MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2710, 23 November 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

[from orn own ('oiihk-<i'ONDI-:st. 1

There are not wanting indications that an attempt will be m'ide to revive the land-jobbinir mania during the coining summer. One of the evening newspapers lias been trying for some time past to got people into the humour for rnukinsr another plunge. There are hundred* of men ready to rush into another land boom no doubt, only the mischief is that they cannot get the banks into the same way of thinking. The paper in question—the Evening Standard—says:—"The bunking returns have shown us that the shock was only momentary, and that the colony is sounder than ever. Money, and plenty of it, changed from pocket to pocket during thu boom days; but there was none of it lost, and it is all somewhere yet

in tho country." That is just it. Money did change from pocket to pocket. And it is quite true that " it is all somowhere yet in the colony." It was that change from pockot to pocket that people complain of. Money was whistled out of the pockets of dupes and fools by clever speculators who knew well enough what they were about. They knew quite well that the value of "grazing paddocks" could not be changed from £10 to £150 an acre by a tew taps of an auctioneer's hammer ; and many of those who sold, and those who bought, have learned by this time that a promissory note is not exactly the same thing as gold. Let us hope therefore that we shall not have another land boom just yet. " The whole of the waters of the Upper Murray and its tributaries, and the whole of the waters of the Lower Murray to the boundaries of South Australia shall be deemed to be the common property of New South Wales and Victoria, subject to the reservation of such water as the trust may from time to time determine." Such is the basis of a sort of agreement come to by the two colonies some three years ago. Bat is that scheme equitable? What about South Australia, if the waters of the Murray are to be dealt with by other people before her territory is reached ? The fact is, that it is absurd for any one, or any two colonics,to set up a pretension to the exclusive right of the wators of tho Murray. Tho Murray is to this part of Australia what the Danube is to Eastern Europe—it belongs to many people, whose separate interests conflict with those of each other : and like the Danube, the Murray will have to be placed under the management of a commission, The joke of the whole thing- is that nobody ever discovered the value of the Murray waters until the Chaffrey Brothers came and enlightened them.

The establishment of their irrigation

colonies mark a new era in Australian history, and Sir Henry Parkes is afraid that Victoria will get too much of the cake. So the proposal to tap the Murray seven miles below Aylesbury is being put into practical shape. One may safely predict, however, that it will not get much further. If the colonies interested cannot agree amongst themselves, and divide the water upon an equitable scale, it is quite cerr.ain that the Imperial Government will be appealed to for the purpose of settling the question, In "tho menntimo, while Sir Henry Parkes is fretting and fuming, the Murray flows on, and a portion—a very small portion, mind—of her waters are fertilising and enriching Ren mark and Mildura, two colonies which are destined to be the precursors of many others—not in Victoria only, but, let ub hope, in New South Wales and South Australia likewise.

The finding of the jury in the action brought by the Fitzroy Council against the National Bank of Australian, and the Mercantile Bank respectively, in connection with what has come to be rather widely known as the "Onyans frauds," will be a costly affair for both banks. But the high price that will have been paid fer the lesson will not be wasted if the teaching bo dearly paid fur makes the banks a little more careful for the future. It will be remembered that the Council of Fitzroy had deposited a certain number of £100 debentures with the bank for safe keeping, but Onyans, an employe of tho bank, stole a number of them ; took them to the Mercantile Bank and obtained advances thereon. Tho jury, in both casea, have given a verdict for plaintiffs of one shilling damages, which, of course, car-

ries costs. In the oase of the Mercantile Bank the debentures upon which they advanced the money have to be given up, and they lose the money. Of the two, the National Bank is the most to be pitied. According to his own testimony Onyaus was an adroit thief, and it would have required two men to watch him if he was to be kept from stealing. But if a bank cannot place a reasonable amount of confidence in its own officers ; and if they have to be wptehed like pickpockets, a situation iu one of these institutions becomes.more of a degradation than an honour. With respect to the Mercantile Bank the case is different, and to my thinking less excusable. What would be thought of a pawnbroker who was always receiving in pledge valuable articles from a man whom he knew to be employed in the shop of another pawnbroker ? Therß appears to be very little difference between the real and the supposed cases ; in either, it is the taking in pledge valuable articles from a man without stopping to enquire whether he was a person likely to own them either in his station, or in the ordinary way of his business.

A week or two ago the metropolitan police force held a meeting for the purpose of considering their "grievances."

Thnv promulgated certain resolutions, which hive been laid before the Chief Commissioner. That functionary has estimated the cost of redressing those grievances, and he finds that it will amount to £ V.!, 25-5 the first year, while substantial additions will have to be made to that sum in each subsequent year.

The Argus, in an article (which every squatter and farmer should rend) on ensilage, concludes with these words :—

''Really, in the light of the knowledge we now possess, the stockholder who allows his <rruss and herbage to waste in such a year as this, and his stock to die in the drought which wiil surely follow, has no claim to reasonable human sympathy or pity. He is like the blackfellow after a battue of g une, full, gorged lazy, improvident; anil, in the tret and trouble of the drought time he may almost be compared again to the blackfellow, with hand on his empty stomach, and helpless, piteous cry of " Poor fellow me." Be it alwa\ s remembered, however, that back-block, rabbitinfested, much-to-pitied squatter of the grassless country does not come under this condemnation. It has not yet been shown that even ensilage will make provendor out of cither pine scrub or mallee,"