OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 328, 23 July 1889, Page 4

OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

[(fbom oub own cobrespondent.') Sydney, July 3. The vacant seat in Central Cumberland was won by the Free Trader, one of the superfluous candidates on that side retiring just in the nick of time. The Protectionists number fully one-third of the voters of Central Cumberland, and they are new virtually disfranchised, the four members who represent that constituency being all Freetraders. The political position is becoming interesting. The Government only have a majority of one or two members in a full House. This slender basis of their power has been weakened by the return of Mr Goodchap and Mr Bee, both Protectionists, from England and the Continent. However, I do not think that the party themselvse desire any change until the Land Bill is passed. We have endured the present tariff so long that a few months longer will not make much difference. But a practical settlement of the Land question lies at the basis of national prosperity and should receive the attention of every member, quite irrespective of party considerations. Mr Bernhard Bingrose Wise, some time attorney-general of the colony, has peen enlightening the good people of Great Britain respecting the land of his adoption, in the pages of Macmillan's Magazine. I prophecy a verv stormy time for Mr Wise when he comes back again, though I should imagine from the tone of his remarks as cabled, that he does not again intend to honor us with his presence, except in strict incog. I take it for granted that he removed himself before allowing his sentiments to appear in print. For he assails the Irish Catholic portion of the community with a brutal Candour which is certain to secure for him a very hearty return of the compliment, Now, this goes to show that he has no further use for them.. For is it not a primary article of faith with all politicians, from the Premier down to the pressmen that the Irish vote is to be flattered and cajoled' and to be told how much more important and worthy it k than the rest of the community ? Tb*t is to say, of course, provided the taid utterances are not; made within an Orange lodge, •whenf it appears, this principle does not apply, Mr Wise declarer that in New South AV ales the Irish vote goes in favor of protection, that in Victoria it goes in fsror °f publicans, and in Queensland foj nationalism, which last, to a politician of Mr Wise’s stamp, appears to be synonymous with separation. His contention is that it is always “ agin the Government.” There is one depth of folly, however, which it does not appear has yet been reached by the Irish voters, that is to oppose Protection in Victoria. He declares that the priesthood seek the control of the public schools, and that the laity aspire to monopolise the public offices. Five-sixths of the “ billet-hunters ” to be found in the colonies com?, he says, from this bo< v and then, going to the enemy for ashe quotes the Melbourne Protectionist journal, the Age, to show tnat Boman Catholicism is \ egs arc • Hgious faith than a political organisation. All of which we ) jav e heard before, from the mouths of “ goad men and true in whom we have at the same time seen some very conspicuous faults of the sar je c l asg a 8 those w hich they charge against their fellow colonists. Even if these “ railing accusations are true (and I suspect that it is trom the modicum of t-„ t k thev contain that they deriv u.‘sting) it is hard to * t J heir , c pose is to be gai- , 1 wha ? g° od P ur ' in the pages * , - ed r f allln B ll ! em The fun--' •°* a dilettante magazine, to e- ~tion of the statesman is not , symptoms, but to find a cure for them. I fancy that Mr Wise will find he has added one or two more to the undesirable list.