OUR VICTORIAN LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2511, 30 April 1902, Page 30

OUR VICTORIAN LETTER.

UTeom Oub Own Corbesponde^t.) MELBOURNE, April 16. jlr Kingston, the Federal Minister of Customs, has given another instance of his remarkable obstinacy of opinion in his determination that no steamers shall be allowed to coal in Melbourne on Eighthours Day. The coal lumpers get double rates for holiday work, and are anxious to earn these rates on that particular day. The mail steamers are willing to pay the double rates and anxious to get the work done. Mr Kingston simply sifa in his office chair and says : "" No work shall be done. I have said it." No one can reason with him or cajole him; scarcely even address him on the subject. If the boats can' t_ coal they can't travel; and the despatch of the . mails threatens to be put back a day. "My troubles about your majls," jays Mr Kingston; "you can't coal here on feigkt-hours Day." ■ The restoration of butter-box timber from New'£saland ±0 the free list on the Federal tariff -was a very close thing. The voting ivae"29 to 2S — only a majority of one. The Opposition cheered nsartily at the result : but -they secured it only with the assistance 'of one or two msrnberß who usually vote iProteotionist. but being representative of dairying districts changed their jviews for the time being. The decision is regarded as another injustice to Queensland. Thes 'Queensland pine is made into butter boxes; but the question is, Is it as good as New Zealand pine for the puipose? j Once more -one has to ask, Where is truth? ! Queensland butter factory people nse it, and pi*efer it to .New Zealand. It has been given H character by some Victorians, but Mr Drowe, the "Victorian dairy expert, has reported against it. Mr Macdonald-Paterson | was .filled with such indignation that he said 1 jhe vote was disastrous for Queensland, and the conduct of some members was disgust- ] jng. Queensland members might as well pack up their carpet-bags and go home, for )he £4-1)0 -they were paid had gone long ago, md Queensland could get no consideration j kom she House. I Tb.£ public is taking some interest in two j >r tTixee " missions " to England which are 1 >ein# arranged suspiciously closa to Corona- , i-ion time. Mr Stein, the chief officer of ■ the Fire Brigade, is starting out by -way of ' America to get knowledge about fire-pre- j vcarion work; Mr Clayton, town clerk of Melbourne, is making a trip to loam about j municipal progress; and Mr M'Culloch, | one of the Victorian Ministry, is off to 1" reform the Agent-general's Office.*' Mr Stain's mission seoms a sensible one, and he mjiy as well see the Coronation v/hile lie is about it. Mr Clayton's is a pure and /simple waste of money. It was only carried dn {he City Council by 13 to 11, so that ;his 'friends had all they could do to bring the jauiit off for him. Mr M'Culloch' s is in Identically the same category. Victoria haa had' a kind of acting- Agent-general for some years in Sir Andrew Clarke. He has just died, and Mr M'Culloch has seized the J "Pfiortunity to arrange a trip at the public I axpraso. " Reforming the Agent-general's Office " is a sham ; he could not do that unless he filled the position and got to know the work, and it is not pretended that he is going to do that. The Victorian •Factories Commission, who are enjoying -themselves on tho Wanganui River and at Hotorua, are also on a sham errand. It is only two or three years since Mr Trenwith mace the trip to learn all about labour conditions, but his trip bore not tho slightest fruit. Never by any accident does ho or anyone else refer to it now. If he ever learnt anything, which is doubtful, for he is the laziest man in political life (always excepting the Federal Prime Minister, Mr Barton), he has carefully forgotten it. Exactly similar will it be with the members ! c-f the Factories Commission. Mr Goyen, the Ofcago Inspector of Schools, has been giving the Victorian inspectors who were in oonference in Melbourne at the timjß of his visit an insight into tho New Zealand education eystem. Admittedly it is a great deal mor© thorough than the Victorian syetem. The inspection is a good deal more severe for one thing; there are about double the inspectors in proportion to tho number of scholars. But one great fundamental difference, very apparent to parents who bring children from New Zealand to continue their education here, lies in the popularity of the State schools. Perihaps this should rather be spoken of an a result, of the inherent differences of the two systems. At any .rate, it is a particularly noticeable fact. Nobody in New Zealand /thinks himself demeaned by allowing his children to attend the State Bchoob Here nobody who is in any kind of position at all dreams of such a tiling. In New Zealand, from the Premier's children downwards, all are educated at State schools, and are' not ashamed of the fact. The professions — the lawyers and the doctors, and so forth — are recruited from tho State school?. Here no doctor or lawyer or judge, no merchant, Bt-arcely a clenk, or a suburban shopkeeper above tho oidiuary tends his children to anything but a private school — uould not dretira of it. The State schools are for the children of the artitan, the small tradesman, and the working man. Consequently nri--Jate schools for boys and girls abound. There are columns of advertisements iv the daily papers when the schools resume after holidays. The principal religious denominations laoh h3ve their schools — not secondary nloiie, but preparatory; and the other preparatory schools are " run "' by private , teac'ierr., many of whom have considerable j Btsffs. They supply an education rsmjjmg from practically the A B C to matriculation, j It is not a good education. Each ' Teacher is a law unto himself There ' is no inspection. The end and aim ct - every principal of a school is to get his boys through matriculation at the University — ! as many as he possibly can and how he , can, and to advertise the number of his ' eueewps proudly in the newspapers a^ a 1 puarantee cf his ability as a trainer and ' teacher of youth. Cram, therefore, reicrns ' supteme. The matrir-ulation examinations for (he Univei-sity are a terrific crurfi Hun- ' tlreds cvF boys compete — ?.s many a? 600 at a i time. Not one in 20 h?s the remotest infcptftioTi of afnitiSf on Wtth n University career Their ambition i^ to secure tli? matn'oula tiqil p.'.=s r.s a tpwra'-.tre of llicn- Mmidinl ' cf education. Indeed, the matriculation pass is required before a bey cpv. or. tor a business Lcr.*c. liank. or an offiop. The City j»ud Milvi.Ktn Councils, the MetronoliIpd Board of "\Y:vL= the lr.su-ance ofuVis. ndreriiMiie f v iu'ii-,r iloik-, make " mntriei.hwl " :i Si' p < ua lion 1_ iK^er 1! ■ ' r'tii - ♦ .1 t l^j, 1] & Stave co^^oJ -\-'Rm F\.f'' ' - Ti r .1 .i-i 'r» I>t\" poor ina-t-.rial to v.oik umi'i Tne < iuldrr-n of the wore lnteluuent class.ss gj liifi pftßUaUiuty —

tho naturally bright children — do not patronise the State schools. Another result is mci eased expense to parents, but 111 spite of that the system continues. The (itate schools, therefore, are of infinitely less service to the community as a whole than in New Zealand. Another point of difference is that in I Victoria the State makes almost no proj vision for higher education. It ha= no secondary or high schools in its system. It gives the brightest of the State school scholars a scholarship which entitles them to • £20 worth of education a year for two years ! at a private school, but this is taken advantage of only to a limited extent. The State school standard of education is not high, aud the private schools cannot in the usual run of cases pass a boj at matricuj lation in two years from the time he leaves ! the State school. Secondary education, 1 therefore, is entirely in the hands of private I .tcaohjer.s. The religious denominations- pro1 vide liberally for it, The Church of England, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, "Wosleyaiis have each their separate colleges for boy 3 and girls, and flourishing institutions j they are in the main. The Roman CVchaltcs I are not at all behindhand in these seoendarj' ! Bchools either for boys or girls, the numeroub 1 convents all Having large girls' schools con1 neeted with them. But in addition to those j of the religious denominations there are innumerable private schools in Cue .suburbs — many of them old established and very successful. Mr Goyen has thus been able to interest hie hearers greatly in telling them what j New Zealand does for education. Bul there is little prospect of improvement here. The State has no more money to invest in education — for that .matter, it has precious little to invest in anything else. la 20 years we have about doubled our borrowed nioney, J and scarcely added to our population. That explains our impecunious condition in a nutshell. I The Amy Castles boom continues. In her native town of Bendigo her reception was enthusiastic, and, what was more to Mr Williamson's taste, there was £500 in the house for her single concert. Sydney ban caught the fever. The booking office was open at 6 a.m. ; police had to keep the footway clear ; and for the three concerts 4000 seats were booked in one day. Tinthree concerts in the Melbourne Town Hal' each returned £750 — crammed houpe- at oach. Mr Williamson pays Miss Castle- £250 for each concert — hands her a cheque for that amount at 11 o'clock the fcucceediny morning, — so runs the agreement. The additional artists engaged, advertising, etc., do not add more than, say, £125 to the expense^ of each concert -, consequently v simple sum j in arithmetic shows that the entrcpeneur ' has netted over £300 froci each of Miss | Castles's ihres appearances 111 Melbourne. Iv Sydney he wii! do nearly the same, .' Adelaide, Brisbane, ami tho New Zealand towns will do more than pay expenses, f-o that the tour should repay Mr Williamson very well. The Queensland police are either very unfortunate or very useless. Tho Gattun horror still stands an ugly figure 011 th^-ir debit sheet, besides some other crimes l<ss? horrible, but nearly as ssrious. They have a cauple of things on hand at present which threaten to bring them little kudos. One is the crimes of the K-enniff bushranging family. They have discovered abundant evidence that Mr Dalke, the fetation manager, and Constable Doyla were shot by the Kenniffs, and their bodies burned. Tho police found on a Ir.igo rorl; m the bed of a creek where the two men were shot all the signs of a terrible sequel to the tragedy. It was not more than half a mile from the camp of the Kenniff family, and a mile and a half from the placo where the struggle i; eaid to have taken place between the Kenniffs and Constable Doyle and Mr Dalke. The rock, v. liich 3s about Bft in thatneter, is 6ligbtJy hollowed in the centre. Upon it a firo had bean lit, and the bodies consumed. The rock has Foaled of 111 large flakes in places owing to the heat, and on it were some remains of the- charred bones and bits of scorched flesh. The charred bones had apparently been broken into small bits by stone and two hardwood 6ticks. But so far there 1- no word of the arrest of the murdererb. In this case, however, the country is so routrh t'mt the polic are fairly enough baffled. In the case of tho little girl Pindlav,- who was, outraged and murdered near Brisbane, the police seem to be entirely at fault. The girl, -who wns about 14, had bean on an errand to a store. Only 18 minutes elapsed from the time t-he left' the st-oro till her murdered and outraged body was. found. How the murderer could pet clear away in pn short a time is inexplicable : yet the pol'ca appear to be without clue. Some sirspi'-ion attaches to the girl's stepfather. Ho admitted at thp inquest that lie knew of the i-u^pir-ion But it rests on slight (rmunde, judging from all that has hern -published. He and the girl's mother had lived together for seven or eight yoais. Her first husband had deserted her. and she waa unwilling to take the risk of marrying aeam lest he should turn up. Aftrr the pirl'3 murder the two did got mairK'd. and this fact enupod some comment ; but the man explained at the inquest that they thought the step necessary in view of the fact that they were to arpear in court Apart from the relations of the two. the fact which leads to su->pie on of the stepfather is that he. frequently beat and ill-treated the jrirl. He and his wife deny This, but the neighbours testify to it. Si iIL this i«. slight eround on which to ba=e ft terrible a ;harrrf> : an d it would seem that the culprit mu=t be looked for elsewhere Miv Nil* am has been handed in Melbourne for burtihrr down Ins residence, in which his fo.ir yenr-o'd son lost hit- life After hi-* conMotiou he attempted to put tho rrime on lut wifo, but without the Flijfhtrs* rround?. On the morning of the execution he attpmntod suicide by battering bio head aerainst his cell door. His execution was a ehastlv sppftai-le. a« his face was badly cut from tln« ottemnt If ever a man desprved hanging it was he, for he tried to burn his v.'ife to deatli a-. wpII as to burn his pr^mis°a, the rooti\p being insurance money in each ca-e

A Mexica" contemporary states rhat of late the sug-ar indu-try in Mexico has bpgun to assume an rnormoib development. From every part of the country the formation of new silver concerns by native as well as American c-aiutali<ts is aim' ' Moreover, therp exists a marited tendency amon<r--t Mexican agriculturist-, to abandon the cultivation of maize in fa\our of gutrar plantation-, winch Day better Altotjethpr llin ineroa-c in the areas of sugar-cane plantations during the la->t year is estimated *t 22 uer ottiiu