election was held, the only candidates were Councillors Smith and Annand from two of the old Wards, and the former yvon by nine votes to seven. Thefirstelected Assessors for Fitzroy Ward on the 2nd April, 1851, yvere Henry Groom of Little Brunswick Street, stone merchant, and Edwin Leadbeatter, Merri Creek, gentleman. The city yvas now in such a state of progression that the Building Surveyor required an assistant. There were 160 neyv buildings going up in Melbourne, viz. :—65 in Fitzroy, 25 in Latrobe, 17 in Lonsdale, 19 in Bourke, and 34 in Gipps Wards. The Mayor, Alderman Greeves, and Councillors Russell, Hodgson, and D. Campbell were appointed a committee to co-operate with the Government (whose assent bad been obtained) in selecting a site for an Orphan Asylum. A portion of Emerald Hill was chosen, and an application yvas subsequently made for the reservation of tyventy acres of land there for the purpose. This was subsequently granted. The impropriety of holding Municipal elections in public-houses, was pressed on the Council yvith such success by Councillor Heales, that he carried a motion disapproving of the practice. The vacancy occasioned in Bourke Ward by the elevation of Councillor Smith as Alderman, yvas contested by two licensed victuallers, Messrs. John Cosgrave, and William Blannin. Cosgrave got in by polling 89 votes against 47. THE STREETS OF FITZROY,
Were a tangled skein of topography yvhich taxed the power of the Public Works Committee to unravel. They set to yvork, hoyvever, and submitted a comprehensive report, declaring that " scarcely any one of the streets is continuous; nearly every one is a mere cut de sac, and the whole arrangement proves a very intricate labyrinth." It recommended that " Brunswick Street be opened out and extended to the proposed bifurcation of Heidelberg and Upper Plenty Roads; that Fitzroy Street be yvidened and proclaimed; that Gertrude Street and W e b b Street be respectively opened from the Eastern to the Western Road; and that the Victoria Parade, or Boulevard, be proclaimed." The report yvas adopted. Writing on this subject, a newspaper of the day thus describes what it terms, THE " MAZE " OF COLLINGWOOD.
" The plan of this suburb, which has been prepared by the City Surveyor, exhibits some very strange features in the topography of the place. Few of the streets are continuous, and many of them are but cuts de sac, and others form elbows, yvhich only lead the bewildered traveller back to his starting post. In one or two instances which yve noticed in the map, the streets are so arranged that when the blocks are built up, a m a n will be half-a-mile from his next door neighbour, having to travel all round a rectangular block. T h e denizens of that favoured spot will have abundant opportunity of studying practically the relative properties of salient, external, and internal angles, and the pedometer and perambulator will be superseded by the goniometer, and we shall hear people estimating the distance from place to place in degrees. Perhaps by degrees this may be remedied." VOTE BY BALLOT.
Hitherto the voting at Municipal and Legislative elections, though nominally by ballot, was not so in fact. Cards or papers inscribed with the names of the voter and candidates yvere certainly deposited in a box, but there was no seal of secrecy, and the neyvspapers had no difficulty in procuring lists of the votes recorded, and published them in the news of the day. T h efirsttime the question of secret votin°- was brought before the Council was on the ioth February, 1851, by Councillor Annand who proposed "That a petition be presented to the Legislative Council, praying that in any Electoral Bill that might be necessitated by the " Australian Colonies Act," provision should be made for real voting by ballot." T h e proposal was seconded by Councillor Kerr, and Councillor Heales (afterwards one of the staunchest advocates of the system) declared that, not so much in opposition to the principle involved, as through ignorance of the mode of voting to be adopted, he moved as an amendment " That it is not expedient to entertain the question of voting by ballot at the present time," O n a division there was a tie, and the
