Mr. E. E. Williams (one of the Standing Counsel to the Corporation) and Councillor Moor (ex-Mayor), declined the honour upon similar grounds. T h efirststep taken toyvards the establishment of a Benevolent Asylum yvas due to Councillor Smith, by w h o m a notice of motion on the subject yvas giv.n on the 25th May, and agreed to ist June. Melbourne was noyv making considerable progress in the erection of neyv buildings, so m u c h so that in March their valuation yvas estimated at ,£8000, from which there would be a welcome increase to the Civic income, MELBOURNE STREETS IN 1848.
When Mr. Edward Curr, at the Mayor's dinner, expressed an opinion that the Corporation had been prematurely born by a couple of years, people attributed such croaking to private resentment against some persons thrown up like bubbles on the surface of the Civic waters. But he was not far wrong if w e are to judge by the best of all criteria—results. After the Corporation had been six years in existence, the Public Works Committee submitted the following recommendations to the Council :— 1. Bourke Street to be formed, footways gravelled, and a tyventy-five feet wide roadway, in the centre to be metalled from Spring to Swanston Streets, and Elizabeth to King Streets, the water-channel on South side to be kerbed and pitched between Swanston and Stephen Streets. 2. Elizabeth Street to be rendered passable between Lonsdale and Latrobe Streets, by the formation and metalling of a roadyvay twenty-five feet wide in the centre. 3. Queen Street to be formed, footways gravelled, and a centre roadway twenty-five feet yvide to be metalled between Lonsdale and Flinders Streets, and the yvater channel on the West side to be kerbed and pitched for the like distance. 4. Collins Street.—The footways to be formed and gravelled, and the kerbing and pitching thereof completed between Queen and Swanston Streets ; the same street to be formed, footways gravelled, and a roadyvay of twenty-five feet in the centre metalled between Swanston and Spring Streets. 5. Little Flinders Street to be formed, roadway metalled, and footyvays gravelled between Swanston and Spring Streets. 6. Lonsdale Street to be formed, the footways gravelled, and a roadway of twenty-five feet metalled in centre betyveen Spring and King Streets. 7. Brunsyvick Street to be repaired at an estimated cost of .£50. For general repairs and improvements to footways throughout the city ,£100 yvas to be applied. T h e surplus cuttings from Bourke and Queen Streets were to be used infillingup and forming King Street, South of Collins Street, preparatory to the street being rendered passable. THE CITY OF MELBOURNE
Was ecclesiastically created by the arrival of Bishop Perry in January, 1848; but to legally manufacture a city, needs more than Royal Letters Patent. A n Act of the Colonial Legislature was therefore thought to be necessary, and accordingly Alderman Greeves tabled a motion to alter the style and title of Melbourne from a T o w n to that of a City. T h e draft Bill yvas approved, and transmitted to the Government for introduction to the Legislature, but it did not find a place on the Statute Book until the 3rd August 1849, when the 13th Vict, N o . 14, yvas assented to as " A n Act to effect the change in the Style and Title of the Corporation of Melbourne rendered necessary by the erection of the T o w n of Melbourne to a City." T h e Council also applied to the Government for permission for the Mayor to assume the title of "Right Worshipful," a privilege accorded to the Mayor of Sydney. More than a year elapsed before a reply was received, as the matter required a reference to the Secretary of State. In May, 1849, a despatch was received from Downing Street, refusing the request until the erection of Port Phillip into a separate colony. O n Mr. Latrobe assuming office as Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria in 1851, one of hisfirstacts yvas to comply with the demand.
