MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1531, 12 June 1891, Page 3

MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

[By Boccaccio.] We have been aroused to the inadequacy of our lifeboat service by the wreck of the Craigburu and the loss of half a dozen lives. Niue hours elapsed between the time at which the. Craigburn fired the first signal rocket asking for aid at 8.5 on Friday night and the arrival of the lifeboat at the scene of the wreck at 5 on Saturday j morning. It had left Queenscliff at II at i night, fought its way across the bay to the Sorrento jetty by half-past two in the morning, and hail come rest of the way on a dray Nine hours’ delay makes any i help of the kind practically worthless. | The Marine Board desired to inquire into the subject, but the Commissioner of Customs, to whom the lifeboat and rocket j service is responsible, that he will himself hold an independent and searching investigation. The Marine Board may inquire to its heart’s content, but Mr Turner will be guided by his own enquiries when he dispenses punishment. He will, in short, “ wallop his own nigger.” But the practical outcome of the disaster will be that a lifeboat station will be established on the ocean beach at Sorrento, where many a vessel has been endangered and now and then one lost. No timely help can come in such cases from Queenscliff. It is no joke to cross the bay in a lifeboat in the teeth of a gale, and of course it is in stormy weather such services are in most request. ,

Really it seems as if the late Sir John Robertson was right, and that in so far as New South Wales is concerned “Federation is as dead as Julius Caesar.’ There is no mistaking the strength of the antifederationists in that country ; they have howled down Mr M’Millan, refused to listen to Mr Bruce Smith, driven Mr Daniel O’Connor from the platform forced Mr Burns and Mr Barton to ,go to Manly to speak, and Lave returned two pronounced anti-federationists at the two byeelections for East Sydney and Newcastle, held since the convention separated It is useless to shut one's eyes to facts. New South Wales is at this moment by no means united on the subject, and of course the more Victorians favor it the less popular it will become. Sir Henry Farkes may have a trump card up his sleeve, but for die moment it looks very much as though we were to see the whole question shelved. We cannot federate without New South iYules, and she shows no desire whatever to join us. It is very likely that neither the railway question nor the Federal Convention will rive the Parliament any real trouble, but Jiat the “ one-man one-vote ” measure vill be the bone of dissension. Mr Munro las promised that it shall be one of the irst measures of the coming session, and las asserted that he can pass it in the ;owu house but will not answer for the iction of the Council. In that case he will lave an elegant cry for the country if the I'ouncil should throw out the measure. Plurality of voting is only popular with hose who enjoy it, and if he can work up mough feeling to infect the country with iis own dour enthusiasm the doctors and awyers of the Legislative Council will find hemselves all of a sudden in a very paricular fix, amid a shower of public indiglation. Supposing Mr Munro be suceessul in getting the public to sympathise vith him, the agitation will spread like a msh fire in a dry paddock.

That unlucky Victorian orchestra is cry near its last gasp, and it does not eem likely to be allowed to finish its days ii peace. The organisation has never had fair chance. It began with only fiftywo members against seventy-six which allowed Mr Cowan’s baton, and therefore ras unable to do justice to Wagners msio, which is mostly scored for eighty lerformers. It was then reduced to hirty-five, and became thus numerically nequal to the proper rendering of any ood orchestral works at all. The salaries f the musicians were decreased by oneaurth last year, and the committee, rhich always harrassed and hampered the ccomplished and papular conductor and iterfercd with the programmes, now asks he unlucky artists to play gratuitously t tea concerts to make up their deficiency, 'his is a piece of downright impertinence, 'he hard-working players have done their est to carry out the eccentric directions f the committee, and are of course enitled to be paid. The committee is comosed of wealthy men who have managed he business to please their own fancies, nd they must pay. The expenses for the ear are about L 14.000 ; Government sub idy, L3OOO ; yearly subscriptions and ther receipts for playing, about L 5090 : üblic payments for admission, average 33 ler cent, say L 3500 ; deficiency, L 2500 )hat is about the state of the case.

Mr Speight has put forward a very ingenious defence against the attack made upon his large outlay in the Railway Department. He was for the moment staggered by the fact that the New South Wales railways have been managed for 56 per cent, of the annual receipts, while ours cost 68 per cent.; but he soon recovered himself. He points out that we pay LIOO,OOO a year more for coals than New South Wales—which makes a difference of 3 per cent, —that our department pays gratuities and pensions amounting to 1 per cent., and that we have added 40 per cent, to our mileage while New South Wales has only added 7 per cent. He holds that no new railway pays, and that those last figures explain the difference. More than that, he avers that the New South Wales Parliament voted a million to put the railings in order, and tha' a lot of that money has been spent on items that ought to have been charged to working expenses. No one now believes in Mr bpeight to the same extent to which everybody believed in him five years ago, but no one can deny his dexterity in defence.

There is a terrible amount of distress in Melbourne just now. In the small hours of the night, when the pressmen, and the actor, and the musician, and the barman, and others of the hardest worked men in the world are crowding home wearily to bed, they find their charity asked by men of a very different stamp to those who used to haunt the dark corners of the streets. The poor fellows who now implore relief are often recognised a< old comrades, once prosperous and proud, whom want of work has ruined, and whom hunger has turned into beggary. Still the distress increases. The water supply has discharged 60 men, the brick yards are closing, empty houses enough to hold 30,000 people are to be found in the suburbs, and there will consequently be no building done on a large scale for at least two years. The sole hope of the laboring classes, whose prosperity of course sets all above them at work, is that the new Metropolitan Board of Works may hurry on the preliminary work of the Melbourne main drainage. If that be done the cessation of the railway construction will not matter. The death is announced of Sir John Macdonald, Premier of the Dominion, at the age of ifi.

“La Ctoipp: Again.” The influenza is raging again this year with unprecedented deadlines*. The para* lysing influences of this terriblj malady have assumed the alarming dimensions of a plague. The distemper is of a powerfully destructive character, and shatters its victims with fearfull su Idenneas. The severity of the visitation eclipses all previous ' attacks, ihe me lioal faculty fails t i account for the outbreak, and is powerless to control its spread. Doctors, Nurses, and hospitals are doinu everything possible for sufferers, but are overwhelmed by the multitude crying bitterly for relief, A despatch from one town states that 300 people died in one day, this was about the daily ave age, and the streets were crowded with vehicles carrying the dead to their last resting place ; and the sad vacancy of death depressed every household. Such trying times as these demand immediate attention. The doctors fail, and the many advertised cough and cold cures are only sedatives which interfere with the proper secretions of the lespiratory tract. Recourse mast be had to a genuine stimu'ating restorative, whieh, whilst curing his grip, will also strengthen and support the patient, and no article the world has so far seen can compare to Clements Tonic for these effects. During the great outb eak of influenza in Sydney in 1890. over 50,000 bottles of Clements Tonic were consumed, and its praises were sung in every quarter as the disease was comple'ely stamped out by the nse of this remedy in four weeks. Such facts as this proves beyond the doubt of the most unbelieving sceptic, the value l of Clements Tonic for such diseases. Mrs M. Kellett, Parramatta, N S.W., writes: ** Sir, —Four years ago I caught a severe cold which settled iu my head and chest, and caused an incessant cough and copious disc!large of phlegm; this brought on great weakness and debility. After considerable attention and doctors’ treatment, the cough was relieved and finally cured, but the de- I bility remained and seemed to defy the skill of the medical men and the power of medicine. 1 had no appetite, and could scarcely eat a particle of food, and was almost reduced to a skeleton, having entirely wasted away. I had taken pints of cod-liver oil, malt extracts, and other medicines without relief, when 1 w>a recommended to take Clem nts Tonic, j procured a ft le, anl ra tuankful to say that I immediately began to imp ove ; I could eat better, and relish and digest what 1 did eat. I gained flesh every day, and my strength rapidly returned, and after six week’s treatment with Clements Tonic, I felt, a new womin altogeth r, 1 toik Ciemsnts Tonic six months ago, and have never had any sick n°ss since, and am only too glad to add my name to your list of grateful sufferers. ” Remember you must get the eenuine “Clements” Tonic, sold by chemists, grocers, and storekeepers, everywhere.