MELBOURNE.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 888, 16 November 1871, Page 2

MELBOURNE.

(The " O. D. Times," correspondent.) October 31.

The Sabbatarian movement still at tracts a good deal of attention. The advocates of a Mosaic observance of the Sunday presented a memorial to the Government the other day; and in doing so, with true clerical spirit, tried to cast doubts upon the character of the signatures which were bein» attached to the petition on the other side. The movement has come to present a very paltry appearance. A couple of years ago a society was started, called the Society for the Promotion of Morality, most of its promoters being clergymen. True enough, there is in this community a good deal of work of this kind to be done could a way be found of doin" 1 it. There is here, as in all large cities, a vast amount of ignorance and vice and brutal degradation, which the ordinary educational and civilising and christianisiug influences do not touch. And now our spiritual guides submit their first proposal of somepractical action to advance this object. This is to shut up the Cerberus on Sunday. Truly, it is a poor pitiful mouse to spring from the labour of the mountain whose spiritual throes some months ago seemed to herald a new birth of society.

The matter which more than any other has formed the general subject of conversation during the last week or two, is the recent reef discoveries on the Bendigo Goldfield, and the speculative excitement they have occasioned. In the greatness of the effect the original cause ia almost lost; and if we were asked what is the real ground of all the unprecedented activity in the Sandhurst share market, which has made reckless stock-jobbers of some of our most prudent citizens, has almost obliterated the recollection of Ballarat and all other goldfields, and has made Sandhurst the centre of the attention of the whole colony for some weeks—why, there are but very few of us who could tell. There, however, is the fact, let the cause be what it may. New claims have been marked out in and around Bendigo by the hundred; companies have been formed at an equal proportion; millions of pounds worth (nominally) of scrip have been issued; an absorb-

ing excitement haa been called into existence, which goes on increasing, and is constantly enlarging the area of fin 1 5 T „ Hu . odr edl of people find themselves "going in" to speculation who never dreamed of such a thing before; going into companies, the Prospects even the locality of £„ £ e * kao \ noting, merely buying the paper that they may the next day sell it at a higher-fi-nire There is little at the bo torn of all this: I„ f acr , there w little to induce investment Whatever may be the value of the wondrous prospects of the district, at The weekly calls so far nearly equal the dividends. It i 8 evident that the jobbing excitement is totally independent of any rat.onal estimate of the expectations of the goldfield. It is equally evident that all who take part in the lottery do so with the full consciousness that the present condition is but temporary, that every prospect is under the influence of the existing fever ridiculously overvalued, every expectation discounted at a ruinous r.;te, and that a reaction may at no distant day set in, which will occasion a. collapse that in its suddenness and its rapidity will assume the shape of a great crash. However, in the meantime the work goes merrily on. One side of Collins street has been virtually surrendered to the speculators, who ply their business to all hours of the evening. But it is at Sandhurst that the excitement is the hottest, and it is thither that the keenest speculators flock from all parts of the country. A graphic description recently appeared in the "Argus" of the condition iif things in the quartz reef city. Says the writer.—"Pushing through the mass of men, your contributor follows the broad back of a respected woolbroker, and finds himself presentlv in the air and rain. Opposite him in the Pall Mall Reserve, with the poppetheads of the City of Sandhurst Mining Company derisivelv upstanding therein. The roadway "is a mass of humanity standing with its hands in its pockets, apparently doing nothing. But up from .the crowd arises a murmur that makes itself heard above the steady ripple of the rain— the murmur of whispering voices. In this vast multitude—for surely 3.000 people boiling over from the Shamrock to the Beehive, from Williamson street to Mitchel street, may be called vast—is no shouting heard. Men stand about, move hither and thither, pluck others by the sleeve, flutter pocketbooks and transfer scrip with an ominous noiselessness that indicates business. Though the intensest excitement prevails, it is part of the game of speculation to affect the true gambler's indifference. The rapid walk which betokens anxiety, the fixed far-seeing gaze which denotes mental tion, the twitching fingers that fumble with the metallic leaves, the hot dry hand, the incessantly renewed cigar, these are the signs by which we know the men who are risking their fortunes of yesterday upon the chances of to-morrow." Further on we get a specimen of rumours as to sudden fortunes that foi m the current small talk, the discourse across tables, and at street corners at Sandhurst. " One young gentleman.on a four-days' leave from Melbourne, is credited with having made £IOOO. It is stated that a small tobacconist made £IBOO, and that a barmaid bought for £lO a share that is now worth £SOO. All sorts of rumours prevail. Tour contributor is told that Mr Robinson is worth £30,000 ; that Mr Jones can sell his interest for £17,000; that Mr Heffernan, the owner of the Shamrock, has been offered £40,000 to sell, and has declined. There are men who will tell others anything, and others who will believe .anything they are told. A respectable man asserts that he has already in his own books more shares than could be bought with the united bullion of all the banks. Your contributor saw a man who was credited with owning £3OOO, and who had been driving a cab, on wages, a week before." Later in the evening the business becomes more hurried, as men rush about to wind up their day's affairs, to get down to Melbourne by the late special train, which has lately been laid on to meet the exigencies of the case. " So with music sounding from distant windows, with the lights of cabs gleaming hither and thither through the wild wet night, with a maddening murmur of Golden Fleeces, New Chums, Avondales, Tributes, Bonatis, Sadowas, Eurekas, Hustler's, Collman and Tachi's, Robin Hoods, G. V. Brookes, White and Black, two and three, four and six, eighteen, one and nine, five pounds, two shillings, twopence three farthings, wealth, ruin, bankruptcy, speculation, and insanity, the hands of the watch stole mercifully to ten o'clock and a special train." And so the game goes on, and every one asks how long it is to last, and when will the inevitable crash come. At present, all looks sound and healthy, but the imperceptible turning point must some day be passed; it will all at once be found that there are more sellers than buyers —every one will be trying to clear out, and the last holders will pay for all. We have had this experience before, in the case of Ballarat; we daily expect it in the case of Bendigo. Still, there is this to be said on the other side: When the smash comes, as it must come sooner or later, it is not to be inferred that it will leave nothing but ruin behind. On the contrary, it will leave a mining district, the enormous wealth of which has only lately been fully made known. It win

leavo a vast number of claims which during the recent influx of capital will have been opened, partly worked, and provided with plant, and regular yields. The present values are fictitious and ridiculously exaggerated. Granted; but the true values will be found to be enduring. Whatever m&y be the temporary ill effects which may ensue to speculators, the benefit which will ensue to Bendigo and the colony from the stimulus given by the present condition of things will be fruitful and lasting.