A VIEW OF MELBOURNE.

West Coast Times, Issue 7194, 17 September 1888, Page 4

A VIEW OF MELBOURNE.

The following particulars which have been supplied to us (Oamaru Mail) by a gentleman recently returned from Melbourne, will show that Mr Waddell is by no means alone in his opinion that Melbourne is bound to experience a serious check sooner or later. Our informant states that for a small box of a place, used for a tea or coffee house, the tenant paid a rent of £300 per annum. During the twenty minutes which he spent in the place there was only one other customer. Here the visitor could get four ham sandwiches and a cup of tea for 6d. In answer to a question, the keeper of the place said tho rent was killing her and Bhe would have to give up. For a shop used as a lolly Bhop the tenant paid £1,000 a year rent ; and, in reply to a similar question to that put to the coffee housekeeper, the answer was the same ; but, said the tenant, as high as the rent is the owner cannot take less, as this barely pays him 3 per cent interest on his outlay. Mr Kett, who is well known by many Oamaru people, has an hotel in Melbourne, which our .informant states may be classed as a third or fourth-rate one there, and for this he pays about £1,000 a year. A capital dinner of three courses, with a glass of beer, is supplied for a shilling, and all drinks are sold at threepence each. Many of the business places have been erected and the ground bought with borrowed capital, bearing interest at from sto 6 per cent ; but, notwithstanding the high rents, many of the ventures are not returning 3 per cent on the outlay on account of the abnormal sums paid for the ground. A townsman with \thom we were to* day conversing on this question, said that when he visited Melbourne some time ago he had per* sonal experience of the extravagant prio.es that he had to pay for everything. His hotel bill was alarming in its amount, and everything else was marvellously dear. He went into a draper's shop to purchase a pair of gloves and cuffs. When the bill was presented he found that the charges for these articles were 7s6dand Is 6d respectively. He told the shopman that the prices for similar gloves was 2s less in New Zealand, and for cuffs 6d less. The shopman retorted : • f We have to pay £25 per week rent." Then said his customer : " Wrap up the articles. I will help you to pay the rent" v