MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 170, 17 July 1888, Page 3

MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

[from our own correspondent.] W ~~ PLEASING PROSPECTS. The forthcoming Budget will, I hear, contain a number of pleasing surprises. The prospects will be shown to be highly satisfactory, and a heavy balance will be carried forward. We are to have the water rates reduced, railway freights lessened, and various duties lightened. A year of peace and plenty indeed—of prosperity, advance, and good fortune. Well, well, Providence pulls the strings, and we ought to be T grateful that she pulls them so deftly. Truly everything is prospering with us, and to my mind, tne most remarkable proof of it is the wonderful elasticity and buoyancy of the money market here as exemplified by the impotency of the silver collapse to eenously interfere with the commercial peace of the community. The season has been good, wool is high, money is plentiful, new industries starting on every hand, and so I say, “ Landamur " —long may it be so.

EXHIBITION JOBBERY. I am glad to see from the report of the meeting of the Exhibition committee that some of them are beginning to think it time to . put a stop to the lavish expenditure in which they have indulged from the commencement, and for which of course the country will jUrhave to pay. It seems to me, for instance, that the expenses in connection the musical performanccsarequite ' excessive. Of the amount paid to professionals I take no notice, but these are not all. I notice that about £2O per week is paid for the “ business management ” of the musical department. Now what work can there be for this item ? Surely any theatrical agent who understands the business Could be got for half a quarter, and as surely still, the public will stand anything if they put up with such things BEHOVING THE ASYLUMS. At last the Government has come to see the desirability of removing the Yarra Bend Asylums from their present sites. It is folly without doubt, to permit some eight hundred acres of valuable and picturesque land to be monopolised by such institutions, when they could be removed further afield, ana the land cut up into allotments and sold, or otherwise made use of. I would suggest that the site of the Yarra Bend Asvlum be turned into a people's park, it is large enough, and would prove a good pair of lungs for the crowded suburb of Collingwood. But anyway, whatever is done with it will be better than wasting it as now. Lunatics of course must be provided for, but no argument on earth can show they benefit at all in being near a city. No, let them go further afield, and allow the sane people to have the land. & A CHURL REFUSAL. Friedrich Techow is a name wellknown in Melbourne. To the average citizen, however, it is merely familiar as belonging to an upright greybearded old gentleman, who keeps a gymnasium and fencing-school at Jolimont. But this same quiet old gentleman has perhaps the strangest history of any man in Melbourne. He was in his younger days a revolutionist, and whilst an officer in the Prussian army, delivered up an arsenal to the mob in the Revolution of ’4B. For this he was tried by court martial, and sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment. He succeeded however in making his escape, and came out to Melbourne. Within the last few months he has returned to Europe, and has petitioned the Emperor for permission to return to his native land. This has been denied on the score of his disloyalty of forty yean back, and poor old Techow has' to bring his old bones back to this strange land. A good deal of talk has been going on in Melbourne about this affair, for the poor old gentleman is well-known and respected here, and everybody knows of his longing to pass his last few years and to find his last resting place in Dai Daterlard.

A RENOWNED ABTIBT. Mr Melton Prior, the well-known artist of the Illustrated London News, ■ is’due here to-morrow from New ZeaXland, having been specially despatched 4Fto “ do” the “ Centenaries.” He is a regular rolling stone, having been pretty well all over the world for his paper. He went all through the Turco-Rus-sian war, the Soudan expedition, and was present during the Afghan troubles. He has applied for facilities to be afforded him at the opening ceremonial to complete a special Expedition supplement to be published in London. His drawings will probably be the most universally-known record of our great show, for “the pencil speaks the' longue of every land.” *'ewnroticATEs.”

I am glad to say that the prospectus of the projected *' Australian Exchange Co." has been withdrawn, as the public did not respond to the invitation to invest I pride myself, personally, on the unenviable publicity I was enabled to give the contemplated arrangement of shares, by which the promoters were to benefit to the tune of £50,000 worth. lam heartily glad too that the affair fell through. It shows the Melbourne public is not quite mad, however near the line it may go. But apret cel a on a recommence de plus lelle, which may be freely translated “ One down, t’other iw.” The “ Australasian Exchange Co.” withdrawn, the, “ Melbourne Stock Exchange Co.” makes its apperance, and appeals to the public for support. But this is a horse of an entirely different color, and being already an established concern, offers a good investment, especially as the original members are not asking anything exorbitant. The push for shares has been something phenomenal. The Union Bank acted / as agents for applications, and the way the Bank was stormed directly the prospectus came out was something marvellous. Crowds of excited applicants besieged the place, and it even tyent so far that mere application forme & Were sold at five shillings each. We are truly a speculative people, and always ready to rush after the first flew thing that offers.