LIFE IS MELBOURNE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5436, 28 March 1889, Page 3

LIFE IS MELBOURNE.

♦ I A CHRISTCHURCH MAN'S EXI PERIENCE. | ! A reporter from the Canterbury Times hau had a chat with a tradesman who has just returned from Melbourne, and from whose statement the following are extracts : — He left Christchureli in October, and «is soon as he had secured a footing in Melbourne, a matter in which he experienced considerable difficulty in consequence of the prejudice he found to exist against New Zealanders, he sent for his wife and family. THE CLIMATE fit once began to affect them, the children lost their rosy color, the wife became an invalid, and ere many weeks were over the baby died. EXPENSE OF LIVIXC. The following prices give an idea of the expense of living. Butter was 2s lOd a pound, eggs were 3s fid a dozen, milk, which was nothing like New Zealand milk, was (3d a quart. Rumpsteak, a. luxury he could not afford, was 9d a Ib, and legs of mutton and mutton chops 5d a lb. Cabj bages were *2d each, beans 9d a lb, and pea* I 4d a pint. The rent of his house, four rooms and a bath-room, was £1 a week, and the ! house was five miles from the city. Then | what ho missed was the quarter- acre or eighth in which he could grow vegetables. The land on which his house stood was what is exp jssively called " a pocket handkerchief.' As for WAOKS, the work for which he would have obtained Lo a weok here lie earned ten shillings less there. Bricklayers and carpenters were at that time, in demand, and got high wages, but since the collapse of the land boom hundreds of them are walking the streets. In February an advertisement for one carpenter was answered by fifty applicants. In fact it was heartrending to see so many poor fellows out of employment. I THK SANITARY ARRANGEMENTS of Melbourne are most defective. The houses arc well enough built, with large rooms and baths,but tiie drainage is disgraceful. The water is very different from that of Christchurcii. There is a party from

Melbourne here who seem never to have enough of the artesian water. They have it at breakfast, at dinner, and at tea. Health is everything. After five mouths I determined to return to New Zealand. You should have seen my wife's face when she got on board the steamer. For those five long months she had never smiled, but now her face was radiant. The mere thought that she was leaving for dear old Nevv Zealand put life into her. She has been getting lietter health ever si»ce, and my family are always hungry, instead of having no appetite, as was the case in Melbourne. I met hundreds of New Zealanders there, and only one of them was glad he left New Zealand The others ALL WANTED TO COMK HACK. As an example, I may mention one man who left a situation here at £4 a week and told me he would gladly take £2 10s a week now rather than have to endure the intense heat of Melbourne. Another man I heard of reached Melbourne on the Saturday and left it on the Tuesday following. He had had quite enough of Victoria. NKW ZEALAND HAS A GRAND NAMK now in Melbourne. The Argus has a weekly letter from here, which pictures our climate and soil in glowing colors. The grand harvests we are having contrasts so strongly with the miserable return the land gives there that the people arc always congratulating New Zealand on having such a country, and wondering what could have induced them to leave it. The fact is tho Victorians have found that constantly praising their resources has resulted in such an influx of capital and population that they cannot understanl how we could have been so foolish as to have persistently decried our position. It is time that New Zealanders realised the fact that they have been standing in their own light. We had been told that. servants' wages were very high, and one of my daughters thought of going to service. She was offered a situation as under housemaid at six shillings a week. She was required to wear a dark dress with a muslin apron and cap. A 'lady help' that I knew had to get up at four o'clock in the morning and do the washing. She had to appear in the morning in a light print and a cap, and in tho afternoon in a dark dress with white cap and apron. Her wages were eight shilling a week, and she enjoyed the privileges of being called 'Miss' and having the first cut from the joint sent to her. Why her wages would not pay for her clothes ! Yes, I am DELIGHTED TO (JET HACK to Christchurch, and I am quite willing to rough it for a time where I can get twenty pounds of potatoes, as I did to-day for a shilling, and a big New Zealand cabbage for a permy — a very different cabbage from the Sydney thing, all shrivelled and dried up, for which in Melbourne I had to pay ninepence.