OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER

Otago Witness, Issue 2387, 30 November 1899, Page 9

OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER-

MELBOURNE, November 15.

The opinion prevails universally that the Turner Ministry is on its last legs; indeed, there is talk of a no-confidence motion this week. Their sins are sins of administration ; not of policy. To say truth, they've never had any policy to speak of — except economy. That is^ one, matter on which Sir George Turner is firm as a rock; and; to give him due credit, he has managed the finances well enough. He came to office' in a period when economy was the one thing needful, and he supplied it. He has. been firm about nothing else — allowing the House to lead him, instead of his leading the House. "There have'been instances enough of this during the present session — in the Water Bill, the Factories Act, and so forth.

It is principally in regard to personal matters .that the sins of the Alinistry.are .comrng home' "to them! The Best scandal has been inquired into by- a parliamentary, committee. Mr Best 'is the ' Minister for ' Lands, who tourerl j New Zealand a short while ago. • He was j accused of having got his. brother-in-law, one j Jae&son, appointed to the' Lands department ; ' improperly. Jackson -was a 'telegraph clerk, 1 and somehow, secured a transfer to the Lands ■ OSe3T.and : 'when lie got there" was ■improperly.. adyanced"over his seniors. -For a time the ' thing r ro'oked v ,bl4ck,.e&OUgh against Mr Best", j in "spite of 'the fact that when he was first taxed aboiit it he struck dramatic attitudes, j r_ • and, with his hand on his heart, called heaven _. and earth to witness, and all the rest of it. '.'TBut he really comes out of it fairly well after "all. He -had, nothing to do with the brother-irf-law's transfer ; but where he did commit i fault was in neglecting co take notice of the ''dissatisfaction that existedr though it was so i c!osely brought under his notice 5.6 by an even- { ing visit of one of the dissatisfied officers to ' his private house. There is no doubt the secretary of the department advanced Jackson improperly, but it is not clear that Mr - Best "knew of it. Still, the inquiry -has re- i vealed a good deal of disorganisation in the department ; and some of the mud sticks to tho Minister. Over this same matter two j newspapers^ the- Age and the Australasian, j have got into trouble. The committee has ' not yet reported to the House ; yet both . papers have had articles of comment on the evidence. The majority of Parliament is offended, and the publisher of each paper has been summoned to the bar. The fasce is. that the- publisher is as innocent as the printer's devil ; while the editor sits and grins at Par- i liament in safety. I Another personal question that is likely to create trouble is the appointment of a commandant cf the forces. Major-general Sir Charles Holled-Smith. an Imperial officer of , goo'd 'standing, leaves the position this week* to , - return to England. The Government are ap- j pointing. Major-general Downes to succeed ' him. General ,Downeß is now 67 years old, and" has been on the retired list for years, and is an " old fogey." The man who should jret the, position is Colonel Bingham, who is an Imperial officer who has seen service. He is in every way suited to the pcFition, but for 'sonic reason he is not a' favourite of the Ministers. The generally received story is that Lady Turner is the principal objector to him. So the story goes. Very possibly it hasn't much | truth in it ; but at the farewell dinner to Sir '. Charles Smith the Mayor of Melbourne in- j dulged in mysterious hints about nrivate in- , fluence,- and everybody is concluding that is what he meant. Other suggestions are that Captain Collins, the Secretary for Defence, is working to keep the position for Colonel Hoad, who has gone to South Africa, and who is merely an ex-State school teacher. And still another is that David Syme, the Age proprietor, is keeping Colonel Bingham out of the billet; though why he should nobody knows. But whenever the Government of this colony does something out of the ordinary, the immediate suggestion is that David Syme is at the bottom of it. Anyhow, j the. friends of Colonel Bingham are going to ( kick up a dust about the slight put upon him. i And there is still another personal matter ; which is going to 'give the Ministry pome • trouble, and a good deal of it too. Mr Isaacs, I the Attorney-general, is to make a .trip to ' England to conduct the Tramway Company's appenl against local rating before the" Privy Council. There are several weighty objec- J tioii3 to this. Fist, the Attorney-general is an important member of the Ministry, and < except upon important j)ublie bu?inesb, or in case of bad health, no impoitanl Minister should leave the colony for so long a period. ' Again, the Attorney-general cannot _ altp- , ptether dissociate himself from his office in | England, and it will appear that the Tramway Company is -cprepented by the Government in some degrae. And further, the Tramway Company is at the prerent moment interested in important legislation as to j hours and wages before Parliament, and how i ran Mr Isaoes, who -is to look to the Tram- . way Company for a thumping fes, to keep > himself above a suspicion of favouritism, j There are, therefore, three good reasons why Mr Ittiacs, if he desires to go to England for the Tramway Company, should go as a private individual, and therefore resign his . office. There is bound to be -a disturbance over the proposed trip, and members will not hesitate out of regartl for Mr Isaacs's feelings, for ho is disliked most cordially. The trip of Mr Taverner was bad enough. •He went Home on alleged public pusinesrs, but only did a precious deal of junketing : and. the only reason there was nothing said about it was that nobody minded whether Taverner was here or away; he doesn't count for much. But Isaacs is' a different matter.

There remains still another personal nues- • tion which causes. some rareness. Mr Pearock, the Chief Secretary and Minister for Education, is in private life a legal manager of mining companies. There are loud complainings occasionally that only his companies can get the Government grants ; and ' whether tluß is true or not, undoubtedly there is ti desire to obtain his services as legal manager, so that he has a big pull over his many rivals in that line of business. This "session the Governmeut has had no control of the House — the Country party and the Labour party have kicked over the traces very frequently. Only one thing has kept them in office, the difficulty of finding successors. Mr Gillies is leader of the Opposition, but he is an extinct volcano; and it is difficult to see where a new Government, could come from. But unquestionably the Turner Government must break up shortly. _ - Connected' with politics is the sitting in Melbourne of a conference of Protectionists of Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia for the purpose of framing a federal tariff. It would be of no interest to give details of their deliberations, but the comment is justified that they are a sorry lot. Mr Maugcig (pronounced Major), the Bourko street hnttc'r, is the Victorian leader, and Mr Bohey (pronounced sky), the leader from New

South Wales. There is not a man among them of intellectuality, not a man among them but you would describe as feather-brained. How they can have the consummate nerve to attempt to settle the tariff issue for Australia is a mystery; yet they go about the task with the most cheerful assurance.