ECHOES OF MELBOURNE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 506, 20 May 1881, Page 3

ECHOES OF MELBOURNE.

(From oun Own Correspondent) It is strange how tragedies, like misfortunes, seem to never come singly. Four days—April ,30th. May Ist, 2nd, and 3rd—were marked by appalling circumstances, and the city was kept in fever heat. First, there wag the wreck of the Tararua, which made many, in eye wet in Victoria on Saturday,'and kept many an anxious soul awake that night ; then the determined suicide of a man at Maryborough, who absolutely strangled himself with his own hands ; then followed two sudden deaths, the beating to death, of a drunken woman by her paramour, a master sweep, in with drink, because, she had taken £1 of his money, all his employes being '' "unlc at the time,; w the whole ending, flflttar, with ft young fellow who had conceived a mad passion for a member of the demi-monde, al'terj he had spent all his money on her, and ;ahe had, to j so extent jilted him, cutting, W throat and his own, but in neither case' are the wounds likely tgnrova fatal. We have indeed ; " of horrors. ,, J - v On the 30th of April our great Exhibition closed, , and now it;is a melancholy wilderness ftautited by ghouteand ghdsts'.' Wandering through,/'the courts T was strongly ieminded of Moore's lities-^-I feel like one' : : ' ' :\Vbo4ieat3s a!orie Some banquet hall defiled ; lights are fled, .Whose gaylaods dead. ~ ■■,-,■ • And all but'be depafiecl. ' : l The main question now iswhati ifc to ba done with the permanent part of the building. The Age, under .the; inspiration of the secretary, Mr George Collins Levey, who has been, a, pensioner on the. country since 1868, and has had a fat time of it—he is;i)b stefyt the; Age _m\ce , \ Mr Syme'werithdme—hßs.been writing articles toshoy thatch© .best, thing: to i - Jdo with, the building - is to; make it, a permanent. . Art,. and, j Science Museum, all aviicles, to be, re- ~{ moved thither fromour piesenfcmuseums. x Of course this would necessitate a dli'ec- j tor at a high salary', and where could a ( man bo found to fill"the post like Mr j Levey, who would thus be permanently saddled on the'Staie? .Mr Levey is in- > } dustriously tolling this log, but he will find it difficult. Still, as he has a choice t of billets—Chief Commissioner of Police, j Auditor-General, etc. —to select JVom. he y need not bo downcast. The Age is anxious to keep the Ministiy ; n power until its favored protege is securod his billefc. — . '; j. The Exhibition Hself has been n sue- r The' total .admissions .weie v 1,4§3,896, and 964,972 paid, j At the Syd-iev Exhibition only 850,480 a persons paid, and the total attendance was 1,045,878. The total revenue has been £294,000 up to the close, but will j; eventually be £806,000. . The,sale of a tickets brought in £45,850. Ifc is reckoned that in the end, as Parliament r only voted £260,000 for the .Esbibi- { lion, the revenue will make no loss, as nearly £300,000 will be paid in dut'rt t on tk* goods sent here. Melbourne r people will long rememberthe Exhibt- j. tion, the trade and traffic it brought to < the city, and the grand pageants that ( were witnessed within its walls, such pb j those who have not been beyond Aus- , tralia neeer witnessed, and are not likely J to see again for a long time. , ' r A touching incident wjbich occuired j thie week is well worth recording. For the past twenty years, a pleasant old i gentleman has beei; the-curator of: the T Fitzroy Gardens, the boast of our city. t This gentleman, who was verging upon ( man's allotted span, was fonS of! writing t pretty little lyrics, to which a -friend of bis composed music, and his greatest ■ delight was to spend a quiet evening with his acquaintance, listening to his songs being sung. Recently he wrote a touching little song, the subject of which was eternity, and in the last verses j he alluded to his expectation of soon j0ining,....... . The innumerable caravan which moves To tbat mysteilous realm where each shall take ■ His chamber in tho silent halls of death His friend sent for him last Sunday evening to hear the song sung, and all were greatly affected at the close. The singer's voice had just died away, and a stillness had fallen upon. all/ when the , old man fell back from his chair and died. This is a fact, and one that is most touching. Our popular and affable Minister of Education, Mr W. C. Smith, has returned from his trip to New Zealand, he undertook for the benefit of his beSfth his wife died, and he looks quite restored; His travels in Maori Land have made him much lighter, but healthier. Major Smith dropped down, amidst his friends on the Saturday the telegrams came to hand, just as some were saying he had gone down in the hapless boat. There is a little fun in regard to the views given in the Australasian Sketcher of the Police Commission, and some wags spread the report that the Commissioners intend to prosecute the proprietors for libel, alleging the picture looked more like one of the Kelly sympathisers than of a Royal Commission. The evidence goes on slowly enough, and little new is elicited, and will not be unless it is taken in secret, and then the public will not hear of it. A scare has been got up about another possible outbreak in the Kelly country, owing to the evidence Superintendent Sadleir gave beiore the Board. I place little reliance on this, although the Government i have thought it necessary to re-organise* their forces in the district and to send up Inspector Montfort. Outbreaks liko

he Kelly episode demand a ruler of men o arise in the midst of this lawless people, and there is no evidence that another Ned Kelly exists in fie district, while those who know state that the Glenrowah tragedy has terrified all the young bush swells of the district. Mrs Skillian is now in the city, and so are some 1 Novlh-Eas'fc. notorieties, and the papers have been ciiculating that she contemplates a visit home. The fact is that the poor woman is down trying to recover her selection ."rom tbe Government, who forfeited it at the time of the outbreak. An Electric Light Company has been established in Melbourne. Its office is opposite the Town Hal', and for several nights /past they have been displaying "their light. It is certainly not the improved kind, for the blue rays are very strong, and 'give a ghastly gleam, while the light generallyj which is more -like that of the sun than that of the moon, casts very deep shadows, and renders the darkness beyond most profound. But, no doubt, if several of these lights were placed in the streets, each cutting the angle' of the ' other, the effect, I think, would be splendid. The company have got a contract to light the Eastern Market, so we will see how they get along. Another company is to start, which will provide small machines for shops, etc. While on this subject let me state that in Vermont, where there are :rapid mountain streams, these have been used to obtain the necessary power to light the villages and to supply electric motive power. This will be good news for mountainous districts. New Zealand is ' especially favored in thisj and should become the New England of the South ; the good people there have often more water than they want, while the mainland is perishing for want of it. -■We are ! progressing. A Yankee has bought up the block of ground on which now stands the New Novelty Theatre, and he is to build upon tbe site a Palace , Hotel after the Oalifortvan style. ] The freshest event in theatrical circles is"the" prodticJion of Mr Burnand's ''* Jeames" at the Bijou Theatre, the main attraction being the appearance of Mr Marshall, who is now well known Dyer Australians a most amusing actor, in the title character. The play is well constructed ■ andTnll of smart dialogue, in places somewhat forced. It deals ivith the fortunes of a Cockney footman, the private butt of • satit i&te since Thac- - keray wrote his " Yel'owplush Papers," tvhoon a suddea access of fortnne tries to ape the gentleman. As a footman md a would-be swell Mr Marshall is the icme of the comic. Nature has given c trim a voice, figure, and face that act lrrestisibly on the risible faculties; if he only rvalked the stage one must laugh But Mr Marshall is as well a cliscii-ninaiing , ictor and knows how to use his ad van- N Lages. Of cou'-se he could not fulfil thepopular idea of a London footman, who r is generally a " ma3oi.fieent menial," * albeit a ridiculous one. His acting in the first part, when he assumes all a footman's airs and makes love to the - housemaid, could not be betteied, but it is in' the latter portion of the play, where the faithful Mary Ann pleads to him to restore her his,;lpve and while he fears to - be discovered as an impostor by his " noble fiend," and yeju-ns to take his old love to his a- ms and return to his humble but happy life, that Mr Marshall displays his abilities efTectively and touches other stings than those of humor. The way he says " Mary Harm, Q, Mary \ Harm 1" giving the exclamation a dif- ( ferent meaning each time, making it | express every vat ing emotion, is beyond i praise and stamps him.of themo->fc careful , and brilliant school of acting. Alogether • one feels the happier and the better for \ a visit to the Bijou.