MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1925, 22 August 1888, Page 3

MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

(VBC-M OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT,) Since I last wrote Melbourne has been going through the expsrlence known as i{ aettHng down," Too Exhibition openlag gaieties rally disorganised her for the time being. Tnere was too inuoh feasting, too much m ;rry making, and too muoh apeaohifying. The city becatne feverish, her pulse got Irregular, her usual quiet rru me wai disturbed. Now she •la recovering from har orgle ; she is throwing off her inoubug of visitors and guests, taking again to ea-ly hours, and making up her m'.ud to re-establish peace and [quiet. The Exhibition is now fairly t»fioat and on its o*q responsibility, aud the mother city feels that she has done quite enough lv giving her expensive offspring a proper set-eff. With "the seoret consciousness of duty well performed" Melbourne retires to the'baokground, and leaves the Exhibition to take up the running. lam sure our good Governor, and his lady, and the Commissioners, and Ministers, and all the big wigs and Jiaut monds, animagnifieos, and three-tailed bashaws of colonial prominence, must be pleased the festivities are pretty nearly over, for ie has been an exciting time for all. Poor Sir Henry I Ipi y him, for ha has had to bear a good deal of the heat and burthen of the day. And the expeme to i— that must not be forgotten. F.va thousand pounds were voted to him for ?xtr» expenses truly, but what is that I A mere bagatelle, dear readers, I assure you, m vioa regal expenditure. For instance, he gave two dinners last week to about five hundred guests, and paid the caterer fifty shillings a hea*. Th»t makes £1250 out of the £5000 at once Then Lsdy Loch gave two dances, which cost the long-suffjring Governor little short of £800 each. Add to all this the fact that there were olosa on to a hundred guests stopping at Government House during the week of the opening ceremony, and I think I am safe m saying there will not be much left, after all Is said and done, of tbe additional £5000 voted by Parliament. Fifty shillings a head my readers may think an exorbitant charge for a dinner, especially when the number of the diners goes into tbe four and five hundreds, and I must confess myself it does seem pretty expensive. But 1 bear it acknowledged on all sides that the two dinners mentioned were the best ever served m Melbourne, and that the wines were of the choicest brands procurable. The caterer is a well known man here named Skjnaer, who keeps tbe trolden Gate Hotel m South Melbourne. He he a the Exhibition catering altogether, and if he is not making his fortune he ought to be, considering his opportunities. Since the opening he estimates that he has dined over 20,000 people On Saturday he bad tbe Commissioners dinner d la Kusse to provide for, over 700 guests being invited. The day previous he had as many aB fourteen private lunches to look after. Indeed, the eating and drinking that has been going on is something to wonder at, and doctors chuckle and cbemists look cheerful. Now as to the Exhibition itself — that cause of all the excitement. It slowly approaches completion, and becomes more and mote attractive as it doeß so. There is, Lowever, a very great deal to be done yet, and I don't think another month will see it thoroughly completed. In the meantime bamtmring goes on, cases lie about the various court?, and huge unsightly gaps now and again catch the eya " .Punch,*' a week or so ago, had an excellent cartoon regarding the backwardness of things. It was called "Too many Cooks," and shewed a kitchen, m which the Governor is taking off tho I'd from a soup tureen, representing the Exhibition building. " vVhy : how'B this!" he says to Sir James Mcßain, '' I've opened it, and found it's only half done." "Well; it is a trifle that way," answered the President. "But you ccc, we Bpent all our time on the tide disheß." These are labelled respectively "The invitation's muddle ; " " the evening dress embroglio ;" "the Bide show controversy," and co on. The skit is a clever one, and hits the right nail on the bead Oowen's muslo is par excellence the great attraction of tbe Exhibition and the oocoert hall is generally crowded during the | performances. lam afraid, however, It will be found that his standard is some- | what above the range of colonial tastes, for he gives extremely classical .selections as a role, and seldom decends to operatic music or well known airs. However, if be eduoates as up to a higher standard, co muoh the better. I was speaking to him on Saturday night at the German Qlub, where a smoke concert took place, and he told me that he did not wish to flatter, bat he could truly say he had never conducted a better orchestra m his life than the one now at the Exhibition. A little practice would make them quite perfeot, he said, and fit to matoh any orohestra m the world. He also spoke highly of the oholr, which numbers 800, and promises to have them at a pitch of perfection m a short time. By-the-way, rumor Is already busy with Mr Oowen's name. It is said that a match Is on tbe Tapis between him and the daughter of the Mayor, Alderman Benjamin. Like a good Victorian I have been giving speolal attention to onr own Court, bnt I will not say anything as to details nntil my next letter, as I find my causerie has already occupied muoh space. I must, however, tell this story of something I overheard from the august lips of no less a personage than Lord Carrington, Two of the beat exhibits m the Victorian Court are those of the Bed Cross Preserving Co , who make a fine show of jams and preserves, and Kitchen and Co. (the Apollo Candle Co. ) As I stopped to look, I notioed a olergyman admiring the candle exhibit, and an Indian the jam trophy. Just then lord Carrington happened to stroll up with a friend. "Look," he said, pointing to the two men. "See how such an Exhibition anneals tbe different races, as it were. There's a Christian olergyman admiring at the shrine of heathen mythology, and there's a heathen worshipping at the Cross," The ' heathen mythology,' I taka it, was impersonified by the "Apollo." By-the-way, leaving Exhibition matters and turning to things more practioal, Melbourne Is threatened with a dreadful contingency that may put an end to all our merry making. There is a prospect of a strike taking place amongst the Newcastle miners, m which case we should have our supply of coal almost completely out off. At present we have no more than a fortnight's supply, and if the strike does come, it would bring on the city much of the terrors of a siege. It Is a doleful effort of the Imagination to ploture Mcl- j bourne tireless and unllghted, the trains more or less on the liner, the trams arrested m the streets, the factories frozen Into idleness. And yet something like this would be the case if our coal supply stopped, and at present whether it will or not hangs by a thread. " What ! our coal supply fail ?" exolalmed a member, m the lobby of the House the other day, when the subject was firßt mooted. "Just my luck ! 1 have five bnndred ooal and coke hammers just out from homo as ballast. They are m the Bay dow, and I suppose will be thrown on my hands. Jast a my lack.' ; It is perhaps needless to add that the speaker was &n Ironmonger as well as a member.