THE TRAVELLER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1160, 25 May 1894, Page 10

THE TRAVELLER.

J<TQ BRITAIN AND BAGK AGAIN. OR THE TRAVELS AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF TWO NEW ZEALANDERS. No. VI. By P.L.C. Melbourne Deatii Rate—Water Sup-ply-Gigantic Sewerage Scheme Two Pictures The Bubble Bursts —The Hon. Mr Monro— The Story of Sir M. Davies. Melbourne, as a city, ranks as the 30th in respect of the number of its inhabitants in the world, and seventh in tho Briti h Empire. This metropolis of Victoria holds no less thau 42 per cent, of the whole population of the colony, or close upon half-a million souls. About a third of the entire Australian population is crowded into four metropolitan towns. Zymotic, or those diseases characterised as epidemic and contagious, are ever present in some form or other in Melbourne. The Australian statistics, as given by the Government Registrar General, tell their own tale in connection with this huddling into cities. Consumption and debility deaths among young children are almost twice as high on the other side as with us in New Zealand. The difference between the death rate in the country districts and that of the Victorian capital is very marked indeed. Sanitary matters play a very important part in these fast developing cities of our day, and perhaps now that Melbourne has under way a drainage schome worthy of her magnificence, and commensurate with her proportions, we may expect with some degree of confidence that her juvenile and general debility, as well as her epidemical death rates, will shrink within normal limits. The Melbourne water supply was thought out, and provided for, as far back as the year 1857. The scheme has boen gradually extended till at the present time there are 107,000 houses, wuh a population of about 450,000 people supplied with water, who use on a hot summer’s day often 90 gallons a hea *, while the system of supply is so perfect that, if necessary, 120 gallons a head could be thrown into the city daily. The Metropolitan drainage scheme for Melbourne, and its environs and attendant towns and boroughs, is to cost some four and a half millions. The sewage will be carried along a great main or outfall sewer for a distance of some sixteen miles, and disposed of acientitially on a great sewage farm comprising 8850 acres. Two thousand acres of this area are now being prepared a< d broken up by special steam cultivating plant. What. with their magnificient water supply, and this efficient system of sewerage the citizens of Melbourne and its suburbs may confidently look forward to enjoying fresher air, healthier and happier lives, and to having the conditions of life generally sweetened. The projection of such schemes as the water and sewerage works of Melbourne implies that ihe community have in their midst gi*pts as in the days of old—master minds endowed with creative genius, and nerved with executive effi ciency, before which even the labours of the Trojans seem to pale. A city cf parks, gardens, promenades, and palaces of to day, which, fifty years ago, was but a mud flat, must in the nature of interests and concerns bo phenomenally romantic and attractive. Look on that picture and then on this. An unwieldy, ponderous, and heterogeneous mass of ambitious, struggling, aspiring humanity, dazzled by golden visions, and d*zed by land booms; dreaming only of fortunes, drawn by the chariots of bubble banks, and madly wild in their methodh'ss chase ; deaf alike to the voices of wisdom and prudence, unrestrained by reason or moderation, wildly furious do they career along, when all of a sudden the tornado strikes and bursts tho gilded bubble, and the whirlwind plays with unmet and dishonoured bills, sweeps through bogus bank coffers, and bemoaningly sighs over sad homes, ruinod fortunes, and sorrowful hearts. Sparkling and smart Melbourne was transformed like the gourd of the prophet almost in a night. The bubble had not long burst when we set foot in the gay Victorian metropolis. Fallen braves, crumbling careers, decaying finances and broken fortunes, with a deluge of Law Court talk and newspaper reports were inceptive intro duction. The story of a shepherd lad vaulting to a throne, and of a slave becoming a Sultan have their prototypes in modern colonial life. Fortune seems somewhat more fickle in our day, however, and such may serve as a warning to our young politicians who aspire after position, place and power. There was something sad in reading a speech by a Victorian parliamentarian—or statesman if you like—and one could fancy that he looked back on the days when as a plain journeyman artisan he laboured with his hands, read his books and slept through the nightly hours undisturbed by dreams or duns. He told his audience that thirty years or more ago he landed a poor working man at their port. Since then he had served the colony in various trusted and high positions, and had showered upon him every honour that it was possible for a free State to confer, and finished by stating that hero he was,

to-night, without an occupation, without a position, and without a shilling in his pocket. Sad, very sad, was it not ? Indubitably it its transitional, from the study of llio geographic and physical to the dramatic and tragical ; but it was our experience. Nothing other than the ups and downs of prominent men, the erratic d 0114 of loading boomists, and the outward scurry of kite flyers could be talked about at our first evening meal in the home of our relative. Wo re signed ourselves to the negative position and attitude of listeners.

“ You say that the most conspicuous figure in the land boom was Sir Matthew Davies ?”

“Yes. He was looked upon as being rich beyond the dreams of avarice. At his back there seemed a never-failing exchequer. His home was resplendent and pda'ial. To write out a cheque for a cool thousand sterling, and to place it into the collection plate at the church door of his sect was a very ordinary and not by any means isolated act. Fortu e in her caprice has driven him into shallow water, and ho lies for the time at least s’randed on the hard bed rock. He was very f >nd of his children, and indulged their vanity somewhat overmuch. Sir Matthew had an enchanting little bijou villa erected, and lavishly furnished with trinket and Tom Thumb upholstery, and the Davies children wore waited upon and attended to by smart girl servants, dressed in spotless cap and apron a la adult servants.” “ Kindly introduce us to the life history of Sir Matthew ? He impurely a Victo ian product is he not, from birth to boyhood and manhood ?"

“Very much so. In this respect, he is unlike Mr Monro and some others who have fallen among evil days. Sir Matthew Davion first saw sunlight at Geelong s »me 43 years ago. He was born in 1850 The legal profession attracted young Davies, and ho branched and budded forth into business for himself—almost exclusively as a conveyancer—in Melbourne in the seventies. Making great headway in his profession—or rather in that b:anch of it to which he devot d himself—he became apparently an established and solid factor in business circles Hi* private afiaira prospering, ho was thus able to gratify his ambition for public and political honours. His first efforts to obtain a s at in Parliament were void of success. In 1883, some three years after his first hustings campaign, the Davies star arose in the political firmament, and one of the aristocratic suburbs sent him up to the House. He won his spurs in the Lower House, and established himself among the leading men of the colony. Mr Davies was looked upon as a coo’, self-reliant, pushing member. Ability and cleverness were conceded cn all sides. Ilia upward progress was velocity itself. In three years he was seated in the Cabinet. His reputation at. that time was unquestioned ; ’ hie wealth reputed fabulous, and his business connections embraced a circle of banks, and numerous financial insti'u tions. You must know, of course, 111-it borrowed millions were flowing about Melbourne in those days. Municipal and other loans imported money by tho shipload. The year 1888 saw Air Davies of the Legislative Assembly. He performed the duties with surpassing ability, and ruled as to the manner bor '. Her Majesty conferred a knighthood in 1889, but the ink on tho patent was scarcely dry when 4 Ichabod ’ was pronounced. The bursting of the ‘ boom ’ took place before we saw the last of 1889. The small fry of financiers and boomists one by one sunk in 1890 91. In February of 1892 Sir Matthew presided at a meeting of tho shareholders of the Mercantile Bank, and his speech on tho occasion sparkled with glow as to the soundness of the institution as a going concern, and a dividend was declared. You will scarcely believe D, rut a fact it is, two weeks had barely passed from the date of that meeting when the bank closed its doors, and suspended payment. Take our word for it, the days immediately following this crisis were thunder riven with brimstone expletives. The euphonic and the picturesque in language fi d, and sueh words as ‘rotten,’ ‘cooked balancesheets,’ ‘stamped,’ ‘ fly-blown,’ and sundry nameless but forcible expressions were loud and frequent. We have had Police, Criminal, and Supremo 0 urt denouements , with concomitant sensational incidents, and perplexity os well complexity in procedure." 44 Sir Matthew made tracks for Colombo once, didn’t he, and so high did feeling run that the Government ordered a warrant to be issued, and a detective was sent after him to effect his arrest ?” “That is true, but as Sir Matthew undertook to return the officer did not actually take him in charge.” It has been a rather varied experience which has fa lon to the lot of Sir Matthew Davies. Late cables announce him to be a free man, after being harried and hounded by Law Courts for over two years. 1 (To be continued.)