TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8591, 19 September 1893, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The story told by an in-

A Victim solvent who recently of Misplaced applied in the Melbourne Confidence. Insolvency Court for an

unconditional certificate is nob the less pitiable for the fact that it is probably one that could be told by hundreds of men in Victoria to-day. Thirty-nine yaars ago the applicant arrived in the colony from England, and he worked for wages until 1882, by which time, having worked hard and lived economically, he owned property valued, then, at £7000, in the shape of shares in various Companies, among them the Melbourne Gas Company. Being fifty-six years of age aud comparatively well-to-do, he took a trip Home, and coming out again the next year he settled down to live on the income from his investments. In an evil hour, however, acting on the advice of men in whom he had confidence, he sold a number of his shares in the Gas Company to the extent of nearly £4000, and bought altogether 1000 shares in the Mercantile, Trustees, and Agency Company, which the same year paid a dividend of 50 per cent, per annum for the half-year. Following this, they issued 100,000 new shares, the old shareholders being allowed to take up the new issue in the proportion of one share for every two they held. The insolvent, therefore, took up 500 shares, and deposited his old and new scrip as security. He had to pay 10 per cent, interest ou the balance, but his dividends did not realise as much and he got deeper and deeper into debt with the Company. Things got worse, he became more involved in debt, and in 1890, at the age of sixty-four, he had to lake to work again at thirty shillings a week. Now, when he might have reasonably expected to be able, after a life of toil, to take things easy and live on the fruit of his labour, he earns 6s a day by working the elevator at the office of the Metropolitan Gas Company, the Company in which he was once a large shareholder. Ms J. W. Trumble, Why the a member of the AusAustralian Team tralian eleven which Failed. visited Engl_nd in 1886, and brother to the cricketer of the same name who has been playing ios Australia this year, recently unfolded to an Argus representative his ideas aa to the cause of the comparative failure of the present Australian Eleven. Mr Trumble

had just returned from England, where he had seen the greater part of two seasons' cricket, and as an excellent cricketer and a good judge of the game his outspoken opinions are decidedly interesting. His view was that the three points which affected tbe success of the team were —"(1) the exclusion of Murdoch ; (2) not taking with them a f-sfc bowler, such as Jones, of South Australia; (3) tbe inclusion of a cricketer who, it he were ten times as good as he is, would disorganise any team." As regards Murdoch, who is now living in England, Mr Trumble said that there would have been no feeling against him playing for Australia, as he had not, prior to tho opening of the season, become identified with any county. He was the only man who could have captained the Australian team, which iv his absence lacked the discipline of an English eleven. Speaking of bowling, Mr Trumbb considered the most dangerous man the Australians met, his length being rather better than the others, was Richardson, of whom Blackham said, however, " He'd have the cover knocked off the ball in Australia." But English wickets are not like those of Australia, and the fact remained that Richardson, his foot on his native turf, was an awkward customer for tne Australians to negotiate. " The invariable rule of the Englishmen," said Mr Trumble, "was to put all their men behind the wicket, the wicketkeaper standing back when the pitch was at all queer, and let the fast bowlers plug away. I heard some of our batsmen going in say ' He can have my wicket half a dozen times, but I'm not going to be hurt,' and it was a common thing for a man to stand with his legs right away from the wicket." What Mr Trumble called the third fatal point was the inclusion in the team of a certain player who should not have been there. Every Australian in England, he said, felt very strongly on this matter, and ifc would take years to remove the bad impression that the team, owing to a i>elf-willed player and weak leaders, had left in England. No team should be sent Home until another English Eleven had visited Australia, so that the Englishmen on returning might remove the bad impression, which was almost general in England, with regard to Australian cricketers.

It is pleasant to turn Some from these criticisms, Features however just they may of the Play. be, to those features of the Australians' play which Mr Trumble no less justly praised. The best innings, in his opinion, played by any of the team was Lyoas's 149 against the M.C.C., which competent authorities said was the finest bit of hitting cricket ever seen in England. To quote Mr Trumble's words:— "He hit standing firm and made no fuss or display, but watching him it seemed like a giant playing with babies, and yet he was getting his runs against Attewell and J. T. Hearne, two of the most accurate bowlers in England. Graham's fielding was considered the finest in the team, and much admired by Englishmen, and his and Gregory's plucky batting against the fast bowlers was much praised. I saw Gregory get 60 against Richardson at the Oval that beforehand I would have said was an impossibility to a man of his inches. He got battered terribly, but stood up to them like a man. In one instance there was an appeal for Ibw from a ball that touched his head. Blackham was below his best at the wickets, and Mr Trumble thought that perhaps this trip was one too many. Bannerman was as good as ever. Coningham was over-anxious, and when his bowling got knocked about lost his head altogether. At last he broke down both in batting and bowling and used to go running down tbe pitch beiore a ball was bowled to him, Mr Trumble's comment being that Murdoch, as captain, would have made a success of him. Turner's illness was a serious affair for the team, and for a long time after he resumed playing he used to tire easily. The monotony of the Australian bowling was at once recognised by Grace, who said " I'm going to play against the Australians every chance I have and I'll get a lot of runs " —a boast which his subsequent performances amply justified. Jackson, of Cambridge University, and Storer, who, he thought, would be the crack English wicket-keeper, Mr Trumble mentioned as two of the best English cricketers not yet seen in Australia, while Ranjitsinghi, who is so enthusiastic as to engage a professional bowler to keep him going all winter, is exceedingly quick in the slips.