A LAND BOOMER’S MANSION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2154, 24 January 1891, Page 3

A LAND BOOMER’S MANSION.

All Melbourne is talking about Mr 0. H, James’ new mansion. “At George’s road, Toorak,” sounds fashionable, does it not; and it is in that truly aristocratic neighborhood that Mr James has built his new house. Mr James was the prince of land boomers—a greater even than Thomas Bent; though, unlike the latter, he has been able to retain some of the proceeds. He it was who first attracted the small purchaser by the £5 deposit terms, who carried the science of “dummy” bidding to its highest perfection; who led buyers captive in the chains of champagne luncheons. Mr hamuel Gardiner’s recent affidavit on the subject is an instance in proof. In the height of his success Mr James got into the Legislative Council, though no one knew how much it cost him. To get into society, also, be entertained the elite at dinner in the Masonic Hall —a magnificent spread where 400 Cabinet Ministers, knights and C.M.G.’s, editors of newspapers and leading bankers, and all sorts and conditions of social swells, enjoyed his hospitality. No one ever knew the figures into which I that gathering ran. Then came a terrific exposure. His insane prosecution of his chief clerk and henchman, Harold Sparks—his chief dummy and the man who knew all his inmost deeds (land or otherwise) —tore off the veil. The public read in the news papers day after day the details of his land booming methods, and how, for instance, he formed the Dominion Bank to buy some of his suburban “ estates ” at something like 1000 per cent, above cost price. At the next election his seat in the Legislative Council left him. He announced his candidature, but bad not the face to prosecute it. He has consoled himself by building a mansion, which, if not in the skies, is in Toorak, which is as near perhaps as be can get; It is far and away the best house and the best furnished in Victoria—always excepting, of course, Sir William Clarke’s town house. The decorations of ®ne room cost £600; and ene of the three drawing-rooms, upholstered in shot silver and green, is a dream of beauty. If you pass you will probably find Mr James on the lawn proudly admiring the tout ensemble , and you will, as a matter of course, be invited to make a complete inspection. It is to be hoped Mr James will be more fortunate than another of the laud-booming species. He built a noble mansion and surrounded it with such extensive gardens and grounds that they needed three gardeners for their preservation; but when the whole thing was finished be had no money left to liv© m it.

Happily a rich squatter (the class is sometimes useful) came along and rented it from him at £I2OO a year.— Correspondent Otago Daily Times.