MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

Western Star, Issue 1575, 1 July 1891, Page 4

MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

(By Boccaccio ) Sir Henry Park.es evidently sees the mistake lie * made when be agreed to meet Mr tteid half way and postpone the Federation debate until after the ordinary business of the session, which with sue!-, lions in the path as the Women's SullV.uje and the One Man, One Vote Bills to pass would mean shelving the. whole question for an indefirifblo time. Ho has now put it in the foreground and the appeal to the country is practically on the question of Federation. He cannot be said to have been; entirely successful 6n the first batch of elections. On the contrary, he has lost several seats but | he evidently looks upon the contest as being all over but the shouting, and lie is to come here to-morrow to consult Mr Ivfunro as to the best means of putting tin: question finally before the people of each colony. Thus he assumes fciiat he,will be able to force the Bill through the JST.S.W. Assembly, and ignores altogether the fact that a large number of the new members are for Federation without him. It remains to be seen firstly whether if he fail lie will play a certain wellknown game of his of opposing, when out of office, the measures he would be ready to carry when entrusted with the Government.

A coalitiou is mors than possible in JT. S. Wales, and the return of Mr Burton to the Assembly is significant of the desire of the electors of the strongest freetrade constituency in the colony that there should be such a union of the strongest men in the house; Five years ago when the Jennings Ministry was getting into difficulties Mr Burton, who is personally very popular, was implored on all sides to have coalition. He declined on the plea of personal affairs. Had ho accepted a Jong period of peace would have intervened. His abandonment of his seat in the Council and his successful candidature for East Sydney is significant. It is held to imply that he, is ready to act up to the full extent of his responsibilities. If so ho will have great support, and some of the old school of politicians will fall into the background. Mr Mimro, like Sir Henry Parkcs, puts Federation first in the list of measures he proposes to lay before the Assembly, but he too may meet with a check since the announcement that he wants half a million to be raised at once by Exchequer Bills and to be paid off by new taxation, has created an enormous sensation. It is more than possible that he may be asked to produce his financial scheme first, in which cuse he may have, trouble. For there u very little doubt that no addition he may make to the custom duties will produce such money. They are already as high as they can be and any new taxation will therefore be of direct nature. There is talk of a new taxation on beer of an increase of the spirit duties and of a tax on stockbrokers. If they were all levied and all successfid, they will not produce mora than half the required sum, and the fear lest lie may devise some form of property tax is rampant in the minds of the Melbourne millionaires. If it bo true as stated at the recent conference of viuegrowers held here that the utmost the vignerons can o-et for their wine is from Gd to 8d per gallon, and that they ouly receive "on the average £2 per ton for grapes after paying the carriage to Melbourne, then the Government have to interfere and sec that the proper facilities are offered, for sending 1 both grapes and wine to the places whore they are in demand ; for there is no doubt that the vignerons arc shamefully robbed in this matteri Tho Calif ornians get two cents' or one penny a pound on the average for their' grapes, the lowest price ever quoted bang 30dol. (£lO 8s) a ton. The American ton is 20001 b. Our "•rowers at the rate of £2 per ton of 22401 b receive only 3-14ths of a penny p< i" lb. The Oalifornian price for new wine is GOc per American gal Inn of five battles free on board, or just five times as much as our growers get for tho gallon of six bottles. The secretary to tho conference licked the whole business into good shape, and if the Commissioners of Railways were not favourable to the petition for cheap carriage, it certainly is not for want of having the case clearly put before them. It is not creditable to us that our grapes should be wasted for want of a market while the rest of the world is begging for wine and the production of the French vineyards has fallen to half the amount before tho phylloxera set in. In those happy days France exported 1400 millions of gallons of wine annually. Now her total production is 8-50 millions of gallons, from which her own consumption has to bo deducted.

.if the proprietors of public houses wanted to work into the luuids of tboso local opfciouicifcs wlio would tloprivc tkciii of their property without compensation they could not do so iii'ii'o effectually than they arc doing' by the harsh and extortionate tonus they exact from the licensees. A case in point has just occurred a few doors from my office. A steady hard-work-ins' young- woman, who had received a good training in hotel business and had saved a little money, obtained a lease some live yars back for a wretched Utile tumble-down bon.se, which had S'jna to rnek and ruin, For this lease she covenanted to pay ;Cl<>oo besides putting the place into repair fit a cost of over £2 I )0 more. A great deal of this money she had to borrow, but by care, attention, industry, economy and good humor she managed to pay oil the whole sum and a i* •ntal of £y per week into the bargain, which was quite enough for a bar and a billiard room in a back si reel with only a couple of bedrooms in addi '.mi. Of course she expected that a "v&owal at an increased rental would 'k the worst that would befall lira-, hv.' sue has been calmly ordered out by tli : proprietor within a week j of the expiration of the lease, and he

tells her that ho will work it himself \ un( il he gets a good tender, when, if , she likes, she may have the refusal at the price the newcomer will pay. ' He has thus drawn from the poor nirl in five years £3500 for a shanty, which, apart from the license, would not let for a pound.a week to-morrow, nor fetch £3OOO at auction, ground and all. Some idea of what the new tenant;wiirsnfter m'ay be formed from the fact that ho now wants a big premium and £24 per week. It never was the intention of tho Legislature to give this kind of property to the person who happened to hold a freehold fit for an inn.

Next week the . old Theatro Royal closes and in its present shape will be scon no more. For it stands on a full undivided half-acre reaching from Bourke street, andthe ground alone if cut up for shops' fronting, each street would fetch about £90,000. Consequently, the proprietary company who have vaiuly tried to get £IOO a week for tho building have decided to make the house smaller. The stage, which practically touches Little Bourke street, will bo carried forward into the hpnsp ; and will be-.; sides be lessened ih doptli: A row of shops will be built in Little Bonrko street, and the building thus diminished will approach closely in size to tho Bijou which is a very fashionable house. The 'alterations will begin Inext Saturday, Juno 27th, and the theatre will be closed for a month. It will reopen on July 2oth with a new play by Mr H. A. Jones, called the "Dancing Girl," in which a Miss Laura Villiers will make her first appearance. She is a handsome and popular London actress and should do well. I ■

Everybody will be sorry to hear that Dr Beany lies in imminent daugea of death, and that unless some favsaablc turn takes place his hours arc numbered. He is quite insensible and is attended most carefully by four eminent colleagues who are just now trying a new treatment as their last . hance, Dr Beany has long been known as the: most ; generous, most openhearted and most kindly of men. As long as his health lasted his hospitality was bouudlcss, but he did not confine himself to banquetting the rich. Wherever poverty lay dying, there would he bo found. His valuable time, his vast skill, his' purse, his wine cellar and his larder were, always open, and..many a day you might sec the doctor's carriage laden with a hamper of good things infcende d not ouly to cheor a poor invalid who could neither buy them or consume' them, but for the wife and. the little ones. He, did his best, to make everybody about him happy, and no man can spend his life in a nobler effort.