MELBOURNE. DEFECTIVE SHIPPING ACCOMMODATION. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 335, 19 January 1889, Page 6

MELBOURNE. DEFECTIVE SHIPPING ACCOMMODATION. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. )

Mkluournje, January 9. Fou a long bimo past there have been grumblings on the park of the shipping community loud and doop. Owing bo the insufficiency of berthing accommodation, vessels arc detained ( a,n absurd length of time in port, to the great losS, of course, to the owners and. inoonvenienco to shippers. So great did the grievance become, and so numerous the complaints concerning it, that tho Chairman of tiho Harbour Trust considered it a duty to lliako personal inquiry into the matter.' And what did ho find T'' Sintply that tho management of the pcjnt was. disgraceful. Whilst the Trust has boon spending, heaps ol money in improving tho liver so as to bring as much shipping us possible up to the Melbourne Wh.itrvos from tlic ba"y, it totally neglected the "necessity of looking 'after the channels v|luch enabioddftho ships to como up tho Hay it&elf. Tins is like establishing a market, without providing means for bringing 1 ; goods to the market. Port Philip is silting Up at a romarkablo rale; and to cope with it incessant dredging is required. If tihe Trust desirosto rotain public confidence ib will havo to direct a little more attention fco the b«yy rogardless of what is bes>t for liny individual locality, the interest ot Port (Melbourne, WilHam&town, or the city to the contrary notwithstanding.

A LODGING-HOUSE KEEPER'S, REVENUE, A very extraordinary mmder id repoi led /item America — not that the murder itself is extraordinary-- bub the motive a&signed for the crime is. A boat ding-house keeper in .Philadelphia named Schlops killed one of -hislodgcrs — because the'latberconsumed too much of the hash provided for the dinner table. In fact, lor his gluttony he got daps ? Mr Schlops musfe, however, havo been a veiy inoxperienced lodging-house kcepei", if he could find no other method of curbing his victim's, voracipus appetite. There are hundieds of landladies in Melbourne who would have managed the business much iporo sensibly. The plan they adopt is to lake very good care lodgei's shall not ha\ c tho opportunity of using their knives and forks too freely. They keep what they chooso to call a solid table — the table certainly ib bolid enough — but the contents are like the fair proprietresb :— dry hash — I very.

ME YV. K. THOMSON. The sympathy with Mr W. K. Thomson in his piesent reverses is wide and general. In the commercial world ho has always been an active Home, and as a man of extreme probity and honour ho has onjoyed the confidence and respect of all with whom he came into contact. Although he occupied no vciy piominent part in politico, ho exercised considerable, political influence, and if he did nob personally seek legislative honours, 'ho took an energetic interest in securing the return ofc othei'3 whose opinions coincided with his own. His connection with the well-known firm of James McEwan & Co., of which he was tho head, ceased some time siuue, the business having been floated into a limited liability company.^- 'From a man of wealth Mr Thomson has gradually been reduced tp 'circumstances ttfat resulted in his insolvency. Investments in sugar plantations in Fiji and' elsewhere, which turned out very unprofitable ventures, are attributed as the principal' cause of his failure. Mr Thomson, moreover, was a man of largehearted hospitality <and open-handed charity, and his many friends gave practical recognition of the&e estimable qualities, when they collected at a &ingle meeting over £3,000 in his behalf.

HE WOULD HAVE WHAT HE PAID FOR. An undertaker of my acquaintance infoirncd me the othci clay in confidence that he Owco had to bury a Hibernian eorpso called Reilly. Rcilly in lifo had ordered fiom him a losewood coffin, and paid ior ifc in advance. The doctor had given Mi f Roilly only a few weeks to li\e, and theieforc ho thought ib as well to ariange about his scpulclnal affairs beforehand. The undertaker thought, as there had -boon no witnesses to the transaction, and no receipt was given, it would save him some money, and not matter much to the corpse of Reilly if he pub ib into what he termed "a varnished piner," — meaning a coffin made of pine and varnished. " You mightn't beliove it," continued my fiiend, " bub as I'm a livin' man that piner was exactly the same size and same build as the rosowoodor. And what do you think? I'm dashed if that there- corpse Ileilly didn't bwell himself out so's ho wouldn't fit into it. 1 had to pub him into the lOsewooder attcr all, and he fitted as snug as you like. That'll tell you the style the&e dashed corpses can put on when they choose."