MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 5112, 6 July 1878, Page 6

MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

(FRO3I AX OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT.)

When yo\ir Governor, or ours, writes Home to Downing F.treet, he furnishes a double set of d'soatohes, one which, is suit • able for publication, and another called secret. The lattir are, of course, by far the most interesting, and my idea of newspaper correspondence 13 always the secret despatch mode], giving distant readeis some ideas beyond those gleaned from a re-hash of what they have read in the newspapers. Now you haven't read anywhere that Sir George-Bowen is certain to leave Victoria next year, £.nd very likely to get a peerage ; but you may book these items. Sir George's ambition is to follow the steps of the late Sir W. Young, Lord Lisgar, a former Governor of Now South Wales, acd be known in the House of Lords as the noble lord, and my noble friend, who is acquainted with everything about Aus'ralia and New Zealand, and can set everybody right.

Do we follow with interest the new career of Sir George Grey ? Of course we do. His speeches are keenly read in Australia, and we find that the whole course of Federal progress is a mighty maze, though not without a plan, the keys to which are in the hands of the Grey's and Berry's of the present They are parts of one whole. Boucant, iv South Australia, is another man worth keeping your eyes on. Farnell, the New South Wales Premier, is progressive too, although nervous, and not of the first calibre.

Tho Victorian Parliament meetß next month, and Berry says the last crisis was ohild's play to that which is coming, and that the Victorian p ople will have to conquer their enemies in exactly the same manner ag the North conquered the South in America. But Berry is a very glib man, and often siys more than he means, although you will observe that the Conservative press has been tying him down to the literal interpretation of both the above sayings. The Opposition is to be led by^Duncan Gillies, a comparatively young man, of splendid physique. He is to grapple with Berry in the forum night after night, supported by the veteran service, Fran da and O'Shannassy. Hot things will be said.

No, the Cerberus is not going to be run through Port Phillip Heads under fire, so spare your ridicule. Mr Berry and Commander Mandeville settled it all, as a fixture, and the Golden Crown steamer was laid on to convey spectators, but a chorus of disapproval made the promoters of the idea draw in their horn?, .ord ifc is all U.P.

Any use in wi.uing about Tom Pearce ? Full on ifc ? Very go;;d.

We learn frcm Italy that Signora Margherita Zenoni Gjniboa died iD Turin, aged 51. shortly before the last mail left.

One of the most extraordinary hits ever made Id Melbourne is Uncle Tom's Cabin, at the Princess's, with Hicks's Georgia Minstrels and Dramatic Company. The theatre 'has been bona fide crowded, with money, for three week", and the piece ought to go 50 nights. Hall has drawn well with "Our Girls" at the Academy. Ifc ia eleven years since we parted from him before, acd about the last thiog he did was the clown in the Theatre Royal Pantomime, 1867. I think the Royal has been losing money this half year handover hand, and Greville would much rather be on his uld sal., £15 a week. People say Coppin docs not mind, and that he wants to geb the whole concern in his own hands again by buying Greviile and LTeuDing3 out.

I will not say that_Cln"zzo!a and Pompei have bolted, but z ffectionate enquiries have been made after them. The poor Soldeae girls had a spell of half salaries, and travelled second class.

The Melbourne theatrical managers are seriously considering about opening on Sunday evenings in sacred form. Emma Hardinge Britten has been clearing over £50 on Sunday nights with her Spiritualistic lectures at the Opera House—nothing more nor less than a performance. The Melbourne Waxworks are opened eveiy Sunday evening at a shilling a head, with an anti-spiritist lecture by Madame Lotti Wilmofc thrown in, and likewise sacred music by a brass band. It is easy to perceive that all thia is but the thin end of the weige, and no one can doubt that Melbourne wiil be like San. Francisco in course of time.

Yet we cannot get our free libraries or atbenajums open on Sundays, but this is expected to be carried in the next session of Parliament, Sydney haviDg shown us the way.

News from old John Wilson, the circus man, is that he has been doing hugely in Calcutta and Bombay for several months. At the former place the natives carried Omar Kingsley on their shoulder* from the hippodrome to his hotel, nearly a mile off. Did you get any whisper of Forepaugh's Aggregation, or Montgomery Queen's Show, visiting Australia from the States ? Both of thsm are large combinations of managerie and circus. Tho proprietors of these and other shows have been making inquiries through agents.

J. J. Casey visited New Zealand just before Sir G. Bowen came here, in order to ingratiate himself, but dil not apparently make much of it. Now, he is just back from Paris as Victorian Commissioner, and we have a notioD that he has been making himself supremely ridiculous in the eyes ol the Prince of Wales. He did not quite go the length of asking, "Have you such a thing as a knighthood about you ?" and he failed to get it. Poati'oly it will be sent after him.

Hod. A. Frassr, M.L.C., plaintiff in Fraset v. Syme, is one of the greatest lights of the Wesleyan body.

The idea of settling differences between our Houses of Parliament by a plebiscitum gains in favour. Objectors say it is un- English, merely because it lisa not been employed in England, but surely it is English m spirit that the voice of the people shoull be decisive. If it be settled that the plebiscitum be not applied in less than two years or so after the dispute begins, no one can complain, inasmuch as we profess that manhood suffrage rules. Anyhow, Mr Berry will p\ sent this scheme blankly to the Council, and will not go on with the business of the country until it is accepted.

Biz is dull in ecclesiastical circles. A new star is wanted. People are disappointed because Spurgeon can't be had, and now they are talking of Putchon. Moody caildmako a gcoi rise. The Rev. Thos. Jones is our leading man just now on only £1200 a year. Pays better than the boards, even when you are a Clark. Unfortunately the clerical profession descends, like the boards, to very poor salaries, and we must not be deceived by the starring terms. By the way, I once wrote a paragraph about a man starring round, and the printer made it starving—moralists these comps, and funny in their mistakes.

Bishop Moorhousb has publicly warned us against Socialism, and I would like him to drop in of a Sunday night at the Melbourne Free Discussion Society, where he. will find an assemblage of perhaps 200 men and

women, rank athieets, with a crowd of others gathering instruction.

The purchase of the Hobson's Bay Hallway by Government,is a settled thing. This

vail bring all our railways undet one authority, Government. The Hobson's Bay Company owns the Metropolitan ;lines. Theso can now be worked in with these of tne Government, radiating from the city. A new club has been formed in Melbourne, called the Australian, and intended to unite the pastoral and conservative interests of all the colonies. This is a set off to the Reform Club, regarded by the plutocrat s as a Jacobin institution, which actually dominates over the Ministry and Parliament. It hss forc?d Berry to adopt the p'ebiscitum, although he had declared agamst suah an idea", and wanted a nominee Upper House. Tho sue: ess of the '.Juvenile Industrie Exhibition at BalUrat, has revived the subject of technical education. Many persons contend t':at our public instruction is a mistake, and that boys and girls ought to be taught from cliildhocd the means ot getting a living, instead of learning abstract things, which make them over refined, and uuable to grapple with the world. Thy more a boy becotnes the schoolmaster's admiration the more he is" {actually weakened for the battle of life. Look ;tt the inexhaustible resources of New Zeiland. Are you sure that your boys are being taught t > frerzeon to them, and not to ad>l!e their brtins with ssh'-lastic conceia, which will r.lways keep them poor, and grumbling about the world not being good enough? Such are most important questions. YVeneid to have modern ideas

translated, no to speak, into the education of youth. I could be more daring in these remarks, but the time is not ripe. We ays not in a rotten old world, but are pioneers, amidst infinite freshness.

Varley, the evangelist, will attack New Zsaland in a month or two. You must not be prejudiced ageiust him. His preaching is noble, eminently calculated to make men better citizens. The sole faults allegid against him are a notion that Christians require a ducking; a crank about husbands and wives in their connubiality, which he limits; and another to the effect that those who love the Gospel should provide it free for sinners. I am not a Christian, and so my admiration of Varley may be received without suspicion. His extremes are not dangerous, but rather excesses of virtue, and the religion mongers onght to be ashamed of themselves for running a msn down who does so much good. But they don't like hia Free Church notions: that's the gist of all. He also touches them on the raw with the success of his preaching in the highways and byeways, and the immense throngs of tthe unconverted who always flock to hear him.