OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 361, 19 March 1880, Page 7

OUR MELBOURNE LETTER.

f From our own Correspondent.) Melbourne, March Bth. The new Ministry has bj:r. formed. The following is the list: — James Service, Premier and Treasurer ; Robert Ramsay, Chief Secretary and Minister of Public Instruction ; George B. Kerferd, AttorneyGeneral ; John Madden, Minister of Justice ; John Gavan Duffy, President of the Board of Lands and Works aud Minister of Lands and Agriculture ; Thomas Bint, Minister of Public Works ; Robert Clark, Minister of Mines aud Water-supply ; Henry Cuthbert, Commissioner of Customs and Postmaster- General. Mr. J. G. Francis and Mr. Anderson have seats in the Cabinet, without office, and bring, especially the former, great strength to the Government. The Ministry is generally regarded as a strong one, though a good deal of dissatisfaction has been expressed, because Mr. Service did not include more new blood in his learn. It is thought by many that Messrs. Gaunson and Carter, who bore the heat and burden of the day, should have been selected, instead of Messrs. Ramsay and Madden. The new GovernmjuL do not meet Parliament until the 11th May, the anniversary of the general elections in 1877, and the advent of Berry and his followers. Poor Mr. Bony raroly made a speech during his reign that be di«l not go into fits over the glorious 11th May, when the people freed themselves from the terrible } r oke of despotism under which they groaned. The voting on the 28th February has, it is to be hoped, put an end for ever to that inflated, nonsense. The Catholics have every reason to ha proud of the result of the elections. The Catholic Defence Associations recently established through >ut the Colony have baeu wonderfully successful in returning to Parliament those who, if they are not pledged against the present Education Act, will certainly not be enthusia-tic in its favor. If the Catholics continue to work in the futui-3 as unanimously as they are doing at present the result must be the repeal of the Education Act. If at every general election one-fourth of the population ignore all the burning questions of the day, such as Reform of the Constitution, Protection, Free Trade, Payment of Members, Sec, and simply use theii* great power to oust those members who have not kept their promises with regard to this question and return the candidates most favorable to the Catholic elaitnf, politicians of all shades will begin, to see that it will bo impossible to transact any business satisfactorily in Parliament so long as feuch a state of things is allowed to exist, and self-interest will make both Conservatives and Liberals unite and finally settle the question. The people of Victoria have every reason to be proud of the amount subscribed towards the Irish Pelief Fund ; £25,000 has already been sent Home, and subscriptions are still coming in. General dissatisfaction has been expressed at the lenient sentence passed by the Chief Justice on the directors of the late Provincial aud Suburban Bank. They were simply fined £50 each, the manager being fined £250. Of course, these fines were immediately paid, and the ex-directors were free to start some other little swindle. It dues seem rather a farce when one considers that these men, either through culpable ignorance or fiaud, cheated and ruined hundreds of tradespeople and farmers, aud that after months of hard work and great expense on the part of the Crown to sheet the charges home, the outcome should be so ridiculous. A hungry man would get, perhaps, six months for stealing a loaf of bread, and these amateur bankers, who allured many a poor farmer by the high rate of interest they offered to place his all at their disposal, to his utter ruin and that of his family, are allowed to go almost scot free. A most disgraceful publication, called The Firebrand, has lately been issued in Melbourne, bnt I am glad to see that the police have arrested the proprietor and editor, one George Lawkins, and he has been sentenced to a month's imprisonment without the option of a fine. A lad, aged 15 years, named W. H. Brace, committed suicide the other day, because Rosa Cootes, a girl aged 12 years, told him to poison himself. The following letter was found tied to his wrist : — '•My dear Rosa,— I will have by the time you get this letter faithfully obeyed your command by killing myself.— Yours, W. H. Brace." These precocious young persons had been, I am told, State-school pupiK •• By their spirits you shall know them." What else could bo expected from an education in which God and his laws have no place ?

The Clyde Lighthouse Trust have placed a buoy lighted by gas oa Roseneath shoal in the Firth of Clyde.