THE CENTENARIES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2518, 30 August 1888, Page 2

THE CENTENARIES.

* ——— (By Oihi Mklbouhsk Cobbesposdhot.) Is tho course of my peregrinations round the building, T wont up to the dome. It was not a ease of dulce doinum getting there, for it is a tremendous climb, but when one reaches the trp he is amply repaid. From no other site in Melbourne is it possible to gain such a magnificent panorama. South is the big suburb of South Melbourne with its numerous ramifications, the murky Yarra and the clearer waters of Hobson's Bay with its shipping. Turning in a westerly direction still houses upon houses meet the view ; to the east lie Fitzroy and C»l----lingwood; and, further afield, Studloy Parle, Keiv, Hawthorn, and other greener suburbs. Northwards one sees all that vast stretch with verdant Essendon, Ascot Vale, and Coburg in the background ; altogether a flat, prosperous, populated, semi urban, semi-rural scene. " What a great, huge, overgrown, straggling place Melbourne is after all." I heard a gentleman say to a companion, both of whom had mounted to the Elysian at the same time as myself; " I have heard of preaching from the house tops," he continned, " but a visit to the dome certainly preaches a lesson of decentralisation. Half tho people who live in those twopenny-half-penny wooden cottages all about should be away up-country ;" and perhaps, after all, he was right. Pity the sorrows of an Australian nightingale, for her song is stilled and her bright eyes dimmed. And it was the all-devour-ing Exhibition that has done it, or, at least, helped to do it. Poor Amy Sherwin's husband tins gone insolvent, and the run of English Opera by the "Amy Sherwin Opera Company " has come to an abrupt and untimely termination. I am very, very sorry for our poor cantatrice, for she worked liard and assiduously at her profession, and is certainly one of the best of our native-born singers. And the worst of it is, all her hard-earned savings have gone in the general crash. She saved £5000 out of her concerts in New Zealand and the colonies generally, and fondly thought with all a woman's faith that this would be the nucleus of fortune and prosperity. Eheu ! The dearest hopes wo fondly cherish, Arc doomed, alas ! too oft to perish. Poor Amy's bright eyes are dim now, but I hope soon to see her rise Phoenix-like from the ashes of insolvency. As a concert singer, she is popular from one end of Australia to another, so I have no doubt she will Boon re-appear on the platform, and will doubtless do better than in the more ambitious role of opera prima-donna. I fancy the man who will profit mostly by the Exhibition gaieties is Mr Skinner, the caterer. There have been Exhibition dinners, Government House dinners, ViceRegal balls, Mayoral dinners, and eating and drinking galore. And all the arrangements have been in the hands of Mr Skinner. He estimates that since the first he has provided banquets for 20,000 persons, and as the Vice-President said to me —" There must have been pretty pickings in it for him as well as for the guests." The quantity of provisions consumed has been enormous, and Mr Skinner told me his orders for fowls reached the astonishing number of 2500, whilst tho record for turkeys is a mere bagatelle of 1300. Ho spent CI WO in table cutlery alone, so that he evidently expected to find many among the visitors who played " a good knife and fork." A very wicked lady from Sydney suggested at Government House, when the fact was mentioned that Mr Skinner had evidently made preparation for those of the guests who put their knives into their mouths. He evidently expected, she added, to lose some that way. ————————