Melbourne Gossip.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 6286, 23 October 1891, Page 3

Melbourne Gossip.

[BY "GALLERY."]

What with the racing season having commenced, the dullness on the Exchange, and the influenza, things here are as quiet as ditch water. You see, once a year Victorians all get tarred with-the one stiok, they are eager for a short out to fortune, and during the month of October they are all thoroughly persuaded that they have found the road to a decent haul, but by the end of the first week in November they have sworn off for a year, and have lost that faith in themselves and their judgment which was so conspicuous in the previous month. On the Exchange there is nothing doing. Business of that sort does not flourish when eaoh week stocks fall lower. You may

enjoy a gamble when you know that the shares you purchase are -worthless, but owing to their proximity to some other mine there is the Chance of a rise, and you can get rid of your load at a profit; but nowadays that is ft thing of the past. You may buy investment stocks whioh will return you ten or twelve per cent, instead of the orthodox six to seven, but should you want to realise on them it can only be done at a loss. The bed-rock was supposed to have been reached, but apparently jobcers have found a lower, for the fall still continues. It is no good quoting particular instances, but you can get stocks to-day for fewer shillings than you would have had to pay, for them three years ago in pounds. The brokers, consequently, are as hard up as the rest of the community. THE KING

have so multiplied racing meetings that the publio now cannot respond, and the bookmakers are simply living on each other. The other day I saw one who not long ago ÜBed to have the biggest of big books ; today he has nothing. He is not poor enough to come under the Vagrancy Act. Perhaps it would be better if he were. But he has gone under, and it is but rare that any of that fraternity ever rise again. Then the influenza has been raging; apparently it is a trifle now on the wane, and it is rare to find a house where it has not had a victim. On its previous visitation it was severe and weakening, but never fatal. This time it Las swept off many of the old people, and Hot a few of the middle-aged folk, and it has gone hard with those with weak chests. The warehousemen never had Buch a bad year as the last, and.it came as a surprise about a month ago when they all found business' got brisk. No sooner was the busy season opened than in stalked the epidemic, and half the hands were at home

IN BED NUBSINfI THEMSELVES, those who were wise hugging the bedclothes with one hand while the other grasped a bottle of whiskey. It is a bit of a knook.for the teetotallers, but all the same it was an undoubted faot, that the sufferers from influenza who took the precaution of nipping regularly and steadily never got so bad aB those who abstained, and their recovery waa quioker. I have seen typhoid, small-pox, and cholera epidemics at Home, but though not so deadly, the influenza had more people by the heels than all of them put together. It was everywhere. At Bendigo tho Treasury could not be opened one day, for every officer was "nuder the influence." Theßamewas the case with the banks, mercantile offices, and even the Legislative Council had to adjourn one week, as a quorum could not be got. The Government had to leave the conduct of business to the junior for all the seniors were in ths universal grip. It may thus easily be imagined that

" BUSINESS) IS DULL, for if it had been anything else the people ■were not available to do the work. All tho same, the coming year is going to be a good one. There- never was such a wool clip before, there is the prospect of a good harvest, and, owing to the failure of the wheat crops in Europe, the prices of grain will be better than they havo been for many years. The season will be late, so next winter should be on us before the rush is half over. So taking one thing with another, the outlook is good. Parliament being in its last session, with a general election looming close ahead, not the slightest interest is being taken in: politics. All the same, the farce goes on. There is much speaking, but nothing is done. : Weeks were wasted in talk over Federation.' The dead horse was flogged properly. New Zealand, very foolishly for herßelf, held aloof, though, with all Australia as an open market for her produce, she could'have afforded to suffer a bit in her manufactures. But that did not stop Victorian politicians from speaking at length against her admission to the prospective union. Then the railway charges have afforded scope for much gassing. The Minister rounded on the Commissioners, and caused ouch a sensation that we all waited patiently for the next act, expecting: the

_ISM_3SAL OF THE BAILWA- BOSSES. That did not come off. The exertion was too much for the Minister. He got the influenza badly, and haa not been well since. .The faot of the matter is the country: cried out for railways, got them in all directions, 'more especially where traffic there was none, and now the cry is " The lines don't pay." Some of them are not likely to do so while the reader lives, unless differential rates be introduced, Which are here unknown. After time had been wasted on that subject the one-man-one-vote quastion was taken. It was a trifle risky for memberSi in view of a general election,|jbut there was "a big minority who had the courage to say, not that the swagman was not as good as Mb neighbor, but that the man who had made a home for himself should have two votes. The proposal was too novel to be carried, but it is thorougly that the one-mau-one-vote will be conveniently thrown out in another placo. If it be not, the electors of Melbourne will be a queer lot, and mighty few at that, and candidates will have an awful job to hunt up votes, while a chairman for a meeting or a committee for an election will be an impossibility. I know one lane within two 'minutes of the post office, which a sydndicate would not do badly by buying for a 'quarter of a million even in these dull times at spot cash, when the solitary voter will be an old woodman, who supplies his customers with a barrow load, and it is a case ■with him, I fanoy, of being the last survivor of other times in that locality. I know twenty years ago it would not have added much to any one's reputation to have been seen coming out of that thoroughfare. What has brought about the scare is the

FE_B OF THE TRADE'S HALL. Cbllingwood, most Democratic and most changeable of constituencies, saw fit some time ago to elect as successor to the late Mr Langrfdge—a gontleman who was very popular, and who belonged to every club and institution in the Radical suburb—a Mr Hancock, a new-chum printer The new man can keep nothing, but blurts out all the electioneering tactics of the agitator, and the result is that those with anything to lose have taken alarm at his threats, and are preparing for hostilities later on. The labor party intend to contest every seat, and no matter how. a member has posed with his opinions in hia pocket while his utterances have been to suit the horny-handed, he is no longer safe, as they all row in ono boat. Members for once, i"n . s-jrt oi hr..vndo, are letting the son of toil know he ii not all h. has hitherto been painted. It is very funny, but some people held that view before, __, though it was seldom given speech to It easy, therefore, to understand that our present dulness in politics can only be temporary. THE TEETOTATLKBB are on the rampage. Our sapient Act says there should only be so many hotels to certain populations, and a poll can close all houses in excess. The water party have •just won at Maryborough, but have been beaten at Ballarat West. The former town is a great railway centre, from which goodness only knows how many lines start, but of its importance you may judge when you hear £50,000 has recently been spent on its station buildings. It has nover had too much accommodation for visitors, except those who are willing to pay the highest rates of its two best hotels, and now half ot the pubs will be shut up. A few months ago there was a firemen's demonstration in the town, and the

SUPPLY OF BEDS ran bo short that the competing visitors bad to be housed in tents, so you may imagine ■what it will be when a dozen houses aro compensated and closed. In West Melbourne, where probably sixty to seventy thousands persons are to be found in the day time, with about a quarter of that population at night, the wants of the district aB regards hotel accommodation is fixed by the number who sleep there, so if the teetotallers could win there two-thirds of the houses would be closed up. Many of the beat places do all thoir business in the day time. I had breakfast one morning last week at one of them, and 'was the solitary individual at that early meal, while some five hundred are daily served with dinner. Under the teetotal rule that desent inn would be to let for any other line of business. By the steamer this letter goes by tho genial Irish comedian

GBATTAN EIQOS leaves for New Zealand. He is too well known your way to require any notioe from me. He always seems fresh, and he can play a round of his pieces every year here to profitable business. Towards the end of the year New Zealand will be visited by the biggest concert combination that has ever left Victoria, aud they will be engineered by that clever agent, Mr JimW The reason of that season being selected 18, it IS ths music teachers' vacation. The company will include Miss L. Miranda (soprano), the two Liebes (and what the brother cannot do on tha 'cello hin sister will attempt on the violin), Juliuß Herz (with a quarter of a century's experience an conductor of the (Liedei'tafef), Do Benupius (pianist), while the tenor aud baritone have yet to be decided upon. The season will be for six >v—ks, and tho cause of its boing undert?i. <.'M was Madame Patey's success in your colony.