OUR VICTORIAN LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2523, 23 July 1902, Page 14

OUR VICTORIAN LETTER.

(From Our Own Correspokdext.) • MELBOURNE, July 9

Lord Hopetoun actually cried on the platform at Spencer street railway station when he took his final farewell of Melbourne. The sceno was truly not a little affecting. The streets from Government House had been fairly crowded as he dTo^o along, and the cheers and good-byes hearty. On the platform there -were many politicians and old friends and a choir of ladies ■mil gentlemen sang " Will ye no come back again?" and "Auld lang syne.' It is scarcely to be wondered at that the departing Governor-general broke down— the more jo as he is really ill. He has never recovered from the severe illness by which he was attacked in India on his way out. A close Mew of his face shocks one who l- not familiar with it— he has almost a ghastly appearance. His term of office has not been marked by conspicuous success, and the worries and disappointments have not helped his recovery. First, there was the fa lime of his choice, Sir William Lyne, to form a Government -that was a bad beginning: then there was his unfortunate .speech' in which he took the blame of Cabinet action over the hesitation to send fresh troops to South Africa, for which the House of Representatives censured him; again, there was the final trouble with his -Ministers on the salary question. - These matters must, all have given him great pain. His parting gift of champagne to the unemployed has aroused unkindly ciiticism, which has not been quieted by his ftirthev gift of his autogriph portrait to the unemployed leader, Fleming — a working bootmaker and a Yarra l>ank Socialist spouter. This has indeed horrified many of Lord Hopetoun's admirers. It is hoped that the rumour from England that Lord Brassey is to get the Gover-nor-generalship will prove incorrect. Already a small meeting of Federal politicians hr.9 been hold, and the Government have been told that the appointment would not give satisfaction; and no eloubt Mr Ch-vrt-berlain has been communicated with confidentially to this effect. The general belbf is that Lord Tennyson, now Governor of South Austiaha, will get the vacant post. He teems a level-headed, sensible man. Mr O'Sulhvan, the Minister of Public Works in Sydney (formerly a compositoi). is a poht'eian who likes to work himself into "'a fine frenzy rolling" occasionally. He believes, amongst other things, that you can fix wages by law. and, neglecting all consideration of the fact that Australia is in competition with the world, has determined on 7» a day as the lowest wage of any labourer within the domain he has a hand in governing. He has a comfortable belief that the s>pc nding of money makes for prosperity, and given Fortunatus's purse in. the New South Wales Treasury ch'^t he would make things " gee." He has just been holding forth with a wealth of prophetic and poetic imagery on the* " future of Sydney." To do all Sydney people justice, they are intense adruicers of their beautiful city — and they cannot lock their admiration within their own breast?. They must " out with it." Mr O'Sullivan believes that in a hundred years Sydney will have a population of two or three millions, and be a " gigantic entrepot of trade and commerce also." " Carthage and Venice in their palmiest days " won't compare with what Sydney will be. Prepare then, he ca'ls aloud to the in-escnt generation, for her great destiny. The Government are '" en the . job," he crie.«. They are- buijding a great central railway station, to cover 50 acres ; they have opened the Pyrmont bridge (a means of communication to one of the hiiburbs. though Mt O'Sullivan in his grandiloquent vein calls it '' the starting place of the high road to the Gulf of Carpentaria"): they are about to build a bridge to North Shore to co.=t a million and a-half ; ho prophesies tramways here, there, and everywhere; and "by such works as these, find by improving our parks and garden", clean >ing the streets, lemoving the •■luiyis, etc., vvp ran fit Sydney for her hiph destiny as the leading city of the southern woild Yet all th" while the inteiior of New | South Walo-. i.s l clap-iny into a deport s-tate. The drought remain-, unbroken, and the great backbone industry of the country -woolgrowing-- 1-. h< nig stuved out. A writer in the Au-HralaMan ha-> given a vmd pu ture of the dc-okition that is being wrought by the dreadful du^t storm". They were unknown before 1884. but are vrarly ,ncraasing in severity and extent. Th<> great problem that confront!* New South Wales is not to prepare Sydney for her high destiny, but to save the vat = t interior fiom returning to de-ert. Tf 100.000 K.mloo or Chinese labonreis could be turned adrift on it for some' year': to conptrm t irrigation channels and dams, at a wage of r-oynethmg like a shilling :i day, then it might be fitt.'d for profitable settlement. But with Mr O'»Sullivan's working man at 7s a day, what can be done 1 ' Ab-olutelv nothing. How Sydney i- to reach her high dc-tmy under the-p c iicuiu'tant i's is a mystery.

The fainoii-i Lako Kyrp flnodnnr «•< homo has just r.'ii'iM-'d it~> tjuictu- fiom I'rofe--or liregoiy. tlio j?pologi-t of Melbomno Urn vc-reity. Lako K\ic a \a»t «atcrkv-> do Ijrci^.oii in Cential Ai^traha It is about 40ft bolow the -oa le\el. and the -c!n ni< - winch lias l.'con talked about for years -i-> to flood tlie whole aroa with ■■oa watoi " F »ep no physical impo«Hhilitv in the rloodniK of the Lake Kyre baswi." -ay-, Pro-fo--oi Cicgory: but his facts and figure- i<o to -how that the expense would be tro mi-udou- It i^ 2:60 miles distant from the -i a- a channel 1000 ft wide and 16ft deep would bo needed to fill the area and keep U full, allowing for lo*-> by evaporation, etc. ; and the co-t would be £740.000,000— or a sum equal to the Bnti.-h national debt' And when Lake Kyie wa-» filled, add^ the Piofc-sor. a-; little K f >o c l might be done to Central An-tiaha ,n the Dead Sfa clops to it- barren ba-i«i K\en if great benefit did it-nit to the -^mounding i Innate, the sheep that fattened on the graces would need to ciow fiVet, of god instead of wool to i liable the iiitrie-t < liarge- to be met

" Vaturu" in \fi inakr-^ ■mi'-t.ikor ; ," it ih said: lint Trufi -ur (Irogoiy hints tliat aiound Likf Kyu- t-lic Iki^ mn-le a very tlesi* ap|)rcii li to olio "An abomination of desolation ( ovf i s thousands of sqnaie miles of (oiiiitiy which has a coil of exceptional ricl'tie-^, an invißorating, bracing atmosphere, and .i <limato free from malaiia and the s-|)C<ial difca-o-, of mof't tub-tropical land- ' Givr-n but water, that' country would be as foitile .n a garden : but Nature lia-; withhold the water supply, and it threatens to remain, a desert.

tttre the Melbourne meeting of Protestant clergy which was convened to organise an agitation against the Catholic vote' in regard to religious education — though nowadays only " Scripture lessons " arc demanded. It wag most noticeable at the meeting that the Orange champion, the Rev. D. M. Berry, was uproariously applauded. But the more moderate and saner men carried the day — the Rev. Drs Marshall, Fitchett. and Bevan. These men took the view that if the Roman, Catholics had any organisation they were only within their rights; more shame to the Protestants that they had not organised long ago ; and that any organisation of the Protestant vote might well be carried out without specific antagonism to any Catholic vote. And to this view the' meeting agreed. The resolution reads to "organise a Protestant vote 8O as to give it clue weight ia the politics of the country " ; not as it was suggested it should read, to counteract the Catholic vote. It is pretty safe to predict that very little will come of it. The comitry is not with the clergy — not even for Scripture lessons in schools.

Both Melbourne and Sydney hav® held Home Rule for Ireland demonstrations. They are only worth mention because the Rev. Dr Rccitoul appeared as a Home Rule sympathiser at the Melbourne meeting. Not long ago he was the great 12th of July orator ; but if he goes on as he is going ne won't surprise his friends if he ends in the bosom of the Catholic Chui'ch. He has become so complete a Protestant (in its meaning of " protester ") that he cannot refrain from protesting against even Protestantism. His excuse for appearing at the gathering may be given in his own words: — "He waa a Protestant, and from the blaok north, and proud to be an Irishman. He had never before appeared on a public platform here to speak on Home Rula, not because he did not hold intense views in its favour, but because he thousht Australia should be satisfied to govern itself and not try to govern Other places, until Mr Chamberlain came along — (A Voice: 'Judas") — and introduced that perilous principle that all parts of the sisterhood of the English-speaking nation should interfere with one another's affairs." It is certainly only a warped imagination that could father en Mr Chamberlain the blame for Canada, Australia, and New Zealand interfering in South Africa. No movpmetvt more spontaneous and less clue to political influence has ever arisen in the history of the Empire than this. There are a great many person? here who wish that Dr Rentoul, if he is going over to Rome, would be quick about if, for he is doing much mischief to Presbyteriaaism. An elderly couple from the country have had a narrow escape from death by gis suffocation in the Victoria Coffee Palace. The husband turned off the gas before going to bed, but, being unaccustomed to its use, felt uneasy, and got up to see whether he had turned it off properly. The turn whicli he gave it on the second occasion allowed the gas to e&cane at full pressure, and, as there was no fanlight, aud the door fitted cloeely, the old couple had a miraculous escape from death. The housemaid found them at 10 a.m. lying side by side in bed, dead to all appearance. They had to be put under the care of two trained nurse*, and were very badly affected.