NOTES ON A TRIP TO VICTORIA

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 26 January 1881, Page 2

NOTES ON A TRIP TO VICTORIA

No. 'VI. Incredible as it may seen, it is a fac?, that on Cup Day hotel accommodation could not be obtained for love or money in all Melbourne. Hundreds of visitors who arrived in the City on the morning of that day, spent hours in a fruitless search for lodgings, anJ in the end were compelled to go far out into the suburbs to Qnd a temponry halting plane. Even for those who were early enough in the 6eld the charges were in some cases monstrously high. In one instance, nine guineas a week was asked for a room in a private boarding-house en Wellington Parade, while in nearly all quarters the tariff was raised fully one hundred per cent. This was no doubt due in great part to the itflax of Exhibition visitors, but as soon as the races were over fares dropped to something like their normal seal* 1 , and the daily papers became loaded with advertisements relating to board and residence. This system of piling* on the agony to visitors was not conSned to hotelkeepers. Another notable class who earnt especial malediction at the hands of strangers, were the Melbourne cabmen, Of all the incandescent rogues who ply on the high seas of traffic in Melbourne, the City "cabby "is the very head and front. Under the regulations of the Corporation, the cabmen have their regular stands and regular beats — their fixed fare to any place along their route being threepence, but these men do not cultivate for nothing their faculty for detect" ing strangers, who are cal'ed upon to pay anything from one shilling to half»a crown for the same service. Of course one " drops " to this infamous exaction after a little time, but tfiis rather increases than diminishes one's thirst for the blood of cabmen generally. In spite of the magnetic attraction which the Cup is supposed to exercise over people, it is a significant fact that the attendance at the Exhibition on that day was greater than on any other since the occasion of the opening. Between 12,000 and 13,000 people preferring Catlton Gardens to Flemington racecourse, bat whether this is to be attributed to a partial decadence of public interest in Cup gatherings, or merely an exigency of the occasion, is a question which, must carry its own an* swer. On the night of the races, Melbourne presented a wonderfully animated scene, Bourke and Eliztbeth streets, which may be termed the main arteries of the city, were thronged to a degree that made it difficult indeed to move about. Every hotel was, filled with a boisterous crowd of balf«tipsy wassailers, reminding me of the roughest of West Coast experience. There chanced to be a singular dearth of theUncal amusement in Melbourne during Cup week, and even this little was eseentialiy trashy and conn mon place. Indeed, it was a mutter of general remark that the city boards had not been so bare of histronic talent for J many years past, and visitors could quite endorse the sentiment. Miss Eleanor Pomeroy, an American Star Shakespe* rian actress, raised tuejrepreaentations at the Theatre Itoyal slightly ahead of the other establishments, but beyond being young and archly pretty herself, there was nothing in her impersonations which rose much beyond fair mediocrity. She came to the colonies just previously with a very good name, but for a long time the metropolitan papers fought shy of her and

stroked her down very timidly, bat public flocked io admire her, and in sp^^| of the fact that she talks Ihronijli ber nc^H she acquired a certain kind of popularil^H At the Bijou theatre the much w<^^| Pinafore, was played by a tronpe^^J jnyeniles, but as two-thir.ls of dialogue was inaudible, and the chora^^| were rendered somethinc after the st^^H of the •• Ol) ! that'l be Joyful " of St^H day-school children, it is need'ess to f^H that the company h.\ a v. ry short r<^H George Darrell was performing at t^H Princes'* The^rc in heavy comedy, b^| with an incliffrent stock>cora;vin}% a^H those three plaee3 with the addition of t^H Kelly and Leon minstrels, and a re^H wretched addition too, oruprised t^B whole of tlio amusements offeree to a ho^H day public. Thoro are or' e^rse ofi^H establishments such as the Apollo Hi^H Hippodrome, and such like, bat these c^^| hardly bo classed in the same category, they are simply places of assign ;tion, <"^H that <v the lowest and roo^t disreputab^H type, bat of these establishments, mo^H anoo,- f Wi. h the rfdsfns: of tfc Tnestr^M the streets lo*sie their crowded appearanc^^H j^p^eotabHityjjnthdrgjrg.fjQ^ [ha or is aamooished to <lo so, aad folly a<^^| vice leign triumphant, (To BE CO>*TIXUED.|