MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2555, 24 November 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

(I'UOll OL'R OWN COUUKsrONIIKNT.)

Very little of general interest is attracting attention outside the races. All Melbourne is given over to the excitement and boisterousness of the Flemington Spring Meeting, the principal features of which are the Derby, the Cup, aucl the Oaks ; and nothing else is thought, spoken, or heard of. Truth to tell, the events of the week have not been important. There has been nothing new Parliamentary ; no fresh urban developments ; no booms of any sort Octopus like, the racing saturnalia absorbs everything, and all lessor inspirations sunk into nothingness beside it. The "charity boom," ending with Hospital Sunday, is over. No less a sum than £25,000 has been donated to the hospitals, and everyone now is intent on repaying themselves with amusement. This is quite right, even the most stringent must confess ; but it is a great pity—a thousand pities—that people should throw themselves into the particular form of pleasuring now paramount, with such feverish energy. To me it is really pitiful to think that so many tens of thousands of pounds should find their way into the puukets of a horde of hungry, conscienceless bookmakers. But so it is, and I suppose no amount of philosophising will teach the unreflecting public otherwise. When I go about the street I am filled with astonishment, for at no previous Cup time has an influx of visitors been so larjre as now. The people pour in from all parts of tho country, and tho number from the other colonies, drawn hither by tho double attraction of Cup and Exhibition, fill me with aatonishmont. Tho problem now is, where are they all to bo housed ? At every well-known coffee palace and hotel, hundreds aro being turned away. Every half-hour a train or boat arrives and adds its f6W hundreds of visitors, who are more or less placed in a dilemma immediately on their arrival. The places for accommodation could be filled twico and three times over. It is really marvellous, but quant a mai. lam sincerely sorry to see such a drain of country energy and money into the metropolis. No wonder the outside districts complain of bad times and scarcity of cash; considering the thousands of pounds of country money that will be expended this week and next, it would be strange indeed if it was not missed in the places where it comes from. Luckily the colony is prosperous and can stand the excess and expend ture, but taking it all "by and large," as the sailors say, it is undoubtedly a bad thing, and one calculated to lead to bad results.

I daresay some of my readers will have seen, read or beard an account of the Derby, run on Saturday. As lam not a sporting scribe I shall not venture into minute particulars; but I may say it was a race well run and pluckily won. The winner tnrned up iu Ensign, a wirylooking brown gelding belonging to tho Hon. James White—the of Australian sportsmen. I have seldom seen a better finish. Round the turn galloped the whole field, as close together as a pack of hounds on a hot scent. Seven beautiful creatures stretched out in full length, with quivering nostrils and heaving flanns. Slash, slash, go the whips of the jockeys. One straining animal makes a supreme effort, another shoots forward for half a length like a rocket, a quivering tan muzzle is seen for a second in front, then a big bay thunders to first place in the inside running, so it goes for the last half-mile home, and then just near the post tho bay Carbine struggles to the front, with the rider's whip going like a flail. "Carbine ! Carbine !" screams the .crowd. Melos, on tho inside, makes a last supreme effort, and forges slightly uhoad, lookiug all over a winner. But tho wiry Ensign, on the outside, comes at the last moment, brown hero that he is, responsive to his blue rider's call. A final dash, a might*. effort, a wonderful spurt on tho post—and the Derby ia wod, and a defening roar from the fifty thousand throats tells it is all over.

But a truce to racing, for I shall have more of it next week, when it will be my duty to disensx and describe that consummation of all hopes and desires—the Melbourne Cup. So for this week I will content myself with what I have written, and deal with other matters. As I mentioned, the Exhibition is gaining the advantage of the presence of the extra visitors in town, and things there seem to be flourishing. The attendances are unusually large, aud tho concerts, the switch-buck, tho aquarium, and other Bide-shows receive a full meed of patronage. I am somewhat afraid, though Mr Cowen's music is slighily too classical for the average country visitor. I heard oue head of a family, who seomod to have been dragging his tired wife and more tired children about all day, observe to bis good lady disdainfully, as they strung out of the concert-room —"Call thai music! Give me a concertina or a 'arp with some tune iu it. Come on, Maria, and let's seo if there's any live stock to be seen."

Shortly after the race I happened to go with a brother jounalist to—as he expressed it —" liquidate " our losses. An excited crowd was rouud the ba> engaged in noisy argument as to what mght to have won, what this one backed, what that one fancied, and so on. After listening for a moment, iny friend—who poses as a wit—joined in the discussion. "Look here, gentleman," he said gravely, "if your information had been as sure as mine you must all have won to a certainty." All eyes were at once turned oh liitn, and a voice asked, " Did you back him, sir?" "I never bet," replied my friend solemnly " How did you know he was going to win ?" eagerly asked a bystander. "Because " —and here he became very impressive—"because I saw him pass the judge's box first." It wasn't an original joke, but it had them, and caused a hearty laugh all round. Last week the final issue of the celebratsd Toy v. Musgrove case was de cided, when Mr Justice Holroyd gave his reserved judgment iu the case. He assessed damages for the Chinatnan at £150, so that Mr Ah Toy can retire to his cherished flowery land on a sum which there, I suppose, is considered quite princely. And so this is the end of the famous China-Australian imbroglio—a matter which it is not too much to say has attracted the attention of the whole of the civilised world. Australia has been defeated, and has to pay the piper. Sic transit gloria muiuli. After all our bravado and patriotic sentiment we have to own ourselves in the wrong and pay for our escapade. Well, I suppose it is just enough, but there is just a touch of bathos in the connection which is rather galling. Ido not think any more of the Chinese emigrants who were turned back will briuc actions, for, an we all know, law is a costly luxury, and not calculated for tho Heathen Chinee. Of course in Ah Toy's case a national issue was at stake, and tho funds were readily forthcoming. But that decided, all interest in tho question has now dropped, and if any individual Chinaman wants in his turn to assert his rights, he will have to do it at his own expense. As a legal friend put it to me: "Tho beggars have all gone home to China, and so they aud their case have gone to pot."