MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 307, 13 October 1888, Page 3

MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

A CONGRESS OF PRESS-MEN. If ib it> true, as old Horace says, " j\lcdiotri bus e,stie poetic nou Z>/, non homines"- — " Mediociiby is not permitted in poets either by the gods or by men," I fear, then, ifc will not be permitted in Melbourne correspondents — mysolf in" eluded. But what am I to do> how become amu&ing, wheu town is dull, news scarce, and commonplace stalks abroad in the full glare of daylignt. It is a haid case, a eiy. Cei tainly therewa^a reainon and dinner ot pressmen iii the Exhibition on Saturday evening, to which I \vasin\ifced. But as luck would have it I had previously arranged \\ ith a literary friend to take a run down to Quej»nsclifi over Satuiday and Sunday, and so I missed it, with its tun, congeniality, and good-fellowship. It was a dinner given by a committee of Melbourne journalists to all the foreien correspondents and specials "doing" the Exhibition. Melbourne is filled with these gentry ]ust now, and men who -\\eieab thedinnei tellmeneaily a hundred sat down, and 1 suppose they were mo^t of them connected with " that mighty engine of advancement and piogiess — a free, unfettered preps ;" so my readers may judge that the "fourth estate" is vtell represented among us just now.

A TRIP TO QUEENSCLIFF. It might interest some of my readers, by" tlie-way, to read about our Melbourne seaside lesort in winter time. Queen&clili is par excellence the great vltima tliule of dust begrimed Melbournites during the summer. It is handy, just at one of the heads of the Bay, and can be reached by steam under three houis. But out of the season, good Heavens ! it is a rogulor Cocytus, a howling wilderness of forlorn hotels and forlorner beach. There aio no less than t>ix caravanserais in the place ; three of them big enough for any city in the world. And they are so empty, and the place itself is so empty, and the sea looks so empty, that it is }u3t as though some awful devastation had swept through the place. A short dri\ c takes me out to Point Lonsdale, one of the Port Phillip Heads. Opposite lies Point Nepean, the corresponding headland ; and then on each side the coast sweeps boldly back to form that swirling, uneasy, shoaly more cfausum known as Hobson's Bay. It is a fine, impressive scene, refreshing to the eye, and stimulating with a sense of distance. Gazing seaward one sees the foaming breakeis on which the Cheviot and the George Roper were lately lost, whilst a very short distance away uprears the hulk and shattered masts of the Fiench barque Glaneuse, which also lately came to grief just outside the Heads. Out at Point Nepean can be seen the white of the forts and the dull gleam of the cannon ; further along the little watering-place ot Sorrento can be just discerned ; then more white forts, houses, scrub, rocks, and so on down the length of the Bay.

MELBOURNE DULL. But let us back to town and town matters again — to the din and turmoil of the city, to the distractions of its social and inner life. Truth to tell though, Melbourne is unusually quiet just now. In the political horizon there is absolutely nothing. The Government seems to have been defeated on every measure of importance it has lately pub forth. The Stock Tax, the Budget, and now the Electoral Bill. They had to withdraw the two former, and will in all probability be defeated in their plan of altering their electorates. Parliament dissolves at the end of the year, so that members are, as it were, lying in wait for the February elections, and goincj i n for as much non-com-mittal policy as is possible. The tag end of a Parliamentary session is seldom any good, so people are not giving much attention to things Parliamentary just now. There is some good news from Government House though. His Excellency's term of office as Governor has been extended for twelve months, making it six years in all. It is simply a mark of esteem of course, and as is generally known, comes from Downing-street in response to the request of the colony at large, which is desirous of showing in some practical w r ay, the esteem and honour they teel for the Loch family — Sir Henry Brougham and his well-beloved spouso.

THE NEW MORGUE. Ugh ! I was asked a few days ago to write a short report for a certain paper on the new Morgue lately erected on the north side of the Yarra just above the Corporation

baths. I went to do so, and. was agreeably surpriaod to find in place of the sickening bumbiedown shanty thafc did duty for so many years, a fine Elizabethan - looking building of red' brick, picked out with freestone. I wrote my account (which, by-the-svay, was nob over-interesting), and went away after a short talk with Dr. Youl, our city coroner. I used frequently to have to go to the old morgue on press business, and the sights I have seen there beggar description. The sickening horrors were so gruesome as to turn ono actually ill, and I always used bo think the existence ot such a place a hideout* disgrace to Melbourne. It is a good thing that we have a new one now — and it was high time wo had. A mortruc is always a shocking place — the associations are so horrible. In this new one of ours there is an air-tighfc glass passage from which the public can view the bodies without risk of infection, while water will be constantly kept streaming over the death chamber. In some places in America, and also 1 believe in Paris, thit, latter is kept at freezing temperature, so that the bodies do not decompose, which is an excellent idea. It would be doubly beneficial in a hot climate like ours. But bah ! the whole subject is a hideous one. Enough. llorre^lo referents. I shudder at the thought of it.

WOMEN'S HOS PITA L. A function took place on Tuesday last, which is well worthy of mention. 1 refer to the opening by Sir Henry Loch of a now wing of the Women's Hospital at G'arlton. But what is interesting about it is that this large addition to the Hospital is due almost solely to the chanty, energy, and philanthropy of one woman. Who this is, I think moat of our readers must know ; but for those who do not I may inform them that the lady through "whose endoavouvs this added accommodation for poor women who need it most is due is Miss Gcnevieve Ward, the actress. Last November she inaugui ated a Greek play for the purpose of raising money for the Hospital, and the result was made manifest on Tuesday. A splendid new wing has been added — accommodation tor nearly a hundred poor mothers has been provided — and all dono by one woman. Gloiious, ugly, talented, tender-hearted Genevieve Waid ' What a living monument to her goodness and worth has bhe not raised ! What alleviation of suflering, what a ?aving of life, will she not be instrumental in. May shelhe and piosper exceedingly, for such women are rare. You remember, no doubt, her great piece is that beautiful drama, "Forget Me Not." Well, 1 was picked to sec at the opening ceremony on Tuebday nearly everyone wore a sprig of forget-me-not, in token and memoiy of her, which was, I thought, very graceful and apropos.

SIR ROBERT STOUT. A most remarkable emigration lias been going on, during the lasb year especially, from New Zealand into \ictoiia. Melbourne must have absorbed some thousands itself. We aic likely to have a -\ery distinguished New Zealander settle down amongst us, so I hear, and one who will do the colony good. I reter to Sir Robert Stout, ex-Premier and Attorney-General of New Zealand, \\ ho is at present in town. 1 have it on the best authority that he is going to join a firm of lawyers in town and settle down in Melbourne I have known Sir Robert) for some time. A stout, heavy man, fall bearded and official-look-ing. He is the most diiect speaker I have heard, not an orator in the accepted sense of Hie word, but one whose blunt, straightforward, matlei-of-fact incisiventss impresses far more than meie rhetorical flourish or oratotical display. He v^ ill certainly be an acquisition, so Ralve ! say I, to Sir Robert Stout, the New Zealander. — " Star Correspondent."