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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1301, 27 March 1883, Page 3

The editor of the Key West Democrat is said to be only 40in. high, and weighs but 351bs, When the man with the club comes in to interview •• the chap who wrote the article,” the editor of the Democrat erawU into the paste-pot and pulls down the lid. Considerable agitation is being raised in Melbourne about the “ back slums.” Speaking of that part of the city which is traversed by Little Bourke-street, from Spring to Swanston-streeis, the reporter of the Argus says :—“ This area, as is now tolerably well-known, can only be described as one large plague-spot. Ihe lanes had to rookeries which would disgrace a city as old as London. They cover every foot of ground, and run into one another like the chambers of a rabbit warren. There are no yards, and hardly any drainage ; cleanliness and ventilation are for the most part utterly disregarded. The slops are often thrown under the house, the garbage fills up the right-of-way, and sends up an unbearable stench. The huts—for with very few exceptions the tene mentg are nothing more—are nearly all in the last stage of decay, and patched with rogs, old iron, tinware, and packing-cases to keep them from tumbling down on the dung heaps ordure, stale fruit, and other filth which surrounds them.”