MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 175, 28 July 1888, Page 1

MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

(from our own correspondent.) The late war-scare here in Melbourne has done some good at all events, even th ugh at the cost of a good deal of foolishness, together with waste of public funds. Ab to the foolishness, it is patent enough, and might here be diagnosized as an acute attack of "Russophobia.” Melbourne folks are Bane enough on most points, but on one matter they hold ineradicable views—and that is, that the sole end and aim of Russia the Terrible is to swoop down on her fatness, and rob and plunder and make havoc of her wealth. Hence, by a natural correlation of ideas the several cables and Russian machinations were closely connected. This view of the case was fostered, or, at all events, given countenance to by such alarmists as the Age and the Herald. The Argus, true to itself, took, from the first, a matter-of-fact view of the ease, whilst the Telegraph went for a kind there’s no knowing what it is ” policy. Of course now the whole thing is forgotten, and all we have to face is the great affliction of the stoppage of all home intelligence. A couple of days will doubtless put this right, and then, no doubt, the Czar of all the RusBias will tremble in his boots (if he wears any) when he hears of Victoria’s mighty military preparations to repulse his Tartar hordes.

And now for the good done. First of all it shows us that our navy (save the mark !) is no navy at all, and that our defences are anything but reliable. Then it demonstrates the facts clearly enough, that in case of any sudden emergency we should at the outset have to rely solely upon ourselves, and should prepare for it. And lastly, it ought altoSgether to be a good precedent, to our authorities how to act in case a real crisis arose. As it is, some very laughable things took place, the chief fund of humor being supplied by the torpedo-corps. It seems that a number of torpedos got adrift, and presumably enjoying their freedom, had such a good time by themselves that they refused to be found. They are still at large, though all the torpedoboats and two gun boats have been looking for them. Of course such little things as torpedoes may easily be lost, but our naval men must remember that if the Russians did come they would hardly wait forthem to find the missiles again. However, the lost torpedoes may blow something else up (say, a P. and O. boat, or a Tasmanian steamer), and then of course it will be all right, and wi shall know that our torpedoes will go off, which is something at all events, and a point rather doubtful at present,

I am in a condition of absolute wonder Why the Exhibition Commission did not ftgfree to the postponement of the opening day, for it seems to me perfectly impossible that the place can be got leady by the Ist Almost. I paid a visit to the Exhibit! ju buGdiug last Saturday, and was dismayed to mee how backward all the preparations are. The German Court is the only one at all forward in its work, as to the others they seem to have done nothing or next to not Mpg. The British Court is in a fearful state of ehnea; the United States people have not ye t unpacked a single ease, and the Belgian, Tasmanian and Queensland Courts, with & 1 the minor ones, uro on'y just starting. (fnlesß the most extraordinary energy is used the arrangement of the Courts wjl| not, I muld swear, be done by the time for opening, so I suppose V|> shall have » kind of half-hearted opening with oases and workmen, and timber, and general uutldu ness all ov-ar the place.

The denouement of the floating of the Melbourne Stock Exchange has been made public. The issue was sixty thousand shares. The applications received were for one million two hundred thousand—that is, the applications carried the number of shares exactly twenty times. Is it not marvellous! Already before shares are allotted they are at a premium of two pounds, whilst the chance of getting some has even a pecuniary value. Of course the Exchange people are jubilant on it. It is the greatest success in the way of compa ny-floatmg Melbourne has ever seen.

It ie very seldom that so really meritorious a case has been presented to the consideration of the Government as that of Mr John Bourke, whose name will certainly have a place in the early history of the colony among those adventurous spirits who helped to introduce civilisation into the Bush when it was the habitat of the Blaekfellow and the Kangaroo. Mr Bourke, while only a lad of sixteen? performed the astonishing feat of conveying the first mail that was ever carried between Melbourne and Sydney, in the year lf>3B, swimming the Murray, and braving all sorts of danger by flood and field in order to do it. He is now 66, and having been fifteen years in the Post Office, asks for a small pension of thirty shillings a week, in order that the means of living may be secured to him for his closing years, which cannot be very many. I truly hope he may get it, for favors of a more valuable kind are perpetually being granted to men who have fewer claims to show for them, and I do not know any class of colonists to whom the new generation is under greater obligations than those unselfish adventurers who left their private interests in pursuit of excitement from which the public derive the largest share of benefit.

I have to utter a word of regret over the ill-starred death of one who, had she lived, would doubtless have made her mark in literature, outside the somewhat limited field of Australia. I refer to Mrs Boon, a wellknown writer and essayist under the nom-de-plume of “ Louise.’’ Poor young lady! I was very much struck with her work, before she had changed her maiden name of Miss Dumas, and when she wrote for “Once a Month, ’’ and The “ Australian Journal., ’’ pretty domestic novelettes and stories. She had undoubted originality and great pathos, and it is V ry sad to think of her cut off in the heyday of her aspiring yonth. She was only twenty seven when she died, and had only been twelve months a wife—circumstances which would surround any death with peculiar pathos and distress. Her death too is a great loss to that new phase of jounalism in which ladies of literary talent find increasing scope for their abilities

It is said that we are soon to lose our leviathan book maker, Mr Joe. Thompson, who thinks of trying to settle down permanently in London. He says the booking business is played out in Australia, though the exact reason of this I can't see, for there seems to be more betting than ever going on. However, as a preliminary step “ Joe ” has been selling all his town and suburban property, which are reported to have brought him in £11,000; Don Juan House fetching £ll,OOO. He has a very charming daughter has Joe—a young lady named Leah, who sings very nicely, and my private opinion his that he wants to have her educated on the Continent, so that she can pursue her singing under proper tuition. This with a view of her eventually taking to an operatic stage. However one way or the other, the Leviathan is a jolly good fellow, and as he has made a fortune out of Australia, I wish him the same luck in England.