MELBOURNE, (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1305, 9 November 1880, Page 2

MELBOURNE, (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPOND ENT.)

The tide in the affairs of humanity influenced by the Melbourne Exhibition, has now fairly set in, and tho hotels arc rapid - iy filling up. It was pointed out in the p ipers a few weeks atro that sufficient preparations wera not being- made for the aceomodatiou of the large influx of expected visitors, a v id that only in a very few instances h.id tho hotel-;, by enlacing their preini-es or auucxiug adjoining buildings, made dv? provision for tho deman -1 likely to be made upon their lehources. during- tho Cup week, is always incor venientlv ciowded, and this year the oriiih is likely to be overwhelming. Visitors will have to billet themselves mostly in the bo.irding-hou'-es, and it fortunately h rppens that of thpse there is a huge assoitment, good, bad, and indifferent, the pi ices charged bcin<^ reasonable enough, namely, 30s. to £2 per wook for bonrd and lodging. To ti man who wishes to cram as much business, si^ht-seeing, and pleasure as possible into tho compass of a few d.iy«<, a lidbit.it in town is .almost a necessity, but to those h ippy ones who can take life more leisurely I would suggest a residence in one or other of the m.uiy pleasant suburbs, s.iv St. Kild.i, for cxruplo, as being decidedly moie.igreeable, especially dm ins* *"ho lut hea-sou, which is now commencing. An enormous number of business poople live out of town, and, thanks to the ifcuerous f<u;ilities for travelling by rail or bus, no inconvenience is felt. On most of the suburban lines tr.iins leave every quarter of an hour or 20 minute-*, and on Saturdays the interval of time between each is even los«, the "Windsor lino, for example, running trains every five minutes during tho busiest portion of Saturday evening. What particularly strikes a stranger to Melbourne is that the people appear to be always on the move. Besides the numerous railways, each running ever wich their living freight*, there are the busses, to be reckoned by hundreds, and cabs, to bo counted in tens of thousands, allserningly as busy as they can be. I have been in most of the large cities ot tho worli, and believe Melbourne, relatively to si/c, caps all as regards the locomotive propensities of its inhabitants. The attendance of visitors at tho International Exhibition is improving, and wiJl probably go on increasing for some weeks to come. At the same time the papers are not altogether ingenuous in the comparisons they make between tho attendance at this Exhibition and at the one in Sydney. In their statements of the attendance here, the exhibitors, officers, and others holding free passps are included, whereas only paying visitors were counted at Syduey ; they also omit to mention that the charge for adraissou to the garden palace for some time alter the opening was half-a-crowu, while here it has been always a shilling. No extra attentions, in the shape or concerts or music, have yet been offered to the public, but doubtless these things will come in due time. „ The . Commissioners o f the Melbourne Exhibition h.ive issued invitations to a conversazione to be held in the buildings on the evening of Thursday next. The vexed question of whether the Exhibition is to be opened at night being still undetermined, the invitations are viewed with Home suspicion by many of tho foreign and colonial Commissioners and representatives, who object to the opening at night, and who have an idea that the proffered eutorUinmeiil is merely a ; wive to effect, by a uido wind, the ao-

complishment of the known wishes of the Executive on the subject. At a meeting of persons referred to, called to oonsider the mitter, si letter of protest against the building being thrown open at night was agreed upon and sent in, but I suppose, the entertainment will be given all the & am p. With respect to the judging for awartis, the position is this : It was agreed that each Conunis^ioii'T or representative of a colony or country exhibiting should be entitled to nominate a jmtor in so many classes, aud in most cases the nominations have been sent in. The regulation that no juror wa« eligible who was a resident of Melbourne was found to be too stringeut, and accordingly relaxed. At a meeting of Commissioners , and representatives to deal with the subject of juries, held on Saturday, it was decided that only exhibits, the produce or manufacture of the exhibitor, would be entitled to receive awards. Apropos of this, Colonel Sir Herbert Sandford, the British Commissioner, referred at the meeting to certain models of vessels in the xew Zealand Court, which were not entitled to a place there, but ought to be shown in the Bntisli Court, inasmuch as they had been made in England. The models spoken of are those of the Union Steamship Company's steamers ; they are not, however, shown as models or in that class, but are exhibited in another class, that of navigation as an illustration of the enterprise and skill of the Company in the navigation of New Zealand waters. Sir Herbert Sandford, who wanted a peg to hang certain remarks upou, might easily have made a better choice. For instance, in one of the machinery halls, an exhibit of railway wheels was pointed out to me, over which was suspended a large show card, stating the exhibit to be the manufacture of a certain large engineering establishment in Melbourne, but a close inspection revealed the fact of a name being stamped on the wheels — this name, though partly obliterated by a coHl chisel, could be made out to be that of an English firm, and it was the representative sent out by this firm who furnished me with this information. lam informed there are many other instances of this kind in the Victorian Court exhibits, the various parts of which have been manufactured in England, and put together only in Victoria. The boastful statements apt to be put forward so often about the wonderful progress of industry in Victoria under protection must therefore be received with some caution. Mr. Cosmo Newbcry has been appointed Superintendent of Junes, and his arrangements are so far completed that he expects the judging will be commenced in about a fortnight. The Executive Commissioner for New Zealand, Dr. Hector — of whom, by the way, theie is a very good likeness given in this week's Skctchrr — returns t© Wellington shortly, I daresay he is not sorry to quit Melbourne, for Ins work has been of the hardest. Only those who have had practical acquaintance with exhibitions have any idea of the v.isfc amount of work that h is to be done behind the scene, and during the five or six weeks Dr. Hector has been in Melbourne, early or late he wi iUttMyo to be found at hia post in the New Zj.il'ind Court. In my last letter mention was made of an 'nquifv being mide by the Melbourne H übour Trust a-, to the most .suitable description of limber for piles, and that the Trust Cominiwoueis had applied to Dr. Hector for information relative to the New Zealand timbcih. There is apparently a irood deal of jealousy in the trade about New Zealand timber, and it has been freely st ited that pil^s of the «!/«) and length required could be obtained only in limited quantity, if at al). Hearing of this a gentleman from Wellington visiting the Exhibiton, and interested in the timber business, ha.s offered to supply any number of full sued totava piles that might be required. The maJtor if. still under consideration by the Haibor Board. The New Zealand Court at the Exhibition is generally \ cry m ell attended, and amongst the crowd of visitors which daily aie to be fonud strolling through, it is siuprisinjr how many ha\e either been in New Zealand or speak hopefully of going there very fcoon. By these tho Handbook of tho Colony, prepared tor the Exhibition by Dr. Hector, is e.igeily enquired for, as also the New Zealand catalogue of exhibits. The day previous to her departure from Melbourne to Sydney, Lady Augustus Loftus, accompanied by his Excellency the Marqms ot Normanby, spout a qmefc hour in the Court, carefully through the exhibits, attended by Dr. Hector. Her lad} ship expressed f,reat admiration of the plioto^iaphh sent'from Wellington, Auckland, ami otUei places, and of the water-color paintings, and ■\\ai greatly pleased with the furrier work shown by Mr. Liardet, of your cit\ , one of the prettiest of the muffs being sent off to (/overnmeut House, to be taken thence to Sydney. I suppose, in cases where vice-royalty is concerned, the officials complacently relax the regulations a little, but to ordinary mortals the trouble of getting any jiarcel out of the building is very great. The sale and removal of exhibits or duplicates is strictly forbidden, and it v. as only after a long su'ios of interviews and much difficulty that a certain well-known M H.R., from the capital of the South Island succeeded in passing out a pair of French dolls which Ins lady had set her heart upon having. Dr Hector has been successful in obtaining a fuither addition of space in connection with the New Zealand Court. A piece of the adjoining Victonan Mmmg 1 Court has been given up, nnd is now being petitioned off and fitted. The size is abuut l.'sft. by 2ift., and the mineralogical collection from the Colonial Museum, and some other exhibits of like nature, are to be moved there, while the partition walls will bo available for the display of many pictorial works which, owing to want of room, have not yet been placed in position. The two principal topics of conversation, in Melbourne, just now, are Mr. Milner Stephen's professed miraculous curative powers and the Austrian Strauss Band. Not having yet interviewed Mr. Stephen I defer any remarks about him for the present. The Austrian band made their first public appearance on the Flemington racecourse, last Saturday, and although the performance gave ample proof of the possession of extraordinary musical ability, tho very high expectations which had been raised concerning the band as a whole were scarcely fulfilled. Under the circumstances, this was not to be wondered at. The band labored under many disadvantages. Tho members had only been three days ashore, after a long and rough se.i voyage ; nearly a fourth of their full number were either absent through sickness or other causes, *or /tors tie combat by reason of their instruments having been broken on rhe voyage. Thus weakened, it was hardly wise to perform before such an immense audience as might have been expected, and actually were present, at Menrington, and certainly not judicious for the band to play in the open air with no covering overhead to strengthen their efforts. The band\s second performance, giveu in the Town Hall last night, was much more successful. — X. Z. Tuna, Correspondent.

Two Bridgeport children playing 1 with a cat [lulled it t>o \iolcntly by the legs as to kiU it. It must h.ivo beeu a very cheap cat, —Jimibtti y Ar irs. Au applo tlircw tha fir&t man. Since then it has so7-ter let tho business out to thy banana^.— Duubi'ry Mien.