MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 233, 11 December 1888, Page 3

MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

[FROM OUB OWN CORRESPONDENT.] io it's all over—racing and backing, winning and losing. The ashes are laid, the leai flanked thoroughbred has retired to his ata 1, the reign of the racer is over. One day Is pressed forward by another, and the p st Is quickly forgotten. Thus it is with us in Mel lx xiurne. Th»* Cup carnival happily over, it might have taken p’ace months ago for all one heart of it now The lait ripples of exeitement have slowly died away, the crowds have melted away in a silent and mysterious fashion, and the city is left once more to its aomal condition and ita every day pursuits. And every body is glad of it; for the merrymaking and the feasting and the killing of the fatted calf are all pleasures that pall by surfeit, and every man jack of us h*e had his and over By r j re good luck we had moderately cold weather during our fortnight Of sport, but now it has set in terribly hot and oppresive, and the whole town looks languid and depressed. After laughter comes tears, says the old proverb, and if it is not quite that with us (always excepting those who backed the wrong horses), it is, at the least, dejection, exhaustion, and satiety. Christmas now looms ahead of us cheerily, but thank the Gods ! between now and then Uss a month of quietness and work.

The events of the week have not been important—or even noteworthy. In fact as f r as I can see, nothing wor‘h relating has transpired. As I said in the previous paragraph, eve body is suffering a recovery, and the town is ex'reme y dull. I think though the Parliamentary doings are the dullest of all. The same o’d fight is going on over the franchise question, which is merely a kind of rider to the Electoral Bill. What is now ehieflv before the House i« the Abolition of the Plural Voting Bill, which at best is a very funny Bill indeed. It has three dis tinct objects— first, the provision of improved election machinery ; second, tn abolish plural voting; and third, to make voting compulsory. In a word the measure would give • one man one vote ’ only, and then make one man put that one vote in the bj’ot box. whether he wants to or no. The id<*a is so grotesque tint it is being laughed out of the House, and undoubtedly will soon be killed by that, terribly lingering death - Press ridi cule. The idea of cnmnulsnry voting is certainly a very original idea, and does credit to the inventive genius of the Government—but it seems to me o- tside the range of practical politic-, and I can only wonder they were such fools as ever to mont the n ono«i--tion I was in the House « hen the Bil’ was first introduced, and the hon. member who waa speaking (I won’t give his name) went on to say that A in expressing his views he was merely an instrument in the hands of his constituents.” M Instrument !” yelled an np poaitinnistderisively. “Yes; a wind instrument.” v I mentioned something a week or two ago (before these wretched r’ces overrode everything) about the frauds in the Registrar General’s in connection with’ the man Butler. Well, the more that, comes ou*. »he more disgraceful things shape themselves. There is a Board sitting now, which I believe is known humorously in the d paHment. a« the “ Deal Board. ’ in consequence of an ex jpressinn used on all oooasinns by one nf th** who is i« the habit aflrmingthv he “ f els a deal bored—really ” P seems however, tn Hp getting at ther bottom of things, and a disgraceful showingup *he -’er»ar*m*nt «r ge** ng. There apnenrs tn h ve been a ring of four or five public servants in good positions who. syi*h Butter as the central figure, carried on a game of financing by means of accommodation cheques, which passed thousands through each man’s hnk account, whilst a salary only amounted tn hundreds They the conptrv’e mnnev. and when th y cnuMn’t do it quite undetected, left a quid pro quo in the shape nf IO U’s and valueless personal cheques. The whn]e affair is simply grand a lons, and seems to h*v« beed developed from the utter neglect and c*re essnees of the Registrar General, Mr Gihbg. who appears to have allowed thing* to “ slide,”- with the most culpable and criminal negligence. It is now intended tn remodel the whole system • but there is a proverb about shutting the Stable d or when the is gone. I only hope the arch robbers mav be well punished, and everyone in the department di a missed.

I find I have bran writing on other Rnbjo-te and I meant to mt eomethine about the Ex. bibitinn u it is some time since I wrote anything about it. However. T will reserve what. I have to say until next week, when I will make my letter a regular •• Exhibition ” one, and Mealing with nothing else. Before I Oonciude. however. I should like to tell yon a good storv - a real •• Cup ” yarn—which it would be hard to beat, and which was related to me as true in ererv particular. My infer, mant, who is a lady of the fashionable world bare, hae a maid—and thereby hangs the Storv. Just before the Cup was run Mrs Fashionable cams face to face, on the lawn, With the damsel in question, wslkinc arm-in-arm with a verv eorgenus-lookinß vonne man. Now it seems that the maid had had strict iniunetions not to leave the house, and the mistress, angrily accost inc her. desired an explanation. The girl jerked aside her train with a grand bow, and, flrine un with true Australian independence, exclaimed loftily, b Msdim I never talk on sich subjecka ont of Hs’nse. hours.” What can we say of young feminine Australia after that ?