MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 297, 11 May 1889, Page 2

MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

(fbom oub own correspondent.)

The Superintendent of the Government Travelling Dairy has sent in a report which all persons interested in dairy produce would do well to fay to heart. If productiveness means wealth, we should take care that what we produce will command a good market. Butter and cheese are convertible terms for money, provided that butter and cheese are saleable. And in a pastoral country like Victoria, a large sum of money ought to be made by the production of those articles. We ought to produce not only sufficient for our own requirements, but we should have a tolerable large surplus to send abroad. Now, what are the facte of the caie ? Instance* are oited, and thoie not a few, in which the sanitary arrangement* of dairies inspected are stigmatised a* “disgraceful.” In one case, a dairymaid, suffering from a severe attack of ringworm, wa* found making butter. In another in*tance, milch cow* were suffered to drink water tainted with the drainage from a hospital. This is not pleasant reading. The knowledge of euch tact* does not enhance the price of cheese and butter, either in Victoria or elsewhere. Clearly, if such oarelessnes* continues, the butter and cheese factories will have to be placed under Government inspection, if only for protection of the public health. We have many competitors in the field, and those amongst them who produce the best article will most assuredly carry off the palm. There was a time when Ireland was noted for its butter. This time no longer exists. That is to say, Ireland ha* ceased to hold her own in the market. Danish butter compete* successfully with Irish butter in the town of Belfast itself. The Danish dairymen can place a purer and a cheaper butter than the Irish in tbe very heart of the Irish butter industry. So it will be with Victoria if we do not take care. True, we may, prompted by our protective instincts, shut out the foreign article and consume the inferior home § reduction ourselves; but we shall find it ifficult to induce foreigners to join the feast if many more of the fact* set forth by Mr Crawford gain currency. Dairy farmers should look to this in time, or a profitable industry wlli be spoiled.

It seems that before anything can be done, more than |has been don* 'already, for th* abatement of ths rabbit nuisance an alteration will havs to bo made in th* existing law. Certain powers are already vested in the shire councils, enabling them to deal with this matter, and that is a* it should be, Local self-Kovernmsnt cannot be carried too far, provided th* local bodies will perform the duties which devolve upon them, Mr Shlel’s question in the Legislative Assembly, alluded to In fast week's letter, ha* once more drawn attention to the fact that the shire oounoile decline to enforce the law which empower* them to compel landowner* lu their respective districts to olear their land. Of course, so long u they are allowed ample cover, rabbits may be expected to multiply. This apparent supineness probably arises from the ofroumstanoe that the councils do not care to exercise the pressure upon the local landowners. Be this as it may, it is plain that something will have to be done, and it is more than probable that the councils will be relieved from all responsibility, and that the duty of enforcing the laws will be vetted in the central government, The principle te unsound, and contrary to modern legislation, The tendency should be to decentralise as much a* possible, whereas the proposed change is in a contrary direction.

One of the corollaries of the land boom was the “racing boom." The banks repressed the one, and the V.R.C. te attempting to oheok the other. Sport is one thing, but racing, as practised in some of the distant suburbs of Melbourne is another and quite a different thing altogether. A race meeting should not be allowed to degenerate into an enterprise, the object of which is gate money, and little else besides, unless it be that It affords opportunities for the pushing gentry who “lay,” "lay," “fay," against anything upon legs, to ply their calling. One-half the courses in the vicinity of Melbourne upon which races are now-a-days run are little better than gambling grounds. True sport and the breed of horse* do not enter into the speculations of the people who promote these meetings, and the sooner some check is Sut upon them the better it will be tor oung Australia.

The largest iron girder ever made in this colony for a building was safely conveyed across Yarra a few nights ago. It was made by Johnson and Sons, of the Tyne Foundry, Yarra Bank, for premises being built for Solomon and Co,, of Swanston.street. It ia 81 feet in length, 8 feet 9 inches in depth, 3 feet in width over all and weighs 36 tons. The web plates are 42 inches deep, and J inch thick. It was impossible to get this monster girder over tbe Fall* Bridge, owing to the curves, and the maker* were afraid to trust it upon the newly formed embankment leading up to the south end of Prince's Bridge. So it was conveyed over the river upon a large lighter. Ones across, it was safely conveyed to Swanston-street, 28 powerful horses being employed to draw it. This girder, with its four supporting columns, is destined to carry a load of five stories of brickwork and floors weighing about 1150 tons. It was designed by Mr Woolf to bear a strain that would only break at 4,600 tons.

Street acoidentsfare becoming alarmingly common in Melbourne. The traffic in the principal street* of London is congested tenfold in extent a* compared with the traffic here. Yet the percentage of street accidents ia fifty per cent, less, taking into account the respective populations, in the English metropolis than in Melbourne, owing to the stricter regulations in force there. For its size, no city with the same pretensions is so badly governed as the capital of Victoria; and, what is worse, remonstrance fa useless. “Fstal street accident” is the heading one meet* with in newspaper* twice and sometimes thrice a week. And then one reads of soma unfortunate “ who has bean knocked down by a passing vehicle while attempting to cross the street." There is an inquest, and—" A verdict of accidental death” is recorded—and there tbe matter end*. Now a ■ large proportion of these " accidental ” deaths are avoidable. But, so long as the supine authorities permit people to dash reck lessly round street corners, drive at full speed over street crossing*, and aimmit a doz-n other follies In which no onetxcept an idiot would think 01 indulging in better ordered cities, so long will tha numberless “ fatal street accidents" continue to find place in the columns of newspaper*. Ona of the latest oases recorded i* that of a poor old man, aged 82, who was knocked down in Flinders-street. Hi* death was “accidental" —a* a matter of course. The fact 1s that one half of these ao-oalled accident* are clear oases of manslaughter; only the juries are afraid, or too indifferent, to give them a proper name.

One evening fast week Mr Varley,£the revivalist, baptised a number of adults in the sea, at Kenny's batks. St. Kilda. Eight o'clock at night was the (time 'chosen. The night was still, the moon resplendent, and a considerable number of parson* assembled te witness the ceremony, Mr Varlay goes in somewhat for sensationalism in his teaching, and it just a question whether the ceremony at the bath* was aot a trifle too theatrical in its character.

Lust week one of the society paper* mildly ridiculed certain 11 swells " who strut about Melbourn* in “ stays." This week the same paper denounce* the use of •* rouge ” by tome Of these exquisite dandle*. Fancy What we have come to. From the old sheep and cattle farmer* of half a (century ago to the faced and painted “ dude " of to.day is a long diatance to travel in so short a time.