Review of lirrieirs, 1/9113. 



587 



TOPICS OF THE MONTH. 



XIII.-^THE GREATER MELBOURNE MOVEMENT. 



WHAT IT MEANS. 



By LEONARD VIVIAN BIGGS. 



Melbourne who \m\e for a quarter of 



What does the Greater 

 Movement mean? Notwithstanding all 

 that has been written on the subject with- 

 in the past iifteen or sixteen years, it is 

 very doubtful whether the average man 

 or the real or mythical " man m the 

 street " in Victoria would be able to give 

 a really intelligent answer to the ques- 

 tion. He would know more about pre- 

 ference to unionists or the Marconi 

 " scandals." To some few it would 

 mean a movement m the direction of 

 amalgamating all the 2^ or 24 munici- 

 pal councils of the metropolis of this 

 State into one magnificent municipal 

 unification, a sort of Greater Birming- 

 ham or Greater Glasgow translated to 

 Australia, possessing one Greater Mel- 

 bourne Council, controlling the minu- 

 tiae of local government, as well as the 

 big utilities of an area of roughly 254 

 square miles. To a few more who might 

 be in touch with the " old city " — i.e., the 

 City of Melbourne area — it might mean 

 the gradual absorption by the old city, 

 piece by piece, of suburbia, and a con- 

 tinuance of a policy of absorption 

 begun about a decade ago by the an- 

 nexation of North Melbourne, Fleming- 

 ton and Kensington. But to the majority 

 of the half-a-million people who live in 

 the Greater Melbourne province, the 

 movement connotes a very uninteresting, 

 technical something — dimly related to 

 the tramways problems, and certainl)' 

 having little to do with the ideal side of 



life or the finer aspirations of modern bourne Movement aims at accomplish 

 society. They are not particularly 



laxe I or a quarter ot a cen- 

 tury been " running " this capital city 

 are very much alarmed, and are calling 

 upon the Country Party and the Legis- 

 lative Council to "do something," 

 merel\- amuses them. The additional 

 fact that the Labour Party is trying to 

 " go one better " than the Liberal Gov- 

 ernment by submitting a somewhat crude 

 unification scheme, into which a won- 

 drous programme of experimental 

 Socialism has been dovetailed, has not 

 greatly disturbed the man in the street, 

 for never down to the ]:)resent }-ear has 

 he been induced to take municipal 

 politics seriousl}-. It is to him an 

 affair of local tradesmen, land agents, 

 and a few^ aspiring accountants and 

 solicitors, who, somewhat unfairl)-, are 

 supposed to use it as a stepping 

 stone to other, if not higher, things. 

 There being no battle with any huge or 

 shocking system of Tammany "graft," 

 or bribery to stir the imagination, and 

 to rail}- the moral forces of the com- 

 munity to the reformers' side, apath}' 

 ])revails ever\where outside certain nar- 

 row munici]_ial circles, and the columns 

 of the Age and Arg.'/s devoted to the 

 discussion of tne contents of the Govern- 

 ment measure. The " ~th}- cannot, 

 howexer, last bc)'ond th: iduction of 



Mr. \\'att's Bill. Then t j the man in 



the street will have to take sides. lie 



nia\' as well, therefore, tr\- to obtain a. 



rip of what it is that the Greater Mel- 



in< 



anxious, taken in the mass, to get at the 

 heart of a cause associated more or less 

 in their minds with tiresome details of 

 local government law, and the fight 

 with parochial interests. The fact 

 that the State Premier is intro- 

 ducing a Greater Melbourne Bill this 

 month, and that certain gentlemen 



There is abundant room for legitimate 

 differences of opinion as the details of 

 anv plan for reforming metroi)olitan 

 local govern men t, and as to the rate at 

 which an\' new machinery should use 

 its |iowers ; but as to the main objective 

 of the Greater Melbourne movement 

 there is no r(M)m tor controversx' 



