General News

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4501, 8 June 1883, Page 2

General News

Mr Coppin, M.L.A., who originated the movement to improve the back-slums of Melbourne (says the Age), has taken another practical step toward this much needed reform, by the purchase of an acre of land running through from Lons - dale street to Little Bourke street, directly opposite that notorious building koown as the "Dead House." Mr Coppin is having plans prepared for the erection of forty working men's dwellings, after the model of the Peabody Improved Indus* trial Dwellings for the working classes in London. Each dwelling will consist of four well-ventilated rooms, with oven, sink, water, and every domestic eon* venience for the tenants. The rent will be Bbout 10s a week. A detached model lodging house will also be erected, in which 300 beds will be made up at 6i for each lodger, with the use of kitchett^fire and cooking utensils, lavatory, reading and smoking rooms, &c. A large meeting hall will also be connected with the establishment. The cost of land and buildings is estimated at £25,000.

Professor Young, of Princetown College says:—"Take a railroad from the earth to the sun, with a train running 40 miles an hour without stops, and it would take about 365 years and a little over to make the journey." He estimates the fare, at a cent a mile, to be 930,000 dollars. These figures kill the project.

The most forcible expression of intolerance was uttered a short time ago by a Scotch clergyman of the Free Kirk, who, referring to the introduction of an organ into a neighboring Established Church, declared that "soon they would get a concert every Sabbath in the old Kirk. The Devil would have his bandmaster there to discourse sin to them on the organ, and the captain, like a cursed pirate, would hoist his false colors to lure souls to destruction."

The City Council has decided on expending £10,000 on improving the Melbourne Town Hall.

At Gunnedah, N.-S.W., a man was recently fined £2 or a week in gaol for carrying firearms on a Sunday.

JSever tay " Bo " to a gooae; it is ungrammatical. Say " beau "to the gander —" belle " to the goose.