"MARVELLOUS" MELBOURNE.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume I, Issue 27, 18 June 1892, Page 2

"MARVELLOUS" MELBOURNE.

Private letters from Melbourne give a doleful accoanfc of aflfhirs in that city; One correspondent says:—"Things are... very bad over here. The bottom lias , fallen out, and it only wants the sides to fall in to finish the job. "What with various financial institutions bursting up, th,e place is in an awful state,, of , 'poverty. People who once kept their carriage are now glad to ,do a little - teaching in order to get something to eat. There are '20,000 ont of work, and a goodly number do not know where to lay their head of a night. Frequently some poor fellow is found dead in one of the parks of starvation. The papers don't cry I'stinking fish," so the public are little the wiser. • There are daily meetings of the unemployed. The police have got orders not to inter* fere' with any of the unemployed found sleeping out at night. There are 700 printers out of work in the -city; and the compositors, on.the "War Cry " are working half-time, so 1 as-to give sotae of them a chance, of half-a-week's work. Carpenters are to be had at 5s a day, and bricklayers are walking the streets by hundreds, the building business being overdone for the next ten years. There are a lot of young New Zealanders here who would like to get back home again if they could pay their passage. Some people think that when the drainage works start matters will mend, but I do not think so, as many of the unemployed are of the shop assistant class, while there any amount of navvies here, the Salvation Army is finding rations for 100 families a day, in fact, giving all they - can get to give away, and the . churches are aiding also. One Sunday a batch of the unemployed went to St. ' Paul's Cathedral, and the Bishop gave " them some good advice. Next Sunday they went to Dr. Brown's church, and he gave 150 of them a dinner, and the next .Sunday. to the Baptist church, whose .people got a dinner for 200. of them. It is a sight to make, one weep for labourers to see of a Sunday 300 of the unemployed, headed by Miss Suther* land,'of the Scots Church, going down Lower Bourke-street to get a dinner.. Before the winter is over there will be trouble, as hungry people will not starve and see plenty of food in the shops. There are numbers of Anarchists here who will not stop at anything.. The Government have placed extra watchmen on all the Government buildings and at the railway bridges near th« city."