LETTER FROM MELBOURNE.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 240, 11 October 1888, Page 5

LETTER FROM MELBOURNE.

(from our own correspondent.)

L'ouvrage, tncortVouvragt toujours Uouvrage. Work, work, always work, so runs the old French proverb, and here, once again, I take up my pen to chronicle the smal 1 nothings that make up the sum total of the week's doings. I have no " adventure wild and.tale of ruth " to chronicle ; noth- j ing but the same Bum total of Parliamentary misdoings, land booms, Exhibition conomou places, town gossip, and metropolitan olla podrida, that go to make up such letters as mine.must necessarily be. And that reminds me. I have commenced my epistle with a French proverb. A few days ago I received a letter from a correspondent, blaming me for my frequent use of that language, and I herewith take occasion to answer him, French has beeh described wittily as " thejanguage in which one expresses improprieties with propriety." Ib is also the language of idioms, and I find I can sometimes put in a few words that way what it would-take a cumbrous sentence in English to express. Hence my penchant for idiomatic French, and 1 trust my correspondent (who, more power to her, is a lady—and-a young and pretty one, I feel sure) will be satisfied with my explanation. THE LAND BOOM. Now what shall I write about first 1 The land boom is a good subject, for it is coming in with the hot weather more rampant than ever. The papers every day are tilled with notices of land sales, and every Saturday afternoon it is as much as the railway authorities can do to keep enough trains going to meet the demand. Last Satur day, for instance, there were special trains 1 run to Mitcham, Footscray, Box Hill, Glenroy and Altona Bay; whilst to nine different stations special land-sale passengers had to be carried by the ordinary trains. This is enormous, and as tlie season advances there will be still more. Prices increase ab enormous rates, as much in suburban properties as in city. Relative to the latter, one of the first authorities in Melbourne, Mr Lamb Smith, the manager for Frazer and Co. Ltd. (one of bhe biggest firms of auctioneers here)—and an expert in land values—has given out publicly that, in his opinion, the great rise in city properties is exceptional and not justified, and that a reaction is bound to come. This has cast something of a damper on the merry land-jobbers; but next week it will be forgotten, and prices will ,o on ri.sing the .same as ever. Some very curious outcomes have resulted from this land boom. Here is one. A couple of years ago there was a poor policeman named Joyce in Hawthorn. During his street-patrolling meditation must have lent him discrimination, lor having a hundred pounds or so put away, he invested it in a nice little block he passed and repassed on his usual beat. He.sold that at a good advance, and bought another he had under his eye. This time the greatpr part on bills, giving hia few hundreds ail deposit. That netted him a big profit^Mjf^now he is a director of several complpies, is in the "foorce" no longer, and ranks as one of the successful tnonicd men of Melbourne. " A policeman's lot is not a happy one," wrote Gilbert, but in this case it certainly was. Another man I know, who is supposed to be worth two hundred thousand if he is worth a penny, told me with glee that four years ago he had married on "three'bus tickets ,and a "spare suit of clothes." He began, without any funds; by getting, land under offer for, a.specified period in ; writing. Then he would seek about for a purchaser at an advanced price. In' one transaction he assured, me he netted a profit of five thousand pounds without having outlaid a penny—Andi believe him, knowing what I do of such things. This humorist boasts that he made his fortune out of tho three d's, and on my asking what they were, answered, "Debts, dues, and demands." He has invented a new mode of advertising, which is to give racing trophies and establish races at the various course*, bearing the nameof the particular estates he is interested in—an expensive but efficientmode of bringing the nan.es of his enterprizes before the public. A more eothu»iastic advertiser than this gentleman I do not know, and he is fond of relating a story showing how one can get anything by advertising. "You see," he eaya with gusto, " I was a thorough believer in it, and so when my wife came to me one morning and said the servant was leaving, I told her to put a notice in the paper for another. She asked me to do it, so I inserted an advertisement— * Wanted a girl;' and by George, sir, the next morning I got up and found myself the happy father of one." • A MIRACULOUS CURE. A most miraculous case of sudden^ cure occurred some time ago at Brunswick, a Melbourne suburb, which is arousing great interest in the city jusb now. One would think the ago of miracles had passed, but it doesn't look like it in face of this startling episode, which seems to have occurred exactly as related : A young girl named Maggie M ulleyy daughter of a well-known resident of the suburb mentioned, had been bed-ridden for ten years—indeed, ever since she was a child. She was blind, had curvature of the spine, and her ankle bones were turned in. She was^aken to no less than four different hospitals; andfrora each discharged asincurable. Then she was convej-ed back borne, and for three long weary years lay in her bed supine and motionless. On a certain day this girl, whose life badbeen one long disease, announces that she is about to be restored to heiltb, and bids her friends get her clothes ready. She then is lifted up, the diseased -vertibne aaove, the dim eyes open,,the displaced ankle bones shoot back to their position—and she tvalfo. Such is the astounding tale that comes from Brunswick, proved beyond a doubt by the medical men Who "attended her, and doubly proved by' *her - present condition of vigour and convalescence. In all the history of- fiction was anything more startling arid miraculous ever dreamt of? Here is a girl bent, blind, arid misformed from childhood icured as by some merciful intervening Providence. The wonderful part of it is, too, that she knew she was going to be cured,. She claims that God has done tfois much for her as He would do for others-:W^io havo faith in Him and believe in His power to heal to day as of old. I may end this remarkable history, however, by mentioning that a doctor friend of mine i n f orn j ß me that similar cases of instantaneous cures have been known to occur before. But anyhow, it makes one think, ponder, and revere. "