OUR VICTORIAN LETTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2545, 24 December 1902, Page 50

OUR VICTORIAN LETTER.

(From Otjb Own Cobbbspondekt.) MELBOURNE, December 10. After an all-night sitting, the Irvine GoTernment carried their proposal to give the tivjl service special representation in Parliament by 49 votes to 38. The majority was, Iperha-ps, as great as could have been expected, though it is not a large majority flrfien the importance of the step is considered. But the? leader of the Opposition .(Sir Alexander Peacock) had to admit that swt very long ago -he was himself a supporter of the proposal; and probably a aiumber who voted with him in their innermost hearts admit the wisdom of the step. .The civil servants and opponents of the measure generally are declaring that they lire being disfranchised, and being treated es the civil service in no other country in the world has been treated. But they are not being disfranchised. They are to have jtwo members in the House, which is just Wbout their proportion numerically. The jtverag© number of electors returning a member is 11,000, and two members are to repretenp a total civil service of 18,000. And lho"ugh Chey are being treated in a- special jway r the circumstances are special. Noiferhpre else except in Australia and New Zealand is the civil service such a power in 'the land, for nowhere eke are the railways •ha State- property. Victoria has 9000 railIfray employees. '! The ' Commonwealth Government — Sir Edmund Barton and his colleagues — are travelling- fast to their doom. So much seems evident. Their latest deed is to prohibit fche, landing of six hatters from London in Sydney. If Englishmen are to be prohibited from landing and settling in *n English colony, what are things coming to? {What are the colonies for, but to provide an jputlet for the teaming population of the Morher Country? The facts are simple, A (hat;', manufacturer in Sydney (Mr Charles lAnflerson), desiring to obtain skilled workmen from England, engaged six hands from •English factories. The men came out by jtb.6 steamer Orontes, and when they pro6oee to land in Sydney are prohibited from oing bo by the Commonwealth Governknent; and not only co but the. captain of !tbe steamer is threatened with a fine of '£100 each man for bringing the men to (Australia. •* The simple statement seems incredible, but it is exactly as here put. The men »re "prohibited .immigrants" under the Immigration Restriction Act, which contains W. clause declaring that no persons shall be allowed to land in Australia who are " under contract or agreement to perform manual •labour within the Commonwealth." This clause owes its existence to the Labour party. It was designed primarily to pre,yrent the bringing in of men to fill the iplace of strikers, but also to prevent erniployers engaging hands from the outside .world. To admit of its being waived the "addition was made: "This paragraph 6hall not apply to workmen exempted by the Minister for special skill required in Australia." Surely these Bix hatters are required for special skill. Sir Edmund Barton lays not — the men must be something beyond .first-class workmen, he asserts. He admits the power to exempt has been exertised twice previously — once when_ some Belgians were brought out -to work in zinc nneitjing works, and again when special Workmen were imported for a, gas meter manufactory in Sydney. The reader of average common sense will say that a skilled Batter is as- necessary to the Commonwealth as a \ skilled gas meter maker. But this re&det will reason from what appears on the surface of things. He is ignorant of all r the hidden springs. What will very likely !h*ve fctruck him is this query: How was It known in Sydney that these six innocent and ordinary-looking passengers were "under contract to perform manual labour." and .•why didn't they walk ashore like th& rest of the passengers, no man saying them nay or troubling to inquire whether they were ihatters, tinkers, tailors, or tourists? For reason the Orontes had called at Melbourne *n route, and these unsuspecting 'hatters JhaTd investigated the hat trade and made themselves acquainted to brother batters. The brother hatters were members of the Hatters' Union, and as members of a trades union naturally resented the importation of competitors in trade. Two hatters are members of the Federal Parliament — Messrs and Tudor. The wires were pulled, hnd when the Orontes reached Sydney the Customs officials were on the track of the " outlaws." The deplorable feature is the truckling of the Ministry to the jLabour party. This party holds the balance of powar in "Parliament, and both Sir E. Barton and Mr Beid bow down before and consult it and cringe to its sliehtest bidding in the most ehameful way. It is to cajolo the Labour party that the Barton Ministry Jhave shut out these hatters. But even the Labour party, excepting the hatting section of it, must surely condemn such an outrageous proceeding. [The cable has sincft finformed Us that Sir E. Barton changed fcis mind, and admitted the six hattr-rs.l A case has just been decided in the Melbourne Supreme Court of some interest to ■Dunodin readers, because one of the parties concerned was at one time a Dunedin. resident, and married a wife there. Tho Pertoetual Executors Association, as trustees of 5". G. Hooeklimmer, broupbt an action atrainst the New Zealand Accident Insurance Company to recover £1000. the amount cf a policy issued to Hoogklimmer in January last. Hoogklimmer was found dead in bed jn May, and the Insurance Company rekisted payment on the ground that he committed suicide. Hoogklimmer was a man with a history. In tho early eighties he married in Dunedin a Mis 3 Cbultman, who was in the phoroofraphio business, and came to Victoria. Bis life was insured for a found Bum, and not long afterwards liia Dlothes, neatly folded, with visiting card in Oocket, were found_ on the shore near a Hobson'g Bay watering place. But the preEentation of Hooeklimmcr's garments, aud Ihe ab=ence of Hoogklimmer in the flesh, Wid not convince obdurate insurance managers. Presently, therefore, as his wife could not get the money, Hoogklimmer re■iappeared. He had swum out into the bay. he declared, been eunstruck. clutched helplessly at a plank, been picked up by a Jpaseing vessel, and carripcl homo to Holland ■ — by a happy chance hb native country. [According to his story, he remembered nothing, not even the namo of the vessel ; only that he pame to hi« pen«« in a Dutch hospital Evidently eTnamouvrd of the idea, on this seoond occasion ho did actually ?rn to his death. He was found in a room m which thpro v. a? a strong ccapc of ca= ; but the thTir- of noc'd-ntal drat 1 ! wa- disproved by rhc rH^eovc-}- of pru-? : c red in «tomach. Ho had taken poison^ first

Jtrrning on the gas to BUggest accidental <Jaath. What led to the failure of his Eeheme was the fact that the gas fittings in the house had been plugged to prevent their use. The • suspicion was set afoot that he must have purposely set the gas escaping, and the insurance company probed the matter to the bottom. The jury hsf? found that he committed suicide, and his widow therefore gete nothing. Mr Shiels, the Victorian Treasurer, has the churches up in arms because he proposes to legalise the totalisator in order that he may find funds for the support of charitable institutions, which, are in a bad way in Melbourne in these hard times. The clergy are quoting with much delight Mr J. F. M. Eraser, whom they term " Crown Solicitor of N«w Zealand," as an impartial witness against the evils of totes; but a correspondent in the Argus this morning belittles Mr Fraser's testimony, and point, out that anyhow it was directed against tote shops and layers of tote odds rnther than against the race-course totalizator pMre and simple. The tete 'shop evil has been combated successfully in Adelaide. A singular police prosecution is. pending in Melbourne. A show judge (Mr William M'Nabb, of Gippsland) is accused of using his position to award prize 3 to_ his own Etock. He was judge of sheep at Numurkah. in the Goulburn Valley, and 4-2 exhibits of sheep from Gippsland were all awarded prizes by him- They are now assorted to have been his own property, entered in the name of two brothers named Kash, his near neighbours. The drought has broken up in Queensland, partially broken in New South Wales, and there has been considerable rain in Victoria.' Naturally there is a feeling of greater buoyancy abroad. An estimate of the decrease in wool clip caused by the drought reckons that Australia and Tasmania will be about 200,000 bales short, or, roughly, about 20 per cent. Last year's clip was 1,294,000 bales ; this year's will be l«-s than 1,100,000 bales. This ia the largest decrease for a year in the history of Australia.

A peculiar-looking mask, evidently designed for the purposes of ceremonial dances practised by the bygone inhabitants of Mangaia Island preparatory to a cannibalistic feast, has just been received at the Colonial Museum, Wellington. The mask seems to have been designed to achieve the apotheosis of ugliness, and so possibly to frighten the intended victim into a state of collapse. _______^___^_____