MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2589, 14 February 1889, Page 3

MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

(FROJt OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT). Ik Parliament were in session just now there is more than ono honourable .member who would tilid it necessary to make personal explanations. That cable which appeared in the Age concerning an article published in a London financial paper apropos of the Victorian land boom, announcing its utter collapse and predicting a general smash very shortly, has set a good many people by the ears, especially members of Parliament, who are charged with having amongst their number several who are corrupt enough to use their public position for their own private ends. Of course 110 names are mentioned, but I can imagine how some honourable members would indignantly call the attention of the House to the calumny, and move that the Agent-General be instructed to give it an instant and emphatic denial. Personally I am of opinion that the article complained of is a gross exaggeration from first to last. The Statist published it on the authority of some one living in our midst, but whatever pessimistic views that individual may have lie has certainly given expression to them beyond all reasonable bounds. It is true that the land boom in as dead as a door nail, but that was only to be expected seeing that the price of land was being run up to lictitious rates, and this state of things had lobe righted. No one, however, imagines for a moment that we aieon the eve of a great financial crash, which will bring ruin to the colony and misery to thousands. Legitimate trading is as good as over, our re-enue returns are up to and beyond the estimate, and the loan which is now being float rd uii the Luiidun market is already (juoWd at au excellent i>reiuium, In tiio

face of that financial operation, however, the Statist's article was to be deplored, and the man who supplied the information is certainly no friend of Victoria. Another addition has been mat-le to the English vocabulary in the word " Boulangism." It is, nt course, conceived much after the same fashion as was the expression "to boycott," and the popular French statesman who is supposed to hold warlike propensities, is the cause of the trouble, just as in the same way also as I'arnell is the raison d' etre of that heading which Melbourne journals are so fond of using when they write "Parnellism and Crime." And now that I think of it, the Boulanger divorce case is scarcely likely to come off. It is said of Madame Boulanger that in all Europe there is not a match for her in the art of nagging and baiting an unfortunate husband. The real reason of the lady's dissatisfaction is that her education being narrow, sho is always fancying herself snubbed and slighted, and is miserable with her grievances, and would be still more wretched if she had not cause to feel aggrieved. More than this, she is afflicted with liver complaint, and that should cover a multitude of sins. She began the divorce by quitting the General and taking refuge in a convent. The husband, however, advised by his lawyer, summoned her to come back to the conjugal domicile, and, to his horror, she at once obeyed. Boulanger now pleads that Madame put herself in the wrong in quitting him for the convent,"and that the summons for her to come back was a pure formality. The question now is whether the Divorce Court judge, who is to try the suit, will take the same view.

Few people—especially those rabid teetotallers—are sensible to the risk they run in drinking water. Y"et we are told by the members of the Medical Congress, which has recently concluded its sittings, that the prevalence of hydatids in some parts of Victoria and South Australia is distinctly traceable to a bad and tainted wafer supply. What follows 1 Are we to drink nothing but tea or coffee, or water only when it has been boiled ? The temperance advocates must face this question, more especially as I hear a case of hydatids is seldom found in a man who takes his whisky regularly. Which is better, to chance the risk of death by alcolholistn, or by the bursting of a hydatid cyst ? In medical circles here, the complaint is that the profession is overcrowded. There are too many at the game—and I don't wonder at it, seeing that, in the eyes of a Victorian parent the one great ambition is making his son a bone-setter. There is, however, some hope for the medical fledglings, if they will benefit by the intelligence which comes from Russia. The profession there does not appear to be so overstocked as it is in other countries. There are only 18,000 doctors for a population of one hundred millions. About 40 per cent, of the population, and 1)4 per cent, of the very poor die without having had medical attendance. There are no statistics, however, to show whether on the average a Russian has a longer or shorter life than his neighbours who are more amply supplied with medical advice. There are some people, perhaps, who, in a fine vein of satire would remark that the absence of doctors in any country might bo an un mixed blessing.