MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2854, 28 October 1890, Page 4

MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

(KIIOJI OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Mkmiocrxk, October 3. A society journal (rives the following very interesting nnd instructive piece of information " Whilst assignees in insolvency are otfieers of tho Supremo Court, trustees, being dented by tho creditors, are not directly under its control. An action that promises to throw a lurid light upon some of the tactics of the latter gentry will shortly come on for trial. An insolvent land boomer went to his trustee and asked him to procure n loan, to enable him to nay his creditors twenty fhillinsfH in the pound. Ho received no definite reply; but walking past his solicitor's office one day, hi noticed his truwt.ee and a creditor coming out of it. In tho course of conversation it transpired that trustee and solicitor had been paying oil the creditors at the rate of ten shillings in the pound. The insolvent made some demur, but eventually fell in with the arrangement, and in due courso obtained his certificate of discharge). The land speculator has since discovered that his solicitor, whilst ostensibly acting as an a (rent to advance his tru»tec money for the liquidation of his debts, had in reality bought the estate himself, and that together they had reaped a handsome profit of some thousands of pounds by the transaction. This statement is su far r»* /jh rh\ There is no -übstarrial balance of assets available, thrmirh the creditors only received half their monev, and the iusolvent had to pay a bonus of il'2ooo fot tho alleged loan, The remaining properly was recently advertised'for sale, and an interim injunction has been obtained to prevent it beinjr dealt with pending action.

Tim public nUcriincoi at TrnfW Hull are n» (v-nlidi'iit. of snue.css as ever, Uiou<;h f;ictH lu'lii; 1 imm cviu-y flu v. A jrrcnttT

/i'fsro wis never in connection with a war between the employer iitul '■nil'/ii'l'', nntl t.lu: commission (if out' mistake seems only lo lcrtfl up t.o another and a one. Ollico.rs and seamen deserted the intercolonial st.OH.mur.", but I,ho vessels arc running i" spite of tliem. Tile gas stokers were called out. but gas is :nade all the Fame. The wharf labourers struck, but other men have, been found to handle the cargo. The stevedores knocked of)', and their places were immediately tilled. The ballast men went out but the ships are being ballasted all the same. And now ail attack is being made upon the wool. It is yet too early to predict what will bo the consequence, but the chances are that men will be found to shear it. This last move is even mora senseless than any which preceded it, because only the squatters who employ union labour are to be punished—only the men who aro presumable friends to unionism aro to incur loss, I suppose the next step will be to boycott in some way or other tbo foreifrn biiTcrs, who may be shortly expected in Melbourne, to buy amongst other wool that shorn by nonunionists. Since these same buyers were over hero last year a (ino pile of buildings has been erected at Kensington by tho New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. Ltd. for the storage of wool and grain. The loaders at Trades Hall estimate the loss on wool, if it remains unshorn for a month, at £8,000,000, and seeing how recklessly they have gone to work ho far thore is little doubt that they would look calmly upon that loss. They don't seem to own amongst them as large a quantity of brains as could be collected amongst the old hens in an ordinary farm yard, or they would understand that a public loss of that magnitude cuts both ways. Modern society is so constructed that a loss of wealth cannot be localised. The .sun shines, and the rain falls upon both the evil and the good amount us, and gold cannot be fluiic into the sea, without causing a perceptible shrinkage in the ten thousand channels through which it ordinarily flows. Kii-'ht millions sterling is, T believe, nbou'. ihe sum t.h».t; banks and other financial institutions _ have advanced on tin's year s clip; hut it will not bo sacrilied, let Trades' llall stamp and fume as it may. There aro still a few sane persons left amongst us, and amongst that number there are, I venture to predict, a sullicient number gather in the wool harvest. But, assuming that ' it were lost, or that it were shorn by nou- ! Unionists, through the Union shearers ! consenting to follow the dictum of those two hlatant bell-wethers, Messrs. Spence

and Temple, what would that mean to the men themselves, amongst whom there arc worthier men than their leaders '! There

are 22,">00 shearers, and one of them, writing from Swan ilill, states their

earnings sit ail average of £'2() each. Thnt l 0 nay, tliev divide £450,000 amongst them. And they are expected to throw this largo sum—nearly half n million— after the squatters' wool; standing by all thin time watching their paid representatives, who have issued the mandate, living at ease and in comfort upon money which they—the shearers—have contributed. I suppose we are all agreed that Trades Unionism, as originally designed, and as protected by Act of Parliament, is a good thing. When good wages are earned business is brisker than when the breadwinner is poorly paid, and we are all_t.be better of it. Coupled with tbe eight hours' Byetem it has made the Australian working man the envy of the would. But he should be contented with that, and not aim to become the world's master. A reasonable profitable partnership, and an equal voice in tbe management of tho world's business, should content him. But, unhappily, it does not. Or, rather, it docs not satisfy tho demagogues who have elbowed their way into the front rank, and have become his leaders, and, what is more, his governors. It should be the aim of every man, however, to understand the rules of an association of which he is a member, because it may sometimes happen that, if he f '°eß his paid leaders may not always find it convenient, or to their interests, to enlighten them. No man should bo willing to be led about blindfold. But this, it is said, is what a great number of shearers are now submitting to. It has been publicly said and no one has yet contradicted the stitement, that great numbers of shearers are under the impression that Messrs. Spence, Temple* and men of that kidney, hive a Irynl right to order men to striko, " that," to quote a morning paper, " the conditions, and particulalv tho penalties, prescribed by the Unions are legally binding upon the members, and that if they infringe the regulations they are liable to bo punished by the magistracy." All this is a fudge and bunkum. Trades Unionism, as known to, and permitted by the law, is purely voluntary, and any member of a union may break its rules at pleasure. The only punishment a union can inflict is to expel a member, and he can always judge whether it. is totter for bim to obey, and be used as a shuttlecock whenever it suits a jack-in-office to " order" him to leave work, or to go on working and honestly maintain his family and be expelled the union. As I understand the matter, a good many hardworking shearers are just now inclined to send Trades Hall and its autocrats to tho devil, I have said before that I always thought

Felix Holt, the Radical, as his character is drawn by George Eliot, a wrongheaded sort of fellow. But, although a fanatic, be has, at least, tbe merit of being an honest one. In reply to Rufus Lyon, who advised him to try and raise himself above the lot of an ordinary workman, tie cried, u Oh, yes, your ringed and scented men of the people ! I won't be one of them. Let a man once throttle himself with a satin stock, and he'll get new wants mul new motives. Metamorphosis will hive begun at his neck joint, and it will go on until it has changed his likings fiint, and then his reasoning, which will follow his 111 have none of your clerkly gentility. I might

nul hi) m/tevtioff tjrcasij pniir fn.mpmr niri' to I'll 1/ 1111/tc/f II i-olit Mil/ " 1/tllttoH s iliiuirion prelnici- of nci'riiiy n poor Html. I'd soonor be Paley's fat pifieon t.him a demagogue, all tongue nucl stomach." I wonder if, when penning these lines George Klliot had a prophetic instinct — say, of what is now going on ill Lygoustreet.