Page:ChroniclesofEarlyMelbournevol.2.pdf/283

The first confectioner's shop was opened in Collins Street, and issued its programme in 1838, after this fashion :—" Overton and Hill, bakers, confectioners, rusk and fancy biscuit makers. Ready to receive orders for wedding, dinner, and supper cakes, dressed dishes, pasties, patties, supplies, & c " Mr. Overton is (1888) residing near Melbourne, and an interesting reference to him appears in the Chapter on " Gas," for he was the first to apply it to shop lighting in Melbourne. T h efirstServants' Registry Office was kept by Edward Cockayne, w h o advertised his head-quarters as "at the Ship Inn, near Custom House. Flinders Lane." T h e first imported stallions are notified towards the close of 1838, viz., " R o m e o , a beautiful Entire horse," belonging to John M'Nall ; " Y o u n g Clydesdale, the best horse in the district," owner, John Hodgson; and " Noble," belonging to Alfred Langhorne. T h e "night-hawks" were early abroad, judging by the rewards offered in connection wtih nocturnal depredations, for the Rev. James Clow promises to pay ^ 1 0 "for information leading to the recovery of a quantity of silver plate stolen from his house on the night of 27th October, '38, i.e., table, dessert, tea, and egg spoons, dinner and dessert forks, soup ladle, gravy spoon with open division across, marrow spoon, and butter knife." George Smith, the proprietor of the Lamb Lnn, was so plucked by fowl-stealers that he offers £o reward for information whereon to convict the thief. Crown Land trespassers were also making a commencement, for Captain Fyans, P.M. "cautions persons against gathering, without being duly authorized, shells on pretence of burning lime on the shores about Geelong ; also, burning and collecting limestone, or removing anything on the Government ground." In the Gazette (28th August, 1839), there is an advertisement from two or three bachelors who wished to become respectable members of society, i.e., entering into the matrimonial state, and they expressed a hope "that no prudish fears will withhold the ladies from answering this appeal to Cupid, but will joyously c o m e forth in all their pristine purity, to meet half-way those w h o will Letters be but too happy to link their fates together in the happy bonds of holy matrimony. addressed A. B., care Gazette Office, will meet with the greatest secrecy and attention." T h e gentlemen, notwithstanding the scarcity of eligible spinsters, soon grew more exacting as to personal and pecuniary attractions, for in July, 1841, a young gentleman of good expectations advertises for a wife with ^ 3 0 0 0 . " She must be tall, and well-proportioned in every respect; but above all must have small feet and well-turned ankles, an expressive black or languishing blue eye, good teeth, and pouting lips." It is not at all likely that he was suited. A curious glimpse or two are obtained of the early business vocations of Mr. J. T. Smith, the seven times Mayor of Melbourne, for cropping up in the trade notices is one dated 26th March, 1839, in which he opens the Australian Store in Collins Street (the heart of "the Block") where he vends groceries, ironmongery, tobacco, and slop clothes; and notifies "that coffee will be roasted and ground early every morning of a superior quality ; also a small supply of fresh butter." In April, 1840, " h e retires from the grocery and store business, and is going into the timber trade." In 1838 John Briars announces that he has opened a stone quarry within two miles of Melbourne, where he had a supply of nine-inch coursers, and foot base stones on hand, and for sale by the load or otherwise. John Bennell, senior, of Little Bourke Street, advertises superior shell and stone lime, deliverable over Melbourne at is. 9d. per bushel; and so that purchasers m a y be sure of correct measure, he sent a bushel that they might measure for themselves. H e was soon followed by A d a m Murray, w h o in 1840, pompously announces "that he manufactures shell lime after the directions of Signor Ancello Cornaro, modeller and plasterer to the King of Naples, at 2s. 6d. per bushel. Stone lime free from sand or other impurities, prepared specially for the erection of churches, bridges, gaols, and other edifices of a permanent character, 2s. to 2s. 6d." T. S. Kay, from London, commenced business in Bourke Lane, "in the manufacture of nautical and optical instruments, where he had for sale spectacles and reading glasses, and informed the public that experience has proved beyond the shadow of doubt that the dust so often flying through the metropolis has a most baneful effect upon the vision."