Melbourne Union Benefit Society
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"United to Relieve, Not Combined to Injure." Patron : Captain William Lonsdale ; President (Vacant) ; Vice-Presidents : Messrs. J. S. Lambard and J. L. Lake; Treasurer: Mr. John Caulfield; Secretary: M r . William B r o w n ; Physician: John Sproat, M . D . ; Stewards : Messrs. John Johnson and James A. Clarke. T h e time had not quite arrived for the working of such a project, and the Institution quietly and gradually dissolved. THE PORT PHILLIP CLUB.
The comparatively few people in Melbourne whose position rendered them in any way "clubable," were somewhat difficult to please, and one " H o u s e of Call" of this kind was found to be insufficient to provide for the requirements of, or rather to fall in with, the whims of the would-be-fashionables and swells of the period. Consequently a few of those w h o affected discontent with the management or surroundings of the Melbourne Club, assembled in private conclave in January, 1840, and determined upon opening an opposition shop, which was started accordingly, and thus officered :—President : Thomas Wills, Esq. ; Vice-President : Andrew M . M'Crae, Esq. ; Secretary : Archibald M'Lachlan, Esq. This Club commenced business in a small two-storey house in Lonsdale Street West, at the corner of the right-of-way n o w known as Wright's Lane; but it soon moved to the then large premises in Flinders Street, known as " Yarra House," and derisively nicknamed " Hodgson's Folly," because erected by Mr. John Hodgson, for which a rent of ,£600 per a n n u m was agreed to be paid. The Club's opening dinner was given on the 17th March, 1841 (thefirstSt. Patrick's celebration in Port Phillip), when about thirty persons sat down. M r . Thos. Wills officiated as Chairman, Mr. Richard Ocock did the " Vice," and it was declared that the evening passed off most agreeably. Though this Institution enjoyed but a short life, it was not a very merry one. T h e members were too sedate and slow for the convivial clubism of the time, and they wanted a spice of the dare-devil " g o " of the young bloods who favoured the other establishment. It vegetated quietly for a couple of years, and placidly withdrew from the world of pleasure, leaving behind only as m u c h of a memory as m a y attach to the well-known Port Phillip Club Hotel, which n o wflourishesin its place.
EXCESSIVE TAXATION.
In May, 1842, it was stated to be the intention of the' New South Wales Executive to introduce a measure of legislation which would ruinously oppress the industrial energies of the infant settlement, and steps were taken to enter into an urgent protestation against such iniquity. T h e proposals contemplated the imposition on the province of the responsibility of the sole maintenance of the police force, and the cost of roads, bridges, & c , and to remonstrate against such a preposterous intention a public meeting was held in the Bourke Street wooden theatre on the 17th of the month. T h e Chair wasfilledby the Deputy-Sheriff, several vehement addresses were delivered, and resolutions with a Petition adopted against the obnoxious Bill. This event was rendered remarkable as thefirstappearance on a public platform of Dr. Greeves, M r . William Hull, and Captain G. W . Cole, three m e n w h o played a prominent part in the political future of the colony.
FORMATION OF A YEOMANRY CORPS.
The capture of the bushrangers by the gentlemen amateurs in 1842, and the impunity with which other outrages were perpetrated, by both black and white depredators, started a notion as to
