have our whole staff of engravers, lithographers, and letter-press printers left us, but they have even taken their wives with them to rock the cradles! Our office is deserted! W e doubt much whether we shall be able to procure m e n to deliver the Magazine to our subscribers. In short, there is no alternative left us but to follow the examples of all trades and professions, linen-drapers, tailors, grocers, cheesemongers, lawyers, clergymen, doctors, and Government officers, and be off to the ' diggins.' " THE
FIRST M A P .
In 1841 Mr. J. P. Fawkner, the proprietor of the Port Phillip Patriot, presented his subscribers with a m a p of the T o w n of Melbourne, thefirstof the kind issued. It was neither engraved nor lithographed, but was set up with brass rule and type from a Government tracing, and even by a printer of the present day would be acknowledged a smart piece of workmanship. From information recently received I a m disposed to believe that it was the handiwork of Mr. James Harrison, one of the early typos, so well known for a series of years in connection with the Geelong Advertiser, and subsequently as a m a n fertile in ice-preserving experiments.
HAM'S MAP.
On the 23rd February, 1847, Mr. Thomas Ham, an engraver, doing business in a shop in Collins Street, opposite the present Bank of Victoria, issued " A M a p of Australia Felix," which favourably compares as an artistic production with some of the best maps of the present day. It was engraved on a copper plate 2 feet 6 inches by 1 foot 9 inches, to the scale of 19 miles to the inch, printed on the best Imperial drawing paper, and neatly coloured. It was sold at 12s. 6d. to subscribers and 16s. to non-subscribers, and was a really valuable acquisition to the public. T h e copyright was registered in London, and the m a p was dedicated (by permission) to Sir Charles Fitzroy, the Governor of N e w South Wales. It was a comprehensive chart, for it embraced the whole extent of country included in what it was believed would form the boundaries of the colony on the separation of Port Phillip. It showed the positions of more than a thousand squatting stations, numerically noted, and explained by a key or catalogue. All the harbours, rivers, lakes, creeks, ranges, and other topographical information were accurately delineated, the whole being carefully compiled and revised from official charts and other authentic documents. There are but very few copies of this valuable m a p extant. THE FIRST DEBATING SOCIETY.
A few of the most intelligent and active minds in Melbourne held a conference at the commencement of 1841, and the outcome was the foundation of what was designated " T h e Melbourne Debating Society," with a Managerial Board consisting of—President: the H o n . James Erskine Murray ; Vice-Presidents: Rev. James Forbes, and Surgeon A. F. Greeves; Chairman: Mr. J. G. Foxton; Committee : Messrs. James Boyle, G. A. Gilbert, R. V. Innes, D. W . O'Nial, and J. J. Peers; Treasurers : Messrs. T h o m a s B. Darling, and E. C. Dunn. This Society attracted to its ranks most of the talent of the town. Weekly meetings were held at the Scots' Schoolroom on the Eastern hill of Collins Street, and considerable debating power was rapidly developed. It was not a mere ordinary school-boy exhibition of vapid declamation and puerile rhodomontade, but an intellectual gathering, where questions of interest to the community were good-humouredly, intelligently, and patiently discussed. T h e proceedings were reported at length in the newspapers, and were regarded with almost the interest that n o w attaches to Parliamentary deliverances. There never was an institution in Melbourne that did such good in its time as this old and first " talking shop." O f its original members the only survivors in 1888 are, I believe, M r . J. G. Foxton, and Mr. J. M . Smith, the well-known Solicitor; and that his tongue is also still alive and stirring is evidenced by the proceedings which frequently enliven the heavy atmosphere of the Benevolent Asylum during the
