must put in a serious objection. The French flag must comedown.

The Victorian Houses of Assembly went ' into session last week, but so far there has been no serious work done. The Gillies-Deakin Government sit secure in their seats. The Opposition are a beggarly I array — some 20 all told. Mr Bent, whom we hoped was going to Europe, has been elected to the leadership of the Opposition, so, apparently, the hope was ill-founded. But his troops cannot show fight ; they can only obstruct, and as they number certain strong-lunged personages probably there will be some liveliness occasionally. The New South Wales Parliament has been making more progress of late, since the terribly dreary and useless no-confidence debate. For the first time the principle of payment of members in New South Wales has been affirmed. A motion by Mr Haydon on the subject has been carried. The Ministry were divided on the question, which, therefore, went entirely on its merits. The form in which the resolution was carried was merely approving of the principle. Effect will have to be given to it by a bill, which must come from a private member, since the Government do not hang together on the point. The bill is of course now safe in the Lower House, but it has to run the gauntlet of the Lords without the imprimatur of the Government upon it, so that there is probably a serious slip between the cup and the lip in the way of members securing their £300 a-year, But it is a step gained to have secured the passing of the resolution by the lower chamber. The Government have succeeded in carrying their stamp tax proposals, and have got a good hearing for those for a land tax, which is almost sure to be carried The limit is fixed at £1000. An income tax ol 4d in the pound has also been brought forward by the Government, but has not yet been debated. In South Australia there has been a political crisis. A no-confidence amendment was proposed on the lteply to the Governor's Address by Mr Jenkin Coles, the leader of the Opposition, and there seemed a probability at first of its being carried. But the Government intend appointing a Land Board, and the promise of a position on this is understood to have secured them a couple or three votes. The hint of a reconstruction of the Cabinet also secured another vote or two, and the Government eventually had an easy victory by eight votes. The reconstruction has been effected, though only one member actually retires. This is Mr S. Newland, the Treasurer, who has had an exceedingly unpleasant time of it during the depression, and who, no doubt, is glad to reach the peaceful shades of private life once more. Mr Bray, the Chief Secretary, will take the Treasurership, and Mr Spence, the Public j Works Minister, will accept the Secretaryship; Mr L. L. Furner will be the new occupant of the Public Works portfolio. Mr Newland ! was not by any means a success as Treasurer, and it was principally against him that the no-confidence arguments were directed. In the' debate he quite distinguished himself, for the correspondent of the Argus writes :—: — " The best, most lively, and piquant speech y was delivered by the Treasurer, from whom the least was expected. He had been so goaded by taunts as to his insignificance and inoom- (

petonce, that at last, like the worm, lie turned and stung well nigh all who had attached him. He had carefully prepared hnnsrlf, and lie seemed to have anticipated every interject ion, for lv& lvpartee was smart, and tolling. The House was fairly astonished at the new character thus' developed, and laughed and cheered quite legardless of consistency."

Few events that have occurred in Australia have stii rod the community like the Ly-ee-moon disaster. The weather was line, the wind was off the laud, and though the hour was after nightfall the coast was lighted so well that navigation should have been as sale as by day. Oi what use; aio lighthouse's, if in the best ot weather and the clearest oi atmospheres, a steamboat is to run ashore almost within hail ot the keeper 'I For this the Ly-ee-moon did. Sho ran straight into the light, oi would have done had not. the outlying rocks stopped her course. Evenbody must surely have been asleep ; and yet it was only nine o'clock in the evening. The whole thing is inexplicable ; and apparently it is doomed to remain so. Only the thud officer and the captain know anything about the circumstances preceding this most mysterious ot wrecks Everyone else who could hay« known anvthinc about it was diowntd.

The second ollicer, the beamen, and the passengers who have been saved were below when the vessel struck. They rushed on deck to liud the vessel on the rocks. The look-out man, the man at the wheel, the fiist officer, all have been drowned. The third officer was in charge ol' the vessel. His statement is that he steered the course given him by the captain till he got irighloned at the nearness of the vessel to the laud. Then he went to the captain's cabin and told him of his tears. "All right," &aid the captain ; " we'll see to her," and he at once came out and went to the wheelhouse. This the third mate declares was seventeen minutes before the vessel struck the reef. During all these seventeen minutes, says the third mate, the captain took no action to change the course. We are asked to believe, therefore, that after having had his attention specially directed to the dangerous position ot the vessel, the captain allowed her not only to continue in it, but momentarily to increase it, and eventually, with the light staring him in the face, to run the ship ashore right underneath it. Captain Webber ridicules the idea ; and his ridicule of so extraordinary a story ought to be justified. Ha declares that such action on hit. part would be impossible. He asserts that the wreck was due entirely to the negligence of the third officer. His story is in the most direct contradiction to the third mate's. He says he was not called until two minutes before the ship struck, and that when he got on deck it was too late to take any action to save his vessel. There is really precious little to choose between the two stories. If the captain's story is correct, then the third mate ran the vessel into the lighthouse rocks with his eyes wide open. He was not asleep, because the captain admits he was called before the ship struck. If the third mate's story is true, then the captain, with his eyes wide open, and indeed with his eyes actually opened for him by the mate to the danger, ran the vessel into the lighthouse rocks. The one story is as credible as the other. And what was the look-out man doing all the while? He is gone where none can question him, unfortunately. The third mate will stand his trial for manslaughter, but there is the captain's evidence alone against him ; and if the captain were to take his place in the dock, then only the third mate could prove him guilty. Yet there is one fact which tells against the captain. He admits that he passed Gabo Lighthouse within a mile, though the company's instructions are notto pass any point of land within less than two miles. And there is further the question of the course he gave when he passed Gabo. This was due north, and it remains to be settled by experts whether due north from a mile off Gabo would clear Green Cape. Meanwhile the public are amazed and disgusted to think that their lives are held in so little care that, with all the wide Pacific, where safety lies on the one side and a coast lighted to show where danger lies on the other, a vessel should be allowed to shatter herself to pieces in spite of the lighted warning. If both captain and third mate were hanged, the public in its present temper would be rather glad than otherwise.

In Sydney, the prosecution of Holt, the levanting manager of the Bank of New Zealand, has been the excitement of the hour. He was prosecuted on only one charge, the Attorney-general (Mr Want), tor some inscrutable reason, withdrawing the others. On this charge he got a sentence of four years. The particular offence carried with it only five years' punishment, and the judge took a year off in response to Holt's declaration of penitence and strong appeal for mercy. The judge is not blamed, but the Attorneygeneral is, and warmly. It is felt that Holt got exceptional treatment. No ordinary bank clerk or criminal in the commoner walks of life would have escaped so easily. The law would have taken its full pound of flesh. It is admitted that any term of imprisonment is a severe punishment to Holt, and the public are not sorry to know that his sentence includes a lengthened period of solitary confinement. He undergoes a complete social degradation that is perhaps a greater punishment than the gaol, though that is a startling extreme compared with the bank parlour. But he committed several serious crimes, and Mr Want had no right to prevent the law from taking its course. These are the arguments used in blame of the action of the Attorney -general. Holt, if there is any justice in comparison, certainly should have had a longer sentence than four years. Minchin, the teller of an Adelaide bank, has received three and a half years for an act of embezzlement ; and Holt was a manager, robbed his employers of a much larger sum than Minchin did, and made a desperate shift to escape from justice. Attention has been directed to the matter in Parliament, and Mr Wisdom, the ex-Attorney-general is to move a formal motion condemnatory of Mr Want's ill-judged leniency.

In Adelaide, besides Minchin, teller of thm National Bank, Godfreyßgremont, for em bezzlement, has been dealt with by U»e Supreme Court. Egremont was ..the secrV tary of the Kensington Building Society, ami having " did a big steal " as the Americans put il, h.e "skooted" to Europe. The police followed him. traced him by the movements of hi» wife, who followed him to Germany, and there arrested him. He has now received a sentence of six years' imprisonment. The case against Walker, secretary ot the V.M.C.A., whose fall from grace cieated so much astonishment, will be brought before the court in a day or two. Still another case of embezzlement has been discoveicd in South Anslialia, where such things have been so life Thomas Wyrill, manager ot the Town and Country bank at Tarcowio, has been found short in his returns by £150, and has been arrested.