MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2662, 3 August 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

(KROM OUR OWN I'OKRKSI'ONDEXT ) Mr. Mountain ia the owner of a timber yard at South Melbourne. There are a great number of workingmen in that district who are also electors. Mr. Mountain sought their support at the last general elections, and mainly by their holp he was sent to the Legislative Assembly. He won their hearts by poising as an out-an-out protectionist! " Why," said Mr. Mountain, " should we send money abroad for the purchase of things which ought to be made in this colony ?" He was particularly hard upon the Harbour Trust, because it was proposed to purchase from the Government of South Australia, at half its value, a dredge that is much needed, and which it would take a long time to build in Victoria. He threw that dredge so often at the heads of electors that they retured the compliment by pitchforking him into Parliament over the head of at least one better

Besides being a timber merchant and a member of Parliament, Mr. Mountain is also a member of the Harbour Trust. His seat and his £300 a year as a member of the " House being safe, Mr. Mountain has had time to make inquiries, and ho now finds that all the manufactories arc bo busily cngi'.ged that there is no possibility of the dredges being made in the colony, so he voted for tho purchase of one from Adolsiide. Now, Mr. Mountain's offence consists in this :— He knew quite as well as any other man that a dredge could not be built in Victoria within any reasonable time—that, for want of one an important part of tho harbour is mKing up —that, in consequence, delays ncour, freights are raised, and the port is getting into disrepute. Yet, ho did not scruple to make that appear trun which was not true, and to wriggle into Parliament by means of a few shrods of electioneenDg claptrap, the employment of which can hardly raise him in his own estimation. Ho may console himself, however, with the reflection that, his in not the only "sudden conversion" that has taken place since the elections.

Mr. Woods is a man of a different calibre. Whatever may have been tho uaturo of his pledges to tho working men, he twoinn, at any rate, to show a desire to stick to them. His latest fad is tho " unemployed" grievance. There are, he cays, 1,000 men out of work in Melbourne, and his wants government to establish relief works in tho city. The nature of the works, or what ultimate object they are intended to serve, Joes not trouble Mr. Woods so long as ho can get his proteges initiated into the " government stroke" at good pay, in a place where they will not have to walk far to tho work. That proposal not meeting with favour, he then gravely proposed that his 1000 men should bo set to cut firewood ' Whether he iutended tho imn to clear Government Domain, the Fitzroy Gardens, oi the DiHidsnunjr Ranges, was not made clear—perhaps even to himself. Tho daj was exceedingly cold, perhops, even to" himself, perhaps he needed a fire, and, perhaps, firewood was tho only thing representing an idea that occurred to him.

At all events, tho proposal was so originiil, not to ."ay startling that it knocked a'l tho breath out of Mr. Gillies' well-fed person, and tho reporters declare that "he could tjay nothing." I should think not. ]Ii: whs probably reflecting what he should say to the " legitimate firewood cutters" when they came to him in a body and indignantly demanded why he had kmil an array to cut down tho few tree. , ) still standing in Victoria. Anyway, the wood-cutting scheme was not entertained and Mr. Woods grew—well, a little personal, He reminded conservatives how, in 1579, they had paid professional agitators to organise an unemployed demonstration. It was a contemptible littlo dart but somehow it struck as well as a bigger one would have done. Up sprung Mr. Staughton, becaufo, ho said, ho could not sit quietly and listen to that statement; aud he appealed to tho Speaker not to permit Mr. Woods to scatter such iuflammablo remarks upon the iloor of the House. So Mr. Woods was told to sit down, which he did.

It must, not bo understood that the Government, the House generally, or the out.-ide public, arc regardless* of the chums of genuine distress. Poverty exists in Melbonrno, us it always will exist in every large centre, and especially in those to which men lire attracted in crowds during seasous of prosperity, to be pinched when a re-action takes place. But neither the Government nor tho public are inolim-d to begin a system of costly " lvlief works," the most probiiblo use of which would bo to attract hither still greater crowds, who would flock hither in the hope of certain work, fairly goml pay, and mi easy time (if it. ironurnlly under the eight hours' banner in this iray and plea-suro-lovintr Mietroonlis. Who thinks of cst;iijli>liin-j relief works fur unemployed d'iks, shopmen iind civ/W'h; of other well divsxd persons verging on utter destitution ? And yet, a two shilling advertisement in U;e Age will collect any inorning ;i crowd of upwards of a hundred <:iiu<-r i.pplicants for a. miserable .-lipend of thirty shillings a week. Hut then, ns a rule —and one that men like Mr. Woods aro not likely to —such people do not organise processions, and—they have no votes to dispose of.

Tho refusal of a committee of tho House of Commons to sanction tho investment of British Trust Funds in colonial government stocks, and the low price at which the New South Wales loan has been floated, have formed a text from which tho Age has manufactured one of its periodical conservative aenuoii". Pas-t-ing lightly over the mistake of Victoria in lmildingjmch nonproductive and costly works as the Houses of Parliament and our palatial ot.'tto schools out of borrowed money, it improves the ocoassion by reading Sir Henry L'arfces and his freo-trude followers a lesson. Sir Henry ennnot make public income meet public expenditure. He cannot reduce the one, and is not permitted to increase tho other. Tho country will oidy tolerate increased taxation when it has a tendency to protect nativo industries, and Sir Henry is pledged not to impose such imposts. Honeo, wo are told that for some years past New South Walts has been borrowing, at five and half millions per annum, and has now an unproductive debt of £10,700,000, whilat Victoria is alleged not to have any unproductive debt at all.

This alarminsr statement is doubtless intended to frighten our neighbours. I do not profess to know very much about the relative merits of Freetrade and Protection. 1 know that if I want to buy a suit of elothec it seems easier if the tiling , can be done for £3, than when the same article co.-.ts £4. Whereas, if through '.a Protective policy tho.se four pounds have to bo paid, while three would otherwise suffice, I do not find that I got a cent more for writing these letters. When, all is .said and done, I am afraid that Mr. Patterson wm.h very much iii (he right the other day, when ho told a deputation that every man was a Protectionist until his own pockef was toucher], then ho became an out. and out h'rentr.idor. I do not Want to betray confidences, but people say that the Age is " run" upon similar principles. The Cyclorama is to bo floated into a limited liability uoinpauy, Tho proprietors explain that thvra " l"ir-m'"?s is the painting and putting up of cyclorumu-', and not tha operation or the exhibition of them." They have started, a good paying concern in Melbourne, and they are about to movf) onwards and do likewiso in other ]

places which they have marked out. The prospect of the projected company seems to be very good, the average daily receipts aro £85 9s, aud tho cost of operation per day is less than £8. Considerable less than one half the average daily receipts since the opening would yield a dividend of 24 per cent per annum upon tho capital. I imagine there will not bo very much difficulty in flouting the proposed company.