MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

Clutha Leader, Volume XVIII, Issue 897, 25 September 1891, Page 5

MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

(Froji Our Own Cokre«po^den t t.) All of a sudden business has taken such a happy turn that a certain Flinders Lane firm, which has not long ago floated into a limited liability company with such disastrous results tint the shareholders thought of winding up the concern and hinted at sniny the vendors, is now showing signs that it will prove a very lucky iiu'oshnunt. The warm weather, the good harvest, V, c increased yield of wool, and this hi^h prices of agricultural produce have Sfit money .you'n all over the coiii - try, fuid.Fiinders Lane is in delight. All the summer gooda which remained unsold on the shelves, and indeed unseen of men, last year are being brought out and furbished up and displayed to advantage. The soft fronds warehousemen are deligl^ed, and to do them justice they spend as freely as they receive. The treueral prospers of the spring are admitted to be excellent. I hear upon excellent authority that notes are passing between the Governments of all the Australian colonies with a view of putting an end t<. the " consultation " <>r "sweep system" by the simultaneous cl"sin« of all post oHlcvs against their circulars and correspondence. Ko post office orders will be be issued in their favour nor paid to them if accidentally granted. No registered letrei's will be accepted from them nor delivered to them, aud they will he wholly excluded from the beneliLs of tlie postal system. Of course the local parliaments will have to sanction these drastic proceedings, but no difficulty is i.xpneted in that quarter. The fact, that the. New Sou i.h Wales post office delivered 350,000 registered letters to sweep-promoters last year, and tiifit the same sweep- promoters this year ;isk for LGV'O.OOO, have convinced the legislators of all colonies nlikethat instant attention is imperatively necessary. The first meeting of shaivholders'of the Co-operative Irrigation Mercantile Society of Australia was lield on the 10th inst. Tim society, as has been previously noted in these columns, is developing itself with phenomena! rapidity. The only possible season for this is tho obvious immunity ag»inpt loss enjoy d Iry an inventor in the society's funds. From tho day the first spade stroke disintegrates the "willing soil, the investment has begun to return a dividend and tho security has taken on corporeal lineaments utterly opposed to the shadowy nature of the bonds of the ordinary financial institutions. These principles huve been alre-uly recognised by the hundreds of applicants for land and shares, who are scattered all over Australia, and we hope to see before long the establishment of co-operative irrigation colonies wherever water, soil, and the unselfish labour is available. it appears likely to go hard with Captain Prideaux, of the Easby, whose acknowledged disregard of the rules for passing vessels at sea, led to the deplorable loss of the Gambler. Ho is, on his part, quite incapable of seeing that he was wrong. He owns that he was on the wrong side to begin, with, aud that he kept straight on when ho should have ported his helm and got out of the way. But ho considers that tho captain of the , Oarnbier ahonld have gone on his wrong I side also, or gone back, or souiHthinic or that sort ; and his mate, Buckley, is as obstinate p.s he is. It is (inly charitable to suppose that they did not realise the extent of the disaster, since they both admit that no boats wen; lowered from the Easby until after the dam bier's boats had saved all the people who wove saved at all. The Easby's boats did not pick up one single human being. Neither j?ood times nor bad times make any difference to the force and freedom of the flood of Victorian charity. It. is only necessary to start a subscription list, and the movie}' flows in. We have but just finished the collection in aid of the losers by the flood, and now we have three new funds before us. One of them is for the benefit of the people who were wrecked in. the Gambler, and of the relatives of those who ;vere lost, the second is in aid of the sufferers be the wreck of the Fiji, and the third for a monument to the heroic young Wilkinson, who lost his life in the attempt to carry help to the last named vessel. These causes are all being taken up with avidity, and will be highly successful. 'But many- appeals are made to the public, which do not represent any real claims upon consideration. Thns, only this very day we are being pestered to support a benefit for an almost unknown actor, who is still in the prime of life, is by no means destitute, but has lost a little money by setting up a swell lodging house, and letting his lodgers go away in his debt.