and left by Brothers A. H. Hart, and R. Campbell. The Oddfellows and some of the other Societies had special festivities of their own. The expense of the foundation ceremonial was .£39, and receipts ^ 9 2 , which included ,£20 16s. 7d. collected at St. James' Church. Mr. J. T. Smith gave the proceeds of a benefit at the Queen's Theatre in aid of the Funds. A special meeting of contributors ruled that subscribers to the Building Fund should be entitled to privileges similar to those to be enjoyed by maintainence givers, though the Life Membership qualification was raised from ,£10 to ,£20.
The First Annual Meeting.
Held on the 17th January, 1851—in pursuance of Bishop Perry's motion, passed at a Committee Meeting on the 8th November, 1848—was a pro forma gathering merely. Mr. Charles Laing's plan of the proposed building was accepted; Mr. John Gill's obtained a ,£15 premium; and Messrs. Newsome and Blackburn's was awarded .£10. Messrs. Brown and Ramsden's tender for the erection of the building was accepted for ^£2850, but was afterwards increased by ,£220. The Fancy Fair held at St. Patrick's Hall realised ,£621 3s. 5d. The building yvas in the Tudor style. The extent of the portion erected was : — O n ground floor, i n feet by 52 feet. Accommodation was provided for forty-two males and as many females, and the attics were so contrived that twenty-nine more of each sex could be crammed into them. The cost would be about ,£3730, and the ground had been enclosed with a substantial three-rail fence. A grant of ,£500 from the Government towards furnishing had enabled the Committee to provide, amongst other items, for aboutfiftyinmates. The Legislative Council appropriated a further sum of £ 2 0 0 towards the enlargement of the building, and ,£800 for the Maintenance Fund, contingent upon a like amount accruing from voluntary subscriptions. The Committee received from the Government a ,£230 dividend of unclaimed poundage fees and fines; the Melbourne Bible Society made a donation of tyvelve bibles; the Rev. Mr. Clowes, of St. Mark's, a presentation of books, and a Mr. Sanger collected ,£100 from the diggers at Mount Alexander. A bonus of ,£25 was given to the Secretary in addition to his £2 per week salary, and an augumentation of his stipend to ,£150 per annum was recommended. Arrangements yvere made to have Divine service conducted regularly in the Asylum, by ministers of the various persuasions. Pecuniary assistance noyv floyved in from several stations where the squatters had started subscription lists. The townspeople and the Government had materially helped the laudable enterprise. The total amount expended on the building up to the 13th June, 1851, was ,£3272 19s. 6d, several important extra works having been authorised since the acceptance of the original contract. The edifice was now completed, and insured for ,£3000, in the Victoria Fire Insurance Company. A respectable person had been engaged to take charge of it, at a salary of 3s. per week (sic), and the Committee resigned its trust, "expressing gratitude to Divine Providence that so great and so useful an Institution had been brought to its completion yvithout any accident occurring to any of the numerous persons engaged on the works."
The Opening Ball.
There was one peculiarity in many of the public undertakings in Old Melbourne, bearing a resemblance to the Irish character, and it happened in some of the most serious of them, a humorous interlude popped up, aflashof light to cheer the surrounding sombreness—a something to provoke laughter in the midst of the solemnity, and so it was with the Asylum. T o the mind of an ordinary person, it would occur that if it was necessary to open an eleemosynary establishment with any special celebration, a religious service, a prayer meeting, or a sacred concert, would be the most apropos mode of doing so. But to inaugurate a Poor-house by holding a grand public ball there, seems incongruously amusing. Yet the Benevolent Asylum yvas actually opened by what was universally admitted to be the most hilarious lerpsichorean demonstration ever witnessed in Port Phillip. And it happened in this wise :—The building yvas turned out of the contractor's hands in June, 1851, and the recently constituted colony of Victoria was
