MELBOURNE ECHOES.

Western Star, Issue 1574, 27 June 1891, Page 4

MELBOURNE ECHOES.

(By Teiephoxus.) Mr Speight, who knows how to drag a ben iug across tbe 1 nil of reform as well as any man, has prepared a paper on tbe Betterment system as established in America. Mo is sure it would not answer in Victoria, ibo great peculiarity'of Mr Speight's reasonim,' id that it is never directed at other people's points hut always at some side. 1851.10 Its direct aim always is to prove Ibat nothing will answer in Victoria if it is unsuccessful anywhere else. No one has tried to introduce the Betterment system here, but certain deputations have- now and again told Mr Speight that they would very gladly submit to some such impost to secure Railways provided the assessments were levied, not merely on ihe bisected lands but on all that were improved in value by Hie making of the line, the assessment of course, being based on the valuation He is therefore answering, not the Committee, but the people who want Ihe lines which the Committee have to consider. Privately, various members of the Ministry, have intimated that it is tbe intent inn of the Government to assent to the proposal lo bo made to-morrow by the conference of Vigneron-, that licenses to sell Victorian wines shall be issued and renewed quartet ly instead of yearly, it is felt that this course will stimulate the distribution of our wines among our people and remove the Colonial wine trade from the ordinary hotels whose licensees do not like it and who do not want it. In any ordinary Melbourne Hotel you havelo drink Colonial claret out of the same thimble sized green glass which is given for French claret and you _ pay the same sixpence too. But the wine shop? of which we have too few will sell a bott'e of wine for a shilling and give a tumbler full for threepence and the more we have of them the less spirits wo shall put away. Melbourne ii bigger, richer and*more populous than Manchester and is also quite as full of people who understand and appreciate good music, yet Manehe-ter has supported .for many yea.rs Sir Charles Halle and his Orchestra of 105 performers all the year round, wb le our Victorian Orchestra of 35 in all is frizzling out like a damp squib after an inglorious exist mice of two year?, during which time ic his received* £SOOO of public money. The real reason was conelu-ivcly demonstrated on Saturday night when Sir Charles Halle engaged this same orchestra, added 25 to it and gave a concert attended by an immense audience which yielded a handsome profit after all the business was paid for. The truth is that our orchestra has been managed by a fussy and faddish committee while Chailes Halle has managed his own orchestra himself. Had ho settled in Melbourne instead of in Manchester ho would have made as big a success hero as there.

13y the way, of tho multitudinous taachers of music in Melbourne, there are over twenty who average at least a thousand a year each, and fifty more whose incomes arc not less than £-500 a year, to say nothing of the vast crowd who earn .smaller sums, and of that still larger assemblage who live upon credit and only get a trifle now and then.

Sarah Earnhardt's Saturday day's work was a good one. She rehearsed Adrian Lc-souvreur in the morning, played Cleopatra in the afternoon and again in the evening, and after the theatre war, over started for the Black Spur with a large party travelling all night, breakfasting at Healcsville and pushing on to have a regular rainy day on Sunday instead of the sunshiny picnic expected. She is a good soul, and has actually shortened the intervals between tho acts to oblige her audiences who dislike thirty-five minutes' waits.

Our race arc supposed to bo brave, of course, and so we will suppose that the herj of the following anecdote was a foreigner. At any rate he was an od Me boa ne resident. He wai net well and got a lotion and a draught. He swallowed some of the lotion ins:ead of the draught, and when he found out what he had done he rash- d off to tho ho -pita! where it was quickly discovered that the lotion was harmless and that no evil results could er.« sue; but tiny did. He fainted with fear before he could be reassured, aud he fainted again when told that he was safe, and the fainting fits returned again and a:ain each time being more difficult to euro, until at las?', after a few day. 3 prostrat'on, he died from failure of t':e heart's action by shock, the doctor sdd in this certificate, but of sheer fright" aud unmanageable fear in sober earnest.

All preparations haveboeti made for the work of the .-e.ssion, the Ministry tell u-', but tho truth is that the preparations for the end of the ses-ion are very nearly as forward. A dissolution may co ne at any inomeiit after tho llou.-o a-semblee. It is true that the d rect opposition and the Ministry a'U a.s one over the Federation qu<itiji), but that cou ts for iittl\ The go.it difficulty lies in (lie financial part o ; the busness. Tho Ministers will not propose a sinaj'e railway and th croft i'j . li tiiose \y\ o de.-i''o railways will »e unbine to turn them out. T'ds is a dead certainty and the agreeuiei t concerning the L\iderat'bn question' will onlv ni.t' e matters worse because anew Sl'• iai try would be entitled to c aim llie'r support on 'hat ipiosti >n. Tie workman cm inrdly believe thr-ir eirswlien t iy lica," th.it in spite of t eex s ii'jj stress railway construction is io b; absolute!} stopped an I the publicans are furious at tho inspired proposal to ivimposo tha beer duty winch appca"ed to-day.