MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 213, 25 October 1888, Page 2

MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

[from OUR OWN correspondent.] I was told in the house the other day by “one who knows”—that is, no less a personage than the Hon. M. H. Davies, the speaker, that in all probability now there will be a dissolution of Parliament before Christmas. The Government ia getting so badgered, brow-beaten, and stone-walled over the Electoral Bill, that in all probability they will withdraw it and ask for a dissolution —being the only decent thing they can do under the circumstances. Then it will be a question of who’s who. My impression is that the Government will get a im ill majority. Then they will absorb one or two of the Opposition—perhaps Mr Madden or Mr Mirams, and so get a fair hold of the oountry again. For my part I should like to sc® them triumphant, despite the various faux pas they have made, for undoubtedly the present Ministry embraces th® moat able men n the country.

But about my informant, the Speaker. He is a notable man in his way, immensely wealthy and widely charitable. He has made an immense fortune out of land, and some time ago surprised Melbourne by coming down wbh a charitable donation of £ 10 OCO a weighty sum truly. It won him the speakership of the House undoubtedly, and I daresay will win him further honors t > come. He is notable, in another way, in being the first native born speaker of the Victorian ff<w*a Strange to say, too, not a single EngltdflK or Scotchman has held the position fSRo the present Speaker’s time it was always held by an Irishman. It is curious to note the corresponding position iu the. Upper House—the Presidentship has always been in the hands of an Englishman, until the record was broken by the accession of the reigning Soot, Sir James M’Bain.

I have given my readers nothing about the Exhibition of late) and so I think it time I made a few jottings re'ative to what is going on there. 1 must confess it maintains its popularity, and the attendance* are good though I am afraid it is not the Exhibition per II which is the great attraction. The Avenue of Nations running right th- ough the main building is the groat centre 0! interest. It make* a capital promenade up aud down, especially on a Saturday evening, in all glory of purple and fine linen. Ono sees half Mel. bourne there, everybody en grande tenue, bowing, smiling, chatting, munching lollies, either slowly walking up and own, or resting in the chairs placed along each side. As a matter of course, the Avenue ha* become a most popular place de rencontre. Laven meet there ; schoolgirls make appointments with their friends ; heavy mammas meet hu*« band and son there after buslnei* hours; clerks and salesmen, released from their duties, collect there in shoals and patrol as do all the rest ; until as I say, one sees half the town there. But go into the annexes, look round the various courts, and you will find them empty. As a pres* friend of mine said to me oynloally last Saturday evening, as we sat watching the crowd of gaily dressed promenadors after a lonely stroll through the annexes, “ The people here don't oome to see the Exhibition, but to make an exhibition of themselves. ”

There is a good deal of bitterness felt by the publio in consequence of Mr Ooweu's having been granted leave of abseuoe for a week in order to go to Sydney. Hl* salary is £5,000 for the six months, over £2OO per week ; the Exhibition ha* been opened a little over two months, and so it is generally felt that it ia unjust to the publio to deprive them of hi* services for a week. Surely he cannot be *0 overworked after only two months’ conduotorshlp, and if he is, then the public ought not to be called upon to pay him this £2OO for whioh they get nothing. Another sore point are the pre".!dent's weekly official luncheons. He call* them luncheons, by the way, but I call them dinners. From 70 to 100 guests generally sit down, and I suppose this means £lOO or £l5O each time. Of coarse we must be hospitable, but there can he too much of a good thing, and that's what the out-side Melbourne are beginning to think. I wonder if there would be such generosity on the part of the r resident if he had to pay the piper himself? fancy not. With other people's money w* can always be extremely liberal and large* hearted—l could myself.

Last wtek saw the opening of our new Prince’s Bridge— a fine example ot engineering science and constructive skill, and one that will stand when all the busy thousands that throng the oity to-day have vanished, a monument of the energy of this generation. I know the principal engineer well, and have followed the course 0! ereotion with unusqgl interest during the three years it feas been going on. He tells ms, too. that not only ha* the bridge been built, but the river itself has been transformed to fit the bridge. It* width has been more than doubled, and the reef just underneath, whioh was fordable at low water, has been removed, and there is now a depth of J2ft. and a waterway of 816 ft. wide. Altogether we ought tq be proua of qur new Prince’s bridge. It has a fine massiveness and dignity of general effect, and, though not anything like so high as Tay Bridge on the Brooklyn, it is, with one or two exceptions, the widest bridge in the world. Apropos ot this one of our Melbourne wita has already given it a name. Many of our readers wil’ remember the evil notoriety the Ricbmonc * Bridge has gained in the way of suicides. It I seems to be the favorite spot for desperate and betrayed young woman to jump iqto the Yarra from. Well, our wit, one day last week, at a publio dinner, dubbed ths Richmond Bridge, “ Bridge ot Sigh*,” and the new Prince’s Bridge the “ Bridge of Size,” One more paragraph in conclusion, and this concerning a new weekly sooiety paper that made its first appearance last week, and promises something better than' -anything' of the kind Melbourne has had before. By name the Mirror, it comes out under the tutelage of our ol<| friend Garnet Waloh, deoidedljr the first litterateur, in Australia. Everybody must know this writer's' name, for he haq been for many years before ths publio gs raconteur, essayist, and journalist. Fortune has smiled ot late on my old friend, and he is now engaged in an important publishing business, of which the Mirror is an outcome. I am told the next venture is to bs a weekly sporting paper, Melbourne already boasts ot one, feat It is a moribund production, end J see'no reason why another should not )>a acceptable and successful. The working editor of the Mirrqr is Mg Walter D. Benjamin, a clever young journalist end lecturer, who ba* made a name far himself by both pen and tongue. Altogether ths paper start* under the best auspioss, and the first number took Meiboms by storm. I am myself a great lover of literary enterprise, so I wish the journal all suecess, Which lam sure it will gain.' *