OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.
(Fnoai Our Own Correspondent.) Meleourke, April 7.
The Federation poll— which is to determine | •the Commonwealth Bill jutfe drafted by i the final Convention sitting in Melbourne — is to take place on June 3. Sj>'far is Victoria is concerned, if the iwo months' interval does j not allow the enthusiasm to peter oat, the bill ■ will be adopted by a triumphant majurlty. j Now tbat the New South Wales Premier bag definitely declared that he will recommend the bill for adoption, New South Wales will probably carry it also ; though in that colony the opposition led by " Jack " Want (who has resigned from the Government in order that he may be free to oppose £be bill) ia a matter to be reckoned with. But in Victoria the Age stands , almost Bolus in advocating delay. For the first , time in the history of tbe federation movement thsre is something like a wave of enthusiasm on the subject. At a Beudigo ' banquet, when Mr Deakin orated on it, the company actually did show , a tremendous enthusiasm. When he concluded with a quotation from a Federation sonnet by the dead poet Gay, his hearers lost command of themselves. They stood on the chairs and tables and cheered like maniacs. It is the Australian Natives' Association which has set the fashion in tbis federal enthusiasm. This is a body which is very rapidly becoming a power in Victoria. All young Australians who have a desire to take a hand ia politics feel it their duty to j&in the A.N.A. By the rules the j association forsweara politics , but they axe frequently honoured in the breach. Anyhow an exception is made in favour of Federation, and the young Australians are booming it along all they know. My own theory is that young Australians are a shamed of Protection, and yet ashamed to say so ; and they look to Federation, with its accompanjirg intercolonial freetrade, as the way cut. The stock tax, which prevents the bringing in of cattle end sheep across the Murray, not only strikes them as too ridiculous, ' but the high price of meat brings its folly home to them ; aad they see wfc b and flour (of which Victoria suffers a famine through j drought) kept up to famine prices by a protec- I tive duty. They drank in Protection "wiln their mother's milk, and they are like the religious doubter — ashamed to acknowledge their doubts; — so they make a compromise, and cry for intercolonial freetrade at least. If all Australia * drags them behind a Freetrade chariot eventu-rili-rWeIU ClW",rast;as,Gej| jnr.Qve.d. too mush foe i
them will be their excuse for deserting the policy of Graham Berry and the Radical greybeards, whose eternal wisdom in their hearts they are beginning to question. Your New Zealand friend, Mr Ben Tilletfc, has been distinguishing him by some remarkable addresses in opposition to Federation. They were remarkable because of their anchor's assurance in criticising what he knew nothing about. He had only landed from Tasmania a week or so aud professed himself a critic of what Australia has been discussing for years. Probably and apparently he had not even read the bill, and certainly he had not followed the debates on its provisions. However, he satisfactorily proved to himself that Federation was for the "fat man. 1 ' But he did noi; entirely lead his hearers captive, for there are "boohoos" and " Noes " scattered through the report.
One "fat man" has deeply insulted Me Tillett— and thab is the Mayor of Melbourne, Mr M'Eachern, of M'llwratth, M'Eachern, «nd Co., ihe shipowners. The mayor refused to preside at Mr Tjllefct's lecture on " Religion and Socialism," and has been vigorously abused in cotistquence. Mr Tillett declared he was " not at all hurt," but all the same he was angry. He told liis audience (hat he had served fix yeargj as an alderman of London " when 30 eatls and dukes were at the bottom of the list"; and with a mixture of irreverence and egotism declared — "Your mayor would not liave taken the chair for the prophet Isaiab, and Christ Himself .would have been .beneath his dignity altogether." And .still moire modestly he told Ms audience ~ " I consider myself in brains more than the eaual of your mayor, in manners much his superior, and from the standpoint of position in the eyes of the woild a greater man." fflf^JWEachem does not seem to have lo3t flesh. He remains a "fat roan."
Mr Sb. John Topp, one of the leading barristers, hits raised a rare sir amoDg t some of hia brother lawyers — those who rejoice in the descriptive title of " ani*!gam?." Until some two or three years ago the line was rigidly drawn in Victoria between barrister and solicitor ; now one man can unite in his own person, as io-Nt w Zealand, the two profersioni. Bat the man who does so is regarded as having fallen from his High estate, and the barrister pare and s ; inpl« wilLnofc touch the dual individual with a hot tongs, aud irreverently dabs -him an "amalgam." Before a law comm ssion, which is sitting to determine how legal proceedings can be shortened and cheapened, Mr Topp held forth on the vices of amalgams in piling op costs. The Inferior men, or the '" fa lures " of both professions, tried to improve theic condition by uiii-ing them, with the most unsatiaf&ctory results -to judges and clients alike. A3 barristers they were not competent to assist ths jucge3, and as sol ci'ors they were not competent to do justice to their clients. Wheu, ss folioitors, they iustructed themselves, as barristets, they did not fcrgefr— as seighl; ba expected — to deal with ihetntelves on the most generous scale. There were, be admitted, respectable amalgams, tome o f whom were his own f ciends, bub the tendency of the act was to " encourage (he ,10 west class of men from each bratich of the profession." The amalgams ' immtdiateiy held an indignation meeting, and poor Mr Topp bas been challenged in "the newspapers to prove his words o? eat them, But he refu*ea to attempt either feat, declaring ju<tly etough that these are his opinion*, and they go for what they are worth.
The Salvation Army Las once more been in evidenc : with an inte*colonial congress in Melbourne. The Argus graphically paints i\ -picture of the pintemiraic tomfot It.ry wh'ch -masks this big event. The eougre«3 began with '"aspec-, tacular inarcb," knd ihs figures in the march ranged from a bieycie brigade and groups of amataur actors in costume down to converted " aboriginals "-—produced with the help of burnt cork — shani K'ndoos with towels for turbans, and mounted horsemen in reS j*rseys and bioa'd bats. On Suj day, with sackbuts ai d dulcimers, with big drumq and little drum?, witis cornels and bassoons, and more musical instruments than EL'ng Kehucba'nezz^r assembled on tha p'nios of Dura— together with the (-bouts of "' 1000 officers and 800 soldiers "" — tbe SxLibition Building was turned into a, mere c&ve of the winds, and was probably filled with a wilder and more distracted WUst of Bcuad than e»er before tfhock its walls. Oa Monday night the "junior soldiers " of the Army held a ''- fifld day *' in the Exhibition Building, and filled h with ons wild blaze of colour, the' -gerfprmers — all of tendfr age — being attired in the most startling tints — screaming red, dazzling white, pensive mauve, sentimental "helictrcpe, vivid green, and staring yellow, and so forth. As for the oratory, Commandant Booth raised his hearers to a pitch, of mere shrieking delight by introducing his wife to them as "the Dutch ovea in which his heart was ' cooksfl ' " !
A nuniter of members of the Victorian Assembly, wi'h 'tiie Speakfcr kndaig his countenance, have been covering themselves with ridicule by playing a cricket match against * ladies' team iv the Western District who dub | themselves the Forgei.-Me-Nofcs. Miss Dalli- ! more was top fcorer vralh.l9. Carlyle's "mostly I fools " would surely .be too generous a methbd |of describing these frivdoua legislators. And ! it is gravely recorded that the Minister for | Public Worka incited the ladies to Melbourne to play a return match. Mr George Duncan, of Dnnedin, who vras ' engineer for the Melbourne tramways, is understood tob? making pots of money on the diggings by cyanide., He and his brothers took it up some five years ago, and nave been working away quietly at it ever since. The latest statement published about their operations comes from Stawell. It says . — "The Meesra DuccaD, who weie tbe pioneers of the cyanide enterprise in this locality, and who already have works in full operation at the old liaviathan and Wimmera crushing mill site?, have become the nurenaisers of Cain sad do¥s new plant at the western side of Gxant, Lament, and Co.'s tailings dam. They htve -aa immense volnme of tailings to operate upon, and as these include the remnants from Eome of the richest mines ever worked atrSfcawell, there in every probability that ths speculation will ■prove successful."
James Edward Geake, the Darjlesford solicitor, 'h»» successfully achieved tas renmrkable feat of 'beiog in two places Bt ones. He was released from Penfcridge on Monday, and, wherever he is now, was certainly in Melbourne on that *day^ j&t .in ■ the eye of the law he was actually ,ia South America.. He raised the point himself and successfully established it, a credit to his ingenuity.. Geak^, who used the cloak of religion, defrauded various clients when he was in practice in Daylesford, and teing arrested ■was senKsacefl to two year*' imprisonment. Being allowed oat on vail peisdhig the arguing of law points he absconded to South America. He -was brought back from there on another charge, sn3 on liis arrival here was
WO NEWS is .good news, bul you can't run a newspaper on thai; principle. "We simply •mention DERBY tobacco. Try it 1 ; it»<wiU W&kfoiitjseli. ,
convicted and sentenced to 18 months. He has - geivad this sentence and contends, so far successfully, that as regards the charge on > tihich he was sentenced to two years and on which he absconded be is still legally in South America, having been extradited not on account of it but only on account of the one for which he has served the 18 months. The curious position has thus arisen that the Crown cannot ioflicb its sentence on. a man who is at its own gaol door. Though in the flesh he is in Melbourne in the law he is in South America. Mr Geake is clever if he is not a model of uprightness.
The rebuilding on the site of the great Flinders street fire is about to begin. The building •round which most interest hinges, and which is to cover a very large area, is the warehouse of Messrs" Sargood, Butler, Nichol, and Ewen. The plans for the new warehouse ha.ye not yet been completed, bat it is intended that the building shall be the largest of its sort in the Southern Hemisphere. With the new laud acquired from Messrs LincolD, Sfcuart, and Co., there will be a frontage of 132ffc, while fche block extends fche fall 313 ft from Flinders street to Flinders lane. It is intended to occupy all the Flinders street frontage with handsome shops for leasing for retail. This will make that portion of Flinders street a busier and brighter locality than before the fire.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Witness, Issue 2303, 21 April 1898, Page 24
Word Count
1,899OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER. Otago Witness, Issue 2303, 21 April 1898, Page 24
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