OUR VICTORIAN LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2541, 26 November 1902, Page 30

OUR VICTORIAN LETTER.

,4Fbom Otjx Own Coebebpoxdent.) MELBOURNE, November 12. la previous letters I have mentioned the alarm felt in political circles at the influence of the civil service in elections. There is precious little doubt that they have thrown out -at least one Government in Victoria an past years, and it "was feared that the •Irvine Government might meet a similar fate «t their hands at the election a mouth or so ago. But the desire for a reduction i in Hbe number of members oi Parliament ' and for economy -generally -was so wide- | . epread that in Bpite of the civil service the ' Irvine Government -won almost aX along me ! line. Still, the fact that -the civil service I .vote is a, standing 'menace was made manifest at election time, and the result is a proposal try t"he Government to give the ' •endee an entirely separate representation in- Parliament. They propose that the entiro ibody of civil servants shall select one member to -the Legislative Council, and that the railway servants Ehall elect one member, and all -other servants another, to Ac Ijegifilative Aesembly. The proposal 13 strongly resented by the servioe, who declare that they will practically have no ' representation at all under the new system — that the special members would be looked •upoii as paid agitators, and would 'have no weight. They declare, also, that they are being classed with criminals, lunatics, ard {paupers, as persons requiring either epecinl representation, or nope at all. But the feeling -of the country is distinctly in favour of the change, and the Government proposal is almost certain to be carried. The drought continues badly with us. All of »_ harvest is given up over a great part of the northern areas, and we have settled down to the grim prospect of a year of famine prices and hard times. We are not praying for rain now; it would bo of no use now to the <crop»; and we • can prefcty well do without it. With the bop© that Springs eternal, we look forward to a better season next year. Meantime the I Government have got to see the thing ! through — to find seed wheat for the farmers, and to supply them with work so that they oan earn a crust until the period fcr farm ,wo 4 comes round again. Madame Melba's appeal to the millionaires of the world was quickly cried down. Heport has it that she wired even to so ' puissant a personage as the Prince of Wa ; es But Victoria felt that the crisis was i.ot to severe as to call for outside assistance. Nor is it. Tlie farmers don't require cliimty 3ncnr-y — not to any gTPat extent. If tln-v can be given work on railway lines, channel- ' ling, irrigation dams, etc., supplied vitn seed, and Jiave their stock grazed till rain comes, they can pull through all right. Besides, only one-half of Victoria i« ntfeotad; the other half is making: money cut nl \\ui sufferers' afflictions. Gippsland ?r<l the Western District have had a capital season. Land is selling like hot cakes inboth vacea, and the farmers and Rraeier"; all now doin^ well. Madame Mclba had travelled by tram right through to Brisbane, and s*<n the effects of drought all along ; but p!.© failed to realise that the sufferers there are the banks and pastoral compani' s chiefly; and they cannot well r.cr^pi the charity of the foreign millionaire . The Melba opera season is announced at last. Everyone knew - t was coming, bui , the actual announcement wae delayed till the. concerts were over. The prices for opera seats are a little staggering. There ar6 to be three performances in Melbourne. I and the same in Sydney. For the first j choice of seats, remaining open three days, i the figure is £3 3s; next choice, £2 k», j also remaining open three days; afterwards the seats remaining are to be £1 Is. For , pit and amphitheatre the prioe is 10s 6d — no seats reserved, and for these- there will ' be an unholy rush. If they opened the I doors early enough, people would get in the night before. Ji"b opera is to be performed as a whole ; only selections. I An old Dunediaite figured in the Mcl- I bourne County Court a few days ago in the person of Stephen Stamp i-i.utchison. gas engineer. He "was the defendant in an action brought by Mrs Wallace, widow of John A. Wallace. M.L.C.. to recover £153, money due. John A. Wallace wa<= an exceedingly well-known man — a big mmm? investor, with station property. He was chairman of directors of a ga* company for supnlring suburban niuaicipahti&s. of which Hutchison was engineer. Hutchison entered into contracts on his own account. and Wallace advanced him the money to make tin* necessary deposits ac-corn pa nj-jng tender. HutehisonV defence was that the moneys w&re Teally used iv pay.'iirj debt? due br Wallace, but Judgre JolmsiT baid •Eiiix'hiPOTi''! pxpltiuations were not by anr means isitisfartorr. Jt was uswible tb.nl isd Wailaee lived he woukl not 1 a\e r.-.adf tkc claim, but as a business matter his «rK*cnm:c was quite right in bringing the action. .Tud£Fnfn*. therefore, vent against Htrx-)>ison for £]4S. A family tjaUieri'ie of a unique character is taking place iv Melbourne to-day. Tiny year= ago on Xovember 12 Mr and Mr-> C. A. PrJchard, with a family cf 10 children, landed in Melbourne from Monmouth, in Ijiiphind The parents are dcv! : but the \vl"iip 10 chilc'Tin are lixiutr still, and have nr.ar.^oc' t) meet to t ■lobrif the juljiioe of their landing. It in certainly a wtmdor-

Iful reoord that there should not be a single break in a family circle of 10 in the space of half a century. All have married and reared families, and the complete roll of Prichards descendants now 'numbers 83, of whom about 50 nre gathered in Melbourne. | As tiro of them are from New Zealand, the list of the 10 may be worth giving- — Mrs A. Church (Canterbury, Melbourne), Mr A. C. Priehard. J.P. (West Oxford, New Zealand), Mr A. P. PrichaTd (of Chrisrchurch, New Zealand). Mrs C. Hyde (North Brighton), Mre A. Miller (Ararat), Mrs J. Blackburn 1 (late of Cnndleton, Manning Piiver New South Wales). Mr T. H. Prichara (editor ! Australian Mining Standard), Mrs D. F. iFraser '(Elsternwiok), Mrs A. Davidson (wife i or the Rev. Arthur Davidson, Geelong), and i Mr F. J. Pricb.ard .(editor of the Examiner, I Launceston, Tasmania). i Another record, xnjt of long life, but of long servioe, is interesting. AldeTxnaii Bayles (of the Melbourne City Council) has *at ' contitmoTisly in -thart body since November .4. 1861 — a space of 42 ypars. He wae Mayor in 1865-66, and has been alderman since 1869. Mr Kingston, the- Federal Minister of Customs, continues the ridiculous policy of administration which has done so much to disgust the commercial" communities with federation. He treats all offences against "the Customs as crimes. If a firm deliberately attempts to defraud no one could r object to a prosecution ; but where come clerk has been in error or some misreading of the tariff has taken place, respectable firms of standing naturally object to being brought before the court like criminals. An example of a flagrant type has occurred in Launeeston. P. O. Fysh and Co. (and Sir Philip lysh, -thp senior "member of thp firm, is actually a Foderul Minister himfelf without portfolio 1 ) were charged with having " wrongfully described flannelette as cotton piece goods." For the prosecution even it was admitted that the error was a technical one only. The firm in its time has paid three-quarters of a million in duty, and j had never given any trouble to the departj anenfc \before. They had themFeJves discovered the error (which was a clerk's), had told the Customs of it. and sent a cheque ! for the difference in duty. All this wan admitted and proved ; yet the magistrate fined the firm £5, and costs. Brisbane has had its excitement in the trial of the Kenniff brothers for the murders of Constable Doyle and the station -manager , (Mr Dahlke). On the final day. when Sir Samuel Griffith summed up, the Premier and other Ministers and many leading citizens were in court. The difficulty in the case was to provo that the two men had been murdered What wore belie*. ed to be I the remains could not be iflt utifiocl ; though one or two email articles h'.o a button and a pin which were found v.-.th the remains were undoubtedly the m^n's pioperty. Sir S. Griffith, henvpver, put it i o the jury that there was sufficient evidence that the men had been murdered; an/1, this admitted, the jury had no hesitation in convicting. The- point, however, has been reserved for the Full Court. Both brother* protested their innocence; but there 19 Ltile Question they will be hanged. A dreadful occurrence took plncp v»*terday morning at Caulfield. A Mr Mueller, a fairly well-to-do business man. living in a two-storey hou-e and keening two servant?, ro.v before daylight and shot hi* wife and little boy of 10 and afterwards umsHf. He d-d not die, but i.- in the hospital unlikely to recover. He had tvo ' other children— a girl of 12 and a boy of i. -i lutemled to shoot the^e also, "but I the girl, hearing the ntlior shot-. ro=e and . bolted her door, so that when lm mud it hp j could not enter. He apppars to have been j a model husband and father, had been an officer of the German array, and was a highly educated and respectable man. E\ idently his mind had been weak for 'ome 1 time. He was a strangely nervous man. I His consuming fear was lett the place should b» raided by burglars, or he himself should be bailed up and robbed on his I way home. He took the mos>t elaborate j precautions against both the^e contingencies. He had fixed abo\e the fence "surrounding the house and grounds three rows of barbed wire, while the gates were pro\id°d with electric bells, which ranjr in the house, and were fastened with patent lock*. Thp windows on bo*h floors were guarded halfway up with wire netting, and fixed vitn j-pocia! hole. Not content with the-e precautions, Mueller used to unfasten the watchdog e\erv ni^ht before jromg to bed, and at it* slightest bark he would g*-t up ard make a tour of ltispec-tion round the hous."* io a-'ure himself that overrtbing v.a« safe. Ho kept a full-«ized Webley revohe-r. cf the be»t maL<> procurable, in hi.« vrardrjh°. loaded ready for use 111 bix ejjaniber". He always left instruction? v. ith tile cufcman v-hcai he jnvar'ably en^ajred at the station to remain jn front of the hou-,e until he got in«idp. big fear beirip; apparently le«t someone might be wartmtj to ki'l him. The girl and boy who eFcaped and the hvo servant girls remained locked in an upjxr room in tenor from 4 a.m., when the cWd iras done, until 7, when— tljoygsm- a market parden&r passirxg, and get him 10 bring them a ladder.

In San Franci=to, which is said to lead zho world in the matter of an up-to-date tek phono 'y-fm, one adult in every 12 is a. member of a telephone exchange.