Magistrate on the bench, yvho had some m o n e y lent out at heavy interest in the trade. Browning persevered, and succeeded, and remained in " N o . 167 " for m a n y years, obliging the public and benefiting himself. Though payvnbroking is not as a rule, conducted with stringency and method, the m o d e of doing business in the old days was lax to a degree, as the Pawnbroking Act was very inefficiently administered. A s to interest there yvas nothing to legally prevent the " brokers " from charging what they pleased, and was usually at the rate of one penny per week for the loan of one shilling, nearly 450 per cent, per annum ! Mr. Browning served out the would-be exclusionists, by reducing the interest, a step which did not tend to m e n d matters. In November, 1850, a Mr. Joseph Forrester, a silversmith, obtained a license, and from 100 Bourke Street, advertised his rate of interest on loans as at one halfpenny per week for each shilling or tenpence by the £ 1 . It was another usage of the trade in the early days that in n o case more than £ 1 was advanced on a watch, n o matter h o w valuable. T h e Jews n o w croyvded to the front, and, in course of time, secured more than a lion's share of the spoil. A pawnbroker has informed m e that it was customary for lucky diggers to call at his place, and pledge at times several hundred pounds' worth of nuggets as securityfora £ 1 loan; the object being that, as the "broker" was a m a n of acknowledged solvency, by the payment of an insignificantly small sum as interest on the loan, their gold was kept in safety. A curiously similar custom is said to obtain in China, where, at the close of winter, well-to-do people "spout" their sables, silks, and costly raiment, casting on the payvnbroker the onus of keeping them protected from the ravages of the moth by the application of camphoretted herbs, and other means; and thus, for a comparative trifling fee, they are released from limbo yvhen required, in a condition of preservation. Pawnbroking, like m a n y other accompaniments of civilization, is a necessary evil. M o r e care in granting licenses, and a stricter police surveillance, would weed out the disreputable members of a business which is not so bad as it is painted. If people did not go to their " Uncles " or their " Aunts," neither of those relatives would c o m e to them. It is the abuse and not the use of payvnbroking that constitutes the evil. In yvhat is known as the Melbourne proper of the present day, there are n o w (1882), forty-seven pawnbrokers, viz. :—forty m e n and seven w o m e n ; or in other words, forty " Uncles " and seven " Aunts," only too ready and, willing, for sufficient consideration, to minister to the small financial difficulties of a population of 65,675 persons, sub-divided into 33,289 " Nephews," and 32,386 " Nieces." OLD MELBOURNE LOYALTY.—KING WILLIAM THE FOURTH.
In all the periodical ebullitions of fealty to the reigning Sovereign which have taken place since the settlement of Victoria, undoubtedly there is not one of such a remarkable character as the first celebration of the kind in Port Phillip, namely, a public demonstration of the Aborigines. In 1836, when the European population were few, troops of the natives prowled about everywhere, marvelling what the white fellows were doing, and only too thankful to participate in the bounty of the invaders, not particular either whether the largesses assumed the form of old blankets or petticoats, broken victuals, a drop of rum, or a fig of tobacco. There yvas then in the " u n n a m e d village" a Mr. Charles J. D e Villiers, afterwards an officer in one of the corps of trooper-police, and it occurred to him that it would be a very proper thing to keep up the birthday of William I V , "the Sailor King," by applying to their savage sensibilities the argumentum ad stomachttm. H e had little difficulty in obtaining plenty of "tucker," such asflour,meat, tea, and sugar, and it did not require cards of invitation to get together a numerous horde of guests—men, women, and children. T h e anniversary of the Regal Nativity was the 2ist August, and on that day, on the green hill in Collins Street East, where the statue of Bourke and Wills stood till recently, this alfresco Birthday/^ came off. For thefirsttime the Union Jack, unfurled from the bough of a wattle tree,floatedin a place fated in a few years to become the principal street of a large city; and, under itsfluttenngs,the swarthy m o b ate and drank, not caring a rush about anything save mere animal enjoyment. There were neither toasts nor speechifying; but, after dark, the Aborigines had the good manners to treat the yvhites to a return entertainment further away on the hill, where the Parliament Houses were opened just twenty years after. T h e blackfellows, having nothing to give, treated their guests-for thefirsttime performed before white m e n - t o their great national dance, k n o w n as the "ngargee." Sem.circhng a huge bonfire, they pirouetted like so many dusky d e m o n s around the flames,
