MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 615, 2 June 1891, Page 3

MELBOURNE TOWN TALK.

[By Standard Special Correspondent—- “ Boccaccio.”] We have been aroused the inadequacy of our life boat service by the wreck of the Craigburn and the loss of half a dozen lives. Nine hours elapsed between the time at which the Craigburn fired the first signal rocket asking for aid, at 8.5 on Friday night, and the arrival of the life boat at the scene of the wreck, at son Saturday morning. It hid left Queenscliff at 11 at night, fought its way across the bay to the Sorrento jetty by half past two in the morning, and had come the rest of the way on a dray. Nine hours of delay makes any Leip of the kind practically worthless. The Marine Board desired to inquire into the entire subject, but the Commissioner of Customs, to whom the life boat and rocket service is responsible, has intimated that he will, himself, hold an independent and searching investigation. The Marine Board may inquire to its heart’s content, but Mr Turner will be guided by his own enquiries when he dispenses punisment. He will in short, “ wallop his own nigger.” But the practical outcome of the disaster will be that a life boat station will be established on the ocean beach at Sorrento, where many a vessel has been endangered, and now and then one lost. No timely help can come in such cases from QueenFcliff. It is no joke to cross the bay in a life boat in the teeth of a ga’e, and, of course, it is in stormy weather such services are in most request.

Really it seems as if the late Sir John Robertson was right, and that in so far as New South Wales is concerned, ” Federation is as dead as Julius Caasar.” There is no mistaking the strength of the Anti-Federa- _ tionists in that country; they have howled down Mr McMillan, refused to listen to Mr Bruce Smith, driven Mr Daniel O’Connor from the platform, forced Mr .Burns and Mr Barton to go to Manly to speak, and have returned two pronounced Anti-Federationists at the two bye elections, for East Sydney and Newcastle, since the Convention separated. It is useless to shut one’s eyes to facts. New South Wales is, at this moment, by no means united on tha subject, and of course the more Victorians favor it the less popular it will become.; Sir Henry Parkes may have a trump card up his sleeve, but for the moment it looks very much as though we were to see the whole question shelved, We cannot federate without New South Wales, and she shows no desire whatever to join us.

It is very likely that neither the Railway Question nor the Federal Convention will give the Parliament any real troub'e, but that “ One man, one vote ” will be the bone of dissension. Mr Munro has promised that it shall be one of the first measures of the session, and has asserted that he can pass it In the Bower House, but will not answer for the action of the Council. In that case he will have an elegant cry for the country if the Council should throw out the measure. Plurality of voting is only popular with those who enjoy it, and if he can work up enough feeling to infect the country wi'h any part of hie own warm enthusiasm, the doctors and lawyers of the Legislative Council will fiod themselves all of a sudden in a very particular fix amid a shower of public indignation. Supposing Mr Munro be successful in getting the public to sympathise with him, the agitation will spread like a bush fire in a dry paddock.

That unlucky Victorian Orchestra is very near its last gasp, and it does not seem likely to be allowed to finish its days in peace. The organisation has never had a fair chance. It began with only fifty two members against the seventy six which followed Mr Cowen’s baton, and therefore was unible to do justice to Wagner's music, which is mostly scored foreighty performers. It was then reduced to thirty five, and became thus, numerically, unequal to the proper rendering of any good orchestral works at all. The salaries or the musicians were decreased by one fourth last year, and the Committee, which always harassed and hampered the accomplished and popular conductor, and interfered with the programmes, now asks the unlucky artists to play gratuitously at ten Concerts to make up their deficiency This is a piece of downright impertinence. The hard working players have done their beet to carry out the eccentric directions of the Committee, and are of course f entitled to be paid. The Committee is Composed of wealthy men who have managed the business to please their own fancies and they must pay. The expenses for the year are about £14,000; Government subsidy £3000; yearly subscriptions and o'her receipts for playing, about £5000; public payments for admission average £33 per cent, say £3500; deficiency £2500. That is about the state of the case.

Mr Speight has put forward a very ingenious defence against the attack made upon his large outlay in the Railway department. He was, for the moment, staggered by the fact that the New South Wales railways have been managed for 56 per cent of the annual receipts, while ours cost 68 per cent., but he soon recovered himself. He points out that we pay £lOO 000 a year more for coals than New South Wales, which shows a difference of 3 per cent,, that onr department pays gratuities and pensions amounting to 1 per cent., and that we have added 40 per cent, to our mileage, while New South Wales has only added 7 per cent. He holds that no new railway pays, and that those last figures explain tha difference; more than that, he avers that the New Sonth Wales Parliament voted a million to put the railways in order, and that a lot of that money has been spent on items that ought to have been charged to working expenses. No one flow believes in Mr Speight to the same extent to which everybody believed in him five years ago, but no one can deny his dexterity in defence.

There is a terrible amount of distress in Melbourne just now, In the small hours of the night, when the pressman and the actor n.pd the mpgician and the barman, and Others of the hardest worked men in the world, are crowding home wearily to bed they find their charity asked by men of a very different stamp to those who used *to haunt the dark corners of the street. The poor fellows who now implore relief are often recognised as old comrades once prosperous and proud, whom want of work has ruined, and w'ppm hunger Las turned into beggary. Still the distress increases. The Water Hupply has discharged sixty men, the brick yards are closing, empty houses enough to hold 30,000 people are to [be found in the suburbs, and there will, consequently, be no building done on a large scale for at least two years. The sole hope of the laboring classes, whose prosperity of course sets all ijbove them at work, is that the new Metropolitan Board of Works may hurry on the preliminary work of the Melbourne main drainage. If that be done, the cessation of the railway construction will not matter.

Despite the distress, and despite the cold weather, and aimostr'nightiy fogs, all the places of amusement are doing very good business. Two music halls, holding at least 6000 people between them, and five theatres collectively accommodating 10,000 more, are ftlw»p fairly Attended, and on Saturdays wammed. Add to these the Rev. Charles Clark with 1500 hearers at the Athenwum ; e full Town Hell with 8000 more whenever Share is auytaing worth hearing, ahd now fend then sonic great crowd at the Ex»»lt *L- I * 1 WWW —b«4O luval eoftcerte, assemblies, and entertainments at tfw suburban Town Halle, and you have fo conclude that Melbourne nightly finds amurenvat for an average of 20,000 people at least, which swells to 30,000 at any time of attraction.

The chief Question in the minds of the amusement seekers just now, is whether it suit them to pay double prices to see Sarah Bernhardt at the Princess Theatre, and whether she will be worth seeing. That great actress, who is close upon 50 years os age, is still fair to look upon, and if Splendidly costumed • moreover she has a good companyj and though they fell play in trench, yet as they play pieces which are

known by heart—Camille, La Toeca, Frou Frou, Fedora, and so on—the public will know what is gong on. Certain it is that if she does not take, some one will suffer. Mr H. E. Abbey has managed to secure her £20,000 for a sixteen weeks’ season, or £1250 per week. He has to make h’s profit after that, and Williamson and Garner have not only to make theirs, but also to pay the heavy expenses of the Princess Theatre into lhe bargain, Unlees the fair Sarah draws to the extent of £5OO per night, no one will get very rich out of the transaction. If she does that, why then in sixteen weeks Australia will have found £48,000 for one artist aloue.