OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1887, 13 April 1892, Page 3

OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

(From oiir Own Correspondent.)

Never, I should say, in the history of Australasia has such a deplorable state of things been revealed as that which no'v confronts the statesmen of this colony. Of course Melbourne is Victoria, just as Paris is France, though in a wider and a worse sense. In this city everything that is evil and demoralising in the national life of the colony has its headquarters. The present disastrous state of affairs is solely due to the unbounded extravagance in public aud I private life of the last half-dozen years. Wo are often prone to condemn the jobbery and corruptiou that prevail in public life in America, but, for comparative results, I doubt very much whether that country can show anything like so bad a record as that which is now inscribed in such large letters across the face of public life in this colony. The politicians have filled the departments of State with their friends and supporters until, as Mr Shiels said during the delivery of his famous manifesto at Casterton, " every 8J meu in the community are carrying on their backs and are paying for out of their incomes for one civil servant." The truth is tbe country has been bled almost to death, and a little longer under the same blood-letting influences it would ouly be fit to fling oi the dissecting table. We have altogether to support an army amounting to 26,691 public servants, drawing wages and salaries to the extent of £3,405,052, or £127 7s per man. This gives one an idea of what our public life is like. But wild as the extravagance of our public life has been, I believe it cannot yet hold a candle to our private life. At all events, bad as the former is, it is fathomable, capable of being realised and reformed and cut down to reasonable dimensions. But the same can hardly be said of private life. Melbourne reminds one of ancient Rome in its worst days. The wealth and the extravagance and self-indul-gence iv every form of one section of the population presents a terrible contrast to the hollow-eyed, hopeless poverty, flaunting vice _ and criminality of the people in the submerged plane. With those social divergencies under one's eyes daily, one wonders not that there is Socialism, but that there is not something worse. There must be thousands of people iv this city for whom the future has no hope. The flotsam and jetsam among the huge collection of humanity is large enough of itself to people a city. But what a city it would be ! Then there are those who are anxious for work but cannot get it, 1 have heard within the last few weeks at public meetings, respectable mechanics openly proclaim that themselves and their families have been, slowly starving for months. And yet, as far as I can see, we have not even now reached a crisis in our affairs.

As the time for holding the elections approaches, the excitement continues to grow in intensity, and so do the exertions of the politicians whose political late is to be decided. The number of candidates in the field almost exceeds belief, and every day they continue to increase. In the city and suburbs the meetings have been attended with unparalleled scenes of violence and disorder, candidates and their friends in some instances being driven from the halls and the platform taken possession of by bodies of Socialists. A few evenings ago Sir Graham Berry was forced to vacate the Brunswick Town Hall,and subsequently in addressing an open air meeting he was compelled by the violence of the mob to desist. Large contingents came from both Williamstown and. Collingwood, and gave the ex- Premier a very rough time of it. At Casterton Mr Shiels addressed an immense gathering. Though the place is 250 miles from the city, some hundreds of his supporters journeyed down with him, the Ministerial special also conveying forty Melbourne Press representatives. The speech occupied in delivery exactly three hours and a half, and filled close on a dozen columns of the " Argus." This speech is regarded as the formal opening of the campaign. The speech covered the whole grounds of the situation, and dealt very largely with the inevitable subject of retrenchment. There will be retrenchments, dismissals and amalgamations on a scale never before witnessed in Victoria ; and the great cohorts of civil servants are in consequence in a tremor. Only seven persons in the public service will escape the knife — namely, the Governor and the Supreme Court judges. All salaries for the next three years from £170 to £300 will be retrenched to the extent of 2£ per cent \ between £300 and £700, 5 per cent; and above £750, 7* per gent, Large savings are expected to be made in the Eailway Department. The present lines have cost from £10,000 to £12,000 to run trains at 25 or 30 miles an hour, and have been built on a style of grandeur fifty years ahead of their time. The system henceforth will be to build light lines that will allow trains to run at from 10 to 15 miles an hour ; and this, the Premier holds, is as much as the farmers and residents of the country districts have a right to expect. Reform

in the railway service has been opened with the dismissal of the Railway Commissioners. Their successors are Messrs Francis (chairman), Rcnwick and Kibble. The new chairman was originally trained on one of Che English line of railways, aud came to this colony about 35 years ago, and has risen'' to his present position by sheer industry and ability. He commenced life here as an up-country station master. Mr Kibble has been for many years a district traffic manager, and Mr Renwick, as an engineer, has constructed some of the finest lines in the colony. The removal of the three Commissioners was a bold step, but it was fairly warranted by circumstances.

The most intense excitement still centres in the author of the Windsor murder, and the evidence of Williams' guilt continues to accumulate and roll in upon the authorities from almost every quarter of the colonies. The journey from Southern Cross, where the arrest was made, was an exceedingly rough and tiresome one, the country being new and locomotion slow, and of the most primitive character. With, the exception of his fainting fits, during which, he writhed and worked in a most terrific manner, necessitating, although handcuffed, the united strength of five men to control him, he gave the constables listle trouble. But he was vigilantly watched , as if allowed a chance it is hard to say what a man in his desperate circumstances might not attempt. The hostile demonstrations along the journey were frequent and thej increased in violence as the populous centres were approached. Under the fierce glare and the savage ! cries of the mob, he is said to have exhibited a most pitiable temper. He cowered and shrunk and begged of the police to keep near and protect him, evidently apprehending that an attempt 1 would be made to lynch him. He went through the ordeal of identification with a great appearance of outward imperturbility,but he swallowed before each interview a stiffish drink of spirits to help him to brace himself up and steady his nerves. He recognises no former acquaintances, not even those with whom he was on terms of intimacy during the voyage on the Kaiser Wilhelm. In this respect his acting ia admitted to be plausible beyond conception, and lends strong confirmation to the numerous stories afloat tending to show his complete mastery in the arts of dissimulation and pretence. Nothing in this way can come up to the story of his brief acquaintance with, a j leading Collins-street jeweller and his ! family. After a first or second visit, he had wormed himself completely into the confidence of Mr , the jeweller in question, was received at his house as a guest, and impressed all those with whom he came in contact as being a most gentlemanly and generous man, and deeply religious. He fondled the children, regretted he had none himself, and j always spoke of his wife, whom he | stated to be iv Sydney for the good of her health, in the most endearing terms. He was also at times accustomed to interlard his conversation with Scriptural allusions, aud professed to be particularly shocked at the lax manner ' in which what he, with an impressive tone { of piety, called the Lord's Day in Mcl- | bourne was kept. He was also noticed to be very temperate and as Mr said, in a letter to a friend : " I took him to be in every respect a perfect gentleman, honourable and upright and most temperate in his habits. In fact, he was, as I thought, the ' whitest ' man I ever saw. But I was never so much deceived in any one. He bought one ring from me, a valuable diamond ring, for which he never paid me, and while he was buying it he stole two." The most sensational and suggestive incident since his arrest has been the cutting off of his moustache in the Perth lock-np. Since then he has been watched night and day — he is never left alone, in fact, for a moment; and this will continue until his fate is decided. His defence, it is stated, will be one of insanity ; indeed, he is already playing up to that game, and he will be defended by the ablest criminal lawyers in Melbourne.

Msny of your readers may be interested to hear that Mr Leslie Norman, who figured conspicuously not so very long ago iv the affairs of a certain mining company, whose property, I believe, is situated somewhere iv your dis:rict, is still in the flesh, and as happy in the present and hopeful iv the future as ib is his wonb to be. I met him here after his arrival from Tasmania, where he had a tough, fight for his life, " but, as usual," said he, " I su ceeded in carrying off the honours." He had a bad time of it in the hospital at Hobart, and suffered much, for his sins ; but the world couldn't spare him just yet awhile, and he is still in the lan 3of the living. He tried his luck at Zeehan, but gave it best after a few weeks. He had spotted a few good things there, but the infernal reports set afoot about him in Otago found their way over after him and nipped all his little projects in the bud. He assured me he was completely misunderstood by the people over your way. Instead of following him up with, groundless charges and flinging abusive epithets after him, he asserts he deserved a statue in marble at the hands of the mining interests in Obago for the good he did. Were it not for him, he assured me, miues that are now working and companies that are paying big dividends would not have been heard of iv the present generation. He had sacrificed the beat part of his life building up and developing the mining industry of Otago, and what did he get for it P Nothing but abuse and villificacation. I reminded him that the greatest benefactors the world yet had were similarly treated. "True, very true," remarked Mr Norman, sniffing consolation in the suggestion. " History," he added, " down to the present day is full of such cases. The best friend the world ever had was crucified." If ever fortune smiled on him over here, he assured me that he meant to go back and let the light of day in on the doings of some of his false friends on the Island Block Extended Company. He had saved that concern from ruin and bankruptcy half-a-dozen times over, and it wa3 a bad day for the shareholders when he withdrew from its affairs. He knew all the men well in whose hands it was now, and he described them as being a lot of ninpom? poops ; men who knew next to nothing about conducting the affairs of such a company. After cruising round here for a few weeks, Mr Norman went to Broken Hill where he now is. He is tho mining representative of the "Argus" at that important mining centre, and is, besides, said to be deep in mining transactions on his own account.

The $ang of Dahomey has burned Bjetome