vacated post. He continued in office for several years until his death, and since then there have been half-a-dozen City Surveyors, but amongst them all, from the beginning to the present, without individual disparagement be it said, that in civil engineering Blackburn was unquestionably not the least able of them all.
The First City Solicitor.
Melbourne has never had but one City Solicitor, Mr. Francis John Sidney (abbreviated into "Frank") Stephen, the son of a once well-known colonist, who obtained a New Zealand Judgeship. Frank was the nephew of "Alderman John," a jolly, good-hearted, careless sort of fellow. The billet was originally not worth having, but in the course of events Mr. Frank contrived to make it a very payable concern. He once made a spasmodic effort to get into the City Council, more in the way of a joke than otherwise, and during the M'Culloch political crisis in 1864, repeated the trick to get returned to the Legislative Assembly. It was in canvassing on the latter occasion that he invented the phrase "Old Hat," as applied to members of Parliament who were supposed to be nothing more than voting automata; and no future political phrasebook will be complete unless it find a place for this unpremeditated flash of originality. "Frank" still (1888) looks as well as ever he did, and that is saying much.
The Rate Collectors
Were a motley lot, and the most remarkable of them were a pair of old codgers, James Ballingall and William O'Farrell, who acted as public "dunners" for a number of years. Ballingall could boast of being townsman of the famous Adam Smith, for they were both born in Kirkcaldy, a royal ship-building burgh of Scotland, and, possibly owing to this fact, old Jamie was always holding forth on the supreme advantage of constructing ships with solid bottoms. In perambulating the streets he ventilated the topic; when collecting the rates he expatiated upon it; and he not only delivered public lectures, but organized a society to endeavour to give reality to the fad. O'Farrell was an auctioneer, and, after resigning the collecting book, entered into business as a House and Land Agent, realizing a handsome competence. It may be worth stating that perhaps there is no public body in this colony that lost less by the defalcations of its paid employés than the Melbourne Corporation. I can recall but two instances of defaulting Rate Collectors, and in one of these, one of the sureties repaid every farthing of the deficit.
The Town Auctioneer.
This office in the old times was held in succession by three departed worthies, known as William Barrett, Henry Frencham, and Edward Edgar. The Council once decided upon ordering the Rate Collectors to officiate in turn as public salesmen, against which old Ballingall kicked viciously for a while, but was obliged to submit on pain of losing his situation. When it came to O'Farrell's turn he went into the distasteful job cheerily, and so much the better for himself. Ballingall and O'Farrell were both good, worthy men, much and widely respected in their day.
