A variety of useful and important matters were dealt yvith by the Council towards the close of 1850. Bills yvere drafted for the Establishment of Abattoirs, the Formation of Private Lanes, and the Regulation of Hackney Carriages. A n emphatic petition was sent h o m e in favour of the long protracted Separation. Mr. William Westgarth was thanked for his efforts in promoting G e r m a n emigration, and for the continued zeal with which he advanced the interests of Port Phillip. T h e Government was urgently solicited to place a sum on the Estimates for a bridge over the Merri Creek, and it was alleged that m a n y deaths by drowning had occurred at the crossing-place there. In consequence of the extension of the city northerly, the cattle-yards at the junction of Victoria and Elizabeth Streets, shut up the thoroughfare, and, on the motion of Councillor Nicholson an application was m a d e for another market-site further inland. A couple of vacancies were filled, viz, : — M r . J. C. Brodie was selected from seventeen candidates as Copying Clerk, vice Mr. C. C. Dunn, resigned, and D. Elliot, Inspector of the Western Market, in lieu of M . Gallagher, w h o had given up the surveillance of fruit and vegetables to start a public house. In March 1850, a rate of is. in the £ yvas made, estimated to yield about £ 6 0 0 0 , whilst the other revenues of the Corporation amounted to £ 2 0 0 0 . O n the 27th March 1851, directions were given for lettering the streets and numbering the houses in the city. T h e Council also agreed with the Government to employ prison labour in stone-breaking, at the rate of is. 3d. per cubic yard of cracked metal, and to expend £ 9 0 in the erection of a yvooden stockade at the yvest end of the gaol; likewise to supply all necessary tools, etc. T h e sanitary condition of the city had given rise to m u c h uneasiness in the public mind; and the Council urged it upon the attention of the Government. IRISH ORPHAN GIRLS.
Amongst the various processes adopted in England for peopling Port Phillip, was that of despatching hither an occasional shipment of orphan girls from Ireland. Female servants were always a scarce commodity, and these consignments yvere a great convenience to the public generally, and especially to residents in the country. T h e girls were not the handiest of their kind in household work, but they were teachable, and soon acquired habits of usefulness. But with all their alleged deficiencies, they were, as a rule, honest, virtuous, and faithful to their employers. M a n y of them soon passed into the matrimonial state, and proved to be good wives and mothers. A n outcry yvas however, soon raised against them by the Argus newspaper, yvhich was echoed in the City Council by Alderman Kerr, who, on the ioth April, moved a resolution instructing the Legislative Committee to prepare a Memorial to the Queen, remonstrating against the system of Irish Orphan Immigration; and praying that in the future appropriation of the funds of the colony to immigration purposes, regard might be had to the supply of suitable labour. H e also declared that a more useless or depraved lot of colonists could not be found. T h e proposition was seconded by Councillor Smith, and the Mayor, whilst supporting it, refused to affirm the charge of immorality. T h e resolution was carried, all the members present (viz, the Mayor, Aldermen Kerr, and Johnston, Councillors M'Combie, Smith, Campbell, Russell, Murray, Armitstead, Annand, and Nicholson). voting for it. T h e action of the Council provoked m u c h agitation outside, and an indignation meeting was held at St. Francis' school-room, presided over by the R o m a n Catholic Bishop, where resolutions were passed contradicting point blank the allegations m a d e by the Argus and Alderman Kerr, and challenging them to adduce proof to sustain what were denounced as gross calumnies. This was followed by a special meeting of St. Patrick's Society at the St. Patrick's Hall, which was crowded to excess; and police statistics were there produced yvhich showed indisputably, that so far from being immoral or dishonest, the Irish Orphan Girls were singularly the reverse. W h e n the draft Address to the Queen was submitted to the Council, and its adoption moved by Alderman Kerr, he could not obtain a seconder, which so disgusted him that he sat d o w n almost bursting with rage, wrote out his resignation as Alderman, and handed it to the Mayor, declaring " That the Council was so constituted that it would be impossible for him to be of any further service to the city." But the most extraordinary part of the business yvas that (the Council being in a state of vacillation) a week afterwards Alderman Bell revived the question, and at the conclusion of a bitter debate, the Memorial was adopted, and in due course, transmitted to the Secretary
