He is the same Mr Patterson who visited JNew Zealand on a holiday tour last year, and! woose utterances to newspaper interviewers read with a certain raciness. "You are so lovely and green," Mr Patterson remarked, addressing New Zealanders at large. This gentleman, despite a few eccentricities of manner, promises to be one of the strangest members of the ministry. He snubbed a deputation upon har bour matters unmercifully the other day so unmercifully that the spokesman ' remained behind after his fellows had retired to engage in certain recriminatory passages with the commis sioner ; but Mr Patterson has atoned for this by treatiug subsequent deputations with a cer ;ain enigmatical geniality. He may mean weH by them, or he may be laughing in his sleeve at them. That is to be discovered by-and-bye, when the Government bring down their tariff proposals. Mr Patterson, be it remarked, is a staunch representative of the Protectionist side in the Coalition Ministry; for all that his eyes are well open to the lengths to which Protection may be poshed, and to the glaring fact that it is selfish aims atid nothing else which prompt those clamouring daily for increase* duties in this or that direction. He averred as much in round terms the other day. " Each of you," he said, " wants to be protected at the other's expense, but I never yet met with a ' Protectionist who would pay a sixpence extra for an article in order that his neighbours might flourish." Exactly so. The Victorian commis sioner sees all this. His attitude seems to be expressed by the cheerful catch phrase, " In for a penny, in for a pound." THE BUDGET. However, snch trifling difficulties as above mentioned ars mer*!y the. straws that show the set of the wind. The real fight of the Parlia mentary session will come, as I stated in a pre vious letter, over the Budget proposals, and the ticklish question involved in these proposal is how much or how little increased Protection shall ba accorded to the Victorian farmers?— that aggrieved claso who b.Rve to pay a greater duly on ail their commodities, aud be content [ with a lesser duty on all their productions." "Be content!" I said, they are not content, and will not be. Very far from it. 