MELBOURNE GOSSIP.
(from our own correspondent.) The prevailing topic during the week has been the doings of Parliament when the House meets. That event will have happened before this letter appears in print. Unless members meet with the serious intention of getting through the work they are paid to perform, not onehalf the proposed measures will become law. There will be the usual wrangling and debat-e over the address, but common decency demands that the subject should be disposed of during the first four days of the session, instead of being dragged over five weeks, as happened last year, The great work of the session will be the Metropolitan Board of Works Bill. But, if current rumour speaks truly, the Cabinet has not yet agreed upon two of the most essential points of the measure, and it wonld be folly to bring the Bill forward until these matters are settled. They relate, firstly, to ways and means—how the necessary funds are to be raised. Secondly, to the constitution of the Board itself. If the Government are undecided how to construct the machinery, and in what manner the money is to be raised which the Board will have to spend, tho sooner they solve the problem the better. Meanwhile the Corporation of Melbourne have expressly stated in what manner the Board shall not be constructed. They have decided that they will oppose an attempt to make the Board a mere Bureaucracy. They do not intend that it shall be a " harbour of refuge," into which the needy friends of Ministers may be safely steered and moored, who are unfitted, or unwilling to brave the storms of every day-life in the arena of competition, in which most of us have to struggle for bread. Neither will they sanction the elective principle, if the members and officials are to be elected by small, but privileged cliques. In these resolutions the Corporation arc undoubtedly right, and if they stick to them, as I believe they will, the people will support them. What is wanted here is decentralisation. The less the Government have to do with purely municipal affairs the better ; and the principle of municipal government must bp maintained in the construction of the Metropolitan Board of Works. We have seen, in the dismissal of Mr. Nimmo, how a sot of Ministers, in want of a place for a neody supporter, will act upon occasion ; and we do not wish to multiply opportunities for their repeating tho process. With respect to Mr Nimmo himself he has not been a very striking figure in the Cabinet, and has not contributed much to the advancement of the country during his tenure of office. For all that, the shameless way in which he has been turned out —for that is precisely what his compulsory resignation amounts to—would have elicted for him a great amount of sympathy had he known how to keep himself quiet. Much of the sympathy that would have been his, however, will not find expression, on account of the undignified manner in which lie has acted. Neither Mr. Gillies nor Mr. Deakin will rise very much in public estimation after the correspondence relating to the Nimnio-Davics incident has been read—as, by this time, it will have been read, throughout the colony ; but, on the other hand, neither will the political reputation of the discarded Minister be improved by it. If we arc to judge from the number of deputations which have interviewed Mill-
isters upon the subject, there will be
some contention amongst country members before tho promised Railway Bill has reached its final stage. This is but natural. Every district that is not already provided with a railroad demands to havo one, and these demands in the aggregate amount to a request for the construction of nearly 0,000 miles of new lines. It is obviously impossible to at once provide for such a stupendous system of extentions, even were the immediate necessity for all of them made manifest. All that can be done, or that anyone can cxpeet to be done, is that conflicting claims shall receive full and fair consideration, and that the projected Railway Bill shall not be marred by jobbery or favouritism of any kind whatsoever. The most pressing claims should be met, whilst those of minor importance will have to "bide a wee " It was rather too bad of the London
correspondent of a Melbourne daily to cable that the name of Mr M. H. Davies, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, would figure amongst the recipients of Birthday honours. Tho wines of embryo Knights are always in a flutter of expectation till the dulcet sound, " My Lady," falls upon their ears, and so, perhaps, are their husbands. At any rate the Cross of a Knight of the Most Noble Order of St, Michael and St. George seemed so fairly within the grasp of the successful land speculator and politician that, lam told, both Mr. and Mrs. Davies were congratulated by many friends at the reception, held at Government House on the evening of the 24th, in anticipation of the honour. It must have been extremely awkward afterwards when the expected announcement did not appear.
A correspondent of a weekly paper repeats a rumour that has obtained currency to the effect that a Geelong medico, and a bachelor besides, is in trouble, He has been preparing for a holiday trip to the old country. Upon the fact becom ing known, he received an intimation from a widow that she intended to institute legal proceedings for the purpose of detaining him in Victoria, pending the satisfactory settlement of certain claims she alleged she had upon him. The nature of her claim will be understood when I say that she proposed, as a satisfatory settlement, either marriage, or tho payment of JG3OOO. As if this were not bad enough, a second widow stepped forward, to be settled either by marriage or the payment of £5000. Now here °is a pretty fix in which a poor bachelor is placed. He " wants to go home," and liere are two ladies who point out to him the cost of the trip, and propose the only conditions upon which he can be suffered to make it.
On the other hand the unfortunate gentleman declares that both ladies have mistaken " professional" attention for " attentions of another sort." They both repel the idea, however, and there the matter rests at present. The doctor, it is plain, cannot marry them both, unless he turn Mahometan (a friend of mine, by the bye, a Mahometan bishop, has four wives), so he had bettor either pay both, or marry one and pay the other. He has my sympathy in either case ; though, if both ladies are in the right, it ought to be a caution to him in future. Men should not strike sparks amongst tinder boxes.
I have just come across a bit of interesting information about smoke. Professor Chandler Roberts, of the Royal School of Mines (England), has calculated the weight of the great smoke cloud which hangs daily over London. He states the weight to bo at least 300 tons. He esti-
mates that, in this daily total, there are DO tons of solid carbon, and 250' tons of hydro carbons and carbonic acid gas; aud that the yearly value of this smoke cloud is not less than i:2.053,333. Coming from such a source, the statement is 110 doubt true. The only tliiugnow to be clone is to find a man who can devise the means of turning that cloud into money, The process may not be easy. But I believe that, if, during last year's " boom," any man could have said as much with regard to tlio smoke cloud of Melbourne, an hour would not have passed before some one had projected a limited liability company to " work it" A new periodical has just made its appearance, to be published monthly, entitled The Oddfellow, which should in. turest all members of the fraternity. I forward the first number for favourable remark, if yon think it deserving of such noticp. Inm informed that the editor will be glad to receive communications, in the interests of Oddfellows, from any mber of the fraternity. J
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Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2647, 29 June 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)
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1,375MELBOURNE GOSSIP. Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2647, 29 June 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)
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