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HALF A CENTURY 


OF 


AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS, 


A PERSONAL RETROSPECT. 


PART I. 


ITINERARY OF THE Tour OF A REVISIT. 


PART Ii. 


A Sertes oF ARTICLES ON GENERAL QUESTIONS OF AUSTRALASIA, 
THe CoLonres, AND THE EmPrre GENERALLY. 


BY 


WILLIAM WESTGARTH 


j 
yt 
aa! 


LONDON: 
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, 
LIMITED, 
St. Dunstan’s House, 
Ferrer Lane, FLEET Street, E.C. 
1889, 
[All rights reserved.] 


LONDON: 
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, 
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 


PREFATORY REMARKS. 


—>———_. 


*“ We regard the Colonies as integral parts of the Empire, and 
our warmest sympathies are with our brethren beyond the seas, 
who are no less dear to us than if they dwelt in Surrey or 
Kent.”—Speech of the Prince of Wales at the “coming of age” 
dinner of the Royal Colonial Institute, 13th March, 1889. 


Some more Recent Occurrences. 
My Preface is nota little in the nature of a Post- 
script. Events have a quick succession in Austral- 
asian colonial life. Ere an ordinary volume like 
this can be passed through the press, much that 
is fresh or additional upon its subject may have 
occurred which an author would still like to notice. 
Amongst other events in so brief a space have been 
these three of no small significance. First, the late 
elections in New South Wales, as was not altogether 
unexpected, have at last threatened the free-trading 
position which the Colony, mainly under Sir Henry 
Parkes’s vigorous hands, has hitherto been able to 
maintain. Colonists, whenever they quit their 
mother’s leading, seem unable to save themselves 
from the common lapse into “ protection,’ although 
every distinguished economist, without one single 
exception, has declared and demonstrated, that for 
any society to restrict its own market, and to limit 
a2 


lv PREFACE. 


its own sphere of exchange, must be self-evident folly 
and loss. Second, yet one further conference upon 
Intercolonial Federation has separated once more 
without result. Upon these events, the latter even 
more untoward than the first, I must say a few 
words in this preface further on. Third, just as I go 
to press, we have had the important speech of the 
Prince of Wales, a sentence from which, as quoted 
above, cannot fail to promote the great cause in 
whose interest it was spoken. 

A fourth subject is also recently to the front, in 
more assured hope of success than before, namely, 
the admission of our colonial stocks into the highly 
privileged list for Trust investment. There seems 
no doubt now that this privilege will be conceded 
very shortly. Our distinguished Chancellor, even as 
a mere matter of business, could not allow this 
concession to interfere, as undoubtedly it would have 
done, with his great, Consols’ Conversion scheme. 
But that completed, the way for the other will be 
clear. Australasia must not miss this happiest of 
opportunities for inaugurating ber coming—her in- 
evitable—Three per cents. Each Colony might 
issue, as the privileged stock, an uniform Three per 
cent. Into this all the previous outstandings, respec- 
tively, might be gradually converted. Thus the 
foundation might be laid of a great Australasian 
Dominion stock, a worthy substitute in point of 
security, as we may hope, for the old parental Threes 
which have just expired. 


PREFACE. Vv 


Some Prominent Public Questions dealt with. 


In the course of my Australasian tour my atten- 
tion was called to a variety of high public questions 
of the day, most of them of very great current 
interest and importance, alike to the Colonies and 
the Empire. In giving my views upon these ques- 
tions, I not only speak as from the very ground and 
scene of the questions, but also out of a length and 
variety of colonial experience which not many could 
claim to exceed. I have discussed them with all due 
freedom, feeling that my views are mostly those of 
thorough conviction. If I have aimed at a touch of 
humour to suitably lighten some subjects having 
perhaps a leaden character to many readers, I shall 
not be misunderstood—not even if the humour be 
but moderately visible. 

These questions then, wherever or whenever they 
crossed my path, I have endeavoured duly to 
discuss. They already arise in considerable num- 
ber and diversity. They are Australasian ques- 
tions, questions of the Colonies in general, and 
questions of the whole Empire. One of them, for 
example, is the improvement, by means of irrigation 
and otherwise, of the Australian climate, a subject 
which is now commanding very general attention on 
the spot, and in which is involved a progress that, as 
_ even now exceeding all the marvels of the past, may 
be regarded as prospectively in the region of the 
inealculable. 


val PREFACE. 


Another question pertains to still improved inter- 
communications, especially as to the high desi- 
deratum of speed, in which, as must yet be con- 
fessed, our Australasian “ Lines” are so completely 
outstripped by those between Liverpool and America. 
I might have included another question, not uncon- 
nected with this of the speed of intercommunication, 
namely the great Postal question, colonial and 
general, if it had not been of late wielded with such 
exemplary vigour and pertinacity by my friend, Mr. 
Henniker Heaton, M.P. for Canterbury. Then follow 
certain graver questions, such as, first, the policy of 
the extension of the Empire, a subject on which there 
are now indications of a changed feeling at Home, 
and one more in accordance with the colonial view, 
which has usually regarded the utmost possible 
extension amongst the unclaimed areas of savage 
peoples as the most likely to result in excluding 
future foreign complications, and giving to the 
Empire the minimum of possible future danger or 
disturbance. Second comes the equally grave ques- 
tion of the socio-political principles of the Empire’s 
government, a question which concerns mainly the 
well-being of the non-British races of our tropical 
colonies. 


Selection of the most important of these Questions. 

Making a comparative estimate of the degree of 
importance of these various questions, the four 
following strike me as not only the most important, 


PREFACE. Vil 


but as those which press most immediately for settle- 
ment. First, the Chinese question, which is really 
one of our being some day blotted out or flooded out 
of national existence in certain of our Colonies by a 
possible countless swarm of non-associable human 
beings, with whom our only chance is by a timely 
exclusion. Second, the confederation of natural 
colonial groups, as the Canadian, Cape, and Aus- 
tralasian respectively, into one general government. 
Third, the grandest as well as gravest of all these 
questions is that of the political unity of the Empire, 
so as to bind effectively together this greatest of 
national structures which the world has ever seen in 
all the power and influence, and the guidance of 
wisdom and experience, which is possible to all its 
circumstances. 

There is still a fourth question, that of the final 
result of an united empire as to trading freedom or 
trading self-restriction to our vast and varied in- 
terests. Such experience as we have is, I fear, 
opposed to any hope that the colonial groups, when 
they respectively federate, will do otherwise than 
follow the Canadian example into protection. But 
when the lively and most interesting battle opens 
over the whole Empire, as it will do at once upon 
the completion of the political unity now so univer- 
sally desired, I do not doubt that the mother’s influ- 
ence will prevail, even where common sense has 
failed, to hinder her children from damaging by their 
restrictions their own prosperity and prospects. 


Vill PREFACE. 


The United Empire the Greatest Question. 


The United Empire is undoubtedly the greatest, as 
well indeed as the most urgent, of all our present 
questions ; and, as it is one on which I have bestowed 
much serious attention, I feel disposed to deal with it 
in a practical way leading to action. It is chiefly 
for the opportunity of some further remarks on this 
question, suggested by what has come further under 
my observation upon it since this volume was 
written, that I have taken the liberty of inflicting 
upon my readers this rather lengthened Preface. , 


A Colonial View upon it. 


One of the most suggestive views I have as yet 
met with on the question of the Unity of the Empire 
is given in an article of the (Melbourne) Australasian 
weekly paper of 13th October last, which every one 
interested, and proposing to give in any way a help 
to the cause, should read. But, as many may not 
have the opportunity, I shall here recall its sub- 
stance. As I left Melbourne two days before the 
publication, I did not happen to read it until all my 
volume was in type, so that I must needs bring it 
up here. 

The writer of the article does not in the least 
doubt the general desire of the colonists to be 
united, or to remain united, with the great Empire 
of their fellow-countrymen, and that is evidently 
also his own personal feeling. But difficulty and 


PREFACE. ix 


disagreement begin at once when we come to the 
steps that are to be taken to effect this object. The 
writer continues, on this further point also, to speak 
not only for his fellow colonists, but seemingly also 
from his own feeling. He says, in effect, “ We 
dislike the idea of an Imperial Executive over- 
shadowing us; we dread a Parliamentary rule that 
is to be above our own; we are nervous, whether 
really or affectedly, even about a federated English 
Cabinet, because we fear it might wield too much 
power,” and so on, and so on. 

Now, the utter contradiction implied here may not 
be fully apparent to those who, like our Australian 
colonists, have revelled for nearly the last thirty-five 
years in that utterly anomalous paradise of being 
practically their own masters, and yet, while on 
their part responsible for nothing, full members of 
an Empire, every part of which their Mother is 
bound to cherish and defend. Besides the question 
of the equities of such a case, we see well exemplified 
the apostolic argument about the body and its mem- 
bers. In the colonial case each member thinks to 
live for itself, because that is so safe and pleasant 
under the powerful shelter of the whole body, and 
yet each is grudging and jealous of the strength 
which it is to contribute thereto. 

In my view all this unreason, so to call it, is 
simply the natural outcome of the present politically 
anomalous and self-segregative position of our 
Colonies. The effect already, during the thirty odd 


x PREFACE. 


years this condition has lasted, is to raise up a 
serious difficulty ; and, if there is a further lke term 
of such anomalous life, the difficulty might possibly 
be enhanced beyond surmounting. The Empire will 
simply bleed to death, even if accompanied by the 
sweet music of the most loyal imperial phraseology. 


The high Importance of Time. 


In this case, then, of course there is no considera- 
tion more important than time. I cannot pretend to 
guess at what exactly passes in the mind of my old 
friend, Sir Henry Parkes, on that point. But more 
times than once in the union movement the delay or 
abstention of his, the senior and most important 
Colony, has discouraged or postponed great questions 
of political or financial import. While in the very 
act of draughting this Preface, the southern tele- 
grams bring us that abortive result of the Inter- 
colonial Federation Conference to which I have 
alluded, and which will probably cause years of 
further delay. “The session of the Australasian 
Federal Council for 1889,” says the message, “ which — 
closed on Monday last, was unimportant and un- 
eventful, judging from the meagre summaries of 
each day’s business. The persistent abstention of 
the parent Colony, New South Wales, from any 
recognition of this union of the other Colonies 
practically paralyses the operation of the Council, 
and deprives its decisions of that weight and 
authority they would otherwise possess.” 


PREFACE. x1 


Is Sir Henry himself so loyal that he can see no 
danger in delay? Ina late speech, also telegraphed 
quite lately, he had said, speaking of the Inter- 
colonial Union, that ere that came there would be 
ten Colonies to deal with the question, instead of the 
present six. He alluded to tropical Australia, with 
its three prospective Colonies, and perhaps our 
section of New Guinea as the fourth. But to wait 
for this would certainly involve at least ten to 
twenty more years of time. 

The separate life to which each Colony is now so 
long accustomed is, no doubt, one cause of the block 

that has ever, from one Colony or another, hindered 
and protracted the union movement. In addition, I 
doubt not, the tariff question ruffles Sir Henry and 
his Free Trade Government, who are surrounded, 
within as well as without their boundaries, by the 
ceaseless hostility of Protection. Indeed the fight 
already looks ominous for trading freedom even upon 
his own ground, as the late New South Wales elec- 
tions have returned Sir Henry’s party in a parlia- 
mentary majority of only four votes. 


A Striking Contingeney. 

A rather striking contingency comes into view 
here. If New South Wales were at last to abandon 
the trading freedom she has so long preserved, and 
to cripple her exchange resources by the restrictions 
of protection, she would inevitably, I think, lose the 
commercial supremacy which she has of late years 


X11 PREFACE. 


wrested from her rival junior, Victoria, since the latter 
lapsed into this restrictive course. Perhaps patriotic 
Victorians may see here an additional reason for 
getting New South Wales committed to Protection 
like themselves. But I feel bound to admit that, if 
New South Wales thus sacrificed herself, she would, 
no doubt, very greatly remove the block to Inter- 
colonial Federation, and I may here repeat my view, 
that everything else, tariffs not excepted, ought to 
be counted second to the great aim of unity, whether 
Intercolonial or Imperial. 


An Empire Executive. 


The difficulty in question suggests that the bring- 
ing together of the Empire should not be encumbered 
by any great steps into new courses, and for the 
simple reason that such steps will never be taken. 
Such are propositions about Federal bodies to super- 
sede or dominate the present Parliaments, Home and 
colonial ; or to fill up the present so-called Imperial 
Parliament by a huge influx of proportionate 
colonial elements? I have pointed to the Cabinet 
as the comparatively easy and effective means of 
accomplishing Imperial unity. Let us introduce, in 
a constitutional way, the colonial element there, and 
at once there is an Empire Executive. 


An Intermediate Step. 


But even this is a step which Colonies, already 
querulous about steps, may find a difficulty in 


PREFACE. x1il 


taking. It requires some form of election which the 
people of each Colony or each federated group will 
feel to be binding, so as to give the Empire all 
its possible influence and strength. On this account 
I have suggested a still simpler and intermediate 
step, which is, I think, quite possible to the con- 
venient elasticities of our constitutional method, and 
may, almost at once, open the road to the final unity 
of the Empire. What should prevent the Queen, by 
advice of Her Government, nominating the colonial 
representative proportion by way of a council of 
advice, to sit always with the Cabinet ? 

Although no constitutional powers could be con- 
ferred upon the colonial element thus introduced, 
yet the practical working would gradually make 
towards an Empire cabinet, while the step would be 
so significant, that it could hardly fail to be followed 
by the full constitutional arrangement. I will 
venture to follow this general proposal by giving 
the exact detail. There are many colonists of 
_ position and experience, residing more or less per- 
manently in this country, from whom such a 
selection as I suggest could be made. If the 
Colonial Office feels short of range, the Royal 
Colonial Institute and the large Colonial Trade 
Sections of the London Chamber of Commerce will 
complete its resources. I will suppose that ten 
members, added for the Colonies to a Home cabinet 
of sixteen, may be the proportion; say, three each 
for the Dominion and Australasia, two for the 


XiV PREFACE. 


Cape, and one each for the East and West Indian 
Settlements of the properly colonial kind. For the 
present, then, let this proportion of the Cabinet be 
introduced by way of a nominated and advisory 
body. The mode of procedure, as it appears to me, 
would be for the Home Government to select these 
ten names, of course advisedly, and refer them for 
approval to the respective Colonies. If these names 
were sent to the respective governors, these latter 
would, in a prompt and common-sense way, easily 
ascertain sufficiently colonial opinion. My expecta- 
tion is that a loyal and cordial acquiescence would be 
everywhere given, while a general interest would 
be aroused towards the further development of so 
significant a first step. 


The Parent to the Front at last. 


No small advantage of this step would be its 
indication to the Colonies that their parent was at 
last giving up that passive attitude of self-effacement 
in her family which she has so long, and I might 
even say so incongruously, assumed. To this 
attitude, additional as it is to the grave political 
incongruities of the colonial position, I largely 
attribute the cross grains that on occasions show 
themselves in Colonies, and which are not altogether 
confined to recent exhibitions in Queensland, although 
exhibited there more pronouncedly perhaps than 
elsewhere. As parent of the family, the Home 
Government should come more to the front, and 


PREFACE. XV 


invite or lead, rather than follow or stand passive. 
Of course the former must be done judiciously, and 
all the more so, from the Colonies having been so 
long used to, and perhaps somewhat spoiled by, the 
latter. The only instance, | think, in which this 
proper self-assertion has been made, namely in the 
proposition of the colonial Conference of two years 
past, was met, on the colonial part, with a cordiality 
of response which must surely have been to the 
parent all that was expected or desired. And out of 
that Conference has come, or, more strictly, has 
been completed, the present most important arrange- 
ment for joint naval defence. 

Judicious steps, even still more directly tending 
towards the unity of the Empire, might meet quite 
as prompt and favourable a response. I think that 
in such matters the Home Government has been 
altogether too timid, as though practically under- 
estimating the great influence it still wields in the 
Colonies and the solid substratum of loyalty still 
there. I believe that the easy course which I have 
suggested above for taking a preliminary step 
towards the Empire’s political unity would be well 
taken by the Colonies, and that it would lead inevi- 
tably to the completion of that object. 


The Colonial Element in the Imperial Executive. 
_ T have already said on this occasion, as well as on 
“previous occasions not a few, that the introduction 
of the colonial element into the Home Cabinet might 


Xvi PREFACE 


result in the happiest effect upon Home party 
politics. A different view has been expressed on 
this contingency, to the effect that such unwonted 
fusion might rather confuse the Home political 
lines, by introducing, so to say, an alien element, 
unsympathetic with either party. Where, for 
instance, it is sald, would the colonial element 
stand when there came a change of Government? 
If so slightly sympathetic with Home party as 
not to require to “go out” with the one or 
“come in” with the other, would it not “betray 
party secrets,” or otherwise jumble our systematic 
party action? Well, but this is to parade the very 
defects which we hope the colonial fusion will help 
to reduce or get rid of. On the contrary, there 
is a good hope that the system of unpatriotic 
“secrets,” and other indications of unseemly party 
extremes, may be beneficially modified under the 
new course; so that we may not only apprehend no 
harm from it, but rather confidently leave the two 
elements of the future Cabinet, the Home and the 
colonial, to adjust themselves for the Empire’s good 
as circumstances may suggest. They are to be 
guided, as M. Thiers said of the Pope, by “the 
Providence of events.” 

If Lord Salisbury might soaable dread, from some 
past experience, that the colonial partnership meant 
an occasional perplexing spoke in the wheel of his 
Foreign Policy, I would recommend the effective 
eure of terminating the present abnormai colonial 


PREFACE. xvii 


relations, which, out of entire non-responsibility, 
must ever be fertile in a crop of free talk. 

Lastly, in the way of the Empire's unity, is ever 
apt to be thrust upon the Colonies the bugbear of 
the Mother country’s possible foreign wars, in which 
the Colonies might have no interest whatever. But, 
in the first place, the parent’s past wars had been 
mostly made, more or less directly, on account of 
Colonies. And, again, the Colonies are just as much 
liable now to hostile attack arising out of such wars 
as if under the completest political union. Our 
empire must face its risks in that way like other 
powers of the world, and the Colonies, since the 
question came directly before them, have surely 
shown no shirking disposition. 

On the other hand, however, the contingency of 
unity presents some important and not unfavourable 
considerations. 1. An Imperial policy, in which 
the colonial element duly weighs, will probably steer 
even still more clear, if possible, of foreign com- 
plications than has been the later steady aim of our 
Home Government. 2. When the power of the 
whole Empire is grasped by an adequate and 
constitutional Executive, every section of it, even the 
least, is assured that in case of need the whole 
Empire stands behind it. 3. When the rest of the 
world realises this new position of the Empire, the 
prospect of any attack from other powers will be 
materially diminished. 


XVili PREFACE. 


POSTSCRIPT. 


The Late Canadian Invitation to Australia and 


Intercolonial Federation. 


One of the latest as well as pleasantest anticipa- 
tions of an United Empire, as well as the lesser 
question of an Australasian inter-colonial Federa- 
tion, has been the invitation from the Dominion to 
her sister Australia for a meeting on behalf of their 
mutual commerce. Such approaches from one section 
of the Empire to another are so proper in themselves, 
and of so enlivening a character — they are in- 
variably so cordially received, as far at least as a 
very limited experience yet goes—that the surprise 
is that they should not be oftener suggested. The 
Kmpire girdles the earth in the common bond of 
English race, and in the common spectacle of a 
vigorous progress. The various parts have a natural 
gravitation towards each other. It is surely worth 
while to have now and again a special conference to 
consider how still further to extend these natural 
relations, and to diminish obstacles and distance. 

In Australia’s cordial response, her proposed alter- 
native that the Canadians should be the visitors, was, 
| think, a happy idea. There would be the reduced 
difficulty of a numerically smaller delegation from 
the one Dominion Government. But far beyond 


PREFACE. xix 


that minor matter is the consideration that, while 
Canada is already familiar to Australia from the 
facility of access from London, the latter is as yet 
almost an unknown land to Canadians. Indeed, the 
marvels, on the one hand, of an unprecedented race of 
progress in the Southern group, and on the other of 
the scientific romance of its fauna and flora, which 
now interest increasing multitudes in this age of 
extended science cultivation, give the decided pre- 
ponderance of attraction in that direction. A citizen 
of Montreal, Quebec, or Toronto, would probably be 
far more struck with the appearance of Sydney or 
Melbourne, than with that of our Home cities, not 
excepting even London itself. Of course the larger 
part of the idea concerns the future, but what would 
impress the Canadian on that point in Australia was 
the comparative imminence of that future by the un- 
exampled pace of the present. So very much the 
younger as Australia is, her two capitals, Sydney 
and Melbourne, are each already twice the size of 
Montreal, the largest city of the Dominion. 


Promotion of Intercolonial Federation. 


_ But Iam here rather concerned with the effect of 

such a visit in stimulating the Australasian Federal 

movement, when the many representatives of the 

comparatively small Australian Colonies meet the 

few, who though few, yet represent a sub-Imperial — 

Power, already not unworthy to compare with not a 
b 2 


xx PREFACE. 


few of the independent powers of the civilized world. 
Doubtless Australasian federation, when it does come, 
will take example, more or less, from that so success- 
fully carried out by Canada. If so, then the separate 
political life of the Australian Colonies, which time 
has so far endeared to their respective populations, 
does not cease upon federation. These Colonies 
merely surrender the federal questions, reserving 
still their own local administration, and reserving 
also, as I have proposed, the free hand to each over 
its tariff, which I believe will be an important facility, 
or indeed a necessity of the change. 


Difference between the Two Groups. 


But I apprehend a great difficulty to Australasia 
in creating such a numerically ample Federal Par- 
liament as assembles yearly at Ottawa. We must 
remember, first of all, that ever-busy Australia 
knows no comparatively leisure season such as that 
which ice-bound Canada enjoys every winter. And, 
again, over the immense Australasian area the heavy 
membership drafts of such a parliament upon the 
busy colonists, and the great distances, would be 
seriously felt. New Zealand, for instance, Fiji, New 
Guinea, the entire of Tropical Australia, and one or 
more Colonies of the present West Australia, would 
feel the practical inaccessibility of an Australian 
Ottawa, situated probably either at Albury, or lower 
down the queen of Australian rivers, the Murray, 


PREFACE. Xx1 


These considerations suggest a Federal Body 
rather in that numerical paucity to be associated 
with an Executive. Each Colony would elect its 
small contribution to the dominating body. By 
making of each Colony one electoral district, the 
best men would be secured, and the highest repre- 
sentative consideration be given them. This mode 
seems to me better for a non-party federal body 
than the alternative of a selection by the respective 
sub-parliaments. ‘Phe moderate numerical strength 
would not be unfavourable—rather, perhaps, the 
reverse — to influence and power, to loyalty of 
sentiment and to consistency of course. 


A Momentary Gleam of Protection at Sydney. 


During the temporary displacement of Sir Henry 
Parkes’s government, just alluded to, the protec- 
tionist advocates enjoyed a momentary gleam of 
hope, and their colours and their arguments were 
at once displayed. 

Let me extract, from the elaborate address of 
the protectionist premier of the passing moment, 
Mr. Dibbs, the following passage, which concisely 
presents to us at once protectionist principle and 
protectionist error :— 

“ Almost every other country protects its markets 
against our competition, while its surplus products 
and manufactures pour into New South Wales— 
the market which should be ours, but which we 


Xxil PREFACE. 


practically hand over to others.”’—Sydney Morning 
Herald, 23 Jan., ’89. F 

Is the protectionist to remain for ever. incompetent 
to perceive that the change he would introduce here 
would be the sacrifice of the society’s major interest 
for the minor—the welfare of the greater number 
for that of the lesser ? 

Let me now reconstruct Mr. Dibbs’s sentence in 
accordance with the principles of true economy and 
common sense, It will then read thus :— 

“ Almost every other country refuses to its people 
the selection, which they would otherwise make, of 
such of our products as best suited them, while such 
of the products and manufactures of these countries 
as best suit us we are always free to secure. Thus, 
by our advantageous exchanges of other kinds of our 
own products for these suitable imports, we make for 
ourselves the better market, while the self-restricted 
countries in question make for tliemselves the worse.” 
Had not the colony best remain so ? 

Before concluding here this work, which gives the 
Australasia of to-day, and was preceded only a few 


months before by my “ Personal Recollections” of ’ 


the same part of our Empire half a century before, I 
am anxious to pay a deserved tribute to my old 
friend and Victorian fellow-colonist, Mr. James 
Bonwick, late Inspector of Victorian Schools, and a 
multifarious author upon these Southern Colonies. 
Not a few of us have already taken up the pen on 
behalf of our infant Hercules at the Antipodes, but 


PREFACE. XX1ll 


more laboriously and more successfully perhaps than 
any other my.old friend has toiled to provide the 
earlier food for the future historians of Australia. 


W. WESTGARTH. 
8 Fincu Lane, Lonpon, 
18th March, 1889. 


CONTENTS. 


——_—>—— 
PAGE 
PREFACE . : , : : : : aoe i 
PART 
Section I.—A Preratory DIscussIon ON THE ORIGIN 
AND PLAN OF THE WoRK : ‘ . p 1 


An Australasian Retrospect of Half a Century— 
Claims of “The Voyage Out” as part of the Subject 
— Choice of Route — Rival Interests of Routes — 
The American and Mormonism—The British Asso- 
ciation to Australia — Some Suggestions on this 
Subject — Plan of the Work. 


Section II.—TuHEr VoyaGce Ott : P aes C " 


The Charming Canaries — Cape Town — Tasmania. 


Section IJ].—Hopart, tHe CariTaAL oF TAsMANIA., 19 


Comparative Race of Colonial Progress— A Tas- 
manian Premier — A Digression upon Colonial 
Finance — Intercolonial Federation as bearing on 
Colonial Finance—Question of incorporating Tas- 
mania with Victoria. 


Secrion 1V.—Hosart to MELsourne, vid Lauvun- 
CESTON, Bass’s Strait, Port PHILLIP AND 
WILLIAMSTOWN ‘ ; _ : ; «ae 


a The Tasmanian Main Line — Launceston, Second 

£ Port of Tasmania — Bass’s Strait — Bad Weather 
—Port Phillip — The Yarra Entrance: “ The New 
Cut ” — Melbourne Wharf and Old Friends. 


XXV1 CONTENTS. 
PAGH 
Section V.—MELBOURNE, THE CAPITAL OF VICTORIA, 
IN 1888 : 3 ‘ : : : ee: 


Mr. Francis Henty—The Henty Family, Founders 
of Victoria— Followed by Colonising of Port Phillip 
by Batman and Fawkner— The Messrs. Hentys’ 
work still unrecognised by the Imperial Govern- 
ment — Melbourne, 1840-57, 1857-88—The Tram- 
ways System—Some Peculiarities in Colonial Pro- 
gress—The Melbourne Press — Melbourne Trade— 
A Personal Retrospect of Forty Years. 


Section VL—THe MeELBouRNE CENTENARY EXHI- 
BITION OF 1888 ; : ; c : ee 


Foreign Visitors — The Opening Procession — The 
Cosmos of Exhibits. 


Section VIJ.—MELBouRNE IN 1888 (continued) . 64 


Collins Street, the chief Business Thoroughfare— 
Rival Places of Interest—The Benevolent Asylum 
The Public Library, and other Institutions — The 
Opening of the New Bridge — The Town Hall and 
the Town Clerk — The Mayor and the Great Town 
Hall Balls—The Original Melbourne Cemetery and 
some Old Friends there— The Second Cemetery 
and yet other Friends—Suburban Melbourne, how 
changed ! — The Suburban Municipality System— 
Disappearance of Batman’s Hill—The Great Work 
of the Melbourne Harbour — A Suggestion to 
improve Melbourne Improvements — The young 
Prince of Schleswig-Holstein, 1850. 


Secrion VIII.—Me.sourne To SypnEy By Rain . 87 


Official Cuurtesies and Free Railway Passes — 
Australian Scenery — Dead and Dying 'Timber— 
The River Murray, and Albury — Colonial Wine— 
New South Wales, and bracing cold. 


CONTENTS. XXVil 
a. PAGE 

Section [X.—SypDNEY, THE CAPITAL OF NEW SovutTu 
WaLeEs, IN 1888 . : > ‘ : . 94 


Comparison with Melbourne—Sydney’s Harbour of 
Port Jackson— Comparison of New South Wales 
and Victoria — Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of New 
South Wales. 


Section X.—AN ALTOGETHER INEVITABLE DIGREs- 
SION UPON FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION IN 
AUSTRALASIA . . . . ‘ : . 106 

Some introductory Principles—Economic Advantage 
alone dealt with—Two Ilustrations—The Higher 
Price and Diminishing Labour — Product under 
Protection — Competition and Free Exchange — 
Mill’s qualified Concession of a temporary Protec- 
tion — Case of Victorian Candle-making — The 
Argument with Protectionists—The Conclusion, as 
I draw it. 


Secrion XI.—Sypney To BRISBANE BY SEA , . L24 


The Newcastle Labour Strike — The Winding 
River—Brisbane. 


Section XIJ.—BrisBANE, THE CAPITAL OF QUEENS- 
LAND, AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD q : = Ss 
Good Streets and Buildings—The Charred and Dead 
Trees once more — Want of Capital for Land and 
Mining Development — Brisbane Waterworks. 


Section XIIJ.—Brispane TO SypNey By Rattway 138 
Queensland Traders “threatened ” with Protection 
— Australian Scenery once more — Great Rail 
Bridge over the Hawkesbury still unfinished. 


SECTION XIV.—SyYDNEY ONCE MORE, AND THE BLUE 
MounTalixs . : . ; : ; 145 
A very Old Friend — The famous Blue Mountains, 


and Katoomba Township — Sydney Harbour— 
Manley Beach. 


XXVII1 CONTENTS. 


SECTION XV.—SypDNEY TO AUCKLAND, NEW ZEA- 
LAND, BY THE “Frisco.” Main ; 


Grand Sea Approach to Auckland — Climate and 
various Attractions of Auckland. 


Section XVI.— AuckLAND TO NEw PLyMouUTH, 
Picton, AND WELLINGTON, By SEA . : - 


The Premier and the New Plymouth Harbour — 
Some new Plymouth Resources — Cook’s Strait and 
Nelson — A natural Harbour in the act of Self- 
construction — The Natives and their Reseives of 
Land—A notable New Zealand Colonist—Picton’s 
Fine Harbour and Oysters. 


SEcTION XVII.— WELLINGTON, THE OFFICIAL 

CapiITaAL oF New ZEALAND. : : d 

A Visit to Sir W. FitzHerbert — Maori Town Life, 

and Native Village of Petoné—A Working Class 

Conference — The Great New Meat-Freezing Trade 

—The Wellington and Manawatu Railway — A 
Pleasant Excursion. 


Section XVIII.—Wetuneton Harpocur to Lyr- 
TELTON HARBOUR . ‘ : « ; : 


Fine Coasting Steamers—The “ Wairarapa ’—Some 
New Zealand Public Men, and the depressed Times. 


Section XIX.— Lyrretton Harsour, LyTre.ton, 
AND CHRISTCHURCH : : ; ‘ : 


Christchurch and its remarkable Water Supply — 
The late Earthqnake. 


PAGE 


. 150 


157 


174 


188 


193 


SECTION XX.—CuHRIsTCHURCH TO DUNEDIN By Rai 201 


The Canterbury Plains — The “ Gorse ” — ‘Timaru 
and its Harbour — Oamuru and Harbour. 


CONTENTS. XX1X 


Section XXI.—DvuwneEpDIN AND Oraco HARBoUR . 


Section XXII.—“*TuHe BuLurr” AND INVERCARGILL, 

FovEAu STRAITS AND STEWART’sS ISLAND . 

A New Zealand Storm—The Bluff Harbour — 

Invercargill, a Model Town — Stewart’s Island and 

Foveau Strait, and their Oysters — An interesting 

Story of Early Colonial Life — Another Talk with 
Working Men. 


Section XXIII.—Rerurn To HoBart, AND ONCE 
‘MORE TO MELBOURNE . 


SEcTION XXIV. — MErEBouURNE TO LILYDALE AND 
FERNSHAW 


Small Inland Towns, their Similarity—Forest-clad 
Mountains — An Aboriginal Native Reserve. 


Section XX V.—MELBOURNE TO LANCEFIELD . s 


A Remarkable Colonist, the late Mr. W. J. T. Clarke 
— Brewing, and the importance of the Water. 


Section XX VI.—MELBOURNE TO GEELONG, QUEENS- 
CLIFF, AND BALLARAT , : 

Geelong—Queenscliff — Military Defences — More 

of the Defensive — Indented Head and Victorian 


Agriculture — Geelong to Ballarat — Ballarat — 
A Ballarat Gold Mine — Mayor and Town Hall. 


Section XX VII.—A Vistr ro Mr. ELLERY AND THE 
MELBOURNE OBSERVATORY 


Section XXVIIL—A mucH-NEEDED REForRM 


Section X XTX.—MELBOURNE TO ADELAIDE BY Ratt 


A Farewell Address— The Start for Adelaide — 
The Mallee Scrub — The River Murray, the Aus- 
tralian Mississippi. 


PAGE 


208 


. 213 


. 228 


. 231 


238 


. 259 


. 269 


271 


XXX CONTENTS. 
PAGE 


Section XXX.—ADELAIDE AND SouTH AUSTRALIA 276 


Section XXXI.—TwHE AUSTRALIAN TRANSCONTINEN- 
TAL RAILWAY : ; ; : : 2 aor 
The Chinese and the Coloured Labour Question 
in connection with this Railway — The Mode of 
Government of Tropical Colonies — A Kanaka or 
Coloured Servant in Australia — Interviewing. 


Section XXXII.—TuE ss. “OniIzABA”: ADEUAIDE 
to Kina GrorGe’s SounpD, West AUSTRALIA 295 


Superiorities of our Vessel— West Australia— The 
Railway from Albany to Perth. 


SecTION XXXIII. — THE Voyace Home: WEsT 
AUSTRALIA TO COLOMBO. 4 : 2 > oue 


The Australian Seas—Ceylon and Native Labour 
— The Humblest may, in his turn, be King of the 
Situation—Ceylon Features: Trafficking; Schools 
— Colombo Harbour. 


SEcTION XXXIV.—THE VoyaceE Home: CoLomsBo 
TO ADEN 2 ‘ , . 3 é « b83 


Coaling at Aden — Bargaining — Importance of 
Aden: its various Races. 


SecTION XXXV.— THE VoyaGE Home: ADEN TO 
Port Sap . ‘ : ; ~ Bae 


The Red Sea — The Suez Canal — Port Said. 


Section XXXVI.—THE Voyace Home: Port Sarp 
To NAPLES . : 3 ‘ ; : . 025 


The End of our Pleasant Voyage. 


CONTENTS. XXX1 


ge se oe 


GENERAL QUESTIONS OF THE COLONIES AND THE 
EMPIRE . 


ARTICLE I.— ON THE PROSPECT FOR A _ STILL 
IMPROVED SERVICE OF IJINTERCOMMUNICATION 
BETWEEN HoME AND AUSTRALASIA . 4 . 


ARTICLE I],.— On THE AMELIORATION OF THE AUS- 
TRALIAN CLIMATE . : 


ArticuE II].—TxHer Great Frozen Meat TRADE OF 
AUSTRALASIA . ; p 


ARTICLE IV.—ON THE PoLicy oF THE EMPIRE’sS 
EXTENSION. ‘ ; : - : ; 


Case of New Guinea. 


ARTICLE V.—THE QUESTION OF FREEDOM OR RESTRIC- 
TION IN THE Empire’s TRADING ‘ : 


First Attempt at an Economic Parliament of the 
Empire — The General Question as to the Empire. 


ARTICLE VI.—ON THE Socro-PoLITICAL PRINCIPLES 
OF THE EMPIRE’S GOVERNMENT . : : 


The Tropical Settlements to be under Crown 
Government. 


ArTICLE VII. — On InreErR-CotontaL FEDERATION ; 
oR, THE UNION OF NATURAL COLONIAL GROUPS 
INTO ONE SuB-IMPERIAL POWER AND GOVERN- 
MENT ° : . P F ° ° 

The Australasian Case—Guidance of the Canadian 
Case —— Exceptional Cases — Queensland — Modes 
of Procedure towards Federation—Chief Difficulty 
that of the Differing Tariffs — Great Advantages 
from Canadian Federation—How the Australasian 
Tariff Difficulty may be met. 


362 


XXXll CONTENTS. 


TAGE 


ArRTIGLE VIIIL.—TuE UNITY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 374 


Definition of the Case — Defects of the Present 
Situation — The Right Hon. W. H. Smith on the 
Unity of the Empire — Inevitable Tendency of 
the Present Relations— Some Colonial Prospects, 
fanciful and otherwise — The Unity aimed at— 
Foreign View of the Question — A Public Dis- 
cussion in Melbourne — Some Reflections — Con- 
sideration of Methods for uniting the Empire— 
The Cabinet, plus Colonial Representation, as the 
Empire’s Executive — Postscript: On the Present 
Colonial Relations as a supposed Basis for Irish 
Home Rule — A Colonist’s View of the Irish 
Question. 


ARTICLE ]1X.—SuUGGESTION oF A Mownarcaic - DEMo- 
CRATIC PEERAGE OF THE EMPIRE  . P . wae 


ArTicLE X.—TuE Mount Morgan Gotp Mixsze-~. 401 
History and Description of the Mount — Estimate 
of the Gold of Mount Morgan — How the Mount 
was produced — Effect upon the World’s Market. 
APPENDIX . : : : : - - - 413 


INDEX E : : : : ‘ ; - 415 


HALF A CENTURY 


OF 


AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


PART I. 
SECTION I. 


A PREFATORY DISCUSSION ON THE ORIGIN AND 
PLAN OF THE WORK. 


An Australasian retrospect of half a century. 


My title grasps a stretch of the past which in these 
days of progress must involve a vast diversity of 
conditions—the earlier from the later. We are often 
saying, as we look at the rapid competitive develop- 
ments, for instance, of modern commerce, what will 


they attain to half a century hence? But it is 


hardly less interesting to look at what the position of 
to-day sprung from half a century ago. By duly 
considering that, we may better estimate the half- 
century to come. My retrospect does not quite 
complete that considerable section of time, but it is 
so near to it as to justify my title. I left Home for 
Australia in July 1840, and I have just returned 
from the latter, and for the fourth time in so many 
Home revisits, im November 1888. 
B 


2 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


It is not easy for a London merchant, in a fairly 
full tide of business, to absent himself for so con- 
siderable a holiday time as a visit to Australasia 
requires. But, with a reliable junior to leave 
behind me, I had made up my mind that, as far as | 
depended on myself, my old home must be revisited 
before I left the world, and I only waited the best 
opportunity. That was supplied by the grand 
Centennial Exhibition at Melbourne, which was to 
open there on Ist August, 1888. I took my measures, 
therefore, so as to place myself in Melbourne on 
or before that day. My wife and daughter were to 
accompany me. The former was already an old 
colonist, having resided with me, after our marriage 
in 1854, from October of that year to February 1857, 
when, upon business calls, I had to leave the dear 
Colonial home, with its pleasant climate and _ its 
many social intimacies, and to take up my quarters 
in the great world centre, London, where I have 
since remained, minus the five months’ revisit just 
completed. I am not by any means to pose as the 
martyr under this Australian deprivation, for either 
extremity of our great empire has its own array of 
attractions, and, if each was taken “for all and all,” 
it might be difficult to adjudge the palm. Thus 
to my wife and self our trip was a renewal of 
acquaintance; but to our daughter, who was just 
to enter upon what the other sex call the majority, 
the whole was an entirely new world, the marvels of 
which she might in many respects appreciate. 

I was not to revisit Australasia for myself alone. 
I contemplated taking the public with me, by the 


THE VOYAGE OUT. 3 


short and handy road of a volume of the results. 
The leisure of a long voyage has always been attrac- 
tive to me for writing a book, and in this way, in 
my several voyages, I have got through several 
volumes. On the way out, on this very occasion, I 
wrote a small octavo of “ Personal Recollections of 
Karly Melbourne and Victoria,” which, to my great 
reward, proved very acceptable to old colonist 
friends. And now [ am just completing the work 
of the return voyage, with the title of ambitious 
grasp to which I have already adverted. 


Claims of “the Voyage Out” as part of the subject. 


Well, I must begin my Half Century of Austral- 
asian Progress with “The Voyage Out,” if only 
because the progress in that respect is hardly less, 
if indeed at all less, than in any other. My outward 
voyage in 1840 was in a ship of 414 tons, which 
took 143 days to go from Leith to Port Phillip. 
My return voyage, this year of 1888, by a steamer 
of above 6000 tons, requires but 38 to 40 days. 
Indeed the protracted time of my first voyage is 
enough now, with all the advanced facilities of 
intercommunication by sea and land, for outward 
and return voyage, and for a visit, such as I have 
just paid, to all Australasia. 


Choice of Route. 


Our purpose determined, the first question was the 
choice of route. Here was quite an embarrassing 
quantity. The venerable “P. and O.,” which no 

; B 2 


4 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


doubt most of my readers know to be the handy 
abbreviative for the great Peninsular and Oriental 
Steam Navigation Company, came up, of course, first 
to our minds, more especially as I have the honour of 
some old friends in its Directorate. Driving on its 
heels came up next the interloping Orient line, which, 
with all the energy or impudence characteristic of 
the new hand, had bid fair to beat the old one in its 
work, until, stung beyond endurance at such insult, 
the old lion rose in his strength, and launched 
recently his crowning triumphs. These were the 
“Victoria” and “ Britannia,’ followed, in gallant 
succession, by the still more superb “ Oceana” and 
“ Arcadia;” these, again, being even eclipsed 
by the “Peninsula” and “ Oriental.” And, next, 
the Messageries Maritimes offered a pleasing and 
picturesque, although a slightly circuitous route, vid 
Madagascar, Seychelles, and our still French-speak- 
ing Mauritius, but with a high repute as to matters 
of personal comfort. These were all “wd Suez.” 
But my wife had constitutional objections to the 
Red Sea, in spite of all Scriptural and classic 
attractions, and most especially in summer. We 
might indeed return by that route, confessedly the 
most varied and interesting of all, because that 
would be at a time well into northern winter.. And 
we did, in fact, return by it per the Orient line. 

Of the regular lines there remained five more, 
besides, perhaps, an endless issue of irregular lines, 
and individual vessels. These were: the San Fran- 
cisco line to Auckland and Sydney, vid the United 
States Interoceanic Railway ; the new rival Canadian 


MORMONDOM. 9) 


Pacific line, vid British Columbia; the New Zealand 
Shipping Company, a Royal Mail line; the Shaw 
Savill line also to New Zealand, vid Hobart, where 
we could be landed with prompt facilities to reach 
Melbourne, and the Queensland line, a branch of the 
British India Steam Company, vid the interesting but 
rather tropical Torres Straits. This last was dismissed 
along with the other Red Sea routes. The Ameri- 
can was interesting for many reasons, including a 
passing study of Mormondom on the spot, and a 
glance at the Yosemite Valley, and at much else 
worth seeing, if we had only had more time at our 
disposal. The Canadian Pacific, although of stirring 
interest to our empire, and a marvel of the most 
recent British effort of that kind, was only in the 
throes of a commencing existence, and not yet reli- 
able so as to meet precisely our allotted time. We 
decided for Shaw Savill, and took our passages by 
the ss. “ Coptic,” Capt. Burton, 4400 tons, to sail 
from Plymouth 16th June, and land us at Hobart, 
Tasmania, providences excepted, on 27th July. From 
Hobart we expected easily to reach the grand Mel- 
bourne show in good time for the opening. 


- Lival interest of Routes—The American and 
Mormonism. 


I had hoped to make the American either my out- 
ward or my homeward route, as there is, as I have 
said, so much to see and compare in that vast 
country of not less vast modern progress. Not the 
least of my interests there, however, concerns a 
section of “progress” which is not of the ordinary 


6 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


kind, although quite as interesting and perhaps as 
important in its way, as any other. 

I have, in short, taken much interest in Mor- 
monism, because we see in it a system which, while 
it may possibly survive to be one of the faiths of the 
earth, is now in the very act of its genesis, and in 
the instinctive act too of building itself up into a 
separated religious existence. I had been making 
my notes on this new faith, in the hope of after- 
wards instituting a comparison upon the spot. 
Although this has been as yet denied me, I venture 
upon a few ideas on the subject. 

When some approach to a public highway had 
been trodden out to far-off Utah, missionaries of 
various Christian bodies ran in all haste, from far 
East to far West of their vast country, believing 
that the manifest nonsense of Latter-day Saintism 
could be at once dissipated by Christian argumenta- 
tion and common sense. But, nothing loth, the 
Mormons, some of them already “born in the 
purple ” of an inherited faith, faced about on the 
enemy, meeting him on the argumentative ground 
of his own choosing, and utterly routing him, if at 
least we may judge from the fact of that mode of 
extirpating Mormon error having never since been 
resumed. This victory was, doubtless, on the principle 
that those who have got farthest in religious ex- 
tremes are ever the most practised and adroit at 
argumentation, and that the most effeetive way to 
silence a zealous and extreme sectary is to bring 
against him some other sectary still more zealous 
and extreme. 


JOSEPH SMITH. 7 


Mr. Froude condemns the persecutions to which 
the Mormons have been subjected, and which, as he 
thinks, perhaps rightly, have been the very life of 
the new faith. But his own scathing sarcasm, poured 
upon the head of that very prosaic mortal, sensual 
rather than sensuous, Joseph Smith, the public-house 
keeper, to the effect that the spirit within him was 
chiefly that which he got from his own bar, is only 
a different form of the persecution which he con- 
demns. Not only will this mode be as ineffective 
in its object as the other, but, in its coarse, indis- 
criminate way, it explains nothing, and gives no 
help to a philosophical solution. 

Smith appealed to the infinity of variety in human 
nature, and a few individuals, out of a few millions, 
responded. “Ce n’est que le premier pas qui coiite.” 
His religion was already born. The Book of Mor- 
mon and the gold plates have already passed their 
ordeal, and entered that “dim religious light,” in 
which, however, “ the Church” can always see clearly 
its own traditions and miracles. Had Smith been a 
purer-minded man, the plural wife would not have 
occurred to him. Heaven would have made a 
different kind of suggestion towards that instinctive 
aim of “ differentiating” the new religion. But this 
particular outcome of the “chapter of accidents ” in 
the faith may either break up the Saints by conflict 
with their general government, or break them down 
more quietly upon the issue of the false moral of the 
“plural wife” system. Indeed, in view of the latter 
defect, a great church is hardly possible to the 
future. 


AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Ce 


Other thoughts on this differentiation instinct are 
still afloat, as we may hear in the addresses, san- 
guine, ambitious, or fanciful, as to here and here- 
after, of the bolder Mormon missionaries, seeing that 
the faith has not yet been crystallised into a final 
gathering-up ereed. It will be indeed a curious 
study to see in what directions human nature essays 
to take departures from that moral climax which 
has been generally conceded to the Christian standard 
by the moral sense of the world. 

Joseph, as Mr. Froude tells us, is already reve- 
rently called “the Prophet.” But the prophet must 
have prophecies, and these graduate into other 
miracles. In fifty more years we shall have a life 
of Smith wholly miraculous, based partly on simple 
facts religiously developed, partly on the purely 
imagined, ereated nobody knows exactly how, or 
when, or where, but always under a general disposi- 
tion within the Church, to receive rather than to criti- 
cise, while the “Church Historian” complacently 
supervises the whole promising field. 

It is to time, and the reverent look back upon the 
dim past, that we are indebted for these wonders, 
The late President Brigham, who was, in his rough 
way, the very incarnation of common sense, used to 
laugh at the ascription of the miraculous to himself, 
saying that all was due to judicious use of natural 
or acquired sagacity. But none the less, Brigham 
has already ascribed to him his own category of 
revelations and miracles, almost as much as to his 
senior, Joseph himself. This doughty vicegerent of 
God upon earth, as I recollect, in his address to some 


THE LANGUAGE OF HEAVEN. 4) 


foreign Mormon immigrants, exhorted them to begin 
learning English, for English, he said, was the lan- 
guage of Heaven, and should be known to every 
Mormon. But what would avail all of Professor 
Max Miiller’s scruples on this point? Brigham’s 
ready humour and resource would have been brought 
up to rout, if indeed worth the while, the man of 
mere science. But the Prophet Priest and Revelator 
of Heaven might have held himself above this need, 
even if he had felt that for once at any rate he 
had made an ordinary mortal’s mistake. He might, 
with customary theological adroitness, have made 
out that the pure ante-deluge English, broken up and 
lost at Babel, had revived in the Hebrew and old 
Saxon black letter, so much alike, and eventuated 
in that restoration of the original English, as spoken 
above the clouds, which has now in these latter days 
greeted the birth of the True Mormon Church. This 
would have been quite as satisfactory to Mormon 
believers as the eleven witnesses to the gold plates, 
and the evidence that the present American Indians 
are the lost ten tribes. 

Then, finally, comes the delicate question of the 
“ conscious impostor,” in these busy makings of new 
divinities and new religions. Certainly the naked 
term is rarely applicable; but as certainly, if we 
could but see or know, in a way that “the powers 
aboon can only ken,” we might discern a very shifty 
ground between the conscious and the unconscious. 
Even the terrible Mountain Meadow massacre, for 
which the Mormon Bishop Lee was executed by the 
- United States Government, including the piteous 


10 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


case of helpless women and young children, or the 
utterly merciless atrocities of the “ Danite” Rock- 
well, may have to be thus specially judged, as inci- 
dents which have at least their general analogies. 
Religious feeling, even in more generally accredited 
quarters, is apt, in its alliance with human nature, 
to take terrible sweeps to the left, in alternation with 
its more normal and usual course to the right. Only 
some few years ago, a company of Paris nuns, those 
beings of angelic devotion to humanity in such count- 
less instances, were found to have deliberately, and by 
their own personal action, roasted before a fire, to 
utter disfigurement, the face of one of their servant 
girls, as the punishment for some petty theft. 


The British Association to Australia. 


From this long digression, upon, however, an 
interesting philosophy, let me come back to my sub- 
ject of Progress, and still that particular section 
of it which concerns “ The Voyage Out.” No more 
striking instance of that ;rogress could be adduced 
to-day than the fact that a visit of the British Asso- 
ciation to Australia is a thing now “quite in the 
air”; nay, more, that the invitation will probably 
come off all but immediately. After the fears at 
first, and success eventually, of the meeting at Mon- 
treal in 1884, which, as an old life member, I had 
the pleasure and profit of attending, there naturally 
follows, in this age of progress, the meeting at 
Sydney or Melbourne. Much interested as I was in 
this question, I did not let it rest after I had stepped 
once more upon Australian soil. Indeed, as my 


POLITICAL “ CROSS-GRAINS.” 1] 


friend Mr. Service, the ex-premier of Victoria, 
reminded me, the invitation had been actually sent 
Home several years ago, when the spirit of “ that 
sort of thing” was alive, under the prospect of suc- 
cessive grand Exhibitions at Adelaide, Syduey, and 
Melbourne. The latter city sent the invitation; but, 
as it was for the very next year, it had to be declined 
owing to a pre-engagement. Afterwards the New 
South Wales Government proposed to invite, not 
the Association, but some fifty of the leading science- 
men, who, with passages paid, were to grace their 
Centenary Exhibition of last year. But, through. 
some political party “ cross-grains,” the money was 
refused by the popular assembly, thereby teaching 
a lesson that such cross-grains ought always to be, 
as they mostly easily may be, provided against, by 
a little care in the right directions.* 


Some Suggestions on this Subject. 


It is fortunate that the Melbourne invitation 
proved abortive, both because a longer notice is 
_ needed, and because Montreal and other experiences 
have taught some good lessons. I consider that an 
invitation should contemplate four clear years, as 
that interval is needed to enable our busy merchants 
and others to look long enough in the face so pro- 
tracted a holiday-making, as well as to enable the 
competitive shipping to put forth all the strength of 


* The break-up of a great “land boom” at Melbourne, which 
was in full swing during my late stay there, may have put 
quiet matters of this kind out of the popular mind for the 
present. 


12 AUSTRALASTIAN PROGRESS. 


their day in a voyage, and upon an occasion, that 
will certainly mark an era in the great Australasian 
group, if not indeed in the empire itself. 

Our experience in this matter takes next another 
direction. Canada contributed £8 per head towards 
the passage-money of every Association member 
crossing the ocean on the occasion, This might 
mean, relatively, at least £20 for Australia, so that, 
in my discussion of the subject with some leading 
Victorians, they seemed overwhelmed with the abyss 
of expense to which they might possibly be com- 
mitted. Now I am sure that any one who thought- 
fully regarded this case, so as to deduce, as I had to 
do, that one half or more of the company, not how- 
ever by any means quite regardless of science, were 
yet mainly bent upon a pleasure trip, reached the 
conclusion that most of this Canadian money was 
really thrown away. Counting heads in a case of 
science is even worse than in a case of democratic 
politics. Secure the men of science, and the others 
will follow. But those who have the fullest heads 
have not seldom the emptiest pockets. I conclude 
that the men of science only should be paid for, and 
that by a full free passage. The rest of us will take 
care of ourselves. And thus some trifle of £5000 
may be all that is needed. 


Plan of the Work. 


And lastly, as to the plan of my work. How 
should accounts of Colonies, young and ever-changing 
Colonies in particular, be written? In five different 
volumes which I have successively issued I always 


PLAN OF THE WORK. 13 


treated my subject “ historically.” That is the way 
natural to one who sets about his work in business 
fashion. He tells the history, and sets it off with 
abundant statistical illustration and proof. “ Very 
good,” say most of his audience interested or appealed 
to; “possibly an excellent book of reference, and 
when wanted we shall look into it.” He therefore 
misses being read, except in the aforesaid partial or 
fitful way; and this is surely a most important part 
of the case. Five different experiences thus decided 
me against the historical and statistical—so much 
so that I resolved, that from first taking up the pen, 
to finally laying it down, I would not look into 
~ a Colonial statistical book or table. 

The way for me was thus cleared considerably. 
Why not, said I, take the Colonies just as they come 
before you in your scamper through them? You may 
have indeed seen them only meagrely, but describe 
what you have seen. You may give no bad idea of 
a Colony by a description of its chief town, or of 
some excursions into its interior. This, then, is what 
I decided to do. And, further, I propose to supple- 
ment these sketches by some more comprehensive 
general views and considerations as to the Austral- 
asian Colonial group. Its Colonies are mostly vast 
States of themselves. Collectively they have nearly 
the area of Europe. They are rapidly rising up in 
vast importance at the furthest corner of our Empire, 
and science and enterprise are every year reducing 
the disadvantage of mere distance, and preparing for 
the United Empire which has latterly taken such hold 
_ upon the national mind. 


14 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


SECTION II. 
THE VOYAGE OUT. 


Leavine Plymouth, with its varied scenic beauty, 
on 16th June, we soon “homed” ourselves in the 
“ Coptic,’ under the gentle pressure indeed of the 
assisting consideration that this must needs be our 
home for the next six weeks. We got through the 
Channel and Bay of Biscay with decidedly super- 
average good luck, and, after rather more than 
five pleasant days, reached the Canaries. The 
passengers had made mutual acquaintanceship by 
this time. We were a very good and sociable lot 
of passengers, including the distinguished company 
of Lord and Lady Alfred Churchill, the former, 
ageing and considerably broken down, being on a 
tour for health. Lord Alfred was already an old 
Victorian Colonist, whom my wife and I had met at 
Governor Hotham’s table no less than thirty-three 
years ago, after his arrival from a rather adven- 
turous voyage in so small a vessel as his father’s 
yacht; and I had met him repeatedly since at home 
in his capacity of President of the Society of Arts, 
and otherwise. His health object was certainly 
cained, for we left him at Hobart a comparatively 
robust man. 

So much for the social agreeables of our pas- 
senger case. There were, however, several young 


THE CHARMING CANARIES. 15 


lads of the party who, particularly towards the 
end of the trip, took rather heavily to the bottle, 
and gave our good captain some trouble—fine 
young fellows they mostly were too, which made 
us all the more regret their wretched taste. But, 
after all, they came more in our captain’s way than 
our own. We heard a flare at times in the smoking- 
room, but all was suppressed into propriety before 
the other passengers. We made one great social hit. 
The routine four-o’clock afternoon tea of the cabin 
we converted into “the salon,” and the salon, under 
one or more of the ladies, became so pleasant an 
institution, that at last we would linger a good 
hour over it. Thus this was one of our notable 
time-killers. 


The Charming Canaries. 


Those charming Canaries! what a climate! what 
beauty! Although in the middle of the summer, 
and in latitude 28°, there was a fresh, cool sea- 

_breeze, as though we were sniffing a pleasant mid- 
_ summer air in Devonshire. Is it disloyal to our 
now peace-seeking Empire to sigh for an exchange 
of these ‘“ Fortunate Islands,” these ancient Isles 
of the Blessed, for our now meaningless Gibraltar ? 
What might be the consequences? We would have 
henceforth the best of all fortresses in the hearts of 
the Spaniards, while, on the other hand, the Islands, 
under us, would quadruple their importance ere the 
end of the century; so that, if Spain still kept, 
practically, a share-and-share-alike partnership 


16 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


interest, freely to be accorded her under our 
trading freedom, she would net 100 per cent. by 
the transaction, with “the Rock” into the bargain. 
We, indeed, should gain infinitely more ; but that is 
of the nature of beneficent commerce. 

We anchored off Santa Cruz, the capital of 
Teneriffe, and had time for an interior trip to 
Laguna, six miles off, where we found a considerable 
town, nearly one half the size of Santa Cruz, a 
good hotel, with “ English spoken here,’ and the 
inevitable ‘‘Cathedral” of every Catholic place. We 
were on the watch, of course from the first, for the 
erand Peak, so often under his cloud envelopment. 
But he remained in pertinacious retirement during 
our stay. It was only after we were some twenty 
miles on our southerly way that his grand form 
rose against the clear sky. We had no hot 
weather “to speak of,” excepting between two and 
three days in passing between the Cape de Verdes 
and Africa, where, being so near the latter (about 
fifty miles off), the thermometer went up to, and a 
little over, 80°. 

The Cape came next in its due time, and as I 
neared its lofty scenery, and, when still closer, was 
greeted by the English voice, I began to realise 
what the British Empire was, and what a status it 
was to be its citizen, feeling one’s self at home 
in every quarter of the globe. This idea was still 
extended when, on the night of the 28th July, we 
dropped anchor under the expansion of the lights of 
Hobart, and were saluted once more by a babble of 
Knglish from surrounding boats, 


THE GRAND TABLE MOUNTAIN. 17 


Cape Town. 


We had a few hours in Cape Town, a considerable 
place of between forty and fifty thousand people, but 
the very poorest specimen of a town of that popu- 
lation which I ever met with in our Colonies, But 
this is readily accounted for by the kind of its 
population. Almost without exception the entire 
working class is non-European, and consists of the 
oddest diversity of human skin, and human feature 
that any one could imagine. The habitations of 
these people were of course “ nothing particular,” 
_and the négligé in that respect had descended to the 
streets, not one of which, as seen by us at least, had 
a continuous foot pavement, or was even completely 
macadamised. There were some fairly good business 
buildings, the Standard Bank being one of the best. 
Government House and Parliament House may 
just pass. 

Art was decidedly inferior to nature. The 
grand Table Mountain reared its solid black form 
immediately behind the town, the black being often 
set off by a white topping of clouds called the 
tablecloth. The height of about 4000 feet is almost 
that of Mount Wellington, which rises, not 
altogether dissimilarly, close behind Hobart. We 
regretted our inability to go even the short eight 
miles by rail to Wynberg, down south towards False 
Bay, where there is much more mountain beauty, 
many vineyards, and much wine-making. 

Our only storm was for a couple of days, in 
traversing the broad L’Agulhas Bank, which, as our 

C 


18 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


captain said, although sixty fathoms under water, 
somehow contrives, on even slight excuse, to kick 
up a storm on the surface so far above it. For a 
week afterwards we had abundant company of 
albatrosses and lesser birds, which occupy Kerguelen’s 
and other smaller isles and rocks hereabout for their 
breeding. 


Tasmania. 


On the morning of the 27th July, fair Tasmania 
saluted us from afar; and as we came nearer we 
had a home reminder from the snow that was 
abundantly sprinkled on the southerly slopes of her 
hills. We shortened our route a few miles by 
taking D’Entrecasteaux Channel, being thus the 
first, or at any rate the second, of the larger 
shipping, direct from Europe, which had done so. 
Darkness overtook us as we were making our exit 
from this narrower channel into the ample bosom 
of the beautiful Derwent, the pilot having just 
previously boarded us, 


( 19 ) 


SECTION III. 
HOBART THE CAPITAL OF TASMANIA. 


Wate still at sea, we might have revelled in the 
idea that, once arrived at Hobart, after so long a 
voyage, we should forthwith rush ashore, and revel 
in the reality of terra jirma. But we did no such 
thing, ladies and luggage being one chief part of the 
question. We slept peacefully and contentedly on 
board, took a quiet breakfast, and towards ten 
o'clock were ready for shore. The “Coptic” had 
anchored two hundred yards out in the stream, so 
we took a boat, and were soon enabled to step out 
upon Australian soil. 

Hobart was an old friend. This was my fourth 
visit, beginning so early as January 1841. Every 
old friend of the other kind there had passed away. 
I recognised, however, some of their houses, amongst 
them that of Mr. Henry Hopkins, an early and 
prosperous merchant, who had what was a palace in 
the early times, but which was now a private hotel 
in its good situation in Elizabeth Street, kept by 
a namesake and old acquaintance of mine, Mr. 
William Westgarth, late of Melbourne.and Sydney, 
and which he had now re-named Westella. We went 
to Westella for our one day’s stay, and our friend 
there, who, fortunately for us, was in the midst of 
his leisure season, did his best to show us his fair 
city and its picturesque surroundings. 

c 2 


20 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


To ascend Mount Wellington was no possibility 
for us, even if we had had the time, as his snow-clad 
crown indicated difficulties needless to be faced in 
pleasure excursions. Besides, for my own part at 
least, I had already made the ascent, some thirty- 
two years before, and in very pleasant company too, 
namely, that of]my old friend the late Mr. William 
Robertson, of Hobart, and of Lake Colac, Victoria. 
It was at a more propitious season too, and through 
the clear air I surveyed the plain to the north, 
bounded by the Derwent, as though it had been a 
map sketched upon the earth’s table. The roads 
looked like white lines in the sunshine, and upon 
one of them a stage coach, which happened to be 
crossing at the time, seemed like an ant crawling, 
with unusual deliberation, along its prescribed line. 
But we realised something of the winteriness we 
might have now encountered on the mount by in- 
dulging in a drive for some miles along the Huon 
River Road, in some of whose _hill-surrounded 
valleys, screened from a sun, warm even in winter, 
we encountered on our way as good a paving of 
unmelted snow as might satisfy a Scotch Highlander 
for his New Year's scenery. We duly visited Fern- 
tree Gully, one of the sights of this locality. 

There had been an unusually cold winter here, 
and not here only, but northwards, as we afterwards 
experienced, also at Melbourne, and even still nearer 
the tropics, at Sydney. When, on the morning after 
arrival, I took my regular preprandial walk, I found 
the Hobart streets bound up in hard frost, and 
the gutters, where there were any, covered with 


COLONIAL PROGRESS. 21 


quarter-inch ice. But the sun in the bright sky 
was already warm, and dissipated the cold enemy 
wherever his rays could penetrate. 

One of our calls was at Government House, as we 
were armed, by friends at Home, with introductions 
to Sir Robert and Lady Hamilton ; but, as her lady- 
ship, who alone was within, was already engaged 
with the Churchills, we improved the too brief hour 
by passing into the adjacent Botanical Garden, and 
the less regretfully, from learning that we should 
next day accompany our new and distinguished 
friends across the Island and the Straits, to the 
near approaching opening of the Exhibition at 
Melbourne. 


Comparative Race of Colonial Progress. 


One of the features of these Southern Colonies, 
which I shall have repeatedly to allude to as 
having struck me both decidedly and unexpectedly, 
came upon us ere we had been an hour in Hobart. 
Miss Westgarth, our hostess, entered our room to 
say that the Tasmanian Premier wished to speak 
to me. “Bless me,” thought I, “this is quick 
work. Is he outside? pray show him in.” “No, 
sir,’ was the reply; “he is speaking to you through 
the telephone.” So I hied at once to the telephone 
room, and duly, as directed, put two wire-conuected 
caps to my ears, and was all attention. I did hear a 
still small voice come up, as from the vasty deep; 
but, whether from some little deafness of age, or from 
the awe-inspiring of such unaccustomed things, 
I failed to make it out, and willingly relinquished 


yy AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


my post to Miss Westgarth’s more practised head. 
Thus a meeting was arranged without personal 
fatigue or the loss of a minute of time. I have no 
recollection of telephoning in this every-day fashion 
at Home. Our daughter colonies out here are in a 
faster race in many respects than their old mother. 


A Tasmanian Premier. 


I did expect some word from Mr. Fysh, whom | 
had before met in London. One of my amateur 
missions, if I may so describe it, was on the question 
of Australasian finance, in which, as a_ subject 
intimately associated with my business in Colonial 
securities, I must needs, if I were at all worth my 
salt, be something of an authority. It was an easy 
and pleasant office to point out the suitable and 
unsuitable in Colonial Loan issues, the former in- 
volving 1 or 2 or even 5 per cent. and upwards of 
relative advantage to the issuing Colony, and soon 
accumulating to hundreds of thousands of pounds 
sterling of differences of result. The rising credit of 
the Colonies, and the lowering tendency of the Home 
money-market, had worked marvels to Colonial 
loans. Tasmania is still paying 6 per cent. on the 
oradually expiring engagements of her first loans a 
quarter of a century ago. She has been down to 
4 per cent. for a good number of past years, and 
now the question is for 3 per cent. 


A Digression upon Colonial Finance. 
The technicalities of our Home Market in such 
things as Colonial Loans need a voluminous explan- 


COLONIAL FINANCE. 23 


ation to any one who can patiently stand to have it 
all out. But I will better satisfy the ordinary reader, 
who does not wish to be just totally ignorant of 
them, if I briefly sketch them in the general, with- 
out descending to minute detail. My recommend- 
ation was, that all these Colonies should agree 
to issue 3 per cents. As additional inducement, 
Mr. Goschen had just cleared an extraordinary 
vacuum in 3 per cents, so that countless widows, 
and suchlike dependent people, were ready to jump 
at any new bait that might be at all reliable to 
replace the old. 

In coming down to a lower interest rate, there is 
“more, speaking as from the market, than meets the 
ordinary eye. A law of our market, as sure as the 
financial human nature it is based on, is that a dis- 
count stock sells relatively higher than a premium 
stock. Suppose the “actuarial” value of any 3 
per cent. to be 90, and of a 4 to be 110; then, 
instead of the prices in the market being respectively 
90 and 110, while the 4’s were at 110, the 3’s 
would be at 923, or possibly at as much as 95. Of 
course, then, when a stock’s value rises towards 
“par ’”’ or 100, a lower interest rate should, for any 
future loans, be resorted to. 

Again, the “marketability ” of a stock depends 
mainly upon quantity, so as to keep it always in the 
market. Thus Consols, in their hundreds of mil- 
lions, were always readily saleable, and were a huge 
convenience to bankers and others in consequence. 
Lest people should be incurably apt to fancy 
marketability to be due to quality, let me mention 


b] 


24 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


that the old Turkish 5 per cents., sheerly from- 
their quantity of fifty to sixty millions, were alike 
one of the most marketable and one of the least 
esteemed stocks in the London market. Thus such 
marketability comes, from its great convenience, to 
have a distinct value of its own, additional to that 
arising from quality; as much additional, perhaps, 
as 1, 2, or even considerably more per cent. 
Colonial policy, therefore, is to consolidate all debt 
amount into one uniform stock, so as to confer the 
highest marketability possible to each case. 

Bearing these main principles in mind, the 
mission which, inter alia, I gave myself was to 
induce all these Colonies to quit 4 per cents., which 
in most cases were long since at a good premium, 
and all go “solidly” for 3’s. In one ease, that of 
New South Wales, 33 per cents. had been issued 
some years before ; but these, begun at about 90 to 92, 
were now substantially over par, and thus amenable 
to our aforesaid law.* 


* Queensland, during my absence, brought out also a 33 per 
cent. in the London market, for which she got only a little 
over 95; but this stock has now advanced to upwards of 100. 
Victoria also has more recently intimated that, following New 
South Wales and Queensland, she is to bring out a 35 per 
cent. loan early in 1889. As Victoria’s high credit will 
command a premium for 34 per cents., she would assuredly 
have realised relatively more for a 3 per cent. Her credit 
being equal to that of New South Wales, whose 35 per 
cents. are now at 106—during a more favourable state of 
the London market they were lately at a still higher price 
—I estimate Victoria’s relative loss, by issuing 34 instead 
of 3 per cents., at not less than 23 per cent., or £25,000 
per million of the £4,600,000 proposed to be issued. This 


Wr bh 1 © iy 


rex’? 


pee) 
ve 


INTERFEDERATION. 


Intercolonial Federation as bearing on Colonial 
Finance. 

There was still another point. These Colonies 
have had before them for half a generation the 
question of Interfederation. Conferences have sat 
upon it, and it still remains a question unsettled, 


although, if doubt as to the advantage had lingered 


in any mind, the successful example of the Canadian 
Dominion should dispel it. One may moralise on 
the difficulty of moving man, as a society, compared 
with man as an individual. If the latter were 
offered, on the one hand, a thousand pounds, and on 


the other a hundred, can any one doubt as to which 


he would take, and take right promptly too? But 
the individual and the society, or aggregation of 
individuals, will act quite differently; and thus 
we still hesitate and haggle over the Federation, 
when every individual thinks that, as regards himself 
individually, he would prefer it. I was about to add 
that these Colonies’ “ Protection ” tendency is only a 
variety of the same illustration, for the society, which, 
as said, is only a congeries of the individual, thwarts 


delay in beginning the issue of the “inevitable” Threes 


is the more to be regretted, as Tasmania was ready, and pro- 
bably South Australia would have joined, to make up with 
Victoria the imauguration of 3 per cents, in the London 
market, in a marketable quantity. Mr. Bird, the Tasmanian 
Treasurer, writing me on 3rd November, 1888, says :—‘‘ Your 
remarks in the Sydney Herald on the consolidation of stocks 
further confirm me in the belief that 3 per cent. stock is what 
these colonies should agree to at once.” If Victoria persists 
in the 33, the term should be as short as possible, say not over 
20 years, which would reduce somewhat the above loss. 


26 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


the free action of the latter in seeking the most 
advantageous economic course. But for this latter 
question I am not yet ready. I shall return to it in 
its proper place ; I in no way mean to evade it. 

To return to this other point, towards elucidating 
which, however, the whole preceding paragraph will 
help us, the reader may already surmise the bear- 
ing of a federated Australia, or Australasia, upon the 
finance question. Since the Federation of Canada, 
imperfectly begun as it was twenty-one years ago, 
and now just on the eve of perfect completion, the 
value of the “ Dominion ” stock has risen by 25 per 
cent. above that of even the best of the previously 
separate Canadian Colonies. We must not, of course, 
put the whole of that great rise to the one account 
only, for increasing colonial credit, together with 
decreasing money interest at Home, may very 
fairly divide the total. Canada has anticipated her 
southern sisters in the 3 per cent. race, her first 
issue, amounting to £4,000,000, having been sold 
by public tender, the usual mode in London, on 
the 16th June last, the day I left for Melbourne. 
The price realised was the highly satisfactory one 
of 953 to 96, upon a minimum price moderately 
put at 925. That result was decisive as to 3 per 
cent. for Australasia, because Australasian resources 
and prospects have been, for at least twenty years 
past, viewed in the London market as decidedly in 
advance of even those of Canada. In fact, up to within 
the last ten or twelve years, when the federated 
Dominion, with its inaugurated Pacific Railway, 
brought it to the front, the stocks of New South 


COLONIAL STOCKS. yt | 


Wales and Victoria stood higher than those of 
Canada; so that the 3 per cent. stock of an Austra- 
lasian Dominion might now bring a still higher 
price than that lately realised by the Canadian. 

It is not now difficult to infer the bearing of all 
these considerations. Federate,O ye Australasian 
sisters, and take the grand financial position await- 
ing you. ‘We cannot do that at present,” they 
answer, “ because, while, admittedly, our respective 
tariffs are all in a jumble, without general principle 
or inter-colonial concert, yet each Colony is most 
unwilling to give up its own particular tariff work.” 
Then federate, subject for a time to the reigning 
tariff freedom, I answer. Each Colony of the 
Federation might reserve its tariff in the charge of a 
commission of its own for after arrangement. In 
the mean time, issue, all of you, a 3 per cent. in 
identically the same form, excepting that each Colony 
issues its own stock on its own responsibility. ‘This 
will make a stock which is more marketable in each 
case, besides that such co-operative action will un- 
doubtedly appear to the home capitalist and investor 
_as the first step towards an Australasian Dominion. 
Sir Thomas Mcllwraith, the Queensland premier, 
suggested a provisional further step, namely a 
financial Federation, by which, while the more 
complex political federation of necessity stood over, 
the Colonies might enjoy at once the higher financial 
status awaiting only their own will and pleasure. 

Basing upon these contingencies, I constructed 
the following table; and, as it is not only very short 
as well as surpassingly important, but is also the 


28 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


only statistical intrusion of the kind in my voiume, I 
may hope for the reader’s forgiveness :— 

Column A gives the price which any unconsorted 
3 per cent. now issued in London would bring to its 
particular Colony. 

B the price if all issued exactly the same form of 
the Stock. 

C the price if only federated financially. 

D the price under complete political Federation. 

E the price after some interval, say two to three 
years, when the investing public better knew the 
stock. 


New South Wales. : 90 92 | | 
Victoria E ; Z 90 92 
South Australia . : 87 90 | 
(Queensland . : ME oat 90 oe we i 
Tasmania . : : 86 89 

New Zealand : : 82 86 


One difficulty which I found in the way, particu- 
larly with the governments of the two leading 
Colonies, was a seemingly incurable suspicion that, 
in bringing up the weaker, the stronger Colonies 
must of necessity be dragged down. But there is 
all but the certainty of a “law” in our market, that 
the increased political strength and consideration of 
the Colonies, and the increased marketability of the 
combined stock, would result in advance of value in 
every case, although, no doubt, the weaker would 
benefit relatively much, indeed in some cases very 
much, better than the stronger. 


A SLEDGE-HAMMER ARGUMENT. 29 


Indeed, this principle might possibly receive, 
some day ahead, a curious and perhaps in some 
quarters, unexpected extension. Supposing, as we 
must all hope, that not only the Colonial groups, 
like Australasia and the Cape, will be respectively 
federated like Canada, but that the entire Empire 
will come, in some like way, into unity, the question 
might arise, nay, would certainly arise, as to there 
being but one stock common to the Empire. What 
position, then, as to value would that combined and 
enlarged stock take in the market, relatively, let us 
say, as to the positions of the two different stocks of 
which it was compounded? Our venerable Mother 
would probably not be quite prepared, possibly she 
might just at first be a trifle huffed, at the answer 
of the market, an inevitable answer, as I incline 
to regard it, namely, that her own great stock, 
as well as that of the Colonies, would be substan- 
tially advanced by the junction. Assuming that 
Mr. Goschen’s 24 per Cents., “the stock of the 
future,” as Mr. Childers previously christened it, 
was to range between 98 and 99, which seems 
perhaps the present promise, an “ Empire stock” 
would certainly go up to, or even over, 100. A 
simple Colonial 23 could hardly be put at over 90; 
so that, between Mother and Colonies, the latter has 
decidedly the best bargain; but the point none the 
less is that the daughters can also lift up even their 
weighty Mother in the value world. Indeed, this is 
the sort of sledge-hammer argument that, in the 
practical politics of the time, and in the contingency 
specified, would probably bring about the result, 


30 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


But the loans of the future, in that case, would be 
all Imperial issues for Imperial purposes, so that the 
Old Lady of Threadneedle Street would have no 
need to administer again a quiet back-hander to the 
Queensland of the new réjime, or the Stock Exchange 
to rough-handle ever over-borrowing New Zealand. 

This is, I almost fear, an unforgivable digression, 
because it is upon a topic so very dry to most 
readers. But this outpour of wrath at the first will 
save much recurrence to the same sort of offence 
later on, when I had occasion to ‘“ interview” 
premier after premier, in order to persuade them, 
not always without difficulty, to agree to accept, at 
3 per cent. instead of 3 or 4, the money which 
their respective Colonies had occasion to borrow in 
the London market. 

Question of Incorporating Tasmania with Victoria. 

Tasmania has been, commercially at least, rather 
shunted to one side of Australasian progress. She 
has a surpassing climate, and a full share of physical 
beauty, but she is small—only about Ireland’s size— 
and without much of fertile land. To be sure she 
has yet almost a full chance of mineral wealth, for 
the heavily timbered and poor soils of her western 
areas are hardly yet explored, and Mount Bischoff, 
which was amongst them, has already turned out 
creat wealth of tin. But, altogether, the subject and 
its prospects are so puny, and the shadow of great 
Victoria across the Straits is so preponderating, that 
a surrender of existence has been largely spoken of 
—a surrender which, if accepted at the other side, 


CANADA'S LOYALTY. ol 


would make every present modest Tasmanian a 
proud citizen of great Victoria. But every formed 
and orderly society has a natural dislike to be 
swallowed up—in short, to suffer death; and this 
feeling will probably linger in such strength as 
indefinitely to delay the final stroke that is to end 
existence. Canadians have assured me that under 
this natural sentiment they are never to merge into 
the adjacent States, and that Canada’s loyalty to-day, 
which must have been otherwise a marvel of filial 
forgetfulness under the negligence and stupidity of 
the earlier Colonial Office administration, is mainly 
due to that happy cause. Any way of it, the subject 
of Tasmania’s union with Victoria was one gravely, 
and by no means disapprovingly, discussed by many 
Tasmanians I met with, from Mr. Premier Fysh 
downwards. 


on AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


SECTION IV. 


HOBART TO MELBOURNE, VIA LAUNCESTON, BASS’S 
STRAIT, PORT PHILLIP, AND WILLIAMSTOWN. 


THE approaching Melbourne Exhibition created an 
extraordinary stir. Tasmania’s Governor and lady, 
Premier and lady, Treasurer, Attorney-General, and 
a good deal of smaller society were on the wing, 
and something like all the rest of the Government 
were to follow in a few days. The other sister 
Colonies were in the same mood. Victoria had 
made an unsparing effort, and the rest of the group 
were competing pleasantly with each other to make 
that effort effective. Wednesday, the lst of August, 
was the opening day, and there was to be a special 
train of the Tasmanian Main Line on Sunday, in 
order that we might not fail to catch Monday’s 
Launceston boat, which was to land us at Melbourne 
on Tuesday morning, “the day before the feast.” 
7 


The Tasmanian Main Line. 


The Tasmanian Main Line, although under an 
accumulation of unfavourable or unfortunate repute, 
took us across in fair and comfortable style. It has 
had much dispute with the Colonial Government, even 
from its first moment of life, for it began its diffe- 
rences by turning the proposed line away from the 


RAILWAY CONTRACTORS. 33 


existing towns, for the sake of an easier and cheaper 
construction. Long ere the line was finished, its 
makers were floundering. about from insufficient 
capital, and from want of the adequate credit that 
might have eased off that trouble. Of course, in 
these circumstances, the line cost a deal more than 
if it had been made by stronger hands, or by the 
Government itself, as would have been better for 
both railway and Colony. Then followed the col- 
lapse of the contractors, owing to this and other 
enterprises having mostly gone to the left, The 
actual line that emerged from all this tangle was 
not, of course, the best, although perhaps “as good 
as could be expected.” There were rumours that 
“job lots” of rails, not good enough for elsewhere, 
were good enough for poor little Tasmania’s Main 
Line. 

The Government felt as though pitchforked from 
the horns of one dilemma on to those of another in 
the mixed issue of this concern, at once dead and 
alive, weak and yet contentiously vigorous, and, 
with alternate pleading and threatening, keeping up 
an everlasting buzz about their ears. The Govern- 
ment’s connection with the line was its guarantee of 
5 per cent. interest upon a maximum of £650,000, 
an amount which was estimated to be suflicient to 
make the line. But it turned out no such thing in 
the hands that made it, and thereupon this funda- 
mental item of £32,500 of yearly interest became as 
a regimental flag, which the hungry enemy, nerved 
by want, struggled to capture from the committed 
Government. The line fell sadly short as to its 

D 


34 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


engagements, often in speed, still oftener in repair. 
Even if the Government could, or ought to, indulge 
a generous or benevolent bias, they were always 
confronted by two sides to that question; for the 
second-rate quality of the concern (to speak ten- 
derly) might some day summarily send a score of 
human beings out of existence, and leave all but 
wilful murder upon the governmental conscience. 
Mr. Fysh tells me “ they are still at him”; but that 
the case now before the Courts will probably, to his 
and his colleagues’ great satisfaction, enable him 
to settle fairly and reasonably with the Company, 
which, he does not at all deny, has now for a long 
while done, albeit at times in a limping way, much 
good and convenient service to the Colony. 

Well, the Main Line, bad, good, or indifferent, 
brought us all safely and pleasantly to Launceston. 
Darkness had set in, and we could only wend our 
not too weary way to the comfortable ‘ Commercial 
Hotel,” where we gathered around that most attrac- 
tive of all travel-endings, at least after seven p.m., 
the tea-table, complemented by what is included in 
the hunger-edged phrase “a severe tea.” We had 
seen somewhat of the fair island’s good scenery, 
from that of the Upper Derwent at the railway 
crossing, to some of its now snow-clad heights, 
of which Ben Lomond, towards the north-easterly 
district, takes precedence, having an elevation of 
over 5000 feet, or about 1500 feet above its better 
known northern prototype. We could not, for the 
darkness, see any of the pretty Esk River, which 
in its double fork falls into the long semi-sea inlet 


LAUNCESTON. 35 


of forty miles’ length which forms the Tamar, and at 
whose head, in the completion of the Home appel- 
lative tendency, stands Launceston, a town which 
has already, as in the Ben Lomond case, surpassed 
the original of the name in the old world. 


Launceston, second Port of Tasmania. 


The daylight showed Launceston to be no unpre- 
tentious place in other respects. With about 15,000 
people, the flat central town, of broad and fairly 
good streets, is prettily set off by a hill surrounding, 
_ dotted over with many good houses and pretty cot- 
tages, along with the ubiquitous orchard and garden. 
Launceston hardly grows grapes, although the early 
kinds, as in the south of England, do ripen, as we 
might infer from what we casually saw; but for 
English fruits of every kind it is the very elysium of 
the Empire, and the jams of Hobart and Launceston 
are destined, I doubt not, to visit every accessible 
part of the earth. 

A small river-tug was to convey us, for the first 
-dozen miles, to the larger steamer, whose 900 tons 
dimensions precluded her, at that time of the tide, 
from ascending to Launceston. We were packed 
rather tightly in the tug, for a troop of twenty-five 
youths of Geelong accompanied us, on their return 
from a football match with the Tasmanians. I heard 
afterwards that the Geelongese had been worsted, 
which accorded with the experiences of a young foot- 
balling friend of mine, belonging to and a native of 
Queensland, whose impression was that in this game, 

D2 


36 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


primarily one of muscular strength, climate had 
mainly to do; so that, while, in the general way, 
Tasmania would beat Victoria, the latter would beat 
New South Wales, and New South Wales Queensland. 
New Zealand, he thought, would match England; 
and the colony’s Southern Island, unmixed, might 
even beat the Mother. But the Geelong boys were 
merry as crickets. Better luck, perhaps, next time. 
They gave us song after song, much of it all in 
patriotic praise of Geelong, and I was proud of my 
quiet little old friend of that well-remembered name, 
in turning out such a galaxy of gallant youngsters. 
As Addison says, in his classic play, “Tis not in 
mortals to command success, but well do more, 
Sempronius: we'll deserve it.” 


Bass’s Strait: Bad Weather. 


The Strait, in our comparatively little nine hun- 
dred tonner, proved the very worst part of our 
whole outward passage. In spite of my previous 
seasoning, I was soon as sea-sick as the rawest on 
board. But this was only in the small close cabin, 
where I had to retreat for some hours, in order to 
put a last hand to some “ Personal Recollections of 
Early Melbourne and Victoria,” with which I had 
occupied myself pleasantly during all the preceding 
voyage. I was soon nearly “all right” on reaching 
the deck, and nearly again as good as that on lying 
down below, in order to impatiently scamp the night 
that yet separated us from the expected wonders of 
progress on the northern shore. 


THE OLD YARRA. 37 


Port Phillip. 


The morning dawned wet, and, still worse, misty. 
The violent wave jerks of the stormy Straits had 
long ceased, and we sleepers had revelled in calmness, 
awaiting daylight. When I emerged upon the wet 
deck I reckoned that we were in the Bay’s greatest 
expanse just north of Indented Head. I could just 
see Mount Eliza’s tamest of outline, although dear as 
that of an old friend, away eastwards. Northwards 
appeared a still dimmer mist, which we felt to strain 
our belief when assured that it stood for a great fleet 
of shipping filling Hobson’s Bay, from the Williams- 
town quays and wharfs, across to those of old Sand- 
ridge, latterly dignified, not without claim, as Port 
Melbourne: 


The Yarra Entrance: “ The New Cut.” 


Now in quick succession the masts and hulls clear 
their outline, for the weather, as we came nearer, 
began to lighten. Then Station Peak of the 
Anakies, another very old friend, loomed out to 
the north-west, while the line of Mount Eliza with 
Mount Martha and Arthur Seat was completed to 
the south-east. A few more recognition glances, and 
we were in the midst of Melbourne’s commercial life. 
Vast changes opened out before me. The Williams- 
town site, with only a village upon it in my time, was 
now covered with streets, and with a surrounding 
suburb of its own, extending in cottages and gardens 
far up the western or right bank of the old Yarra, 


38 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Both this and the opposite side were now to me 
wholly unrecognisable. No doubt it was progress, 
and all that sort of good thing; but it was as if an 
old friend had been polished into quite another being, 
who showed no sort of tie or sympathy with you. The 
pretty, natural southern Yarra bank, with its clumps 
of varied indigenous flora— Ti-tree here, heath 
bushes there, Mesembryanthemum and tufty grasses 
all about—had been all swept away, and instead 
had arisen a vast array of mud cutting and of timber 
pilage, in connection with Melbourne’s grand har- 
bour scheme. 

We were presently sailing in great dignity 
through one completed work of the scheme, namely 
the “new cut” which disposes of the old “Humbug 
Reach,” to whose time-wasting round-about we were 
all confined up to my day. And really, when I 
glanced down the old, deserted, slovenly-looking 
Yarra of the Humbug section, I felt disposed, like 
Mrs. M‘Clarty’s last supporter in the old Glen 
Burnie ways, who deserted her chief when honest 
John Brown’s “sappie midden” had been made a 
flower garden, to permit the impression that the 
new way was“a hantle sweeter,” and tidier too, 
than the old. 


Melbourne Wharf, and Old Friends. 


Melbourne Wharf, a long, almost indefinite stretch, 
that saluted us at once on emerging from “ the cut,” 
was crowded with a second fleet over and above that 
which we had encountered at Hobson’s Bay, But 


COMFORTABLE QUARTERS. 39 


it was an orderly array which we traversed, and we 
soon found our own berth, all in waiting for us in 
the long chain of ships’ bedding. 

Hight o'clock rang out as I leaped ashore. I 
feared that this was unconscionably early for friends, 
especially as most of those we thought of lived 
some distance off in the suburbs. None the less 
two of the principal ones were waiting, namely 
Mr. Cowderoy, the old and able Secretary of the 
Melbourne Chamber of Commerce, and Mr. Alfred 
George Ross, the son of my very old friend and 
business partner, Alfred Ross. Another friend, 
Mr. L. C. Mackinnon, of The Argus newspaper, had 
taken rooms for us at Scott's Hotel, most con- 
veniently placed at the head of the Western Market 
Square. We were congratulated on being able to 
eet hotel accommodation anywhere. When our friend 
Mackinnon applied months before on our behalf at 
Menzies’, the more quiet and usual resort of families, 
the waiters, he said, literally laughed in his face at 
the bare idea of a vacancy. Scott’s is a great com- 
mercial and squatting place, so that ladies must 
betake themselves to the first floor instead of the 
ground. But, in spite of the life and noise below, 
we were so comfortable and well served above, that 
we not only remained throughout where we were, 
but arranged to return to the same good quarters 
during our second and final stay at Melbourne. 

Well, repeating the Hobart procedure, we were to 
breakfast leisurely and comfortably on board, and 
then, between nine and ten, take our cab to Scott's. 
But, in the mean time, I took a scamper up to Scott’s 


40 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


to see the rooms, to take just one glance down 
Collins Street, and, above all, to secure that morn- 
ing’s newspapers, which latter involve a subject I 
shall have something to say upon in connection with 
the marvels of Australasian development. 


See ee ee 


ie ae 


SECTION V. 
MELBOURNE, THE CAPITAL OF VICTORIA, IN 1888. 


Business opened at once. The leisurely hours of 
Hobart and Tasmania were at an end. There was a 
public engagement that very evening, with the Presi- 
dent of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Robert Reid, 
I had made Mr. Reid’s acquaintance in London two 
years before, where, as Vice-President, he had at- 
tended as one of the large Colonial delegations to the 
great and successful Colonial Exhibition, and he had 
now invited a large body of the merchants of the 
Chamber and their visitors from all surroundings to 
meet me at a publicdinner. This had been arranged 
before by telegraph between Melbourne and Hobart, 
so that I was not unprepared. I had had the happy 
honour to be the first President of the Chamber on 
its first formation thirty-seven years before, and my 
numerous children of to-day were to meet their old 
father, after that long interval from his inaugurative 
presidency. 


Mr. Francis Henty: the Henty Family, Founders of 
Victoria, 

This first day I could not do much in actual 
personal observation, and the next day must be 
entirely absorbed by the great Exhibition, in the 
grand procession of which, to pass through the 
Avenue of Nations, I was to be honoured with a 


42 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


place, while, by way of further compliment, my — 


place was to be alongside of Mr. Francis Henty, who 
for himself, and also as surviving his elder brother 
Edward, represented the founding of Victoria. While 
just on the verge of the opening of this Exhibition, 
and the crowning effort and triumph which it gave to 
the great Colony founded by this Henty family, it may 
not be unsuitable to say a few words on that subject. 

The father, Mr. Thomas Henty, of Sussex, England, 
who had the large family of eight sons and one 
daughter, took the resolution, just sixty years ago, 
to emigrate to Australia. The Swan River was 
making some noise at that time, and Mr. Henty, 
securing a large grant of land there, sent out a first 
detachment of two of his sons to report. Arrived, 
these adventurous young lads reported unfavourably, 
and advising to change the destination to Launceston, 
a small and but little known town in northern Van 
Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania), they set off thither 
themselves, re-embarking their implements and other 
colonising material. Their father and the rest of 
the family followed, with the exception of one 
brother, who preferred to stay at home. 

Although Launceston was preferred to the Swan, 
there was disappointment in other directions, A 
grant of land was no longer attainable. The grant 
system had ended just a fortnight before their arrival, 
They could not even effect an exchange for their 
abortive grant at the Swan. To pay rent for the 
farms or grants of others, in that small and as yet 
almost tradeless community, was not encouraging, 
and their eyes turned elsewhere, 


THE HENTY FAMILY. 43 


Whalers and others had from time to time re- 
ported of a great territory on the northern side of 
the Strait. Reports indeed were of all kinds, 
favourable and otherwise, but they were all of the 
most meagre and unreliable character. In short, the 
whole region was virtually a ¢erra incognita, with 
a Deak iocsiine bad name from Collins having 
abandoned it with his proposed colonising convict 
party in 1803-4. 

The Hentys turned their eyes northwards, and 
took up this forlorn hope once more. Arrived in 
Launceston in 1831, the following year saw them at 
_ work. The dash of the family culminated in Edward, 
the second son, then only twenty-two years of age. 
Patching up an old whale-boat, he sailed across in 
a north-westerly direction, avoiding the Collins’ 
condemned Port Phillip,* and going west of Cape 
Otway.* He was particularly struck by Portland 
Bay and the green and pastoral look of its sur- 
roundings, but he went onwards, passing the Murray 
River mouth, Kangaroo Island, and sailing up St. 
Vincent Gulf, beyond the site where Adelaide so soon 
after arose. He landed at Portland on his return, 
confirming his good opinion of the place. The next 
year he started once more, taking this time his father, 
who, unable to get any exchange value for his Swan 
River grant, and unwilling to throw it up for 
nothing, had resolved to see it with his own eyes 


* Collins wrote to Lord Hobart, “ When all the disadvantages 
attending this Bay (Port Phillip) are publicly known, it cannot 
be supposed that commercial people will be desirous of visiting 
Port Phillip.” See Illus. Sydney News, 30 Aug. 1888. 


44 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


before doing so. He did see it, but only to find that 
it was “sand not land,” so it was finally abandoned. 
Portland was now the family hope, and Edward 
Henty got ready to realise it. He engaged a sinall 
vessel in October 1834, and storing it with live 
stock, implements, and other necessaries, he sailed, 
and after almost incredible ill-luck in adverse winds 
and storms for thirty-four days, in which a great 
proportion of his loading was lost, he landed at 
Portland on the 19th November of that year. His 
youngest brother Francis, now the sole survivor, and 
then a lad of eighteen, followed in the vessel’s second 
trip, arriving in December ; and the two brothers, the 
Romulus and Remus of their new Rome, fell at once 
regularly to work in the colonisation of the country. 


Followed by Colonising of Port Phillip by Batman 


and Fawkner. . 


_ This movement of the Henty family soon com- 
municated itself elsewhere throughout little Van 
Diemen’s Land Island, where already the Colonists 
were feeling themselves cooped up for want of room, 
over at least the comparatively small area of 
country then deemed worth taking up. And thus a 
syndicate, to use a modern word, was formed at 
Hobart, which in the next year, 1835, sent John 
Batman to Port Phillip; while Fawkner, at Laun- 
ceston, from whom the Hentys had bought part of 
their outfit of plants and seeds, collected another 
party, which he sent across the Straits three months 
after Batman. Fawkner followed them himself two 
months later, namely in October 1835, and, by his 


THE FOUNDING OF MELBOURNE. 45 


vigorous practical procedure, opened in its central 
part that colonisation of the future Victoria which 
the Hentys had begun the previous year at the 
western doorway. Batman landed in May at Indented 
Head, where he made a temporary settlement, and 
shortly afterwards traversed the country of the 
present Melbourne and its northern suburbs, making, 
on 6th June, a treaty with a number of the natives, 
at a place on the Merri Creek opposite to Rucker’s 
Hill, only about two miles from Melbourne. But 
the founding of Melbourne arose out of Fawkner’s 
action; for his party, in obedience to orders to 
settle only where there was abundant fresh water, 
having found this requisite above “the Falls,” 
squatted down there in consequence; and there, 
accordingly, whether for better or worse, arose the 
modern capital of Victoria, and the worthy rival 
of its senior Sydney, for the metropolitancy ot 
the Australasian section of our Empire. A fitter 
choice, it is freely said, might possibly have been 
made, as for instance at Geelong. But, such as it is, 
Fawkner is to be regarded as the founder and father 
of Melbourne. 


The Messrs. Hentys’ work still Unrecognised by 


the Imperial Government. 


Mr. Edward Henty died in 1878, unrecognised in 
any way for so surpassing a service to Australasia 
and the Empire, unless we except that usually blind 
goddess Dame Fortune, who considerately gave him 
a fair share of the prosperity which he had inaugu- 
rated for so many others. Mrs. Henty, however, 


46 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


still lives. She, young and beautiful as she was in 
those days of the child Victoria, threw her early life 
into the cause of her husband and the Colony, 
occupying with him the pastoral solitudes of the 
grassy valleys of the river Wannon, where, more 
than forty-four years ago, it was my privilege to 
meet her, and seek, in the solitary homestead, the 
hospitalities of the bush. She, and her now venera- 
ble surviving brother-in-law, represent to-day the 
founding of Victoria. When Mr. Francis Henty 
honoured me with a farewell banquet of old distin- 
guished Victorian Colonists, I was unable to omit 
the opportunity of alluding to the striking position 
of these illustrious survivors; and to the hope that 
a recognition, which cannot possibly fail to come 
some time, may not lose half its acceptability and 
efficiency by coming too late for those most directly 
interested. 


Melbourne, 1840-57, 1857-88. 

Melbourne had grown, since [| left it in 1857, 
from a population of 80,000 to that of 400,000. But 
I could go back for still seventeen years before 1857, 
when Melbourne—the oflicially recognised and Jaid- 
out Melbourne, that is to say, by which was endorsed 
the Melbourne of Fawkner—was only three years 
old, and was but a scattered village of three to four 
thousand colonists. I now wandered, on my first 
day, through countless streets without encountering 
a single recognisable object. A more critical subse- 
quent survey did indeed bring up a scattered few of 
such objects, as, for instance, the old Argus office in 


OLD MELBOURNE. 47 


Collins Street East, the little old Patent Office in 
Lonsdale Street West, and here and there some 
rather dilapidated or odd-looking old dwellings in 
parts of streets outside of any considerable tide of 
to-day’s business life. But, generally speaking, the 
old Melbourne of my time, of a full generation past, 
had been entirely swept away, and, but for the 
merciful act of still leaving the old street names, I 
might have been dropped into this modern Babel 
without any possibility, within at least its own wide 
boundary, of knowing where in the wide earth I 
had arrived. Even Batman’s and the Flagstaff 
- Hills, which might have somewhat aided a recogni- 
tion, failed me also and entirely, the first having 
been totally swept away by inexorable railway pro- 
eress at the west end, while its adjacent brother was 
put out of all recognition by a capping of planta- 
tions and pathways—practically one more case of 
being improved out of existence. 


The Tramways System. 


The first and most striking object of these crowded 
and busy streets was the tramway system. You 
could hardly fail to notice it, first of all, because its 
peculiar noise was incessantly in your ears, and again 
because you were seldom one clear minute together 
without the need to look out for a tram, whether to 
jump upon it for your three hundred or three thou- 
sand yards of outing, or to get out of its way. 
Looking in wonder, as a “ new chum,” at the myste- 
riously self-moving vehicle, with all its marvellous 


48 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


adaptabilities, one was reminded of ‘“ Hadji-Baba 
of Ispahan,’ who was equally staggered by a like 
marvel in a different direction, when, as Morier’s 
good story goes, he reported, to his master the 
Persian Shah, about the mysterious gas lamps, to 
the effect that London was lighted by magicians 
with torches. To my ears the ceaseless din of these 
trams was not at all unpleasant, although I was 
within a few yards of it at Scott’s. The well-distin- 
cuished voice of the tram gave me a cheery saluta- 
tion in the early morn, to intimate that the lively 
hurly-burly of another day, with all its hopes as well 
as work and cares, had opened upon great Melbourne. 

This tram system, introduced only about four 
years before, might be held up as the very climax of 
the perfection of its kind, only that such statements 
or predictions are so constantly disproved under the 
marvels of our usually free competitive progress. 
It was transported here from Dunedin, and Mr. . 
Duncan, who took it to Melbourne, and still retains 
charge there, brought it to Dunedin from San Fran- 
cisco—one more of many steps of advance upon us 
due to our American cousinhood. Variously situated 
steam power factories, including a principal one 
near the Exhibition, and another, with a conspicu- 
ously tall chimney on the South Yarra side, are 
the energy-producers of the tram system. The 
many cables, lying just below the street surface, are 
all set going at once, and at the same fairly good 
speed. The cars are conveniently slowed for stop- 
ping, and, where the cables cross each other, one of 
the two car trains, by agreement or rule, “ stoops 


SOME PECULIARITIES. 49 


to conquer” by dropping the cable at the crossing 
instant, to pick it up again the next moment. The 
passengers Jump on and off with a facility, dispatch, 
and safety quite unimprovable. 


Some Peculiarities in Colonial Progress. 


The fare on most lines is 3d. for any distance 
small or great. In these days of penny posts and 
penny busses, to maintain an uniform 3d. in such a 
crowde| business and democratic community as that 
of Melbourne, struck me as symptomatic. It is 
surely the symptom of a rarely general well-doing, 
as otherwise it would be intolerable. The same may 
be said of another feature of a like bearing, namely, 
that the Melbourne city postage rate is—not a 
penny, like, as I think, every other town of the 
Empire, but two pence—surely an intolerable rate 
to-day everywhere else. 

But I came across another peculiarity, quite as 
striking, but in an entirely different direction, and 
including, as I learnt, a much wider area than Mel- 
‘bourne. Having early occasion to send off a con- 
siderable number of newspapers to expectant friends 
at Home, I had them all bought and folded, and had 
only to sally forth to Gordon & Gotch’s, almost 
next door, for the wrappers. ‘ But I want gummed 
wrappers, said I, “not these mere slips of paper, 
which any one can cut for himself with a paper- 
knife.” The shop-boy looked at me a moment with 
an imperturbable face, and then turned off to his 
work, as if I were one who spoke some unknown 

E 


50 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


jargon which he had no time to listen to. “ Haven’t 
you them gummed?” [ rejoined, with the sharp 
tone of despair that does command attention. He 
shook his head, and went on counting papers and 
postage-stamps, and serving a tide of customers. I 
waited for a break, and then assumed so resolute an 
aspect, that the boy actually waited to hear me. 
“Where can I get gummed wrappers?” I said. 
“No where.” “Not over all Melbourne?” “No; 
don’t know them; gum your own.” I fled back, set 
all the wrappers required in succession, and gummed 
them all. But when visitors came in before we 
were finished, and the gum had dried, and the gum- 
pot had been taken away for others, we found that 
this ordinary gum was “no good.” It tasted abomi- 
nably if you licked it for re-wetting, it had quite 
insufficient cohesion, as some of the papers were 
already unloosing. In short, it was not at all the 
“ professional” gum used at Home. So we gave up 
gummed wrappers in despair, and took to a ball of 
twine, in the way that papers used to be dealt with 
at Home prior to the last generation. Afterwards, 
however, my wife heard that the Post Office issued 
wrappers with halfpenny postage stamps imprinted, 
and she went off straight for a hundred of them, 
never doubting that the gum would be there as well 
as the stamp. But the gum was nowhere, and she 
had a broad hint also that the gum had not yet ap- 
peared upon wrappers in any part of the Australian 
group. Iam proud to score at least this one step of 
progress for the Old Mother above her go-ahead 
family. 


MELBOURNE DAILY JOURNALS. 51 


The Melbourne Press. 


Hardly, if indeed at all, second to the trams, in 
the immediately objective, was the Press. To say 
nothing of an ever-increasing host of other issues, 
Melbourne’s morning table is simultaneously served 
by three daily papers, the Argus, the Age, and the 
Telegraph. The last is fairly equal to the average 
London morning journal; the Argus and Age, in an 
“all-ro-nd”’ comparison, are superior. The Argus 
is close upon the 7imes in the paper material and 
the general get-up, and, as I think, exceeds it in 
average quantity of contents. The Age is not up to 
Argus mark in paper and “ get-up,” but is by far the 
greater wonder of the two, inasmuch as, while the 
Argus is at 2d. price, the Age’s equal quantity of 
sixteen to twenty great pages of type are given for 
a penny. Possibly the Exhibition averages at the 
time of my visit were a little above ordinary, but I 
record what I saw over several months of time. In 
point of circulation, of course, the parent is still the 
man and the colonial offshoot the boy ; but the pace 
of the latter is ominous. The Age heads in circulation 
in Australasia. About eighteen months ago the 
daily output was 68,000. A few months ago it was 
76,000. It may now safely be put at 80,000; and 
this, with comparatively so small a population, is a 
rapid advance towards the 200,000 to 300,000 of 
great London press issues. The Argus is understood 
to be a little under 50,000, the respectable old 
Sydney Morning Herald still a little less, but the 
Sydney Evening News as much as 60,000 daily. 

E 2 


= 


52 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Again, as to position, in point of press machinery, 
in which there is ever such marvellous advance. 
One of the Argus chiefs, just prior to our sailing for 
Australia in June last, took us to inspect the new 
Argus machine, which, combining all the very latest 
improvements, was destined for the great Melbourne 
show. But, to graduate us the better to its climax 
height, he introduced my party to the printing esta- 
blishment of ‘‘ the leading journal.” Never having 
seen this before, we were, of course, duly struck as 
we saw, first the raw paper unrolied at one end of 
the machine, and then, as quick as countless wheels 
could take it, printed, folded, and delivered, ready 
for the hands of the public, at the other. But, when 
we inspected the new “Argus ” machine, we had to 
learn that the Times, although claiming to be at the 
head of modern journalism, was not, by any means, 
at such a height in its mechanical manipulation. 
The Times machine which we looked at put out, I 
think, about 8000 an hour, and the other machines 
are from that number to about 10,000. But this one 
of the Argus sends through as many copies as 
12,000 an hour, and these are not only printed and 
folded, but also cut, and numerically delivered in 
separate batches of 25 each. 

We had a striking instance of the critical accuracy 
needed in such machinery. The machine which we 
were looking at was still on trial, not having yet 
been delivered as perfect. The pace of the paper sheet, 
as it was twirled through the machine, seemed the 
very utmost that paper constitution could stand ; so 
that, if any hitch occurred, through which the sue- 


A RETROSPECT. 53 


cessive individual papers, careering onwards at the 
rate of between three and four per second, trenched, 
the one’s toe upon the other’s heel, even to Sam 
Weller’s ‘double millionth,’ there was instant 
confusion and destruction, as we witnessed oftener 
than once. Subsequently, as I shall have occasion 
to mention, during our visit to Sydney, we inspected 
like perfect machinery in the Town &§ Country and 
the Evening News office, where we saw the latter 
paper lu the act of being thrown off at the rate of 
about 12,000 per hour. 


Melbourne Trade—A personal Retrospect of 
Forty Years. 


My young friend Col. Sargood, if I may, in a com- 
parative sense, so patronisingly look down upon his 
fewer years, invited us, on one occasion, to meet 
at luncheon some distinguished Exhibition visitors. 
As I glanced around on entering the palatial sub- 
urban mansion of my friend, and afterwards at the 
hospitable profusion of the table, headed by his 
bright and charming wife, I went off into a musing 
retrospect of just forty years ago, when his father 
opened the small warehouse in Flinders Street 
East, which was duly to grow to the headship of 
Melbourne trade. His father and I became very 
intimate, and, as far as regarded my part, chiefly 
for one reason, namely, that whether dealing in 
hundreds as at first, or in hundreds of thousands as 
towards the last, he was always the same. He died 
altogether too early for such a man; but, under 


54 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


this too common fate, we can now do no more than 
lament him. 

I had resolved to see, inter alia, some of Mel- 
bourne’s trade; and particularly in two of its 
greatest lines, which might, in terms as literal as 
antithetical, be described as, respectively the soft and 
the hard trade. I intended to begin with the Sar- 
good establishment, to pass thence to the hard or 
iron wares of McEwen & Company, Limited, miti- 
gated by association with other metals, rising even 
to the luxury of silver, and finally to the grim un- 
mitigated iron of Mr. Edward Duckett. 

T was, however, intercepted at the outset by the 
head of another soft goods house, my friend Mr. 
Robert Reid, Chairman for this year of the Mel- 
bourne Chamber of Commerce; and, while he 
showed me over the successive floors of what I felt 
inclined to describe as a vast array of human require- 
ments set out in a most orderly confusion, I was 
sure that I had not lost much by the accidental 
exchange of spectacles. Mr. Reid did not need to 
assure me that, excepting the one department of 
boots and shoes, which he did not touch, every item 
of clothing used or required by civilised man (both 
sexes of course) lay before me. 

When I concluded at Mr. Duckett’s grim region 
of the unmixed reign of iron, I was interested chiefly 
in the great and expanding trade in iron wire for 
purposes of land fencing, and particularly in that 
novel kind of it known as the barbed fencing. I 
had seen the facture of that remarkable fencing at 
the works of my old business friend, Mr. Johnson of 


; 
2 
4 
: 


THE WIRE TRADE. D9 
Manchester, who honoured me with an invitation to 
stay with him there during the British Association 
Meeting of last year. He had purchased from an 
American company the patent rights for England, 
but that did not save him on the Colonial ground, 
where he was exposed to the world’s competition. 
When he heard of my intended Australian visit, he 
asked me to report on wire prospects. Here is Mr. 
Duckett’s brief summary, made with all the non- 
chalant indifference of the entire disinterestedness 
of commerce—‘“ As to barbed wire, the American, 
on the whole, the best bargain. Johnson good, 
but dear. The German just touching the American. 
But withal not much difference in any.” But, 
speaking of wire in general, he noted the unhandi- 
ness of the English packages as compared with the 
foreign, pointing in particular to the tidy bundles of 
the German make, as compared with the bigger and 
unwieldy English, that difference alone being sufhi- 
cient to decide the direction of the trade. This 
recalled to my mind the two kinds of shovels that 
used to be sent out at the first to our Victorian gold 
diggers. The one was the old Birmingham shovel, 
the chief object of which, we were then impressed, 
must have been to show the strength of back of 
the English miner in being able to lift it. The 
other was the American lighter article, which was 
evidently made to do the greatest amount of work. 
My friend Mr. Johnson’s course seems now clear. 
In quality he is all right; in price he must come just 
the turn lower ; in the bundling he must tear himself 
out of the dear old groove, in spite of the tears 


56 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


and sighs over so rude a rupturing of the traditional 
ways. 

But, as the great Exhibition is waiting, I must 
now in fairness, before adventuring further into 
Melbourne description, take my readers to the grand 
spectacle which I had come so far to see. The 
morning of the Ist of August dawned promisingly, 
as the sun’s reflection on some adjacent roofs assured 
me. I heard the sounds of countless drums and other 
instruments for hours of what I considered to be the 
early morn, with due admiration for such activity, 
when, bethinking me to consult my watch, I found, 
to my amazement and alarm, that it was at 9.30 of 
the forenoon. I had been ordered by my martial 
friend Col. Sargood and the Committee to be in my 
place in the edifice by eleven o’clock. I had not 
noticed that a small make-shift bedroom which we 
occupied had such limited light approaches as to 
give hardly better than twilight. We made a rapid 
toilet and breakfast, and after all were in ample 
time. 


“™" 
cnr 
~T 

—— 


SECTION VI. 
THE MELBOURNE CENTENARY EXHIBITION OF 1888. 


I must keep to my promise of not inflicting statistics. 
The accounts given by the Press are so frightfully 
elaborate, as to prevent ordinary capacities from 
even attempting to read them. Of course, in that 
case, the specialist revels in the paradise of his 
own particular wants; but where is that first of 
cares, the general reader? Meaning to write for 
him, I shall not follow these too elaborately bad 
examples. Melbourne’s ambition was to give the 
greatest spectacle of the kind that had ever been 
seen in either hemisphere; and she has realised her 
grand aim, for the Exhibition structure which she 
has reared covers more ground than any other 
before it. ‘here has thus been ample room to do 
full justice to all exhibitors. In passing through 
some parts of these great areas, on a subsequent 
occasion, when arrangements were nearer completion 
than at the opening, I was conscious of the vast 
advantage of this amplitude of space, as well in 
setting forth the huge variety of exhibits, as in 
diminishing the fatigue of mind, and the dissatisfac- 
tion consequent upon too closely compacted objects. 
As we waited the hour of noon, which was to 
start the procession inside the building, after it had 
traversed the streets outside, I fell in with not a few 


58 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


of my old colonist friends. I first espied Sir Thomas 
Mcllwraith, the Queensland premier, a doughty 
brother Scot, who with his lady had come above a 
thousand miles by rail from the far north for the 
muster, and who was in the same hotel with us. I 
had to be re-introduced to Mr. Francis Henty, as a 
very long past acquaintance of the very slightest 
kind, formed in the bush nearly fifty years before, 
was otherwise insufficient. The Worshipful Mayor 
of Melbourne, Alderman Benjamin, next appeared 
on the stage, in an extra-magnificent over-dress, 
with a large and lively following, including his able 
town clerk, Mr. Fitzgibbon, who has occupied his 
important post for more than an entire generation. 
Mr. John Barker, Clerk of Parliament, Mr. Damyon, 
a brother merchant, Mr. Shadforth, and others came 
up in fast succession, admitted under privilege into 
the body of the building. Lastly I fell into the 
agreeable company of Mr. Pinschof, the Austro- 
Hungarian Consul, whose acquaintance I had _ hap- 
pily made at my Chamber of Commerce dinner the 
evening before, and who politely showed me over 
the strikingly fine German Court, which was one of 
the very few that were then in full readiness. 


Foreign visitors. 

Mr. Pinschof, who spoke English with rare ac- 
curacy for a foreigner, introduced me to some of 
his German confréres, and in other ways we had 
quite interesting discussions. I gave him my im- 
pression that the large and varied foreign element, 
assembled for the Exhibition, would do more justice 


THE CENTENARY EXHIBITION. 59 


to Melbourne’s position and prospects in the world, 
than was done by her own parent country. The 
memories of the latter were mingled with the 
babyhood of the place, which seemed as only but 
yesterday, and rather hindered the full realisation 
of what Melbourne now was. The Mother would 
begin to do so all the more now when she found her 
child presenting so objective a form to other nations. 
The case was as though a parent, who having had his 
family of sons under his own eye, where they had 
grown up with comparatively little notice, was at 
last, and somewhat of a sudden, apprised of their real 
importance by noticing the “ kow-towing” which 
visitors addressed to them equally as to himself. 


The opening Procession. 

Delays having, as usual, occurred outside, with the 
first and chief section of the procession, headed by 
the Governor and the “ Lords and Ladies,” it was 
not till half-past noon that the grand processional 
music broke in upon our ears. Then we got our- 
selves ready. The great entrance doors gave way ; 
the vice-regal party headed the troop; we all filed 
into our places, and the grand total marched 
through The Avenue of Nations, and into the great 
main edifice at its termination, with an accuracy of 
order and a magnificence of effect that left nothing 
to be desired. The vast spaces were packed in every 
direction, and there was, besides, a huge crowd out- 
side, whose hum of satisfaction varied the melodies 
within. When the grand organ of the occasion, a 
recent ambitious and costly importation of the City 


B50 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


municipality, on which as I heard, the customs 
duty alone was £900, thundered forth the National 
Anthem through the vast space, with the loyal 
response from ten thousand around, the only thing 
that seemed wanting was the presence of the Royal 
Lady herself, who was then in all their minds, and 
who might possibly not have been quite prepared 
for either the scale or the style which one of the 
very youngest of her Colonies was already dis- 
playing, towards the very farthest ledge of her great 
Empire. 


The Cosmos of Exhibits. 


With many other objects to attend to, I was able 
only on one other occasion to visit the Exhibition. 
But that was more than two months later, when 
nearly everything was complete, and the whole 
presented a spectacle of an altogether unprecedented 
wealth of variety of the products, not only of Aus- 
tralasia, but, as I believe I am warranted to say, of 
the whole world. We had but one evening to spare, 
and we did our best to see the most and the choicest. 
Our Australasian Colonies had, of course, the fullest 
representation. ‘The great staples were unrolled in 
each case. There was a general similitude of 
product, much as might be looked for from a 
general scenic and climatic resemblance, extending 
from the farthest south of Tasmania, up to and 
even considerably within the southern tropic, where 
Queensland still supplements the vast wool-ship- 
ments that meet those from more southern sections 
in the London market. New Zealand is rapidly 


AUSTRALIAN MINERALS. 61 


asserting her coming supremacy in agricultural 
products, and in the newer trade of the frozen 
carcases of her countless flocks and herds. New 
South Wales leads in coal, with, however, not a few 
lively competitors still in infancy, the most preten- 
tious of whom is probably New Zealand, which at 
Westport, on the western coast of her Southern 
Island, can show already a fifty-feet seam of the 
best quality. 

Wine is already an Australian production of 
consideration. New South Wales, Victoria, South 
Australia are all largely and regularly at work upon 
it, and the St. Hubert brand of Victoria is already 
accredited with having dismissed the “earthy” 
flavour, and given to the Colonial article the rarely 
difficult attainment of the “ clean” taste of a Euro- 
pean wine. 

Then, what is to be said as to the mineral wealth? 
Gold and silver, tin and copper, turn up in every 
colony in almost ubiquitous presentation. As many 
of the colonists say, the surface has as yet been only 
scratched. Each Colony proudly displayed the gold 
it had given to the world’s commerce, headed by 
Victoria with upwards of 200 millions, or, from that 
small area alone, more than one-fourth of our 
National Debt. Mount Morgan, the newest of the 
Queensland wonders, exhibited its strange auriferous 
matrix, which is to open a new chapter in the “ gold 
constants,” and perhaps, of itself, within a very few 
years, to revolutionise, even beyond united Cali- 
fornia and Australia of past years, the relations 
between the two precious metals. Silver too was 


62 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


in force, for the Broken Hill interests, of quite 
recent discovery, have an exceptional character, not 
dissimilar to that of Mount Morgan, in their novelty 
of mineral aspect, and their promise of astounding 
quantity. Excepting only, perhaps, the South 
American influx of three centuries past, this mine 
threatens an unprecedented silver product. 

The English Courts were richly and variously 
endowed, as were the German and other European 
sections. We sauntered into the Art Gallery, but, 
meeting first the German, were unable to get past its 
many attractions. But I had already seen at home 
some of the chefs-@a@uvre in other directions, inclu- 
ding Mr. Chevalier’s magnificent painting of Mount 
Cook, which in its snow-clad grandeur, with an 
elevation of 12,200 feet, stands monarch of the 
Australasian group. Lastly, we were specially 
interested in one object, a very small one in that 
great galaxy, namely an Aberdeenshire granite 
fountain, which I had sent out as a present to 
Victoria, towards the variety of her great show. 
There were two kangaroos on the top, holding 
between them a lamp, while the water spouted 
beneath from the long throats of two emus. The 
sculptor, with happy thought, did not forget the 
marsupial pouch with its little occupant, and the 
inscription in front was “To Victoria, from one of 
her earliest colonists, in pleasant remembrance, 
1840-88.” The little present had not been ~ 
despised, but, on the contrary, assigned a very 
prominent front position. 

The inevitable with John Bull on such grand 


FESTIVITIES. 63 


occasions came off in the fullest measure. The balls, 
the dinners, the entertainments of every kind, were 
for a good fortnight at least, a ceaseless routine. I 
was not able to attend all of these, and had sur- 
prisingly little time to see and converse with the 
varied and distinguished company assembled for the 
occasion. Most of the Australasian premiers and 
treasurers were there, and I was much minded for a 
raid upon them in the old matter of colonial finance ; 
but, on the one side or the other, time failed, or 
dinners and balls were too powerful and peremptory. 
I had, however, the pleasure and advantage of 
meeting them singly on subsequent occasions, within 
their own respective provinces, and of thoroughly 
imbuing them all, as I hope, with my beneficent 
views for the financial well-being of Australasia in 
regard to reduced rates of interest for their loans. 
I had also the pleasure of the hospitalities of Mr. 
Mayor Benjamin, which were the more enjoyable, 
as his late father and his two uncles, who were a 
firm of prominent merchants of early Melbourne, 
were, in those now far-off times, my own personal 
friends. 


64 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


SECTION VII. 
MELBOURNE IN 1888—continued. 


Tue intrusion of the great Exhibition has broken my 
narration of Melbourne’s changes; but I must now 
resume and conclude it. The Exhibition itself is 
indeed no other than one of the most striking of such 
changes; for, whereas such things were not even 
dreamt of in my colonial days, I was now confronted 
with the grandest spectacle of that kind which had 
ever been witnessed during that momentous interval 
since 1851, when Prince Albert so successfully in- 
augurated this class of most potent stimulus to the 
progress and commercial brotherhood of nations. 


Collins Street, the chief Business Thoroughfare. 


Having many other things to tell, I can deal with 
only a few selected samples of modern Melbourne. 
Standing on its Western Hill, I looked proudly down 
Collins Street, as it swept, with just a graceful, and 
yet not an economically inconvenient, undulation, 
up again to its eastern termination. The noisy 
bustle of business life, and the quieter but equally 
life-like tide of the rest of out-door society; the 
quick, energetic movements of the one sex in all its 
euterprises, and the leisurely grace of the other, in 
disposing of the satisfactory results of business; 
together with the ubiquitous trams which, to common 


THE PARLIAMENT HOUSE. 65 


convenience, brought both producers and spenders 
into constant, and, we must hope, into also mutually 
tolerant contact, were a spectacle in which I never 
ceased to find novelty, wonder, and enjoyment. 
During the two half-months which I was able to give 
to Melbourne, the one at our first arrival, the other 
further into genial spring, I did contrive to see a 
good many of, although not by any means all, its 
leading objects and features. I wandered through 
the beauteous plantations of the Fitzroy Gardens, 
where, forty-eight years before, on the first night 
of my arrival upon Australian soil, accompanying a 


friend to his “hut” on the Richmond flat, the track 


was lost in darkness and down-pouring rain, leaving 
us “dandering”’ helplessly about till dawn. 

I saw with due admiration some of the adjacent 
and spacious Government Offices, together with the 
noble Parliament House, now occupied, although still 
far from finished. There my good and genial friend, 
the Hon. Sir James Lorimer, guided me to his own 
section, the Upper House, while, afterwards, and 


within well-hedged steps on his part, he passed me 


on to those ever-jealous masters, the Lower House. 
The total cost of the great edifice is to be £1,080,500, 
of which, at the time of my visit, about one-third 
remained unexpended. 

Opposite this prominent public building arose the 
Grand Hotel, its name fairly betokening its relative 
dimensions in that indispensable field of modern 
life. It has, however, the peculiarity of being also a 
Temperance Coffee Palace, and along with other like 
prominent and elegant accommodations, in other 

F 


66 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


parts of the city, it seemed to indicate an inspiring 
and avenging Nemesis for a previous indifferent 
repute of these ardent Colonies for the tame enjoy- 
ments of sobriety. Down Bourke Street Hast some 
little way was a new Opera House, which we visited, 
to find within a style and way, which, while ex- 
celled as to mere dimensions by “ Old Drury” and 
one or two others, was not surpassed — and for 
myself I thought, with the one leading exception of 
the Royal Opera, not equalled—in great London. 


Rival Places of Interest. 


There was a complimentary pressure upon me for 
other sights, which time alone interfered with. My 
excellent friend, the Hon. George Coppin, had his 
“Qld Colonists’ Homes,” an admirable and useful 
institution, as I had occasion to know practically in 
individual cases of its helping hand. The Com- 
mittee of the old Benevolent Asylum were at my 
other side. JI had an interest, as subscriber and 
otherwise, in both. When both could not be dealt 
with, I took the last, at once the nearest in situation 
and the biggest in human interests and sympathies. 
And a truly large, noble, and interesting subject it 
proved to be. 


The Benevolent Asylum. 


The original Asylum of my recollection was a 
very unpretentious edifice, although relatively im- 
posing in its fine elevated situation outside of hardly 
more than village Melbourne at the time of its birth. 


2 o 


THR BENEVOLENT ASYLUM. 67 


But now we entered a grand gateway from off the 
great Victoria Parade, and confronted a huge pile of 
successively added buildings, which left the original, 
as the vulgar phrase has it, “nowhere.” Nearly 
seven hundred individuals, male and female, the old, 
the destitute, and the dying, were collected in that 
building, where, without any distinction of race or 
creed, they were tended with every care that could 
mitigate the adversities of old age, bad health, or bad 
fortune. About two-thirds were males—the sex the 
most exposed to life’s trials and accidents. There 
was a section of the blind, between thirty and 
forty in number, who were looked after in supplies 
of raised-print books, and other of their special 
resources. 

The inmates were nearly all passed into old age, 
excepting in some cases of partial paralysis. Most 
of these latter were cases of the lower limbs, leaving 
still the head and the fingers in full life and power, 
although otherwise in helplessly bedridden condition. 
Two females in this condition, hardly yet beyond 
the grace of youth, which set off their pleasant 
expression, had been brought outside into the bright 
noonday sun even of the early spring season. Their 
shapely delicate fingers, actively occupied in a won- 
drous output of work, perhaps marked a breeding 
that was not at all uncommon in the miscellaneous 
gatherings of new settlements, under the harsh 
discipline which at times meets the earlier settlers, 
female as well as male. When they cordially 
responded to our salutation, we left them under a 
decided impression that real human happiness and 
' F 2 


68 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


comfort have but little to do with riches and luxury, 
not to say even other more common or less pre- 
tentious resources as to sound life and limb, which 
we who possess them are too apt to think entirely 
indispensable to endurable existence. 

We were privileged to meet about three hundred 
of the men at their dinner together in one of their 
large halls. Nota few of them recollected me, and 
my business firm, in the old days forty years and 
upwards ago. I made them a short speech, saying 
that I was delighted to meet so many old friends and 
fellow-colonists in such plenty and comfort, for their 
plates were piled up with beef of royal quality, and 
vegetables the Queen herself might envy. I added 
that, in the struggle we all had had in our youth for 
life and status, I had come out prosperous, and they 
mostly, no doubt, the other way, but in most cases, I 
was sure, without personal blame to themselves. 
Those who were the successful, I remarked, were to 
be envied in those feelings which had established so 
noble an institution, so capable of mitigating the 
inequalities of blind Dame Fortune. I promised 
them for their library a number of copies of the 
“ Recollections ” I was just then passing through the 
press. To give them all, however, a small money 
gratuity was a more difficult business, as the medical 
officer, who dutifully or suspiciously accompanied us, 
objected to every form of it. But we at last hit 
upon the unobjectionable, and I took my leave 
greatly the better, socially and otherwise, of the 
visit. When a Chinese visitor of some authority, 
shortly before, went over the place, impressed more 


iba dual 


a 


ae 


ie a oO eee ~ 


THE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 69 


particularly perhaps by the fact of twelve of his own 
countrymen being then inmates, and upon terms 
entirely in common with those for all the others, 
he declared, and recorded the declaration in the 
visitors’ book, that the Institution was an honour to 
mankind. 


The Public Library and other Institutions. 


The Public Library was another characteristic 
institution which my party were enabled to overtake. 
Dr. Bride, at its head, had justly some pride in 
showing us over its various adornments and utilities. 
‘There seemed no stinting in the due furnishing 
of the commodious edifice. Even an Art Gallery, 
which is not properly, I think, a principal section of 
such an institution, had been, as to quality at least, 
unsparingly endowed. But I was chiefly struck by 
the numbers of the visitors, their obviously practical 
position in life, and the settled and methodical and 
thorough way in which they seemed to avail them- 
selves of their public privileges. 

Government House and grounds and the adjacent 
Botanical Gardens we were able just to glance at in 
a hurried march through, but we gave rather more 
time to a visit to the Zoological Gardens, in the 
Royal Park, to which the Resident, Mr. Le Souef, 
son of a very old friend of mine, who used to take 
great interest in, and in fact founded, animal ex- 
hibitions of the early time, had most kindly invited 
us. We had, finally, to be content to have missed 
not only the Old Colonists’ Homes, but the greatly 
extended Hospital, and a good deal else, including, as 


70 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


I had reluctantly to do, the noble and well-endowed 
University, and the Melbourne branch of the Royal 
Mint. We reserve these for our next visit; we 
must needs leave something for that promised and, 
we hope, early occasion. It does seem so easy and 
pleasant nowadays to go to Australia. 


The Opening of the New Bridge. 

But there was one sight as to which we were 
fortunate, and that was the opening of the new bridge. 
“The bridge” par eacellence over the Yarra means, of 
course, that which is in line with Swanston Street, and 
which has had a history of editions where I already 
lose my way. ‘The other “ viaduct”’ over the Yarra, 
lower down whether as bridge or otherwise, has had 
its mixed history too, from the time in 1840 when, 
after a mile and a half’s walk through the bush from 
‘¢The Beach,” we were taken over in a small ferry boat. 
The first stone bridge, on the great Swanston Street 
line, was Lennox’s, whose opening I remember about 
1850, with a great concourse, including myself, then 
the member for Melbourne in the colonial Assembly 
of Sydney, in its honour. It was a grim-looking 
work, of blue-black basalt, much more solid than 
beautiful, of which the small land arch on the 
southern side is still left to help our estimate as 
to the rest of it. When I, almost complainingly, 
pointed out to Mr. La Trobe, the then Superintendent 
or quasi-Governor, that the narrow carriage way, 
and stilted and even relatively narrower side path- 
ways were ridiculous in line with broad Swanston 
Street, he rephed, rather to my disappointment for 


= a A 


MELBOURNE BRIDGE. Le 


a man of decided artistic taste as he was, that it 
was ample for all the wants of the humble place. 
This was, of course, before the gold; but it confirmed 
my idea that Mr. La Trobe, who, worthy man as 
he otherwise was, had a narrow and official sort 
of mind, could never raise himself to Victorian 
destinies. 

Well, after this Lennox structure, there was, at 
least one other, for I have a recollection of reading, 
when at Home, of a zealous protectionist, who, fully 
determined that principle and consistency were not 
to be laughed out of the world if he could help it, had 
suggested that it should be built of domestic-made 
brick, instead of the specious pretence of fine stone 
disloyally imported from adjacent colonies. Mr. La 
Trobe might well have been startled out of his narrow 
propriety if he could have seen the present bridge. 
The old and apparently inevitable necessity of a 
bridge —a sort of mountainous central arch, as 
though to discipline the vulgar by refusing them too 
many facilities, was in this case entirely dispensed 
with, as the bridge was at once straight as an 
arrow and level as the sea. Even Westminster and 
Blackfriars at home, with which, as amongst the 
most recent triumphs of bridge-making, it came 
naturally into comparison, were not free from the old 
infirmity, only that probably the Thames navigation 
needs had to be considered in their case The 
Mayor honoured me with a seat in his carriage for 
the opening, and at the succeeding luncheon I had 
to acknowledge that my impression was that the 
Meibourne bridge exceeded in width at least, if not 


72 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


otherwise, its seniors of Westminster and Blackfriars. 
When the barriers were undone, a vast waiting 
crowd was precipitated upon the new and spacious 
way, which, however, easily accommodated them all. 
Melbourne thus celebrated a grand achievement in 
urban beauty and utility, which was second, in those 
respects, only to the rival concurrent attraction of 
her unsurpassed Exhibition. 


The Town Hall and the Town Clerk. 


Mr. Fitzgibbon, the Town Clerk, conducted me 
over the grand edifice of the Town Hall. When I 
remarked upon its ample dimensions and the richness 
of its furnishings, he coolly remarked that they had 
latterly found its quarters rather narrow, and were 
about to make some additions. The original hall, as 
I remember, was back from the present, and situated 
at Collins Lane corner; but that edifice soon fell 
short of all needs, and a new hall promptly appeared 
fronting Collins Street. The wish and the money 
seem forthcoming simultaneously in such great im- 
provements. But Melbourne, as a London Stock 
Exchange security, now stands in front of all 
Australasian Municipalities, and, indeed, of most 
other colonial or other cities and towns. 


The Mayor and the great Town Hall Balls. 


His Worship is no way behind his Hall. At one 
of the balls at which [ had the honour to be present, 
the Mayoress regretted the bad night, which had 
permitted of only fourteen hundred of company for 
the two thousand invited. These wet nights are apt, 


THE MAYOR’S BALL. 13 


however, to be disconcerting. My daughter, in 
dropping from the cab, plunged one foot into a 
puddle. What was to be done, for she was in no 
mood to return home again? I remarked, by way 
of consolation, that, with such damaged condition, 
she would attract the sympathy of all eyes for 
the evening. But, this not yielding much comfort, 
I suggested that the company might prefer to look at 
her undamaged face rather than her injured feet; and 
so it may have proved, for the latter, by help too of 
some little dress adroitness, escaped unnoticed. 

As I sat by His Worship and lady at the supper, a 
strikingly beautiful lady, matronly but still young, 
sat close to my other side. She had that pronounced 
prominence of feature of their common Semitic race, 
which, in youth at least, adds the commanding to 
the lovable; and I could not help whispering to His 
Worship that here was one of those Esthers of 
old, who captured and commanded the Ahasuerus 
of their day. Some one remarked that the lady’s 
figure was not equal to her face, upon which my 
reflection was that this was mercifully so, for, if the 
figure had been equal to the divine face, we should 
all have had to fall down to worship her, involving 
thereby a breach of the second Commandment, to say 
nothing as to the first. 


The Original Melbourne Cemetery, and some Old 
Friends there. 
One visit to old friends I did not, could not, omit; 
those, namely, who had removed their abode to the 
narrow final home. At early morn, soon after my 


74 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


arrival, I was ai the old original cemetery of the 
west end. There the voiceless dead crowded up 
before me. They began so early as 1841, amongst 
the well-known Langhornes of that time. Passing 
to 1846 was the beloved young wife of my late friend 
Joseph Raleigh, a rarely fine woman, cut off thus 
early, whose strikingly sad funeral I attended. The 
same year a fine youth of twenty-four, Allan Kenny 
Renny, of Dundee, beloved by many of us, whose 
deathbed was watched by his chief intimates, Mr. 
and Mrs. Cassell, Alfred Ross, my late partner, 
James Gill, and myself. We gave him a broken 
column, fit emblem of a lifeso prematurely cut short. 
In 1851 died James Jackson of Toorak, Melbourne’s 
chief merchant of his early time, aged only forty- 
four. In 1848 was Dr. Edmund Charles Hobson, 
the friend and scientific correspondent of Sir Richard 
Owen, and who was ever transmitting to the Prince 
of Science the much-desired and critical specimens of 
the marvellous Australian fauna. In 1850 was my 
old friend, the doughty champion of separation from 
New South Wales, Mr. Edward Curr, who, after 
only fifty-two years of life, quitted the field just 
the year before his battle was won, who now, proud 
man though he was when in life, yet, as a good 
Catholic, besought us from the tomb, “in our 
charity,” to pray for his soul. In 1853 departed my 
most intimate and pleasant friend, active, zealous, 
intelligent in all his duties and engagements, “ The 
Honourable James Horatio Nelson Cassell, Com- 
missioner of the Customs and Member of the Exe- 
cutive Council of Victoria,” whom his widow, since 


THE CAMPO SANTO. 75 


then, alas! also passed to the majority, delighted thus 
in elaborate nomenclature to honour. And lastly, 
in this very year 1888, came to his rest my most 
esteemed and very oldest friend, David C. McArthur, 
father of Victorian banking, the genial “ mine host ” 
of the early settlement, whom I had hoped still to 
see in the flesh, and who, hearing of my intended 
visit, had latterly told his wife, more than once, that 
he was waiting for me. He died but a few months 
before I turned up once more in my dear old home. 


The Second Cemetery, and yet other Friends. 


And this closes my list in the earlier Campo 
Santo. But another had been opened later of more 
adequate dimensions and more convenient situation, 
which also I subsequently visited, to look down upon 
other old friends and comrades in life’s journey 
and duties. ‘Two were specially conspicuous to me; 
namely, Sir John O’Shanassy and Edward Wiison ; 
the former my colleague, along with James Stewart 
Johnston, in the joint representation of Melbourne 
in Victoria’s first legislature ; the latter the well- 

known chief proprietor of the great Argus news- 
paper. Both were men of high mark in their 
respective ways; O’Shanassy, as being a nature- 
born statesman, who, while life lasted, stood in the 
forefront of Victoria’s political life; and Wilson, 
as a socio-political power, whose business success 
developed useful ambitions, and who might have 
worked these to great general good, had not a weak 
constitution and a too early death terminated his 
opportunities. And lastly, amongst old friends and 


76 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


acquaintances, not yet with the dead, and not yet 
mentioned, I had the pleasure to meet Sir Wm. 
Stawell, Sir Francis Murphy, Sir Archibald Michie, 
Mr. J. 8. Johnston, Mr. Mouritz, Mr. T. J. Nankevill, 
Mr. Jno. Nowlan, Mr. J. A. Marsden, and Dr. Black. 
But Mr. T. T. A’Beckett, Mr. Germain Nicholson, 
Mr. David Moore, and some few others I was not 
fortunate enough to see this time, reserving them, 
however, of course, for the next. 


Suburban Melbourne, how changed ! 


But, amongst successful efforts at sight-seeing, 
I must needs see also the Melbourne suburbs, if for 
no other reason than that I myself lived chiefly in 
these outside parts during my seventeen years of 
early colonial life. I lived first at South Yarra, in 
times when there was only a bush track along what 
is now the highly fashionable Toorak Road. Then 
I went north to the Merri Creek, four to five miles 
out of town, where, with a pleasant cottage and 
ample fruit garden, I spent eight happy years; 
and finally, on returning from Home in 1854, 
happily in the married state, I resided once more on 
the South Yarra side, where I erected a new idea of 
an iron house. This is still one of the curiosities 
of the locality, as Mr. Williamson, M.L.A., its 
present owner, tells me, and it was here that our 
eldest daughter was born. I am told that a view 
of Melbourne and its vast suburbs of thousands of 
semi-rural streets, and tens of thousands of small 
and pretty, or substantial and elegant dwellings, 
with their respective plots of flower and fruit garden, 


OLD HAUNTS. i' 


taken from some lofty spire of the central parts, gives 
a panorama which, in pleasant orderly diversity, has 
hardly, if at all, any rival. 


The Suburban Municipality System. 


Indeed, I soon realised the truth of that account 
of such change and progress, and to my sorrow in 
one respect, for all my old haunts, so far at least as 
their original or indigenous features were concerned, 
had been literally improved out of existence. There 
was abundance of admirable substitution, no doubt, 
but the old face had gone, past all return or 
- recognition, And those vast suburbs are a feature 
in another respect; they are in themselves a col- 
lection of separate cities. At the luncheon on the 
occasion of the bridge opening, to which I have 
alluded, seated, as I was, next the Mayor, who again 
was next the Chairman of the occasion, the Hon. Mr. 
Nimmo, Minister of Works, I noticed his Worship 
hieing, in familiar way, to this, that, and the other, 
to come up nearer to the head; and, my curiosity 
being excited, I asked who they were whom he was 
thus so plurally signalling. These turned out to be 
the different mayors of the municipalities around that 
of old or central Melbourne. Then [asked how many 
of these sort of sub-empires his Imperial Worship 
might be able to affiliate. His Worship, rather 
puzzled over the answer, appealed to Mr. Nimmo, 
but the answer did not come from either. Nor 
indeed did I get the interesting fact until I had 
reached Mr. Fitzgibbon, the Town Clerk, placed a 
little further off, who, after a special counting for 


78 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


the occasion, found that there were eleven munici- 
palities immediately adjacent, and fifteen more beyond 
these, besides a few odd “ shires” all about which also 
were practically connected municipalities,much as we 
should view Acton or Ealing or the throng of ultra- 
Southwarkian town clusters about great London. 


Disappearance of Batman's Hill. 


I have already glanced, in passing, at one dear 
old friend who had passed away with so many 
others, and that was pretty green grassy Batman’s 
Hill, in the far west of the city, with its open 
wood of “She - oaks,” whose wiry green foliage 
moaned its curious doleful note in the breeze, 
These now rare trees were with difficulty protected 
by Mr. La Trobe from the firewood thieves, ever 
on the alert for spoil when wood and coal alike 
had begun to rise in price upon the growing towns. 
Mr. La Trobe’s government office was for years 
Batman’s squatting cottage or hut on that hill, and 
I have seen “ His Honour” in the early days more 
than once sally out to chase off and reprimand the 
thieves. After this, and much other care of the 
honoured old hill, he would be as little satisfied as 
myself to return to life to find the old well-known 
landmark gone. When I arrived this last time, 
there was still the stump, so to say, of the -hill 
left, an elevation of about a dozen feet, to which 
it had been, not raised, but razed; but I noticed at 
my last look of the sacred spot, just before final 
departure for Home, that profane hands were once 
more at work, evidently to make a clean erasure. 


MELBOURNE HARBOUR. 79 


So I reverently selected some specimens of its rather 
peculiar geological character, namely, that of a 
decomposing trap rock, which, at a distance, looks 
exactly an ordinary solid trap or blue stone, but is 
actually soft or friable like so much clay. 


The Great Work of the Melbourne Harbour. 


Amongst Melbourne’s most striking changes and 
improvements, and one which came partially before 
me on first arrival as we sailed up the Yarra, is 
the truly colossal work of the Melbourne Harbour, 
Melbourne’s site had been originally selected on a 
requisition, not for harbourage qualities, or indeed 
for most other needs of a great urban future, but 
only for immediate fresh-water supply. In other 
matters generally, it might be said to have been 
rather hastily or negligently chosen. When the gold 
came upon us, we were all of necessity suddenly in 
arms to deliver our port from the unharbour-like 
qualities which, then at any rate, became but too 
manifest. 

My friend, Mr. Alexander Cairns, now, in his old 
age, retired to Dunedin, a practical man, and arrived 
shortly before in the Colony, and whom it was 
refreshing to listen to as he poured out a succession 
of suggestions for the emergency, was prompt to 
urge the immediate cutting of the short canal, 
straight to Hobson’s Bay, which, branching from 
the Yarra just above the bridge, would also carry 
off those devastating floods which every few years 
played havoc with Melbourne property. Indeed, 
the saving in this latter respect might soon of itself 


80 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


have repaid the canal. But duly qualified engineers 
succeeded the practical man, and then, as with duly 
qualified doctors, there were differences and delay, 
and during delay, of course, no result whatever. 
The canal, although at times on the verge of coming 
into existence, was never made; but a railway to 
Sandridge took its place, being the first of iron roads 
opened in Victoria; and, after that partial curing of 
our harbour defects, attention was devoted to the 
old Yarra River, which was to be improved, not 
superseded. 

I am not sure if it was not also the same practical 
genius which suggested an extemporised wharf and 
dock in Hobson’s Bay, made at once out of logs 
cleeked together, and abundantly at hand out of 
the infinitude of imports crowded already upon the 
golden market in its earlier years. It would have 
been a crude but interesting experiment, which would 
have certainly repaid even a very evanescent life; 
for in the block, with utterly inadequate means 
to deal simultaneously with hundreds of shipping, 
the delays and costs of the last few miles, from the 
Hobson’s Bay anchorage to Melbourne, amounted to 
even a heavier charge than for all the previous 
voyage. When another like gold rush occurs once 
more in Australia, Melbourne experiences may not 
be useless, 

Out of all these preliminaries the Melbourne 
Harbour Trust arose leisurely into being, and the 
noise and fame of its great works and still greater 
ambitions are now everywhere. It has finished 
the “ New Cut,” through which we triumphantly 


THE LOAN ISSUE. Sl 


passed ; it is now extending this uniformly deep cut 
far out through the Yarra mouth shallows; and it 
has also in hand a great Dock System, which is to 
be, or at least may be if required, the greatest in the 
world. When I asked the chief engineer at what 
time he expected to finish this costly Melbourne 
Harbour, his reply was “Never.” As Melbourne 
grows, so will its Harbour, in meeting all its needs. 

I had had some pleasant and not unprofitable con- 
nection with the Harbour some years before, upon 
the occasion of its first loan issue being brought 
upon the London market. That Conservative old 
market is seldom caught by new things. This was 
the Harbour’s first appearance there, and it fared 
decidedly ill, considering both what it really then 
was as a security, and what it has since advanced to, 
in that doubly wary market. Five per cent. interest 
had to be offered; but, as the comparatively few 
buyers could not possibly take as much as the whole 
£250,000, I charged myself (I would fain say it 
was in all the accustomed benevolence of business, 
although not without profit also) with about one 
half of the amount. The Harbour Trust now issues 
4 per cents.; but, as even these tend already to a 
premium, my “ law,” already explained on that point, 
may soon require a lower interest rate, possibly some 
day even as lowas the 3 per cent. which I so strongly 
recommended lately to its political superior, the 
Victoria Government. 

This old acquaintanceship, of mutual satisfaction, 
brought me so kind and pressing an invitation to 
make an inspection of the Harbour works, that I 

G 


82 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


must needs, at any sacrifice of other objects, obey its 
call, more especially as Mr. Mouritz, its secretary, 
and its most genial chairman, Alderman O’Grady, 
were amongst my oldest friends. We had a goodly 
little company, including, besides the above, the 
manager and engineer, and Sir James Lorimer, the 
Government Minister of Defence. We ran out into 
Hobson’s Bay, around the still unfinished deep water 
extremity of the artificial cut, and then we were 
directed to look at the beginnings of the vast dock 
excavations, which were to be effected by a new kind 
of “spade,” which removed, in no slow succession, 
about half a ton of earth at a turn. The hospitali- 
ties of the occasion were relatively equal to the 
works, and thus was completed a very pleasant and 
instructive day. 


A Suggestion to Improve Melbourne Improvements. 


But might not Melbourne, with all its progress 
and improvements, be still improved? I thought 
so as I glanced down Collins and some other chief 
streets, and marked the awful irregularity of line of 
either side. Collins Street in particular was thus 
distinguishable, because the enormous price of the 
sites had induced some of the later purchasers to 
bethink themselves of invading the domain of the 
clouds, if they were to get any adequate return 
upon the prices they had latterly paid for sites in 
the reigning “ land boom.” A dozen floors were 
already in the air, and, if that sort of thing weut 
on at present pace, who could tell when dozens 
more might surmount these, for, with rapid lift- 


SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS: 83 


facilities, people might live or work at any height ? 
I wrote to the Mayor, suggesting the introduction 
of symmetry. But I did not commend the pro- 
tracted monotony of the Rue de Rivoli; I rather 
stood for that symmetrical yet varied plan, which, 
as to the private dwelling-house, was so gracefully 
illustrated in the Royal Terrace of my native Edin- 
burgh. While each house is complete in itself, 
there is a relationship in the entire of a varied plan. 
The business streets, of course, have a different archi- 
tecture. I offered a prize of £50 for the best sketch 
of some such plan. 

_ The Mayor honoured me with a well-considered 
reply, in which he took objection solely to tying 
up the freedom of building adaptation and _ pro- 
gress, which a once-for-all construction of this 
kind might involve. That is, of course, a real 
point; but the counter points seem to me to out- 
weigh it, especially in checking the unseemly 
extravagances alluded to. Any symmetrical plan 
adopted would probably be a great step forward at 
once secured, nor need after progress entirely cut 
it off from adaptation. I suggested, too, that if 
the idea were thrown out authoritatively, certain 
streets, not already committed, as perhaps Collins 
Street already is, to too much of objective individual 
peculiarity, might take the matter up respectively 
for themselves, with the result that the new develop- 
ment might form the cynosure of Melbourne street 
life, and secure in consequence an advance of 25 or 
50 per cent. in value. His Worship has promised me 
that the subject should not escape attention. 

Ga 2 


84 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. . 


I may yet find that in this, as in much else, young 
Colonies are easier to dislodge from accustomed old 
grooves than the seniorsat Home. I took very great 
interest in the question of the reconstruction and 
improvement of Central Iondon, so urgently needed 
in no few respects, and some years ago I gave, 
through the Society of Arts, large prizes for essays 
on the subject. I hope that I have not seen the last 
of that effort; but, as Dr. B. W. Richardson, a hand 
much longer than mine at that bellows, may con- 
firm, old Conservative London is slow to move in 
new directions. One of the needed improvements 
was a great roomy and connected “ Subterranean,” 
seeing that now our increasing interests, scientific 
and sanitary, needed a constant access without the 
need, on every recurring occasion, of having to break 
up the narrow and. over-packed. streets. Melbourne 
would soon have the same need, and the reconstruc- 
tions I reeommended might help their commencement 
ere site values, as now in London’s very centre, ran 
too high to be meddled with. Whatever might be 
done for the central parts of London, whether above 
or below, the central radius of about five hundred 
yards around the Bank and Exchange must be dropped 
out through its overpowering purchase weight in 
gold. Some discussion having arisen, on the occasion 
of one of my meetings, as to a clearing-out value of 
only one of its streets, namely Lombard Street, with 
its banking and financing throng all claiming dis- 
turbance valuation as well as site valuation, this 
total of value was put, upon some authority said to 
be reliabie, at one hundred millions! 


1a. 


A ROYAL VISITOR. 85 


The Young Prince of Schleswig-Holstein, 1850. 


Before quitting this large and varied subject of 
modern Melbourne and its spacious suburbs, let me 
mention one of my most pleasant reminiscences, 
which came up to me in meeting at Scott’s an old 
friend and well-known colonist, Mr. John Nowlan. 
He was the business partner of the late Capt. 
Stanley Carr, who in 1850, arrived amongst us with 
his interesting and amiable young charge, the late 
Prince of Schleswig-Holstein, then but nineteen 
years old, and whose visit was quite an event 1o our 
quiet community of those pre-gold times. The dis- 
tinguished party arrived from Hamburg by one of 
the Godeffroy’s ships, and, as I had been the origi- 
nator of the German emigration to Melbourne, 
begun the year before through help of Delius of 
Bremen and the Godeffroys, they fell, as it were, 
into my arms. They stayed for a few days at my 
modest cottage on the Merri Creek, where grapes, 
plums, peaches and such like, might, at least as to 
quantity, have made up for those left behind on the 
Rhine and the Elbe. The Prince was a universal 
favourite. He had the haute politesse, so attractive 
especially in the ingenuous modesty of youth, of 
seeming to consider that every one else was to be 
preferred to himself. Two sisters helped me with 
the small establishment in those pre-marriage days ; 
and we gave a ball to the Prince, or, more strictly, 
to those Merri Creek maidens around, who sighed 
for a chance of a dance with such a partner. Some 
of them secured it; but they had all to realise, 


86 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


whether to disappointment or otherwise, that the 
perfect courtesy of the Prince had the additional 
high virtue of a perfeet impartiality. How time 
flies, and what great events come on in its quick 
succession! The Prince’s younger brother became 
afterwards our Queen’s son-in-law. The Prince 
himself died early, but he is represented by three 
daughters, the eldest of whom is to-day Empress of 
Germany. 


fbi) 


SECTION VIII. 
MELBOURNE TO SYDNEY BY RAIL. 


AFTER a most busy half-month in Melbourne, we 
broke resolutely away to take, at this cool early 
spring time, the warmer colonies to the north, New 
South Wales and Queensland. As to the latter, 
at any rate, we expected to arrive at the very 
choicest season. As to Melbourne at this time, the 
weather was much too cold to be agreeable, and even 
Sydney, we heard, was not yet very much milder. 
The cold winter that had prevailed to the south of 
the Straits had spread over here also. 


Official Courtesies and Free Railway Passes. 


We had decided not to take the through express 
or mail, which, as it started in the afternoon, would 
have taken us through Victoria almost wholly in 
the dark. We therefore took the day train for 
Albury, giving us some hours at that New South 
Wales border town, whence we would go on, per 
night mail, to Sydney. We, as old colonists, had 
been most handsomely treated in the matter of 
railway free passes, first by Mr. Fysh for Tasmania, 
and next by the Victorian Government, represented 
by our kind and most attentive friend Mr. Laber- 
touche, secretary for the railways. The latter, 
indeed, apprised me that there was in waiting for 
me the gold key entitling me, as a member of 


88 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Victoria's earliest Parliament, to a free railway pass 
for life. Not only so, but when in Sydney, later on, 
this pass was pocket-picked from my wife, our friend 
replaced it by another, although I offered, but in 
vain, to pay at least the gold material, by way of 
punishing our negligence. Next, in due time, came 
a courteous letter from Sir Henry Parkes, the New 
South Wales Premier, to the effect that he would 
instruct the Albury station-master to make us com- 
fortable as we passed through. Sir Henry is a very 
old friend of mine, of as far back as 1850, in which 
year he sat with me in the legislature of the then 
undivided colony at Sydney. But when we met 
shortly after at Sydney he told me that his know- 
ledge of me had extended to about a year longer 
than mine of himself; for, being in Melbourne in 
1849, he attended an election meeting at which I 
had made a speech as candidate for Melbourne in 
the Colonial House, and which speech he had occasion 
to communicate to the Sydney Press. Later on the 
passes came also for Queensland from our friend Sir 
Thomas MclIlwraith. 


Australian Scenery: Dead and Dying Timber. 


Away we started, therefore, for the north, pro- 
posing, after taking the two Colonies there, together 
with New Zealand, to return to Melbourne in time 
for a second half-month, during which we hoped 
to see something of the interior, under improved 
auspices as to weather with the advance of spring. 
Our proposed route was not, as regarded Victorian 
scenery, by any means the finest. . That would have 


FIELD AND FOREST. 89 


been in the westerly direction, towards the Grampian 
Mountains and Portland, a large area of almost 
ubiquitous beauty, which Sir Thomas Mitchell 
christened Australia Felix, and which .the Henty 
family, as already narrated, first opened to colonisa- 
tion. But our present route, excepting about the 
first forty miles to Kilmore, was all new to me. 
Not much of interest, however, appeared to us. 
The various little country towns and railway stations 
had a remarkably general similarity of look, and the 
same might one say of the country, which was in 
general the open forest, with the grass - clothed 
ground, which is at once, as I might, in seeming 
contradiction say, the beauty and the monotony of 
Australian scenery. 

The numbers of dead trees at times gave a most 
weird look to large areas, and, when these were 
diversified by the more or less scorched or charred 
trunks of the living, one had the saddening impres- 
sion as though gazing upon a vast camp not only of 
the dead, who were, of course, past all pain equally 
with all hope, but also of the wounded in all stages 
of hope or despair. This view of Australian indi- 
genous field and forest struck me so strongly and 
repeatedly that I hope to be excused if I repeatedly 
refer to it. My thought was that these poor trees, 
exposed as they are to bush-fire scorchings every 
year or two, especially during the almost periodical 
droughts, have hardly a chance of full and healthy 
growth. We might liken them to some family 
whose dwelling had a mischievous habit, every 
few years, of catching fire. The inmates might 


90 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


not be all burnt to death, but those who did escape 
had their skins so scorched as to seriously impair 
health and life, to say nothing of beauty, in their 
after career. Consequently, through almost all the 
country we now traversed, there was the noticeable 
absence of grand, strong, healthy monarchs of the 
forest,and the equally noticeable presence of a plentiful 
proportion of poor rickety growths, young and old, 
whose ugly stems and scant struggling foliage 
betokened the casualties and sufferings of the past. 
Where the gum trees are not exposed to fires they 
are large and graceful, with their fair share of 
foliage. In New Zealand, for instance, the Blue 
Gum thus flourishes in great beauty, and is a general 
favourite, although the more regular moisture of the 
climate is there, of course, a special help. 

I found myself revolving at times how this evil of 
fires, which so terribly reduced the beauty as well as 
the value of the country, could be remedied. The 
crowding together of the healthy life, young or old, 
with the dead and the wounded seems the chief evil. 
If these latter were cleared away, if all but the best 
trees, in both economic and scenic sense, were got rid 
of, how beautiful Australia in general would be, and, 
as one might infer, how much more available its 
territory. I thought of an apparatus of powerful 
steam or electric sawing machines on a scale which a 
government, dealing with so vast a territory, might 
be able to apply, sawing down useless or damaged 
growths at one or two per minute, then blowing up 
the roots with dynamite, and finally cross-cutting 
and stacking up for firewood all the clearable refuse. 


—— 
ir 


THE RIVER MURRAY. 91 


One could only, of course, do that to advantage on 
somewhat level ground, and perhaps only where 
there was water; but, even so, that would effect a 
grand clearing and constitute a fair beginning. 


The River Murray, and Albury: Colonial Wine. 


Now we are approaching Albury, and must look 
out for the boundary of either colony, the great 
River Murray. [ rushed alternately to each side of 
the carriage to catch the expected wide expanse of 
welcome water, but to my astonishment we were at 
the Albury station, apparently without crossing. I 
did indeed notice a not inconsiderable river course, 
crossed about a mile south of the town, but I 
imagined it to be some moderate tributary. But 
this was the Murray none the less. Of course the 
bridge sought the narrowest river crossing, and 
when we afterwards sauntered down to it, and took 
notice of a good strong current, and the indications 
of some depth, our respect gradually returned. 

At the time of our visit a large drove of cattle 
was crossing into Victoria, and we were looking 
for some scene in connection with the Live Stock 
importation tax, which Victoria, by a curious economic 
logic, inflicts upon her own public in the interests of 
perhaps the best-off class within her bounds, namely, 
her squatters. But it turned out that these were 
Victorian cattle, which, under the Scriptural principle 
of giving good for evil, her northern sister had per- 
mitted freely to enter, and, when disappointed of a 
sale, as freely to quit her boundaries. 

Albury is rather a pretentious edition of the 


92 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


interior country town. Ht is laid out in the usual 
rectangular way, with abundant width of street. 
The reporter of the Argus met us at the station, 
having heard from Melbourne of our departure. He 
took us to a nice tidy hotel about the town’s centre, 
near the Post Office, and then directed our cabman to 
show us the sights, including the Murray. We 
afterwards called for Mr. Mayor Mate, who was a 
sort of head general merchant, with the enviable 
repute of a large proprietary holding of corner and 
other town allotments. He told me that Albury was 
to be the seat of government of federated Australasia. 
The town reminded me somewhat of Melbourne 
when about eight years old. Albury had naw 8000 
people, and if the Melbourne resemblance lasts it 
may be a big place ere long. We concluded our 
day at Mr. Fallon’s wine vaults, where we found 
some wine-blending going on in a most protracted 
pouring and repouring of each kind into the other, 
which seemed to me rather dissipative of the strength. 
We next took to tasting, and had some delicate and 
fair “ Tokay.” But I am always against the appli- 
cation of old European names to Australian wines, 
as all difference of flavour is apt to be set down as 
inferiority. 


New South Wales, and Bracing Cold. 


Towards eleven we returned to the station to find 
our sleeping places ready. I regretted to pass 
through so much country in the dark, much of it, on 
the one side of our train as on the other, of the long- 
settled Yass pastures for instance, well worth looking 


GOULBOURN. 93 


at. We used to joke an old friend, whose mind 
still tended to the ‘‘ despatch of business” even in 
pleasure travel, that he took the Rhine by night to 
save time. We were, although involuntarily, also 
under such time pressure. When I awoke upon a 
bright early morn, between Yass and Goulburn, the 
country was all white with hoar frost, and the 
carriage window crusted inside with ice. Was 
not the country to be congratulated on this sign 
of its invigorating climate? Goulburn is one more 
country town of the size-pretensions of Albury, but 
older, and, as a magisterial centre, with some display 
of public edifices. There were increasing signs of 
drought as we went northwards, as hardly any rain 
had fallen up there for some six months past. At 
last, as we turned eastwards after Parramatta 
junction, the crowded cottages of all sizes, mostly 
wooden, with here and there handsome private 
ee told that we were approaching the great 
centre Sydney, the senior sister and worthy rival of 
the other great centre we had just left in Victoria. 


94 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


SECTION IX. 
SYDNEY, THE CAPITAL OF NEW SOUTH WALES, IN 1888. 


WE were quite an hour late in arriving, and so 
missed a greeting from my worthy old friend, the 
Hon. George Alfred Lloyd. But he soon appeared 
at our “ Roberts’ Hotel,’ to which we had been 
recommended, and we resumed a very old acquaint- 
ance, which had not however been quite an unbroken 
mutual absence, as between us we have been making 
these Home or vice versd trips, which seem now 
so easy even to our rather advanced years. I have 
not many old friends in Sydney, beyond Mr. Lloyd 
and his venerable friend and political associate the 
Premier. They have mostly now departed this life. 
Sir William Manning, whom I had the great pleasure 
of seeing alive and well, Mr. Augustus Morris, and 
the Hon. Alexander Campbell, the latter, like myself 
and Mr, Lloyd, slightly the worse for years, are pretty 


nearly my surviving list. 


Comparison with Melbourne. 


Whether Sydney or Melbourne was the most 
changed, all things taken together, since I quitted 
Australia more than a generation since, it might be 
hard to say. Obvious differences presented them- 
selves in the comparison of the two sister capitals. 
No one capable of judging has any doubt, even in 


OLD SYDNEY. 95 


Sydney itself, as I should feel sure, that Melbourne, 
the junior sister, is decidedly more presentable, as a 
city, than the senior. And this very seniority of 
the latter explains most of the difference; for while 
surveyors, with modern ideas and experiences, had 
the laying out of Melbourne, in comparatively 
speaking our own day, poor old Sydney, brought to 
birth years ere this fertile century had even dawned, 
had not one particle of such systematically nursing 
care. Its one main town thoroughfare, George 
Street, sprawled away, slightly zig-zagging, begin- 
ning close to the natural harbour which is now 
Sydney Cove; while to right and left of this main 
line, like the tiny legs of a centipede, although 
entirely without the creature's symmetry, ran the 
lanes or cross streets of the lesser order, mostly in a 
royally free licence as to qualities desirable in either 
street-way or edifices. The illustrated local Press 
lately gave some sketches of the venerable mansions 
of that time, which had survived, presumably in a 
good deal of discomfort to their occupants, down to 
the present. The Sydney of to-day has had to patch 
up, or, in desperation, to wade destructively through, 
almost like a telescoping railway train, this ugly 
nest, as it were, of old sleeping cars. 

Thus a strictly city glance over Sydney falls sadly 
short of the same glance directed over the perfectly 
systematic field of modern Melbourne. Then, again, 
the tram systems are almost as distinctly different 
as the respective general aspects, and in this case 
also to Sydney’s disadvantage. Instead of the tidy 
short Melbourne train, of two carriages only, the 


96 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


one open, the other, for choice, closed, and passing 
and repassing every minute or two of the entire day, 
we have in Sydney a huge, lumbering, ugly, and, 
I may add, black and dirty-looking steam - engine 
tram, which does not at all go so conveniently often, 
and is not nearly so simple in its boarding and 
alighting arrangements. One thing I admired 
however, namely the ticket arrangement, which 
dispenses altogether with the passing of money, a 
sad necessity if we are successfully to circumvent 
human nature. 

When we pass to the general from these two 
special aspects, Sydney begins to square up with her 
sister. In point of the tide of business, coursing 
through the chief streets, I did not distinguish much 
difference, George Street being, in that matter, quite 
a match for Collins or any other Melbourne street. 
Passing now to the architectural question, and to the 
grand and elegant piles of the public buildings, and 
those of the almost countless banks and other 
institutions, one is apt to get bewildered over a 
subject or question, numerically so very large, and 
individually so competitively varied. But in the 
end I had to side with Melbourne, owing chiefly 
to her extraordinary efforts of the last few years, 
when overflowing treasuries, public and _ private, 
have literally been giving to the city and Colony 
“money which she does not know what to do with.” 
During these years Sydney improvement has been 
comparatively “scamped” in the rival race for the 
sake of further railway connection over her Colony’s 
vast areas, which great areas are thus, for the day 


~ 


THE SPIRIT OF RIVALRY. 97 


at least, a comparative disadvantage, and have given 
of late a public revenue deficit, to compare with 
Melbourne’s joyous surplus. 

But the spirit of rivalry is too keen, and the 
ultimate resources are too assured, to keep the one 
city long behind the other. Sydney’s new Town Hall 
is more pretentious than even that of Melbourne, 
which had so awed my imagination. I had another, 
and even a better, if also quite an amusing illustration 
of the rival spirit, and its contempt for the slavery 
of mere costs. While on a pleasant ramble through 
old ground, under the experienced guidance of my 
old friend Mr. Lloyd, we passed the skeleton of a vast 
and most elegant-looking structure which, as hardly 
half completed, and yet without its staff of building 
hands, I supposed to be suffering only from the indis- 
pensable interval of the workmen’s dinner hour. 
Placed too in one of the choicest of public sites, it 
promised to be such a palace as Queen Victoria might 
prefer in the whole city, if she arrived after its final 
completion. On inquiry, I had to learn that this was 
a contemplated new hospital, but whose extravagant 
plan, as it developed into reality, had so scared even 
Sydney’s profusion that further supplies were refused, 
after a trifle of some £130,000 had been expended. 
The site also, a remarkably choice one, had been 
considered a needless part of the extravagance. 

Next, as to commerce, I was certainly struck with 
the superior array of that of Melbourne. But this is 
probably due to the fact of the entire field there being 
visible at one glance, while that of Sydney struck 
me as more scattered, and with proportionately less 

H 


98 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


effect. This is the more likely explanation, seeing 
that New South Wales is to-day represented, in its 
capital Sydney, by more commerce than Victoria is 
at Melbourne, to the extent of some solid millions 
yearly. The sudden and enormous gold finds of 
Victoria had sent Melbourne almost at once ahead 
of Sydney, so that her commerce, her revenues, 
and her population were for a number of years 
at least 50 per cent. the greater of the two. 
But after Victoria’s gold had seriously fallen off, 
although still several times that of the New South 
Wales fields, and after too, as I fear I must add, 
Victoria had begun to “develope” her restrictive 
Protection, the senior sister has been steadily 
retrieving her position; so much so, indeed, as to 
have already passed her junior over the whole 
ground, being now, by latest returns, decidedly 
ahead in commerce, considerably in revenue, and 
just past her even in population. Owing perhaps to 
protective influences, the Melbourne population is 
still ahead of that of Sydney, in the proportion of 
about 400,000 to 350,000. Whether this is with 
advantage or not may be taken as part of a question, 
which is altogether inevitable in this mainly economic 
view of mine of these Colonies, and a question for 
which both my readers and myself must presently 
prepare ourselves. 


Sydney's Harbour of Port Jackson. 
But if Sydney, in some leading urban character- 
istics, has been but at a limping gait alongside of her 
great and more graceful sister, she has a reserve in 


PORT JACKSON. 99 


store, a sort of Napoleonic Old Guard, which can 
never surrender, and which easily routs every oppo- 
nent of its kind along a whole line, which she might 
even presume to say comprises, not Australia only, 
but the world; and that is her harbour. One of 
Cook’s sailors, of the name of Jackson, espied from 
the mast cap, in passing outside, this landlocked 
harbour, and it was honoured with his name, as 
though some trivial matter, only good enough -for 
one of the ship’s hands. And afterwards, too, the 
commencing settlement, in entire obliviousness of 
Port Jackson, was made at Botany Bay. By for- 
tunate accidents, rather than by any intention, Port 
Jackson happened to be in close vicinity, and was 
soon after occupied in preference to the original 
settlement. And thus arose, under her accelerating 
conditions, that fair city of our Southern Empire 
which is already a power even in her comparative 
infancy, and the acknowledged mistress of the great 
Pacific which she confronts. 

The merely economic view of the harbour is pro- 
bably never to be challenged, and that is, of course, 
the main consideration for a great commercial city. 
But I have much doubt whether the scenic effect is 
not even already in rapid decline, from what must 
otherwise be in the nature of a highly satisfactory 
result, namely the enormous extension of the city. 
Those charming natural inlets of the earlier and 
smaller days, with their fringe of beach or sea- 
splashed rocks, crowned by green bushes, or dwarf 
forest growth, whose hardy verdure defied even an 
Australian drought, are all passing into the limbo 

H 2 


100 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


of the almost-forgotten past, and are gazed upon by 
a new generation which knew not the primitive 
indigenous “Joseph” of earlier date. The base, 
the side, the top are alike capped by the inexorable 
progress of many human needs and wants, and, 
like the Emerald Hill of Melbourne, the emerald 
blade or its congeners will soon in many parts be 
the only thing wanting in the crowded scene. 
When I looked over the grand expanses of the 
Derwent which grace Sydney’s little sister Hobart, 
I thought that fortune would have better arranged 
for the interests of both if either the respective 
harbours or the respective cities had changed 
places. 

As though to supplement or affirm this view, that 
the city, in proper relative dimensions, has already 
outgrown its harbour, is the fact that its sewage has 
already so fouled the once clear pure waters on 
which it sits as to render imperative a grand and 
costly exit into the Pacific; unless, indeed, we can at 
last practically realise that we can deal otherwise 
than by thus throwing away what may be made the 
natural restorative to the exhaustion of soils. I can 
never divest myself of the idea that the costly per- 
plexities of both Sydney and Melbourne in this 
matter, especially in view of their rather dry and 
thirsty climates, might have the very opposite 
results, by a scheme upon an adequate scale for con- 
veying the manure inland for agricultural purposes. 
With the strong pressure of a great artificial eleva- 
tion at starting, the sewage material, in a state of 
thorough dissolution, might be transmitted far and 


NEW SOUTH WALES AND VICTORIA. 101 


wide for fertilising use, to return perhaps some 
clear revenue instead of causing costly loss. 


Comparison of New South Wales and Victoria. 


New South Wales is much larger in area than 
Victoria—between three and four times the area in 
fact. I question if there is, at present at least, any 
advantage in this mere size, although in the next 
century, when population and irrigation can do their 
double work, the result may be different. But at 
present, when there are only just above a million 
people to each colony, the compact little Victoria, 
with her large proportion of fertile land, may have 
rather the advantage. It is as though, with fairly 
equal resources to bring up, the one had the disad- 
vantage to bring them from three times the distance 
of the other. 

But Victoria may rejoice in one decided advantage, 
and that is her climate. Not only is it cooler on an 
average by some degrees, but it is much less affected 
by the great Australian economic plague of drought. 
Victoria is far indeed from being drought-free, and 
she has at times a prevalence of hot winds that 
might scare even a tropical Queenslander; but, 
owing to her largely sea-girt boundaries, she is 
much less roughly dealt with in respect of drought. 
As we sailed by steamer from Sydney to Brisbane, 
along north New South Wales and south Queensland, 
the smoke of many successive bush fires indicated the 
suffering country, while we had, just before, quitted 
Victoria, green and beautiful in almost every occu- 
pied and cultivated part. 


102 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


We paid our respects at Government House to 
Lord and Lady Carrington, at their afternoon tea 
reception. The Governor is charmingly frank—so 
much so indeed, that, not hearing my friend Lloyd 
give me the name, I supposed I had fallen to the 
equerry who was waiting a chance of his master 
having a half-minute to spare, and to whom I 
addressed some pour passer le temps observations. But 
hearing my friend address him as “my lord,” I 
began to suspect some mistake, and asked whom I 
had the honour to be speaking to. But that made 
no difference; Lord Carrington was all the same. 


Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of New South Wales. 


From that I went to Sir Henry Parkes. The 
Premier is an impressive old man. He has fought 
many a battle. He bears it in his pale face and very 
white hair, although still with a commanding look 
and presence. He is particularly remarkable for 
speaking quietly and deliberately, as though a few 
selected words were enough for one idea, the rest 
being understood. And then, when he had thus 
dismissed any offered subject, you saw that he was 
patiently waiting your pleasure for another. We 
were soon into the thick of colonial finance. I told 
him my plan, particularly as to the advantage of 
these Colonies acting co-operatively, so as to present 
a large uniform stock to the Home market. 

I saw that he had the idea that to take, for 
instance, such an almost “lame duck” as New Zea- 
land into the union would bring down rather than 
raise the stock of the others. However, I assured 


“ PROTECTION.” 103 


him that this would not be so, and that a political 
federation, which we supposed these Colonies must 
some day, in all good common sense, accomplish, 
would have a marvellous effect on the value of their 
loans, as was shown in the Canadian Dominion case. 

This quickly led to the tariff and protection 
difficulties, and then I became aware that Sir Henry 
was in no humour either for agreements or for being, 
politically at least, agreeable. With the external 
quietness of the experienced statesman, it was yet 
evident that to his mind there did not appear much 
present hope of intercolonial federation. It was, in 
fact, chiefly from Sir Henry’s attitude that I took the 
idea that the only way in which intercolonial federa- 
tion might be practicable was by reserving for a 
time the tariff freedom of each Colony. The sus- 
picious fears and difficulties otherwise were endless. 
Sir Henry is resolute to keep for his Colony that 
freedom of exchange to all its workers for the pro- 
ducts of their labour which New South Wales has as 
yet enjoyed. She is now, in fact, the only one of the 
group which still keeps to this freedom, all the others 
having more or less adopted restriction, and its 
reduced labour output, which they confuse their 
minds with as “ protection.” 

But this is not all, for Victoria, and perhaps 
Queensland and others, have indicated for a separate 
tariff respectively, and for unwillingness to make 
common commercial cause with the other Colonies. 
Victoria’s live-stock tax against New South Wales 
was in this respect a glaring and irritating case. 
The Victorian Parliament has lately signified that 


104 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


it wishes to still increase this tax. Thus Victoria 
might be as much opposed to a federation, whieh 
might take a large-minded fancy to abolish this 
individualism, as New South Wales might be opposed 
to what was likely to abolish her trading freedom. 
Sir Henry spoke rather reproachfully of certain 
Victorian statesmen, who, with good heads and 
fundamentally correct economic views, ought to be 
supporting him in his hard battle, instead of going 
with their wrong-headed masses. He mentioned 
particularly Mr. Service and Mr. Gillies. I sooth- 
ingly alleged that, if these men threw up the reins, 
the Colony might go into 50 and 60 per cent. pro- 
tection instead of 25 and 30; and also, by way of a 
climax of comfort, I added that, if “ the worst came 
to the worst,” any heavy additional Victorian protec- 
tion would send New South Wales still more decidedly 
ahead in commerce. I had also some conversation 
on the same subjects, but especially the financial 
section, with the Hon. Mr. Burns, the Treasurer. I 
afterwards had the high distinction, as well as great 
pleasure, to meet this gentleman, together with quite 
a number of Sydney’s leading citizens, at a dinner 
in the Union Club, given to me by Mr. 8. A. Joseph, 
the President of the Sydney Chamber of Commerce, 
whom I had met some weeks before at the dinner 
given by the President of the Melbourne Chamber. 
I found myself, on this very interesting occasion, 
in company with many intelligent men, the leaders 
of the Colony’s commerce, and of high repute for 
capacious business minds. The Hon. Henry 
Mort, M.L.C., is, as I told him, a name tantamount - 


DINNER IN THE UNION CLUB. 105 


to an institution, and with him the Hon. H. C. 
Dangar, M.L.C., Director of the Australian Mortgage 
Land and Finance Company, which stands admittedly 
at the head of its own class of business in these 
Colonies. My friend and correspondent, Mr. Josiah 
Mullens, and Mr. R. I. Black are, as stock and share 
brokers, amongst the leading men of the Sydney Stock 
Exchange. Mr. Orr, Manager of the Union Bank of 
Australia, was the son of an old Melbourne friend, 
Mr. John Orr, one of the earliest of the Port Phillip 
merchants; and last, but not least, was Mr. T. A. 
Dibbs, the managing head of the great, old, 
and surpassingly prosperous Commercial Banking 
Company of Sydney, whom it was my good fortune 
to sit next during the dinner, and with whom, as 
a sagacious man of business, I was particularly struck 
and most favourably impressed. Mr. Dibbs, I may 
here add, had most hospitably offered to take my 
party a sail in his yacht, in order to shew us the 
almost interminable succession of beautiful variety in 
the inlets and scenery of Port Jackson. But this 
most tempting trip we were compelled to forego 
from want of time. 

I might have met still more of these Sydney 
magnates of commerce, as Mr. Joseph informed me, 
but for the meeting, during the current week, of 
the Australasian Association for the Promotion of 
Science, an institution happily and successfully in- 
augurated at this time, and destined, we cannot 
doubt, to a future of unusual distinction in a land 
of such scientific wonders and novelties as Australia. 


106 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


SECTION X. 


AN ALTOGETHER INEVITABLE DIGRESSION UPON FREE 
TRADE AND PROTECTION IN AUSTRALASIA. 


[N.B.— Those who cannot swallow this dose are 
asked to “ drop it” and pass on. | 
WHEN [ had hurried up to the great Exhibition, as 
narrated in a preceding section, uncertain whether 
I might not be too late for my appointed place 
there, and while wandering over the vast interior, 
to which my special ticket had admitted me, not 
certain where in particular to go, I espied, at some 
distance, a figure which I was sure I recognised, 
and a figure not readily missed, in its robust outline, 
even at some distance. This was my friend Sir 
Thomas MclIlwraith, Premier of Queensland, arrived, 
like so many others, from far and near, at the 
grand show. His leisurely pace set me at once at 
rest as to the time question; in fact, as it turned 
out, we were a good hour too early, so that the 
Premier and I had time for some chat. 

Sir Thomas is a zealous protectionist; and I— 
well, I am not of that “persuasion.” And so, as 
with two theologians, over equally absorbing 
differences, we naturally gravitated to conflict, 
under the happy sin-covering expectation, perhaps 
equally fervent on either side, of being the favoured 
instrument “that converteth one from the error of 
his ways.’ I put it to Sir Thomas that every 


FREE TRADE V. PROTECTION. 107 


economist of any eminence, from Adam Smith 
downwards, had advocated the economic advantage 
of freedom in trading; that is to say, freedom of 
exchange to every worker for the product of his 
labour, as compared with the restrictive system 
in that respect, known by the misleading term 
Protection. 

Sir Thomas, who is, in things generally, a hard- 
headed, common-sense brother Scot, did not deny 
this fact. Indeed he felt bound to answer it, and 
here is his answer: “Ah, but we have found out 
many things since these economists.” Well, I shall 
take this answer, and allow Sir Thomas and his 
co-believers to expound what they mean by it, as 
they did indeed after their own fashion, on many 
opportunities which I had with many of them. One 
of these, a squatting colonist, Mr. McCrae by 
name, whom I met at Roberts’ Hotel, Sydney, 
was perhaps most of all useful to me, in a zealous 
outpour, in his pronounced and supremely self- 
convinced way, of the Catechism of Protection. 
But I had other conversations, at all odd times, 
with many others, including premiers, ex-premiers, 
and treasurers by the score, to say nothing of 
commoner folk. There might be an endless repe- 
tition in distinguishing individuals. I shall therefore 
take the case as a whole, and aim at some logical 
sequence. With this view I shali bring but two 
parties upon the stage, namely, an abstract He, who 
stands for all the protectionist side, and a concrete I, 
who stands for the readers’ humble servant, listening 
and responding. 


108 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Some Introductory Principles. 


But, before adventuring into battle, I wish to 
offer just a few introductory principles, which may 
I think be agreed to on both sides. 


Economie Advantage alone dealt with: One Illustration. 


Economic advantage is, of course, what we are 
now solely concerned with. Where other things 
intervene, the social, the sanitary consideration, 
&e., the ground changes. For instance, the late 
Mr. Syme, of his now ultra-Protectionist Melbourne 
Age newspaper, used to hold that countries, such 
as the Western States of America, ought not to 
permit monotonous ubiquitous wheat-growing, but 
should, on social considerations, coerce the people into 
a greater variety of employment, even at economic 
disadvantage. And, no doubt, provided there were 
real grounds for the apprehension, he presents a 
case which is not necessarily at variance with 
principles of trading freedom, for it is admitted to 
be an economic loss, incurred for the sake of a social 
gain. 

Another Illustration. 

Or, to vary this illustration, suppose some great 
self-coverning Newcastle, so surpassingly rich in 
coal, that to work solely at that article paid the 
labourer better than anything else. All, therefore, 
took to the coal, and got enormous wages; and these 
in turn were spent freely in all kinds of good things 
got in exchange from the outside countries, which 


FREE TRADE VY. PROTECTION. 109 


bought the coal. But this coal-hewing society 
became such a grimy lot that its government 
resolved on a change. They now proposed that 
only about one-fourth of the workers should remain 
at coal, while the rest were to be induced to go to 
other and usual varieties of employment. In order 
therefore, to bring this about, they discouraged or 
excluded a great proportion of the importations by 
putting heavy customs duties upon them. This 
enabled home cultivators, whose small product pre- 
viously would not have remunerated them, to get 
now such higher prices from their own people as 
to yield them a sufficient profit. And so, too, the 
outside world, finding the market for their own 
things thus narrowed, reduced proportionately their 
coal purchases. The result was a restricted pro- 
duction all round, indicated by the higher prices 
every one paid. The wages, which under King Coal’s 
reign had been quite 20s. a day, were down to 
15s., while the higher prices of everything prac- 
tically further reduced the 15s. to 10s. But, then, 
the society was a vast deal tidier, healthier, and 
happier. They regretted, indeed, the half wages, 
but all else was in their favour. 


The Higher Price and Diminishing Labour 
Product under Protection. 


As this Newcastle case shows, price is the inverse 
of quantity. When wheat, by an exchange, say, of 
coal or wool, can be secured for 30s. a quarter, 
while 40s. is needed for that of domestic growth, 
that means that the same amount of labour which, 


110 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


under free exchange, secures forty quarters for the 
people’s consumption, results in only thirty quarters 
by direct home production. This isa loss to the coun- 
try just as distinctly as though an auriferous soil 
were cultivated, under pretence, let us suppose, of 
using the soil or employing the people, with the 
result of extracting 20s. of gold at the cost of 24s. 
M. Albi, a noted French protectionist, held that to 
protect any one interest was, by the advance of 
price, a hardship upon all the rest; but that to 
protect every interest gave all prosperity. But, 
from the preceding principles, it is not difficult to 
see that such multiplied protection, by which prices 
are raised all round to compensate for reduced pro- 
duction, is only multiplied loss in the ever-diminish- 
ing output of the labour. Indeed, it is fairly sup- 
posable that, by a strictly applied protection in, for 
instance, a densely-peopled country like England, 
the labour product might be so attenuated as to 
prove insufficient to maintain in existence even one- 


half of the people. 


Competition and Free Exchange. 


The principles of competition and of the sub- 
division of labour are fundamental to all economic 
progress; the one to brace up the worker for giving 
the largest or best labour product; the other for 
securing, under freedom of exchange, that larger 
market which ever increases economy of production. 

To restrict the sphere of exchange, therefore, by 
such principles as, first, “ keeping our own markets 
all to ourselves”; or second, “taking all our own 


FREE TRADE VY. PROTECTION. Thi 


wants out of our own soil, instead of other people’s 
soils”; or, third, “not spending our own money 
upon other people’s goods,” is in exact contradiction 
to the three foregoing fundamentals of economy. 
Nor can we view it as at all the intention of a good 
Providence, while so directly hurtful to economic 
interests, that mankind should be commercially 
exclusive instead of cultivating a mutual dependence 
upon each other. 


Mill's qualified Concession of a temporary Protection. 


_ Lastly, Mill has quite properly admitted, that 
there may be particular cases, especially in new 
countries, where protection, for a limited time at 
first, may be beneficial, to establish some suitable 
interest which is afterwards to be self-supporting. 
Although Mill is extremely guarded in his condi- 
tional terms, this admission of his has been so incon- 
tinently abused by protectionists as to make it 
desirable that all such special and temporary aid 
should be simply by money grant from the public 
treasury, instead of by the indiscriminate and blind- 
ing mode of a protective customs duty. 


Case of Victorian Candle-making. 


The case, for instance, of candle-making in Vic- 
toria, which arose under my own eyes, will be a 
good illustration. Victoria, having the tallow on 
the spot, was bound, it was said for her, to make 
candles as cheap and good as, or even cheaper and 
better than, anywhere else; but that, at the first, the 
excellent imported article, which sold at 10d. per 


112 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


pound, could not be equalled, domestically, under a 
shilling. A protective duty of 2d. per pound was 
therefore imposed, and the colonial public had to 
pay a shilling instead of tenpence, in the hope that 
the colonial maker would soon justify his aspiration, 
or the aspiration made for him. Meanwhile such 
proportion of the imported candles as the public still 
took at the advanced cost involved them in no loss, 
because the additional 2d. went to revenue; but, 
as to the colonial proportion, all extra price went 
to the private maker. There is yet another point 
in the case, namely, that this 2d. of extra price 
inflicted on the colonists was probably much more 
than all the profit the protected candle-maker him- 
self realised. But the climax of disappointment is, 
that the tax of 2d. per pound, after twenty to thirty - 
years, is still levied; nor does there seem the slightest 
prospect of its being abolished or even reduced. 

Let us look now, instead of this old way, at my 
suggested new mode of the direct grant in aid. 
The colonial candle-maker requires a pecuniary aid 
equivalent to 2d. per pound, and that is to be given 
him, as I propose, direct from the public revenue. 
The Colony’s other vocations, let us suppose, yield 
an average of 10s. a day to the hands employed ; 
but candle-making, under free importation, would 
pay only 4s. a day. The Treasury, therefore, will 
supplement the other 6s. a day for all candle- 
making hands employed. But this drain on the 
finances, common sense will suggest, must not last 
for ever. It will be allowed for ten years, after 
which colonial eandle-making must either stand on 


FREE TRADE VY. PROTECTION. Piae 


its own legs or be given up. I will venture to say 
that, had this course been taken, colonial candle- 
making, braced up by necessity, had probably already 
been thus independent, which, however, it never will 
be, under the relaxing effects of its protection. 

And, besides, one sees in this mode the promise 
of a complete suspension of hostilities between 
the two camps. If the matter lay with me, I would 
at once acquiesce in every protection asked for, 
provided it was given in this self-exposing way. 
Undoubtedly there might be great waste of public 
money; but the concurrent lesson as to the true 
bearings of protection would be so unmistakably 
clear as to be worth all the money lost. 


The Argument with Protectionists. 


Mr. McCrae, before mentioned, is here chiefly in 
the lead-off. 

He, “ New South Wales, I regret to say, is fast 
going to the dogs. Gjuve to her interests the protec- 
tion given by Victoria, and she may yet run along- 
side ; otherwise she is to be utterly beaten.” 

f, “In which way ?”’ 

He, “ In every way. She is behind in agriculture, 
behind in manufactures. She affords no protection 
to her own soil, to bring it into cultivation so as to 
produce her own wants. She buys instead the pro- 
ducts of Victorian soil, merely because mercenary 
individual importers find them cheaper. She allows 
New Zealand to send in, perfectly free, her fine 
cheap oats at 2s. a bushel, at which they can never 

I 


114 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


be grown here, nor indeed cultivated at all, without 
a high protection. In short, she is, by her neglect 
and indifference to her own interests, ruining one- 
half of these interests.” 

I. “ That seems a terrible category of woe; but 
I confess that I see nothing but advantage to the 
New South Wales public in getting so many good 
things so cheap. The Colony does not get them for 
nothing. She pays for them in other things—in 
other products that lie better to her hand.” 

He. “That does not tally with your great econo-. 
mists, who hold that all wealth comes out of the soil. 
Therefore, the more you get out of your own soil, 
the richer the country.” : 

I. “Yes, provided the work pays. Would you 
work your auriferous soil for a crop of gold that 
costs you 25s. for every pound ?” 

He. “Of course not, but that is a different thing.” 

I. “It is no ways different. If you persist to 
grow oats, to cost 25s, a quarter, when, by means of 
some other product in a free exchange, you can get 
the New Zealand at 20s., you make the same loss as 
with the gold.” 

He. “1 don’t see it so. In the latter case we are 
using our own land and employing our own people.” 

I. “ You equally do that in the other case.” 

He. “Take another view. Yass, and down thence 
southwards to the Victoria border, can grow fair 
quality of hay for local wants; but, when perhaps 
there has been a good crop, Victoria floods us with 
cheaper and better hay, and then our growers can't 
sell. They won’t continue growing hay in that case, 


FREE TRADE VY. PROTECTION. 115 


and then Victoria, having all the market to herself, 


charges anything she likes.” 


I, “T have no faith in that sort of pat argument. 
Your hay-growers have surely common seuse to look 
out for themselves. Your own public get the 
superior or cheaper hay; and they get it in exchange 
for other of your own products; they never get it 
for nothing.” 

He. “ But Victoria won’t allow a bale of our hay to 
go across to her people. Look at her stock tax, too. 
Her very best cattle come in freely to us, and she won’t 
adinit a single ox, best or worst, free to her own people. 
Parkes is a fool to go on with us in this way.” 

I, “To me the foolery is on the other side. If I 
were the Victorian public, I would insist on our having 
the New South Wales good things, instead of being 
sacrificed to the protection of the particular Victorian 
squatting interest. If any interest is to be protected, 
the first and strongest case is that of the whole 
people. Speaking roundly, every colonist is a worker. 
The best protection to all is to permit equal freedom 


of exchange to each.” 


He, “ Take the case of New Zealand. Would you 
take away the New Zealand protection just when the 
Colony is in difficulties and in a struggle to recover? 
That would only send her back again, instead of 
curing her of her trouble.” 

I, “Then you think that, when a colony is im- 
poverished and depressed, the best help to give her is 
to increase the cost of her necessaries by compelling 
all her people to pay increased prices to certain of 


the local interests.” 
tz 


116 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


He. “Well, that’s one way of putting it, no 
doubt; but how are the people to get employment, 
unless you provide something for them to do, by 
excluding the imports that take the work out of 
their hands? By adequate protection they will, 
at any rate, have the manufacturing of their own 
clothing and boots and shoes, and the growing of 
their own food.” 

I. “I would leave them, in these and all other 
things, to look out for themselves. They certainly 
will do this if not officially interfered with. When 
you first arrived in New Zealand, of course your 
only idea was to go to the Government, and ask 
them what they thought you should set to work 
upon, and how to do it ?” 

He. “No, I did no such thing. I looked about 
myself, and soon found a lot of prospect.” — 

I, “ And have continued to find it ever since ? ” 

He, “ Why, yes, in a way.” 

I, “But every other colonist is only a repetition 
of your individual self ‘in a way’ of his own. If 
you'll only leave him free, and not stultify his caleu- 
lations with protective duties, he'll find how and 
where ‘to turn out the largest product of labour 
possible to the circumstances.’ ” 

He. “I can’t divest myself of protective ideas. 
Suppose every one protected, and so substantially 
as to insure most unusually high prices all round. 
Wouldn't every one be prosperous? Prices could be 
sent to any height by merely increasing the protec- 
tion, and excluding the competing foreigner.” 

I. “ Yes, you had best go on to the reductio ad, ete., 


FREE TRADE V. PROTECTION. 117 


and protect your North Island against the South, 
and vice versd; then the counties against each 
other, the towns, the suburbs, &c. The strife of 
human nature would cease, no doubt, but human 
exertion and progress would, I fear, cease with it.” 

fle. “When you have anything to buy, why not 
buy it at home, instead of buying it outside and 
benefiting strangers ?” 

I, “I would buy it outside if I could do better, Iex- 
change something else that my country produces, and 
thus get a larger product of what I buy outside. Lam 
- so much richer in this way by the free exchange.” 

He. “ But the other side in most cases won’t re- 
ciprocate, and where then is your advantage ?” 

I. “Oh, leave that to me; I have other exchanges 
to fall back upon, and with these I square the account. ~ 
There is no danger of my getting the foreign im- 
portations for nothing. They must be paid for,and all, 
more or less directly, in my country’s own products.” 

fle. “I encouraged a New Zealand paper manu- 
facturer. He said, ‘ All I want is that you shut off 
the outside competition, and I engage to supply the 
whole paper of the islands without raising the price.’ 
He has done so. That has always seemed to me the 
very climax of protectionist triumph, and I am 
proud of it.’ (Sir H. Atkinson, the New Zealand 
Premier, is speaking here.) 

I. “Yes, and the paralysing effects of your 
protection just set him to sleep where he was, when 
every other paper-maker in the world would, under 
the stimulus of free competition, have greatly re- 
duced the cost by such an extension of his market.” 


118 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


He. “Then look at the life and bustle of Mel- 
bourne, with so many manufactures reared into 
being by protection, and which could not have 
existed otherwise, and could not now go on without 
the protection. What a creation of wealth, and what 
employment provided for the people! Melbourne 
has more population than Sydney, and probably 
always will have, under her protection.” 

I. “If Melbourne’s chimneys and smoke arose in 
a natural course out of vocations that paid their own 
way, I would not object to them. But I do decidedly 
dislike them in your delightful semi-tropical climate, 
when they are created and maintained only by a 
heavy special tax upon the whole colony. The 
tax on woollen fabrics is 30 per cent., and on 
others 25 per cent. What is the meaning of 
that? It means that for certain kinds of the 
worker’s necessaries he has to pay, under protection, 
in the proportion of from £125 to £130, when, under 
free exchange, he could secure them for £100. If 
such ‘ protection’ were more general, it would most 
seriously handicap Victoria’s labour, and be especially 
conspicuous to her detriment, if she ran alongside 
of any other Colony which maintained freedom of 
exchange.” 

He. “Well, as to that, you have read, no doubt, 
the remarks of the Chairman of our Sydney Chamber 
of Manufactures at the annual meeting this month ” 
(Sept. 1888). 

I. “ Yes, I read a telegraphic summary.” 

He. “ Quite sufficient. You saw what he said 
about certain manufactures begun there, and now on 


FREE TRADE V. PROTECTION. 119 


the decline for want of protection, and that the hands 
were leaving for Melbourne ?” 

I. “I noticed that; but go on to what follows— 
his remedy.” 

He. “ Don’t fear; I had no intention to keep that 
from you. That, I think you will find, is my triumph, 
not yours.” 

I. “Good ; let us hear it.” 

He. “* He points at two remedies ; either, first, to 
increase the price of imported goods by an import duty 
_ to a point that would enable domestic interests, by an 
- increase of price, to make production profitable ; or, 
second, to lower colonial wages, until colonial-made 
goods can compete with those imported. He decides 
for the former remedy, because it would be a national 
gain, which would cost the country nothing.” 

I, “Then, if a farm or a factory fails, in quantity 
or quality of product, to pay its way, you have only 
to force up the price of the product by protection, 
and the country wil] know no disadvantage. If one 
of your soils yields twenty bushels of wheat to the 
acre, while another, with the same expense of labour, 
would yield only ten bushels, you have only, as to 
the latter, to increase the price adequately by a 
protecting duty, and the country is as rich, as well 
supplied in labour product, and as prosperous as 
ever ?” 

fe. “ Then, you go, I infer, for the alternative of 
lowering colonial wages till our labour can compete 
with the low prices of the imported goods.” 

I. “I do no such thing. Leave your workers and 
their exchanges free, a freedom your gallant old 


120 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Premier is now fighting, day and night, to retain to 
them; and you may be sure he will find his own way 
to what yields him the best wages, and the best 
exchanges for the maximum of labour product in all 
the requisites of his life and his business.” 

He. ** You are thus wholly opposed to any pro- 
tective intervention whatever. But Mill allowed it 
in particular cases. At any rate, he concedes the 
principle. You don’t agree with him, then?” 

I. “Under Mill’s strict qualifications I entirely 
agree with him. But these you Protectionists always 
overlook. His concession brings him not one jot 
nearer to your above said Chairman, because Mill’s 
gist is that we submit to the present temporary 
loss caused by the protection, in expectation of 
rearing, in reasonable time, some suitable and self- 
supporting interest. But your Chairman sees 
nothing but direct advantage in protection, The 
more the protection, and the higher the prices 
necessary to compensate diminishing output of pro- 
duct, the greater with him the prosperity.” 

fle. “ And yet look how Melbourne prospers. 
She has more energy and wealth than Sydney. Her 
agricultural products are pushed everywhere. She 
protects these also; all appearances are against you 
and your loose free trading.” 

I, “ Well, your tirade is rather mixed ; partly true, 
no doubt. The climate, comparatively invigorating, 
is appreciably in Melbourne’s favour, as regards our 
race and its accustomed employments, even although 
by only some four or five degrees of the ther- 
mometer. Then the Victorian country is ~icher and 


FREE TRADE V. PROTECTION. bes 


more productive, and even the smaller extent in 
area is for the present an advantage to Victoria over 
New South Wales, till population is much larger. 
For instance, the latter is now at great expense for 
railway connection over her vast areas, much of 
them sterile enough compared to her sister’s. She 
has to bring in her resources from afar, while 
Victoria brings them from near; and, again, Vic- 
toria is less troubled by drought, a terrible scourge 
to her sister at times, causing in some respects an 
absolute cessation of growth. 

Separately weighed, these differences are not 
perhaps much respectively, but collectively they 
tot up very considerably in Melbourne’s favour. 
Proteétionists must therefore, I fancy, be much 
astonished at the statistical comparison to-day, 
which shows that Victoria is being commercially 
surpassed by New South Wales. The latter, the 
senior by far in the earlier race, was beyond compare 
ahead of the junior up to the date when the gold 
deluge overtook them both. Then indeed the eight, 
ten, twelve millions a year of Victoria’s gold, com- 
pared to the one million of her less fortunate sister, 
precipitated the former right ahead of her senior. 
During the first fifteen years that followed, Victoria’s 
commerce, her public revenue, her population, and 
the far surpassing size and importance of Melbourne, 
which seemed already assured, even far in the front, 
as the permanent emporium of Australasian com- 
merce, were all from one-third to one-half the greater 
in the comparison. The surprise is that this advance 
has not since continued, not even been maintained ; 


122 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


for, although Victoria’s gold has been seriously falling 
off since then, it is still about four times more than 
that of her rival. But what is the result to-day? 
For a score of years past the senior has been steadily 
recovering the lost ground. New South Wales has 
been already, for some years, ahead of Victoria in 
commerce and public revenue; also in amount of 
accumulated wealth she overtook and surpassed the 
other; while this year she has passed her also in 
population. Already the emporium of the Southern 
Pacific is Sydney, not Melbourne. 

What is the reason of such a surprising turning 
of the tables? There is but one reason which I 
can see or think of; twenty-two years ago, Victoria 
entered systematically into a career of protection. 
That means that she then entered upon restriction, 
not expansion. She restricted the sphere of exchange 
of the product of her workers’ labour, and by the cer- - 
tainty of economic law that product was diminished. 
As she purposely restricted her external commerce 
by the obstructions she put in the way of the outside 
trade exchanges, she must surely be satisfied with her 
success in placing her sister in the first position, and, 
albeit with inexplicable modesty, taking the second 
herself. 


The Conclusion, as I draw it. 

As the particular “ He,” to whom I delivered this 
concluding exordium upon Melbourne’s economic 
forbearance and modesty did not reply, I am glad to 
save my reader’s patience by coming to a close. So 
I return to my friend, Sir Thomas, whom I left on the 


FREE TRADE V. PROTECTION. 123 


Exhibition floor, asserting, on behalf of protection, 
that we have found out many things since these 
bothering and contradicting economists. After all, I 
am disposed to agree with him, to this extent at any 
rate, that by help of protection we have indeed found 
out some things these said economists failed to see, 
although not looking exactly in Sir Thomas’s direc- 
tion. He evidently thought that “the two and two, 
making four” of the economists, had been somehow, 
by protection, increased to five. But I think that it 
may be shown that protection so clips the integers, 
in the course of the addition or multiplication, that 
two and two make, not five, not even four, but only 


three. 


124 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


SECTION XI. 
SYDNEY TO BRISBANE, BY SEA. 


For the present we had but two days to stay in 
great Sydney, a most insultingly inadequate time; 
but we had the prospect of three more days on our 
return, ere embarking for New Zealand. We were 
now bound for Brisbane, where we had quite a nest 
of relations. There had been a discussion amongst 
my party as to whether we should go by sea to the 
Queensland capital, returning by rail to Sydney, or 
vice versd. A reputed fast steamer, the “ Leura,” 
happening to suit us as to time, we decided for sea 
first, and secured the best berths remaining, the 
vessel being fairly full. This decision was fortunate, 
for we learnt that, owing to a two-knot northerly 
current inshore, the outward voyage is made close to 
the land, while the return is, for the same cause, far 
out to sea, The “ Leura” is so called from one of 
the many grand spectacles of the Blue Mountains. 
She was about 800 tons, a fast sailer, trading 
between Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, but 
unfortunately in a very dilapidated condition, having 
her screw-propeller of four blades reduced, by 
accidents of tear and wear, to only one and a half, 
and having been so busily worked of late that the 
time could not be spared for a restoration of the gone 
flappers. So we hobbled on, making, however, 


ne 


NEWCASTLE LABOUR STRIKE. 125 


eight knots an hour, instead of the regular thirteen, 
by help of unsurpassingly favourable and delightful 
weather. 


The Newcastle Labour Strike. 


All our previous sufferings from cold weather—and 
they followed us even into Sydney, where, as well as 
further south, the winter, as I have already said, had 
been unusually severe—began now to cease as we 
passed northwards into the ambient airs that were 
wafted off from Northern New South Wales and 
Southern Queensland. We had left Sydney in the 
dark, namely at one o’clock a.M., and thus missed 
the grand and striking beauties of the Port Jackson 
Heads. But these we had another opportunity after- 
wards to see. Towards noon next day, we were 
on the outlook for Newcastle, one hundred miles 
north of Port Jackson, which, besides being of 
importance, as a town and seaport second only to 
Sydney, was now on the eve of a condition of labour 
strike amongst the great coal interest which was to 
command the serious attention of this entire colonial 
group. The strike broke out on the third day, I 
think, after we passed, quietly and pleasantly, the 
smoky young city to our left. 

Iam not prepared to say much on the merits of 
this great strike, which, so far as I can hear at the 
different ports we touch at on our Home voyage, is 
still as unsettled as ever after more than two months 
of halt in the output of one of the prime wants of 
life and business. But the subject in itself invites 
some remarks, and it is too important to be excusably 


126 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


passed over. The strike was entered upon within 
the last week of August 1888. It was commonly 
said by onlookers, who were not of the striking 
classes, that the cause could not be deficient wages, 
seeing that the rates paid for eight or nine weeks 
before were from 10s. 1d. the minimum average, to 
‘13s. 83d. the maximum average, for a day of six to 
seven hours’ work. That high wage also, happily 
for its recipients, was paid in a free-trade country, 
which insured for the money the highest purchasing 
power. But that consideration had possibly but 
little to do with the real cause, and perhaps as little 
was that real cause what the strikers assigned at 
first, namely, some not very intelligible differences 
about parts of the seams which were harder than 
others to pick out, but not remunerated for propor- 
tionately. We may perhaps correctly suppose that 
there would still have been the strike had there 
been no such excusing differences, and had the rates 
of wages happened to be either lower or higher than 
they were. The strikes, in fact, are much more due 
to the temper and ambitions of the men, and if these 
are not regarded, and judiciously and, I may add, 
somewhat sympathetically dealt with, the striking 
will not only never cease, but be always acrimo- 
niously conducted. 

Our whole English society is in the act of rapid 
transition from the old feudal or traditional class 
system, and the transition has already gone so far 
that the numerical political supremacy, both at home 
and in what are properly British Colonies, has passed 
to the masses of the people. That the political or 


NEWCASTLE LABOUR STRIKE. 127 


“constitutional” surface is still unbroken, that the 
traditional monarchical forms still survive, and show 
no indication of being in danger, simply because they 
really do not, or at least they need not, oppose 
the democratic development, is due perhaps to a 
moderation of political character which is of the best 
augury. In every country or Colony of our Empire 
there is still a Government which can, if it will, 
maintain order and the law; and which, if its 
individual components have the courage of their 
position for prompt, firm, and judicious action, will 
undoubtedly have the support of the great majority 
of the respective peoples. 

These remarks are called for by the very savagery 
of some of the acts and threats of the Newcastle 
strikers. That a class of men upon whose daily work 
business and society absolutely depend for their 
very life should, if so minded, entirely leave off 
work is what the others must submit to in a per- 
sonally free society; but that these men, thus on 
strike, should prevent others, who were willing, | 
from taking their place, is not to be endured while a 
Government stands. But, again, this infirmity of 
“temper” has at times with us, as happened, I think, 
even more than once in this strike, an irrepressible 
humour to-day and a penitent reaction to-morrow ; 
so that the Oriental despot’s short way of making 
peace might prove needlessly hard measure when, 
immediately after, all might have come right without 
need for one drop of civil blood. This is where the 
quality of the judicious comes in; and I doubt not 
that my friend, Sir Henry Parkes, who never could, 


128 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. - 


for one moment, have doubted of his power, has beem 


thus somewhat equipoised in the great responsi- 
bilities of his position. As far as I could learn he 
seems to have acted judiciously under all the cirecum- 
stances. But, speaking generally, if blood must be 
shed in order to quell unreason and passion, the 
quantity has usually to be increased the longer the 
final settlement is postponed. 

Having said so much against the strikers, let me 
say something for them. I have remarked that rates 
of wages, good or bad in the abstract, have little to 
do with the strike question. My impression is, that 
strikes are much more frequent under good than 
under bad wages, simply because the workman is 
then in more heart, and is more bent on his rights; 
and his rights to him are, not good or bad pay as 
abstract wages, but what he thinks should be his 
proportion as between the two parties concerned, the 
employers and the employed. If this were kept in 
view, still more if the principle were cordially 
‘recognised by the former, there would be much less 
striking, or, at any rate, much less bitterness in the 
procedure. The workman should not be taunted 
with having enough wages already for his wants, 
&c., &c. When the merchant, the doctor, the lawyer 
find themselves well off, is that the time when they 
moderately think of reducing their charges, or even 
of keeping them where they are? On the contrary, 
they raise them, and the more they get, the more 
and still more they ask. And so with the workman. 
It should never be put to him that he has already 
enough wages for his wants, because that is to-day 


a 


THE WINDING RIVER BRISBANE. 129 


absolutely no real part of the strike question. He 
often, indeed, miscalculates his position, and has to 
smart for such serious mistakes by being generally 
beaten in the contest; und he often also behaves so 
badly in the fight, that he still more deserves to 
lose. Indeed, he can never expect to make much 
of it, unless he can institute some higher code of 
honour in the Unions, so as to bring a stronger 
hand upon those intemperate members, who are 
ever bringing in the police and military, to smash 
down their efforts and make a fool of their principles.* 


The winding River Brisbane. 


We had the double misfortune of leaving Sydney 
Harbour by night, and arriving by night in the 
Brisbane River. We missed seeing the fine spacious 
Moreton Bay, sheltered by Stradbroke and Moreton 
Islands; but the winding Brisbane took us some 
hours to ascend, and day broke over us half-way. 
We passed what seemed to be a great village, and 
which, as we thought, must be far below Brisbane, 
because we had still another hour of river-winding. 
But this turned out to be a part of Brisbane itself, 
namely, The Valley, near which some of our relatives 
resided, and who were at the time vigorously hailing 


* After nearly three months’ continuance, the strike was 
happily ended, as the following telegram, dated Sydney, 15th 
November, intimates: “ An agreement between the masters and 
the colliers on strike has been signed, and consequently all 
the miners will resume work forthwith. The strike in the 
Newcastle coal district which commenced in August last is thus 
ended.” 


K 


130 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


us from a neighbouring verandah, but without our 
noticing them or even suspecting their near presence. 
At last we pulled up at the Custom House, a present- 
able little temple-looking edifice, where one of our 
nephews awaited us with a vehicle, which was soon 
rolling us merrily along through town and suburbs, 
some five miles out, into what were to us the 
heretofore unknown regions of Queensland. 


| 


SECTION XII. 


BRISBANE, THE CAPITAL OF QUEENSLAND, AND 
Its NEIGHBOURHOOD. 


I HAVE two sisters in Brisbane, settled there in the 
happy accidents of life, both with families, and one 
of them already with families’ families. My friend, 
Mr. Plimmer, the surviving patriarch of Wellington, 


New Zealand, of whom I have presently to speak, 


told me, that he had already eighty-five of a family 
in this duplicative way. For the breeding of rabbits, 
sheep, and humanity nothing beats Australia and 
New Zealand. I think I am not unreasonable 
when, later on, I am to suggest that, in a century 
hence, even this wide and now all but empty 
Australasia may feel overcrowded, and go out for 
elbow-room upon her beautiful semitropical ocean in 
the great vessels of that not very far-off time, which 
will probably resemble huge hotels floating safely, 
steadily, pleasantly, and with express speed, as need 
be, upon the azure main. © 

We were delighted with everything in Queensland. 
The climate, at that early spring time, was all we 
could wish. It was deliciously cool at night, so that 
I rolled myself in double blankets; while in the day, 
although the sun was at times hot, showing what it 
might be when more vertical in summer, the air 
was most genial, like a later spring day in South 
England. 

K 2 


By. AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Good Streets and Buildings. 


Considering the youth of this place, I was as much 
surprised at its appearance as that of Sydney and 
Melbourne. Including the suburbs, it has already 
75,000 of population, standing thus next to Adelaide, 
and being the fourth city of the group. I was 
equally surprised with the advanced condition of its 
chief streets as to banking, commercial, and trading 
business. A feature here, as indeed in Australia 
- generally, is the competitive spirit, and of the banks 
in particular, for grand edifices. The Queensland 
National Bank is not excelled anywhere in these 
Colonies; and hardly behind it, if indeed at all 
behind it, is the Brisbane branch of the London 
Chartered Bank of Australia. There are, besides, 
some great warehouses, particularly of that leading 
Colonial branch, the Soft Goods trade. The 
Government House, the Parliament Houses, the 
Club, are all fairly presentable, while Queen Street, 
the main banking and business emporium, squares 
well up already towards the busy aspects of her 
senior rivals down south. There were busses and 
trams everywhere, and the smart step and _ pre- 
occupied expression of the many citizens told that 
their young city had already emerged from the 
leisurely ways of village or country-town life. In 
fact, I was fast arriving at the conclusion that 
Brisbane was at once the youngest and, relatively 
at least, the most go-ahead of the city sisterhood. 


CHARKED AND DEAD TREES. iss 


The Charred and Dead Trees once more. 


As to this fast-running young lady of a colony 
several things struck me. First, as to the physical 
aspect, the country was prettily undulated with hills, 
covered top to toe with forest. Driving to the top 
of Mount Coot-tha, a hill several miles from town, and 
about 700 feet above the sea, we had a beautiful view 
to the far interior, beyond Ipswich to the west, with 
Moreton Bay to the east. But these forests, when 
we afterwards drove through some of them, were 
the saddest, ugliest, and most desolate scenes of tlieir 
kind imaginable. Nearly all the trees had been 
scorched by repeated fires, some of them to death, 
others to a dying state, and many to a half-life 
struggle that had far better been ended from the 
first. No tree had attained to any great dimensions. 
A sprinkling here and there had escaped, and had 
the natural grace of the gum tree; but mainly the 
scene was an ugly crowd of the dead and dying. I 
pointed out, too, that it was a dangerous as well as a 
deformed case, for, when fire did come to or arise 
amongst all this closely packed dead and dying 
timber, it must be extremely dangerous to those 
great wooden suburbs that respectively sprawled out 
over a square mile or so of Brisbane’s vicinity, and 
in any of which a thousand cottages might be burnt 
down within a few hours. I brought up again my 
remedy of the great steam-sawing machine, which 
might soon have cleared many square miles of an 
ugly crowd of stunted forest, turned the country, in 
spite of a rather dry and sterile soil, into much more 


134 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


of the Australian park-like aspect, and made the near 
as well as the distant view to lend its enchantment 
to the pleasant scene. But, rather unfortunately for 
this idea, all the land hereabout had long ago been 
sold by the Government. It brought very little 
money at that early time, compared with the prices 
now “ booming ” all about. 

Secondly, these prices of land, town as well as 
suburban, surprised me. £300 to £700 an acre 
was being given for land at the distance of three 
or four to six or eight miles from town, and most 
of it land but little- worth for farming cultivation, 
and thus available chiefly for private dwellings and 
gardens. 


Want of Capital for Land and Mining Development. 


Thirdly, there was a cry everywhere for money, 
for more capital, to develop mines, or help enter- 
prise, or extend business generally, in the direction, 
for instance, of converting private interests into 
‘“ Limiteds,” by help of capital obtained in London. 
This could not be done, because the London market 
was now too suspicious of the unconscionable game 
of over-valuations that had been heretofore carried 
on against it. At home we had rather the idea that 
Queensland had been already quite overdone with 
banks and loan companies; and we might, besides, 
point to a Mount Morgan gold mine, at sixteen 
millions of value now tor what had cost originally 
a few hundred pounds, as one indication at least of 
the wealth and independence of the Colony. But 
the fact was that Mount Morgan had as yet brought 


BRISBANE WATERWORKS. 135 


nothing to the Colony beyond a mere income or 
dividend. Anything beyond this was entirely as 
yet in prospect, while, if any of the more lucky of 
the speculators bethought himself of clearing out, 
through fear of bad luck for the next turn, he drained 
the poor Colony in taking his good luck with him. 
“We have unknown quantities of mineral wealth 
here,” said many to me; “ the surface as yet is but 
scratched, but we can’t get the capital to develope 
the wealth.” So I set myself to consider how this 
evil could be remedied. The London market has 
been so often deceived and cheated that it has 
definitively buttoned up its pocket. How are we to 
get it to unbutton? I gave attention to this subject 
up to leaving Melbourne, and will revert to it once 
more. 


Brisbane Waterworks. 

Having only nine days to stay with our relatives, 
sight-seeing was rather restricted. Mount Morgan, 
five hundred miles off, and without a direct railway, 
was of course out of the question. We accomplished 
but two short trips, one to the Brisbane Waterworks, 
eight miles off, where the little Breakfast Creek is 
dammed up into a pretty sheet of water, covered 
with various indigenous birds and surrounded by 
pretty woods. Here we heard, amongst much other 
active life, the note of the bell-bird, once plentiful 
around early Melbourne, but now, alas! with name 
and note never heard thereabout. There is yet 
another water supply further inland, and as the 
capital extends in size and population this thirsty 


L3G AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


climate will require still more. Most of the suburban 
cottages had, for the present, to look to themselves 
for water, and commonly had each a great galvanised 
iron cask, or tub, or tank, whichever you prefer to 
call it, to gather up and preserve the rain water. 

We had made a party to drive out to the water- 
works, where we had gipsy tea and suitable accom- 
paniments, besides a small herd of cows and calves 
humbly waiting on us for our orange skins, which 
they greedily devoured in preference to the dried-up 
grass. But Sandgate, our second trip, we took by 
rail. We passed and re-passed a little creek by the 
way, which, as is not uncommon with Australian 
creeks, makes a most pretentious outlet into Moreton 
Bay just behind Sandgate. Sandgate has not 
much of display as yet, but it has, what is of great 
value to Brisbaners, the sea and the sea air. I 
was disappointed at finding no fine shells. One of 
my hobbies from boyhood has been shell-collecting, 
under the high sense which it conveys of the wealth 
and beauty of form over the world. Whenever I 
touch an unknown shore I am off to see its shells, 
and it was rather disappointing in this case to be so 
near to the tropics and yet not find any; for, 
excepting a very ordinary whelk on the rocks, there 
seemed absolutely nothing worth looking for. I 
was told, however, that outside Moreton Island, upon 
the open Pacific shore, there were plenty of beauties. 
Farther north, towards Torres Straits, the shells, 
together with limitless coral, are magnificent. Sand- 
gate has a fairly passable hotel, some spare residences 
of merchants and bankers, including no unpresentable 


INCALCULABLE MINERAL WEALTH. 137 


one of my friend, Mr. Drury, the head of the 
Queensland National Bank, and unlimited future 
prospects in connection with the expanding future of 
her mother, Brisbane. 

Alas! our pleasant days, and even pleasanter 
nights in Queensland soon ran out, and once more 
we must be on the wing. We could only spare 
about the same time for seeing all New Zealand as 
we had given to Brisbane and neighbourhood. We 
quitted a busy scene, and a vast one too, if we looked 
to the area of the Colony; while, beneath the varied 
‘surface, lay almost everywhere incalculable mineral 
wealth. Only some of this mineral wealth was but 
just touched, Mount Morgan for instance. How 
many more Mount Morgans might turn up if the 
colonists could but get from the Home market the 
ready means to develope them! So once more | 
promised to consider what could be done in that 
direction. 


138 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


SECTION XIII. 
BRISBANE TO SYDNEY BY RAILWAY. 
Queensland Traders “ threatened” with Protection. 


Tue mail or express trains have a bad habit of 
starting in the night, so we could not see Ipswich, a 
considerable town up the Brisbane River, nineteen 
miles from the capital. A connection of ours, Mr. 
Chubb, senior, a leading man there, met us. He 
handed us a small volume of his own poems; but, 
although they were not bad reading, I was more 
interested about certain woollen and other manu- 
factures, which he had to do with here. I asked if 
he was protected. No, not yet, but he trusted that 
his friend MclIlwraith’s wisdom would soon do the 
Colony justice in that way. I asked him how he 
carried on the work if it would not pay without 
protection. Oh, it does pay, he said, but we want 
protection to extend it still further, and to give us 
and all the Colony the benefit of the high prices. The 
old story, thought I; but I had no time to dig up 
the confusing mud of that subject. I contented 
myself with telling my friend that at a large 
machine-brickmaking and coarser pottery work, 
which I had lately visited, where they had already 
more orders than they could possibly get through, 
they did not want protection, albeit always threatened 
with it by both MclIlwraith and his political opponent 


THE PROVINCIAL NEWSPAPERS. 139 


Griffith. I advised them to do without it. With it, 
they would get gradually stilted up into an artificial 
position, which might so undermine their competitive 
energy, that if in overstock at any time they would 
have but their own home market to fall back upon ; 
while also, if the Colony altered its policy, they 
would be left high and dry, to get back to the old 
solid ground as they best could. They seemed to me 
to agree with this view. 

Our line from Ipswich makes a great detour by 
Toowoomba, instead of a direct course to Warwick. 
- But, no doubt, the latter will come soon. Meanwhile 
the interior line continues to an immense distance, 
namely, as far as the River Warrego, one of the 
many head-waters of the Darling, four hundred miles 
from Brisbane. Brisbane must next direct her rail 
line to Rockhampton and Mount Morgan, unless 
indeed that latest of the greater gold mines has been 
entirely over-estimated. 

When the morning light overtook us, we had 
passed already into New South Wales. We were 
soon after at Tenterfield, one of the usual sprawling 
inland towns, the one the copy of the other, but in 
this case with some pretensions to size. There was 
the newspaper of the place too; but, as its price was 
as much as 6d., and not that very morning’s issue, 
we were not attracted to buy a copy. We were 
beginning, however, to feel like Londoners, who can’t 
tolerate provincial papers till they get into the 
provinces, when they feel willing to condescend to 
take such secondary gear, if only for the sake of 
their morning’s telegrams. And so we were ready 


140 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


to buy, only that we did not happen to meet with 
such a provincial print the whole way. Night had 
come on again when we passed Maitland and New- 
castle, the big places with daily papers and telegrams, 
and at the now royal price of a penny. 


Australian Scenery once more. 


Throughout the long day we passed abundance of 
the everlasting old type of country, that is to say, 
grass-covered, albeit very thinly in most places, and 
with an open forest in the piains and hollows, a con- 
siderably thicker forest upon the hills, and through- 
out the whole scene the usual large proportion of 
dead and dying trees. Oh, for my huge sawing- 
machine once more! How I should set that at work 
if I were Premier of the Colony, just to see how even 
one square mile of it would look after its “redding 
up,” as we say in Scotland. Fair Australia would 
hardly know herself under her new top-dressing. 
There were everywhere sigus of drought. Excepting 
a refreshing shower or two, but of wholly inadequate 
character, there had been drought since February, no 
less an interval than six months. We passed few 
sheep, except near towns, where there was occasion- 
ally considerable irrigation, and fine green fields, 
But a good many cattle were visible, some of them 
thin and weakly. More than once we saw a poor 
young calf or young cow, which had got into a miry 
remnant of a pond or waterhole to look for water, 
and, being too weak to extricate itself, had lain 
down in the mud to die. 

We passed some fine hill scenery on this second 


RAIL BRIDGE OVER THE HAWKESBURY. 141 


day. To my mind, which had always the economic 
turn, these vast areas of our Empire, as we now 
raced through them, kept me in constant thought 
and admiration. Some day, in the world’s progress, 
mere area would take lead as the highest of values, 
because, in the progress of science and business, any- 
thing and everything could be made out of it. 
With irrigation over that vast surface, her power- 
ful sun would grow anything, and make it the 
great factory for every human want to the whole 
world. 


Great Rail Bridge over the Hawkesbury still 
unfinished. 


There is still one break in this long line of seven 
hundred miles, and that is at the great opening of 
Broken Bay, the mouth of the River Hawkesbury. 
As our bad luck would have it, we came once more 
upon one of our grandest scenes, as this truly is, by 
night; but it was so close upon dawn that we were 
happily overtaken by daylight ere we had passed 
the series of beautiful bay recesses, the worthy rival, 
on its greater scale, of beautiful Port Jackson. The 
effect of the small hardy evergreen scrub and bush 
which covered, with ever deceptive effect, the sterile 
sandy soil beneath, was most lively and pleasant. A 
small steamer took us several miles up the Bay from 
a temporary railway terminus, and on the way we 
caught sight of the great “ cantilever” stretches of 
modern engineering skill, which, as with the con- 
current constructions across the Forth and Tay at 
Home, bridge over vast chasms, which, even to the 


142 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


last generation would have seemed unattainable 
miracles. 

Now, as we sped along, we knew that we were 
approaching population and markets, and civilisation 
generally, for on each side of us were comfortable 
and pretty cottages and villages, with gardens and 
orchards full of orange and other fruit trees. The 
oranges must have been in season, for the trees were 
in most instances loaded. Altogether it was a 
pleasant scene, and, but for the too evident drought 
everywhere, would have been much more so. Shortly 
before noon we reached the considerable old town of 
Parramatta, and were in a few minutes more passing 
a second time through the many and wide Sydney 
snburbs, into great Sydney, mistress of the Southern 
Pacific. 


( 143 ) 


SECTION XIV. 
SYDNEY ONCE MORE, AND THE BLUE MOUNTAINS. 


WE had three whole days to spend this time in 
Sydney. What should we do with them? how 
spend so much time? When we went for a family 
visit to Rome for the first time, and had but four 
days at our command, my joke was that it proved 
~ too much, and that we did not know what to do with 
the balance. But really the grand historical ruins of 
the old Republic, up to the time of Julius Cesar, are 
huddled together in a very small space, chiefly in 
and immediately around the Forum, the great exten- 
sion of Rome having come with the emperors. Those 
precious old ruins we, with a smart guide, saw all 
in one day. We took St. Peter’s and three or four 
chief churches the second day. The third day 
must needs be given to shops and photos, and the 
fourth puzzled us to get through. Sydney, therefore, 
could be “done” in three days. We paraded George 
Street and Pitt Street one day, looking into shops 
_ and selecting photos. The next day we went to the 
Blue Mountains; the third day to Manley Beach; 
and the thing was done. 


A very Old Friend. 
I had time to call and resume acquaintance with 
my very old friend Mr. Augustus Morris, who was 
one of Victoria’s very earliest colonists, having 


144 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


crossed from Tasmania in 1835, very soon after 
Batman himself, and taken up a squattage in 
beautiful Colac, where I met him, and enjoyed his 
bush hospitalities as far back as forty-six years ago. 
We reciprocated compliments on each other’s appear- 
ance under the load of so many years. My friend 
had quitted pastoral occupations for some time. His 
active turn has made him useful as a public man in 
such things as the Colonial Exhibitions out here and 
at Home. But now he is quietly settled as a Com- 
missioner of Insolvent Estates, and seemed rather to 
grumble that, owing to the goodness of the times, he 
did not make quite so much as he might otherwise 
have done. As a good economist, looking to the 
interests of the largest number, I had some difficulty 
in sympathising with him on that point, but we 
made up for that by agreeing in nearly everything 
else, including the free-trade question. 


The Famous Blue Mountains, and Katoomba 
Township. 


Although I had been in Sydney several times, 
from 1841 downwards, and, twice over, had stayed 
weeks or months, as representative for Melbourne in 
the early Legislature prior to Victoria’s separation 
in 1851, I had never yet been to see the famous 
Blue Mountains. But then, in those pre-railway 
days, a visit there was a tough and protracted job. 
Now we could be whisked up in two to three hours, 
free from fatigue and with complete comfort. By 
leaving towards evening, we got nearly all the day for 
Sydney, but that involved of course our staying the 


KATOOMBA. 145 


night at Katoomba, in the midst of the mountain 
range. We would pass along the “ Zig-Zag” rail 
on the near side the Hills, but could not reach the 
descending one on the far side, which is much the 
grander of the two, as that involved too much time, 
at least if we must also see the Katoomba vicinities, 
and the famous scene called Govet’s Leap. 

We reached Katoomba so late that we made 
straight for our beds. The next morning I was up 
and about before breakfast, as usual with me, to see 
the neighbourhood, and enjoy the sharp, bracing air 
of so elevated a position. After breakfast we were 
to take the grander sights. Katoomba is as much as 
66 miles from Sydney by the détowrs of the railway, 
but greatly nearer “as the crow flies,” so that in an 
extra clear day Sydney can be seen from one of the 
adjacent heights. A very large hotel fronted us at 
the station. A number of men were hard at work 
to make it still larger. It aspired to a hundred and 
twenty beds—no small pretension in so young and 
still so small a town, with not more, I should think, 
than seven to eight hundred people. But in the full 
summer season, which was yet two months ahead, 
there was a prodigious pressure of visitors; and no 
wonder, for Katoomba stands on one of the loftiest 
elevations of the Blue Range, being about 3,350 feet 
above sea-level. We experienced, during the night, 
what that elevation can do in cooling the air, for I 
had to wrap myself in a warm woollen night dress, 
and to superadd our railway rug to the couple of 
blankets mercifully provided by the host. 

We found two or three other, although not quite 

L 


146 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


such pretentious, hotels, and on quite a number of 
houses and cottages were tickets intimating board 
and lodging. The public school too was at full 
work. Little troops of boys and girls, with their 
satchels, were enjoying a romp to vary the home | 
trudge after those tiresome lessons. But the tire- 
someness of the lessons certainly added vivacity to 
the romp. I found a prodigious mass of soft black 
débris like coal, which had been used to bank up the 
railway, and into which I incontinently sank, as ina 
quicksand, nearly to the knees. This came from an 
adjacent coal pit, which seemed to be still at work. 
It was curious to fall in with coal so far away up in 
these sandstones. But Australia, alike in her gold 
and her coal, runs, in some respects, full tilt against 
the old ideas. She has coal in the oolite instead of 
the orthodox carboniferous series, and, with her 
sister New Zealand, she graduates in lignites almost, 
geologically speaking, down to our own day. 

These Blue Mountains are not a mere hill range, 
which, however precipitous and difficult, multitudes 
might have easily crossed. They are a great north 
and south mountainous belt, some thirty to fifty 
miles in breadth, and full, at once, of the grandest 
and the most untraversable scenery. This explains 
how, for many years, almost, in fact, for a whole 
generation from the founding of the Colony, they 
were regarded as impassable. The grandsires of the 
present occupants had begun to make up their minds 
that the tiny strip of some forty miles between the 
two Blues of ocean and mountain was all that they 
could reckon upon enjoying. This lasted till 1814, 


GOVET’S LEAP. 147 


when three super-average resolute, youthful spirits, 
Blaxland, Lawson, and Wentworth, all of them after- 
wards distinguished in the Colony’s history or politics, 
the last in particular, burst through the mysterious 
barrier, and opened to the people those vast pastures 
of the far west, which have since created the main 
staple of New South Wales commerce. 

After breakfast we engaged a carriage, and were 
off to Govet’s Leap, some thirteen miles’ distance, [ 
think, intending to take the Katoomba sights, not 
quite so grand, but only a mile or so off, after we 
returned, and before luncheon, and then take our final 
leave, about 2 p.m. by the rail. Ere, as it seemed 
to me, we had quite finished our mileage, our driver 
halted, and sent us down a slight bush track, which, 
he said, would take us to Govet's Leap. On we 
went, but after a quarter of a mile our track ended 
in several hardly discernible continuations, where 
there appeared to have been some cutting down or 
barking of trees. We had, however, reached the 
brow, and beneath and in front of us were spread 
out vast gorges or valleys, forming, indeed, a grand 
spectacle, but with nothing in particular that could 
be called Govet’s Leap. We loyally trusted, how- 
ever, that our driver must know better than we did, 
and so we concluded that a small precipice far below 
was the Leap, and that it might look more pretentious 
when a rainy season gave it some water. On return- 
ing to our driver he confirmed our loyal conjectures ; 
but we afterwards learnt that we had entirely missed 
the grand scene, and that the young fellow, being a 
new hand, had never been at the place before. We 

L 2 


148 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


had noticed him consulting at times a rough sketch 
upon a card, which his employers had vainly given 
him for guidance. Trips from Sydney to Katoomba 
are now easily and cheaply arranged, as we after- 
wards learnt to our regret. We paid the unconscion- 
able charge of £2 for our vehicle, and witnal missed 
seeing what we had paid for so dearly. 

But we had some amends in the Katoomba scenes. 
These were truly grand. We followed the pretty 
Katoomba stream, still with a good tide of clear 
water in spite of drought, to where it leaps down 
a vast precipice into the abyss beneath. Below us 
were some fifteen hundred feet to the bottom of the 
gorge, and above us were still some hundreds of feet 
of further precipice. When people hear much of 
famous scenes, the reality often disappoints them, but 
I found that my anticipations fell short of the scale 
and character of what now opened before me. 


Sydney Harbour: Manley Beach. 


Our next and last sight-seeing was to Manley 
Beach, at the north-eastern extremity of the Har- 
bour. One of the little pleasure steamers took us 
there and back in three hours, with an hour to spare 
at the Beach, by which term is, no doubt, meant the 
ocean beach which a few minutes’ walk brought us 
to, across a narrow neck of land from Manley Bay. 
There we sat, sniffing the sea air and looking out 
upon the limitless waters. There are some enjoy- 
able sights and curiosities here. The little town of 
Manley has but one street, extending from sea to 
sea, but it presents a considerable variety of enter- 


MANLEY BEACH. 149 


tainments for the crowd of citizens who frequent it, 
chiefly in summer and on Sundays. You can get, 
in several places, tea d la Chinoise, with real Chinese 
tea, drawn in Chinese fashion, and taken out of 
Chinese cups. Oysters and other shell fish super- 
abound, and for those who want still higher 
resources, there is a very presentable aquarium, 
with selections chiefly of the bright-coloured trans- 
parent little fancy fish of that sunny region of the 
world. We had a good view also, as we both went 
and returned, of the grand opening of the Port 
Jackson Heads, the northern of which is a small 
peninsula, with the Manley neck as its narrowest 
part. 


150 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


SECTION XV. 
SYDNEY TO AUCKLAND, N.Z., BY THE ‘“‘ FRISCO” MAIL. 


WE regretfully wound up accounts with Sydney. 
We had taken, in due time, our passages by the 
“ Zealandia” as far as Auckland. These passages 
could only be contingently assured to us, however, as 
any passenger going on beyond New Zealand had a 
preference. Fortunately there was not such pressure 
as to leave us out. We got fairly good berths, and 
we had a very quiet and pleasant passage. A party 
of our friends, by way of a farewell, escorted us as 
far as the Heads, in the Government steam launch, 
which my friend the Treasurer had complimentarily 
granted to Mr. Cash Neild, M.P., and Captain 
Rounding for the purpose. 

The “ Zealandia” was not large, only 3000 tons, 
but she had a delightfully spacious deck, and, as the 
weather was fine throughout, we much appreciated 
her accommodations. Our captain was a German, an 
intelligent but quiet, unpretending man, with a head 
like Humboldt’s, and a face and general physique 
remarkably like those of his lately departed old 
Emperor. The “ Zealandia” herself was of American 
ownership, but oddly tied up under American 
Shipping Law. She can’t hoist the American flag 
because not built in America; while, again, America 
can’t build ships, to face outside competition, owing 
to her paralysing protection ; so, of necessity, the 


GRAND SEA APPROACH. 151 


foreign-built, American-owned “ Zealandia” creeps 
into shelter under a Honolulu flag. 


Grand Sea Approach to Auckland. 


On the third day we rounded the North Cape of 
New Zealand, which terminates a long neck of 
land, stretching into the delicious sub-tropics of 
between 34° and 35°, a latitude which, with its 
ocean surrounding, insures the paradise of climates. 
We had passed the North Cape in the night, and as 
the morning broke we were already approaching the 
Bay of Islands, with its prettily placed small sub- 
capital town of Russell. Beauty succeeded beauty 
as we passed on. The islands of the Great and 
Little Barrier arose on the remote horizon, and 
presently we entered the grand Hauraki Gulf, which 
gives such a magnificent sea approach to Auckland. 
Then Sir George Grey’s pretty island, Kawau, was 
pointed out to us on the right, a property which we 
were informed he had lately sold for £12,000, 
surely a very inadequate price. But Sir George, we 
heard, had taken to flight, in consequence of the 
Government's resolution to tax property. The 
Government had been driven to this at last in sheer 
desperation to get sufficient income. Old, wealth 
accumulating, conservative John Bull does not like 
this. Hitherto, the workaday man and his yearly 
earnings had been chiefly taxed. What is the good 
of wealth, he growls, if it does not secure you influence 
enough to beat off the tax-gatherer? ‘There had 
been, however, a hard time amongst New Zealand 
property-holders from the late serions fall in values. 


152 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Climate and various Attractions of Auckland. 


The feature of Auckland is surely its verdure; at 
least that is what strikes one’s eyes, as they are 
immediately transferred from droughty Australia. 
One conspicuous hill in the immediate foreground to 
the east of Auckland was so intensely green as to look 
as though artificially painted in such extreme. All 
about were small very green knolls of bills, including 
Mount Eden, just outside of Auckiand, all of which, 
as we learnt afterwards, were old voleanoes. There 
were some two dozen of these “ uncanny ” features, 
suggesting what a brisk time of it there must have 
been hereabout in past days, and also whether that 
sort of thing was as yet altogether done with. 

As directed by friends, we went to Cairn’s 
Hotel, where I found the landlord, with his high 
Scotch name, to be an Edinburgh fellow-townsman 
of my own, whose father’s shop in Preston Street, 
Newington, I recollected repeatedly passing in my 
boyhood when I went out bramble-gathering to 
Roslin. So we had a pleasant chat upon old scenes. 
There was another pleasant meeting, and, in an 
amusing way, suggestive, once more, of a Colonial 
progress ahead of our half-sleeping old Mother. 
While turning over photographs in one of the shops, 
we asked the people there if they knew the Rev. 
Mr. Bergh, R.C., one of our fellow-passengers by 
the “ Coptic,’ whom we expected to be already here- 
about, and whom we had found so excellent a fellow, 
that he might be almost taken for a good Protestant. 
They promptly answered that Mr. Bergh was staying 


7 


AUCKLAND. 153 


with the Archbishop, and, as he might be there at the 


moment, they would “telephone” him. There he 
was truly, and he responded at once, accepting our 
invitation to luncheon, with an afternoon’s drive to 
see the city. 

We had but a short time, two days only, to see 
beautiful Auckland. No Australian droughts had 
penetrated here. It was one ubiquitous emerald. 
Our famed Emerald Isle had here, in this Northern 
New Zealand island, a duplicate at once larger and 
with a vastly finer climate and scenery. Auckland 


isa big place, with as many as 60,000 people. But 


it has been rather overbuilt during the last few years, 
and the late protracted commercial depression has 
been perhaps greatest here. Some bankers and 
others doubted if the depression were still past in 
this quarter, although elsewhere in New Zealand it 
seemed to have already bottomed. Since my visit, 
that supposed great Augean Stable, the Bank of 
New Zealand, speaking in a banking sense, has 
been cleared out, or cleared up, so that the actual 
business horizon is now more distinctly made out. 
New Zealand will probably now enjoy a beneficial 
reaction, when the whole accounts have been all 
settled, and properties, previously “hung up under 
business embarrassments” have passed to free and 
solvent hands. 

Our landlord boasted that Auckland was the third 
city of Australasia; but Brisbane is considerably 
ahead already, and in a hopelessly beating race, 
while Ballarat in Victoria, and Newcastle in New 
South Wales are likely soon to follow. Auckland 


154 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


is, however, as yet, the largest in New Zealand, 
although I fear it is to be overtaken by both Dunedin 
and Christchurch, as the great centres of the Colony’s 
grain and frozen meat trade, and perhaps even by 
Wellington, with its grand central position. The 
great attraction for Auckland is its climate. It is 
the Naples or Capua of New Zealand, where retired 
and leisure people, not bothered with daily toil, may 
eat lotus leaf as of old, and thus anticipate Paradise. 

Our view from Mount Eden was magnificent of its 
kind. It was not mountainously grand, but surpass- 
ingly rich and diversified in landscape, with the 
erand Hauraki Gulf on the east side, and the land- 
locked Manukau Harbour on the west side. We 
were to leave the next day by this harbour, to which 
a short railway of six miles takes us from Auckland. 
We had decided to take the West Coast route to 
Wellington, as not only the most direct, but that by 
which we would see most places, such as New 
_ Plymouth and lofty Mount Egmont, Cook’s Strait, 
Nelson, and Picton. The landscape was dotted over 
with the small green hills or knolls which I have 
alluded to as extinct voleanoes. Of this there can be 
no reasonable doubt, as in most of them the crater 
feature is abundantly evident. Mount Eden, for 
instance, had a most marked crater, deeper, if I 
recollect aright, than the hill itself from the level 
immediately surrounding it, or perhaps 150 feet, the 
bottom being well sprinkled with volcanic-looking 
stones. In every part of our drive the land was rich 

and abundantly grassed. I asked the price of land 
~ hereabout, several miles outside of Auckland, think- 


THE KAURI TIMBER COMPANY. 155 


ing that in these bad times it might be had cheap. 
But no, people thought so well of it, and of eventual 
prospects, that nothing under £100 an acre would be 
listened to by its owners. 

The feature of the town is the wooden house. 
The chief business street has many fairly fine stone 
and brick edifices, but everywhere “ cheek by jowl ” 
is the wooden structure, holding its own in prompt 
and cheap construction. This is the centre of the 
great kauri pine trade. This pine does not exist out 
of the Northern Island, and the northern half of it 
yields the best. There is a small or bastard pine of 
which forest jungles all over the north, and the 
south island as well, are composed, but this is an 
almost worthless tree economically. Great sawing 
works of the true pine had been established, some of 
them many years ago, over the North Island; but 
as a rule they were not successful, possibly because 
involved in the late bad times. <A large company 
at Melbourne, The Kauri Timber Company, Limited, 

has lately bought up all these interests, together 
with a great deal of land, under both lease and 
purchase, and it is now to be seen how the new hand 
fares. In point of contemplated scale and of capital 
there is a favourable prospect. They have expended 
already about three quarters of a million. 

I remarked, however, that another tree was every- 
where rapidly pervading New Zealand, namely, the 
Blue Gum of Australia. In the Colony’s fine 
climate, and with adequate moisture, it grows with 
marvellous rapidity, and has a comparative fulness of 
foliage and a grace of form which make it orna- 


156 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. ) 


mental and popular. Everywhere we met it planted 
along the roads, and as a surrounding to private 
grounds, and in pretty clumps in parks. I was 
-reminded everywhere of the different fate, to which 
I have so repeatedly alluded, of poor gum trees of 
all kinds “ on their native heath” from the droughts 
of nature and the neglect of man. 


( 157 ) 


SECTION XVI. 


AUCKLAND TO NEW PLYMOUTH, PICTON, AND 
WELLINGTON, BY SEA. 


TakineG rail to Manukau Harbour, we embarked 
in the Union S.S. Company’s “ Penguin,” a vessel 
nothing pretentious as to size in these ambitious 
days, but a good safe sea-boat, as we found the 
day after in a terrific squall in crossing Cook’s 
Strait. We had a fairly pleasant passage as far as 
New Plymouth, where we arrived at early morn. 
Being generally an early riser, I was rewarded by 
a glimpse of the summit of Mount Egmont, rising 
like a bright white rather narrow triangle, above 
the subjacent thick clouds, with the rising sun 
elinting on it. Half an hour afterwards it passed 
into its more usual cloud envelope, and during 
our brief stay could not be wooed out of it. It is 
at times quite distinct, as seen, from the Southern 
Island coast, 120 miles away ; and no wonder, seeing 
it is about 8,300 feet in height. But, even at this 
elevation, it is not the highest point of the North 
Island by nearly 1000 feet; while it is still 4000 feet 
below Mount Cook of the Southern Island. 


The Premier and the New Plymouth Harbour. 


I had had, at Auckland, a telegram from Sir 
Harry Atkinson, the Premier, through his private 
secretary, Mr. Leckie, that he would meet me at 


158 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


New Plymouth, his usual residence; and now, on 
arrival, we met Mr. Leckie, a favourable specimen, 
well mannered, well put on, of a young colonist, 
who took my wife on to town by the rail, my - 
daughter and I, along with others from the vessel, 
preferring a miles walk in the fresh pleasant 
morning. I had the pleasure of a deal of talk 
with Sir Harry, who had his troubles with his 
Parliament, particularly in matters of finance, and 
still more in that cross-grained concern, the New 
Plymouth Harbour, which threatened already to silt 
up, and thus render nearly £200,000 of expenditure 
just so much money thrown into the sea. ‘“ What- 
ever you do, or don’t do, in the matter,” said I 
emphatically, “don’t default, even temporarily, on 
the New Plymouth coupon, or you will never hear | 
the end of the matter; and eventually, when, after 
all, you must pay it all the same, it will cost the 
Colony, as the effect of discredit, fifty times the 
small annual sum now involved.” 

New Zealand had been most disparagingly at- 
tacked by some of the London papers about her 
heavy Government debt from over railway-making, 
and her ubiquitous borrowing besides, in municipal, 
harbour, and individual interests. But the payments, 
in all cases of a public kind at least, had always 
been punctually made. Now this threatened default 
of the New Plymouth Harbour was to start the 
Press once more on their raid, and with at least one 
good proof in hand that they had been speaking 
only the truth. The New Plymouth case was this: 
The Government promoted a harbour there as a 


NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOUR. 159 


‘Colonial object, there being no other near on that 


exposed western coast. But nature had rounded 
everything thereabout with her stormy winds and 
waves, and it was somewhat difficult to put a spoke 
in the wheel of her wilful career. A pier and 
break-water were, however, constructed, under the 
best available engineering advice. They have been 
built, and they are found “no good,” and it is just 
a question if the whole affair, on its present basis 
at least, must not be entirely thrown up. Well, 
who is to pay the piper for such an abortion of a 


~ song ? 


Sir Harry’s Parliament inclined to the opinion 
that the Home investor accepted the risk and must 
stand by it. He got 6 per cent. interest, which no 
one could expect from a thing free of risk; and, 
besides, the bond itself said plainly that the Colonial 
Government were in no way liable. “And yet,” 
replied I, “ you project a public object, put out a sort 
of decoy report—for that is how it will be viewed 
—that the work is feasible, get the money from 
trusting investors at Home, and then tell them 
that your own engineers have unfortunately been 
mistaken, but none the less that these Home investors 
must stand the loss.” 

Sir Harry did not exactly dispute my view. 
When I advised him rather to pay the money from 
the Treasury and chance the consequences with his 
Parliament, he said he might have possibly thought 
of that, if New Plymouth had not been his own 
ground, and a place, besides, whose incessant begging 
had long since tired the House’s patience. The 


160 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


financial position was this: There was £12,000 a 
year interest to provide for. The present legal 
local rating was exhausted at £5000. There was 
practically no income, or at least no surplus over 
expenses from the harbour. The House had 
permitted one liberty and another previously for 
meeting the interest, chiefly, I think, by either 
selling or borrowing on some of the land endow- 
ment of the Harbour; but the House resolved now 
to end this illegal forestalling of the Harbour’s 
resources. It was expected that the £5000 of rates, 
with £1000 more, scraped up somewhere, would 
tide over the lst of November coupon, but that the 
Ist of May (1889) must be in default, not only from 
total want of authorised funds, but owing to Pavrlia- 
ment having already been prorogued till some weeks 
after the next coupon was due. 

There is a very large land endowment, in the 
shape, at least, of a rental charge, although not as 
yet yielding actual income—so large and valuable 
indeed, that I think everything will be eventually 
made good. The more is the pity, therefore, that 
default should meanwhile occur. So scrupulously 
punctual have the Colonies been heretofore, that 
not only the Government loans, but even the 
municipal and harbour, in the London market, have 
never been under default in any case whatever in 
my recollection for above a quarter of a century, 
with the sole exception of the city of Hamilton, 
Upper Canada. But so serious has been the con- 
sequence of this temporary mishap to that now 
large and wealthy place, that its credit, im London 


NEW ZEALAND HARBOURS. 161 


at least, has never been recovered since. When 
the city wished to remove the stigma of its stocks 
continuing much Jower than others in that market, 
this could be done only by ordering its London 
bankers to buy up and return to it any of the 
securities still in circulation there. 

When I told this to Sir Harry, and asked him if 
he would still default, he shrugged his shoulders, as 
a mute declaration that he could not help himself. 
Having told me that he had directed the Govern- 
ment agents, the Bank of New Zealand, to tell the 
bondholders that the May coupon would not be paid, 
I strongly advised him to telegraph cancelling that 
order, which would, in fact, have the appearance of 
cruel indifference, seeing that there might be at least 
some hope, during the six months’ interval, of tiding 
over the difficulty. “‘ Sufficient unto the day ” might 
be the evil thereof. If the due payment were really 
impossible, it would be enough to let the unfortunate 
expectants know to that disagreeable effect the mail 
before. 

The supposed redeeming or qualifying point of 
the 6 per cent. given on the bonds, I had to tell the 
worthy Premier, was simply a blunder, and so much 
money thrown away. The New Zealand harbours 
generally are in a different position from the ordi- 
nary municipalities. The latter are quite free under 
popular election; the others are rather of govern- 
ment initiation, although they may also be in a 
special or qualified way elective. If the proposed 
harbour seems to be insufficient by itself as a 
security, it is usually supplemented or complemented 

M 


162 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


by something else, usually land endowment. And 
then comes the question— when all this intended 
sufficiency happens to prove insufficient, who is to 
blame, and who to suffer? Obviously the Govern- 
ment should have made the harbours their own 
security, and thus have borrowed the money at 
A instead of 6 per cent. I strongly advised the 
Premier to arrange a “conversion” even now. 
Indeed I had already sketched out a plan, which I 
sent from Hobart to my old friend Sir William 
Fitzherbert at Wellington, showing that, if based 
ona 3 per cent. substitution stock, the Government 
might still realise a large profit. They might 
offer a reasonable exchange of popular and readily 
marketable 3 per cents. for unpopular and un- 
marketable sixes. Unreasonable holders would 
gradually come in by force of the convenience of 
the exchange. The Government might still receive 
from the respective Harbour Boards the original 
interest rate, while the considerable net difference 
might go to a guarantee fund which could help 
such weak-kneed brethren as the New Plymouth 
over an occasional difficult stile. I advised the 
inclusion of the municipal stocks as well, if they 
could do so, and, as in Queensland, prevent these 
also from coming directly upon the London market, 
with their almost countless small and unmarketable 
loans. 

I may not go over again the question of issuing 
in future 3 per cents. instead of 4 per cents. Sir 
Harry, to do him justice, had not much objection ; 
only the heavy discount on the first issues (realising 


NEW PLYMOUTH RESOURCES. 163 


a price probably a good deal under 90 per cent.) 
might, he thought, cause the project to be disliked 
by his Parliament. However, as he remarked, the 
subject was not one of immediate moment, as the 
Colony was pledged not to come on the London 
market again for three years. When I met Sir 
Harry again in Wellington a few days after, we 
had a discussion on protection, in which we agreed 
much less than upon the 3 per cents. But some 
of his remarks, and my replies, have been incor- 
porated, along with those of a good many others, 
in that rather long “digression” already given, so 
that I must not further aggravate my reader in that 
somewhat dry direction. 


Some New Plymouth Resources. 


The defectiveness of the harbour, however, did 
not make New Plymouth and its surroundings any 
the less charming. The climate was delicious, the 
scenery rich and beautiful in almost every direc- 
tion. The place too seemed promising in resources. 
Besides the usual grazing qualities in the profusion 
of rich grass, there was a large flax trade, made 
evident to us by the number of passing wagons or 
carts, loaded with the prepared Phormium tenax, in 
bales ready for shipment. I was told, however, that, 
as in point of tenacity, in spite of its name, it would 
not compare with Russian or Manila hemp, it was 
not used at Home for rope, but for paper. 

The black metallic sand next took our attention. 
I hope Sir James Hector, whose work, although 

M2 


164 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


promised me, I have not yet to hand, explains this 
most curious feature. It lies on the beach in 
unlimited quantity, and of almost pure iron, being 
at least 75 per cent. pure. I fear that Britain's 
cheap and abundant iron prevents even this rich 
quality from “paying.” But adequate scale or im- 
proved manipulation may yet succeed, in spite of 
the local expenses and the remote situation of anti- 
podean New Zealand. Although tried before with 
failure as result, there was, at the time of our visit, 
a fresh “hand at the bellows,” and some £2000 of 
capital was to be risked once more. Better luck to 
the new hand. 


Cook’s Strait, and Nelson. 


Quitting New Plymouth about noon of a fine 
bright, breezy day, we had time to admire several 
grand rocks close to shore, and speculate on a har- 
bour mainly of nature’s founding, which the most 
conspicuous of these bold rocks suggested, only it 
was at acost perhaps of two millions instead of the 
tenth of that amount already flung away on the 
tiny patching beside it. We are, soon after, in a 
straight line for Nelson, at the head of Tasman Bay, 
on the South Island, whose beauties of climate and 
scene I had long heard sung by my friend Mr. John 
Beit, who had resided there a dozen years, although 
he deemed it a “sleepy hollow” in other respects. 
But, unless I am greatly mistaken, pretty little Nelson 
has a future, and not very far off, when the mineral 
wealth everywhere surrounding her is added to her 


unrivalled richness of soil, and when the great . 


A NATURAL HARBOUR. 165 


Midland railway scheme, now progressing, has 
opened her a way to the Western coast with its 
gold and its coal, and to the Midlands, and the 
Eastern coast, with their limitless product of cereals, 
wool, and frozen meat. 

Cook’s Strait is very wide here, and we encoun- 
tered, what is not at all uncommon, a furious storm 
during the night, one of the incidents of which I 
recur to further on. But all the more delicious was 
it when, at dawn, we found ourselves steaming up 
Tasman Bay, whose sheltered waters, smooth as a 
mill pond, reflected a panorama of snow - topped 
mountains, which seemed to us, if not quite so lofty, 
hardly less varied and beautiful than the Swiss 
Oberland, or the glorious surrounding of the lake 
and town of Lucerne, minus perhaps, in the Swiss 
case, the huge foreground pile of Mont Pilatre. 


A Natural Harbour in the act of 
Self-construction. 


Nelson lay peacefully near the head of the bay, 
behind a remarkable natural harbour, whose origin 
and aspect set more than one of us into a train of 
thought as to how so very convenient a work of 
nature could have arisen. From a precipitous and 
still slightly prominent rocky coast of the bay, on 
its east side, a few miles below Nelson, a natural 
breakwater had evidently taken its origin, and gone 
already some miles southwards, ending, however, in 
the sufficiently deep passage still left, and which is 
now being used as the harbour’s entrance. Within 


166 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


this natural harbour there was as much in some parts 
as nine fathoms of depth. 

But whence, in this usually quite sheltered bay, 
came the force necessary to do all this work? Evi- 
dently time was needed here, as in so much else of 
earth’s physics. The whole process must have been 
extremely slow. This was shown by the fact, that all 
the stones of the natural embankment, many of them 
large, were quite rounded with long water-wearing, 
as they were chucked onwards by time’s gentle hand 
to make room for the younger brood coming on 
behind them. I noticed too that, slow as the break- 
water's march forward was, it was beyond the pace 
of the fresh supplies furnished from the cliff, for 
there was a considerable interval of water between 
the cliff and where the breakwater showed itself 
above the waves. This second entrance was not, 
however; the deeper of the two. But, say a million 
years hence, when the embanking drift may have 
passed beyond the entrance now used and right up 
towards the bay’s extremity, Nelson may have to 
deepen this other entrance, and, if people are still 
trading in those advanced times, pass all her grand 
commerce through that gate. 

We found Mr. Charles T. Fell waiting for us, a 
relation of the Premier, who had telegraphed him to 
be on the outlook. As we walked through the con- 
siderable town, with its two chief streets at right 
angles, containing some good banking and insurance 
buildings and fairly good shops, we met and were 
duly introduced to various local notabilities, from 
the Mayor, Mr. T. Sharp, and Judge Broad, of the 


RESERVES OF LAND. 167 


Southern Island Circuit, down to bankers, merchants, 
lawyers, storekeepers, and other commoner people. 
Then we drove outa mile to the Atkinsons, brothers, 
nephews, &c. of the Premier, and who had inter- 
married with the Fells, or vice versd, in strings in 
which [ soon lost my way. But this mishap in 
no degree diminished the pleasant family picture 
around us as we chatted and sipped tea in a rural 
but elegant drawing-room, graced outside and in 
with countless flowers. As we returned to our boat 
in the afternoon, we had time to notice the very 

bellicose character of the streets of Nelson, named 
as they all were in honour of the most prominent 
admirals and captains who served under the greatest 
of all naval heroes. 


The Natives and their Reserves of Land. 


We were now off for Picton, a small town at the 
head of another of New Zealand’s magnificent 
natural harbours. We had daylight only to pass us 
through the narrows of D’Urville Island channel. 
_ The island is reserved as native territory for some of 
the few remaining natives of the South Island ; but 
they will probably soon sell it, as it is reputed full of 
minerals, of which they are not likely to make any 
use. The reserves which the Government have 
allotted to the natives, or sanctioned their retaining, 
may be sold or leased by them at will, but not to the 
extent of leaving themselves destitute. I think they 
must keep at least fifty acres per head. Some of 
them, mostly of the North Island, are very rich, 
owing to their sales or leases. 


168 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


A Notable New Zealand Colonist. 

Regarding D’Urville Island and its minerals, as 
well as the many other mineral lands hereabout, I 
got much practical information from a fellow-pas- 
senger, one of the members of the Assembly, Mr. 
John Ross, a brother Scot of Midlothian descent, but 
so extremely rough a diamond, that more than one 
friend on board hinted to me that a certain terminal 
to that adjective, which I shall not be so rude as to 
repeat, would not badly become him. But he had 
an amazing fund of practical remark, which made 
him, whether rough or otherwise, most welcome 
tome. He confirmed other experiences about the 
difficulty of getting London capital to buy or ad- 
vance on the New Zealand mines. He had offered 
repeatedly to pay all costs if London capitalists 
would only send out competent mining examiners 
to see and report upon the New Zealand mineral 
wealth ; but latterly he had abandoned all hope, 
under the impression that London capitalists were 
unfathomable beings. 

T endeavoured to explain tu him that in any nego- 
tiations, under present business modes, people out 
here did not come in direct contact with the capi- 
talists, but only with go-betweens, who were bent 
upon the immediate, with as much bonus, con- 
scionable or unconscionable in amount, as they could 
get out of anything in particular for themselves. 
Once, however, some years ago, as he told me, he 
did induce a London “syndicate” to send out a 
competent scientific examiner, who saw, with favour- 


EARLY INCIDENTS. 169 


able eye, what Ross pointed out, but who, by some 
unaccountable mistake, after returning home, made 
the report under name of some other mine, also 
offering in another direction. How the thing ended, 
how the shareholders, on whom the wrong mine, 
possibly not through mere accident, was to be 
“landed” fared, he never heard. But from that 
time he gave up London in despair. “And now,” 
added he, ‘“‘ the whole mineral country hereabout is in 
waiting for means to develop it, and we can’t, on any 
endurable terms, get these means. But our own 
means being so small, besides being otherwise en- 
gaged, our progress will languish unless the outside 
help come.” 

Amongst many interesting things Ross told me 
were some of his early incidents with the natives 
before and during the war time. Although people 
who speak so much, and so incessantly, as my new 
friend, are not inapt, at times, to include, by mistake, 
things that never happened, yet in the consistency of 
his details, and in other respects, I was rather 
favourably impressed by him. Approaching three 
score, as he now was, and of somewhat stout build, 
he was still a most muscular fellow, albeit just a 
trifle under average height; but 25 to 30 years 
ago he must have been a formidable antagonist, and 
still more so if of any practised skill of muscle, as I 
believe he was. He lived in Taranaki at this time, 
close to the considerable tribe which was there chiefly 
at the bottom of the war. He was a fearless fellow, 
who bobbed in and out amongst these natives, day or 
night, as one of themselves. On one occasion, after 


170 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


spending the night in the Pah, he was so careless as 
to forget his knife, his indispensable companion. 
After perhaps an hour or two he went back to claim 
it. The first native he met was a young woman of 
the chief’s kitchen, and he knew that if the knife 
were not at once forthcoming, which he did not in 
the least expect, he would require some tactics to 
get at its whereabouts. The following conversation 
ensued :— 

He. “ That knife ?” ; 

She. “ Not know any Pakihah knife.” 

He. “That no good. See here. You know 
Pakihah never tell secret. Chief got my knife?” 

She then signified unmistakably that he had. 
And now Mr. Chief had to be dealt with. A for- 
midable dealing it was too, for he was a huge, mus- 
cular fellow, weighing over twenty stone. He had 
a younger brother as heavy as himself, the two 
being conspicuous in the whole tribe; but the 
younger was not so muscular as the chief. Ross, 
besides all his pluck and his more ready and adroit 
movements, had no idea of being done out of his 
knife. Besides, he knew so well the views and 
rules of Maori life, that in any fight between him 
and the chief, there would be perfect fairness on 
the part of the tribe, although quite ninety in 
number all around him; he knew that, in fact, they 
would enjoy any fight too much, if things did come 
to that, to interfere unfairly with it. 

Waiting till the chief came out, and had walked 
in all apparent cordiality towards him, Ross re- 
sponded by walking purposely past him without the 


Eee = 


A BATTLE. 171 


very slightest recognition. This was the greatest 
possible affront, and the chief instantly faced round 
to know the reason. “I never salute a thief,” 
replied the undaunted Ross. 

This meant battle. In a moment, ere Ross could 
arrange himself, the weighty enemy was upon him, 
lifting him up, and giving him a heavy grounder on 
his back. Unhurt, he had sprung up again at once 
to his feet, but only to be served as before. But the 
third time he was both more quick and more 
cautious, and possibly the other's muscles were for 

the moment a trifle the worse for wear after his 
double exertion. As he came booming along the 
third time, Ross, who had edged just out of his path, 
caught him such a stunner with his fist on the nose, 
that the blood spirted out in a stream that could not 
for some time be suppressed. Finally the chief made 
the sign, with his blood-dripping fingers, that he 
gave in. 

By Maori law this chief was thus Ross’s slave for 
life. When the war broke out here shortly after, Ross 
_ went to the commander, and offered to bring in this 
man “by the nose,” if his dashing movement were 
backed by certain dispositions, which would lead to 
the simultaneous capture of the whole tribe. He 
was not only not listened to, but ordered to mind 
his own business and be off. The commandant, 
he said, threatened that if he did not hold his 
clatter of a tongue and be off, he would have him 
imprisoned. [I fear that Ross had only to thank 
himself, for a more rude and ungainly specimen of 
an advocate for even the wisest counsels I never met 


172 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


with. But as I was seeking information, and as he, 
by the self-evident consistency of what he said, was 
reliably giving me what I sought, I, for my part, 
most willingly conceded to him most tolerant and 
appreciative behaviour. 

Mr. Brown, another member of the same Assembly, 
and fellow-passenger also, was one more of my chief 
informants. He was going on with us to Melbourne, 
to stay there in the same hotel, so that we had much 
talk together. He had been more fortunate than 
Ross and others in getting out his company, a gold 
one, I think, for every one seemed to have some 
company or other to look after. After much per- 
suasion, scientific mining experts had been sent out, 
who, reporting favourably, the concern was “ floated,” 
and promised now to do fairly well. He was a 
strong protectionist, as indeed, for so I have to 
admit, were most of the people whom I met with 
in Australasia; but, as I have put him “ passim” in 
my “digression” aforesaid, I shall not again stir 
up that mud here. 


Picton’s fine Harbour and Oysters. 


We reached Picton late at night, but with moon- 
light sufficient to show us its grand coast line, with 
its narrow but deep waters, like another Loch Long 
on the Scotch Clyde. We landed and stepped about 
in little street-deserted Picton, and then hied us to 
an oyster-shop, still open in expectation of our visit. 
Picton is famous for fine oysters, but we found that 
we had come at what may be called an extra “close 
time,” for the practice here is not only to have the 


PICTON— WELLINGTON. L¥3 


regular yearly close time, but every few years a 
longer interval of rest, to restore the crop more 
effectually. What we now got here were not Picton, 
but imported Auckland, oysters. We did them 
justice, however, and took still more of them on 
board for friends. 

Picton’s situation was thought so much of, that at 
first it was spoken of as a rival capital, preferable 
even to Wellington. But North Island influences, 
then in the ascendant, carried the day for the latter. 
The screw turned once more, and we were off to 
Wellington, where we arrived in the early morning, 
too early, unfortunately, to see distinctly the entrance 
to the noble harbour. We were recommended to 
the Empire Hotel, and made our way accordingly, 
to find a very comfortable, but not, otherwise, very 
pretentious establishment, situated in what seemed 
the chief business or shopping street. Here, with 
our limited time, we at once gathered ourselves up 
for work. 


174 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


SECTION XVII. 


WELLINGTON, THE OFFICIAL CAPITAL OF NEW 
ZEALAND. 


WELLINGTON goes back to the very earliest of New 
Zealand regular settlement, Gibbon Wakefield hav- 
ing first opened the colonising field in 1839. My old 
friend, Sir Wm. Fitzherbert, was amongst the earliest, 
but another friend, of more recent acquaintance, Mr. 
John Plimmer, Father of the Wellington and Mana- 
watu Railway, who arrived in 1841, was rather 
before him, for he was ready, as he told me, to do 
some house-building work for Sir William on his 
later arrival. Even such slight incidents of early 
Wellington are already locally interesting, in view of 
the considerable progress to-day of the New Zealand 
capital. The city’s decidedly most striking feature 
is its great palaces of wood. The Government 
Offices are boastingly spoken of as the greatest 
wooden edifice in the world. The Parliament House 
and the Government House are also of wood, and, 
when I called for the Premier at his official resi- 
dence, I found that it too was of wood. A hand- 
some large stone or brick-plastered Post Office, just 
opposite our steamer’s wharf, had lately been burnt 
down. There were, however, some good bank and 
insurance buildings, which had already emerged from 
the wooden stage, besides some solid and large 
stores of the Turnbulls and other leading merchants. 


SIR W. FITZHERBERT. 175 


There was ample wharf accommodation, and a 
splendidly spacious and deep harbour, in which, as I 
estimated, might be easily packed every ship of war 
of the world. It was surrounded to east and north 
by fine mountain scenery. The city had mostly a 
terraced appearance, and with pleasant effect; but, 
considering its size, it struck me as the least pre- 
tentious of all the New Zealand towns. It was, for 
instance, decidedly short, in town elegancies, even 
of Invercargill, which was barely half its size; while 
Dunedin, and also Christchurch, seemed quite beyond 
comparison. 


A Visit to Sir W. Fitzherbert. 


One of our first duties was to drive out to the 
Lower Hutt River, to pay a visit to Sir Wm. Fitz- 
herbert, whose acquaintance I had made in London 
above twenty years before, when on his mission to 
carry out the earliest “ consolidation of New Zealand 
securities,’ and when I undertook to initiate him 
into some of the market “laws” described in the 
Hobart Section of this tour. I had also met hima 
little over two years ago, when he was in London for 
the great and successful occasions of the Colonial 
Exhibition, and the still more significant Colonial 
Conference, under the Secretary for the Colonies, Sir 
Henry Holland, now Lord Knutsford. He was then 
wonderfully active for a man who had entered his 
seventy-seventh year. But this time I noticed a 
marked change, and he pathetically alluded to its 
chief cause as, pointing to the portrait of his wife, 
who had died the year before, he remarked that with 


\ 


176 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


that life went out the bright hght of his own. But 
a joyous surrounding of children and grandchildren 
left still something for the veteran to care for. We 
saw them all assembled at home, or at the church 
the following Sunday. Sir William continues his 
Presidency of the Upper House. Long practice not 
seldom makes duties easy and even pleasant to 
people who, as regards work generally, have closed 
their accounts. We discussed old times, and these 
altered circumstances which would entitle New 
Zealand, on the next occasion of public borrowing, 
say three years hence, to rise to the dignity of a 
3 per cent. loan issue. 


Maori Town Life, and Native Village of Petoné. 


On the way to the Lower Hutt, we passed 
through the considerable village of Petoné—properly 
Peto-oné, in native tongue, signifying “the end of 
the beach.” It is about four miles from town, while 
the Hutt is one to two more. John Bull “slumps” 
this word Petoné, as he does so many others, for 
brevity’s sake. But the natives, ike good “ Tura- 
nians,” as Professor Muller explains, never slump 
their words or roots. A good many natives live in 
Petoné, having small cottages and gardens like the 
colonists. There are also many of our own working 
men, owners of their own house, and in most com- 
fortable circumstances, with 8s. to 10s. a day of 
wages, who go in and out by the cheap trains. The 
New Zealand native is still so considerable an element 
in the rail system, that notices are put up in Maori 
as well as English. We saw also a notice in Chinese, 


THE MAORI LANGUAGE. BCL 


as there are now generally over Australasia a good 
sprinkling of Chinamen. Here is a sample of Maori 
railway literature: “ Kaua e kai paipa ki konei,” 
literally translated, “ No food of the pipe in this 
place,’ and equivalent to the English “ Smoking 
strictly prohibited,” an intimation which was printed 
alongside. 

Let us consider here how abstract ideas are used by 
the advanced race, and only concrete or substantive 
ideas by the other. The Maori’s language, at all 
events when he was as yet uninvaded by the higher 
ideas, would not have had words at all equivalent to 
the above English notice. Our very young children 
resemble the natives in that respect. They do not 
understand abstract speaking. At a Sunday-school 
class I know of in Kensington, the pious mistress 
asked her little troop the meaning of the words 
“‘ Great peace have they who know Thy law”; but to 
her sad disappointment every successive small head 
gave a most negative sign. One, however, was 
observed with bright face to be waiting her turn, 
and she was out in a moment with the answer; “ Yes, 
yes,’ she said, “elephants, cows, horses.” Upon 
some explanation following this unexpected answer, 
it appeared that the little maiden had mistaken one 
of the words of the sentence, for it had reached her 
ears in this fashion: “ Great beasts have they who 
know Thy law.” 


A Working Class Conference. 
Observing a group of Wellington workmen, who 
were resting after their dinner, I made up tc them 
N 


178 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


to have a discussion anent their class, and its 
condition and prospects, in the New Zealand capital. 
They were no way loth, so at it we went. 

How did they stand, as to most things, compared 
with prices and wages at Home? 

Well, better in some; worse in others. House 
rent and clothes dearer, the former a good deal. 
Food, again, mostly much cheaper, especially butcher 
meat, which they seemed to think absurdly cheap. 
They said they used to get it, and even now, 
although rising of late, could get it still, at a penny 
a pound. A working man, they remarked, would 
have a small lee of mutton or lamb to dinner, and 
chuck the unconsumed half of it to the dog. 

Then the rates of wages were, on average, 8s. a 
day for an ordinary labourer, and 10s. for a skilled 
labourer. 

To my remark that the ordinary labourer seemed 
comparatively highly paid, they said that he was 
usually more handy to his employer than the other, 
who would be rather stiff to turn his hand to other 
than his own proper work. Then, as to the security 
for continuous employment, they said that such was 
fairly sure in Wellington, or at least so much surer 
than in the country, that there was a habit at times 
of drifting into the capital, and taking away some of 
the work from the residents. Hight hours was the 
usual or universal time of work, 

The working men are much in the habit of band- 
ing together amongst themselves to take up contracts, 
and they are so fond of this mode, that, in competing 
with the employing classes, they will, as the Premier 


MEAT-FREEZING TRADE. 179 


and others told me, cut down a contract till it will 
yield them only half of what they would have made 
by working at wages. This is an ambition not to 
be gainsaid. It reminded me of the experiences of 
the Victorian Gold Commission of 1854-5, when the 
working diggers used to exhort their fellows rather 
to take up mines on their own account as a partner- 
ship of principals, with 10s. a day as result, than 
submit to be paid 20s. a day by a capitalist 
employer. 


The great new Meat-freezing Trade. 

Returning from the drive to our friends the 
Fitzherberts, we called, as directed, at The Gear 
Company’s works in Petoné, to inspect the meat- 
freezing system, so recently introduced into New 
Zealand, and already so vast and promising a 
business there. Curious considerations arise upon 
this business, suggestive, in one direction, of the 
value of a general education in the elements of 
physical science. The preservation of fresh meat by 
cold was begun as a business in Australia nearly fifty 
years ago, but the only thing thought of then, and 
for long after, was to do it by means of ice. This 
was enormously expensive, by reason of the quantity 
of ice required, while, if from any unforeseen cause 
the ice gave out, the entire cargo had to be at once 
thrown into the sea. More than one cargo was 
served in this way, to the ruin of its owner. 

All these long years science knew perfectly of the 
most simple process by which all this danger, and 
nearly the whole of this expense, might have been 

N 2 


i80 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


avoided. But those who knew the science were not 
brought into practical contact with the need, while 
those who were in such contact did not know science. 
For instance, I was quite familiar, through attending 
Dr. Hope, in my schooling days, at the Edinburgh 
University, with the experiment showing that air 
when compressed became yery hot; that when 
released again it returned to its first temperature ; 
that inferentially, therefore, if the compressed hot air 
were first cooled and then freed, there would be more 
or less intense cold, according to scale of operation. 
But it never occurred to me, nor as I presume to 
hundreds of others not in the meat trade, to apply 
practically this science. But the science happily is 
now applied, and with all the results to be desired. 
The air required is taken at large from the sur- 
rounding atmosphere ; when heated by condensatian 
it is cooled by the sea, and it is then expanded into 
a great air-tight chamber in the ship, filled with 
carcases, Which can thus be kept to any low tempera- 
ture necessary. 

The Gear Company carries on a considerable work, 
although exceeded in scale by others in Christehurch 
and Dunedin, and by further rivalry in Napier, and 
perhaps other places; for this meat question, with a 
market of thirty-five millions of Home population, is 
of surpassing extent and importance. The Company 
can “slaughter”? as many as 1,500 sheep and 50 to 
60 cattle in one day, although they cannot, as yet, 
effect the ‘* freezing” for more than about the half of 
that quantity. The day we looked in, they were 
just finishing 700 sheep and 55 cattle. We pre- 


| 
) 
| 


WELLINGTON RAILWAY. 181 


ferred not to witness the last end of three poor 
remaining sheep. There was a small steamer in 
waiting at a pier to transfer the carcasses, in a frozen 
state, to the vessel engaged to take them to their 
Home market. The Company has gradually taken 
up all branches of this business, and we saw the pelts 
and skin wool dealt with, the bones prepared for 
various utilisation, and a great facture of tins, which 
were being painted and labelled for contents of 
tongues, kidneys, tails, or other choice parts. 


The Wellington and Manawatu Railway: a Pleasant 
Excursion, 


One of the works I wished most to see here was 
the Wellington and Manawatu Railway, which my 
old friends the Scrimgeours, of the London Stock 
Exchange, had favourably introduced to my attention 
on the first entry of its securities into the London 
market. I had always therefore held, in the way of 
business, a large amount of its bonded securities, 
besides something of its share stock. I made the 
acquaintance of the Directors, who indeed already 
knew me well by name as a large bondholder, and 
they did me the honour to invite my party, together 
with a friend or two, to a special trip along the 
entire line. We had the most favourable of weather, 
and altogether a most enjoyable trip. Mr. Wallace, 
the able and well-informed manager of the line, who, 
with several others, Directors, including its father, 
Mr. Plimmer, accompanied us, was a perfect encyclo- 
padia upon his subject. He was also master of the 
Maori language. What appreciably increased our 


182 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


enjoyment was the sort of “happy family” look of 
the whole concern. They had entered upon a great 
undertaking, as to which many outside had at first 
shaken their heads; but their reward was already 
in course of sure development. 

The line is 84 miles in length, in a northerly 
direction from Wellington to Longburn, about four 
miles short of the rising town of Palmerston, where 
several railways connect. It was completed in 
November 1886, having been begun in 1881. It 
traverses a country as yet almost entirely unsettled, 
but of the most fertile and promising character, 
besides being the direct road to important places 
further on. It has cost, including rolling stock and 
stations, £800,000. There was some difficulty in 
establishing the Company, and raising its capital, as 
it was feared that a line through a reputed poor or 
too heavily timbered soil would not prove remune- 
rative. The Government had begun the line, but, 
chiefly on this consideration, discontinued it. 

Mr. Plimmer, the “father of the line,” took up 
its halting cause. He ascertained that the interior 
lands it would traverse were extremely fertile. He 
and his supporters agreed with the Government to 
carry on and complete the line. The Government, 
in fact, transferred its beginnings to them, giving 
freely over to them such little as had been done 
already, together with a grant of 210,000 acres of 
land along the line’s course. 

We started on 15th September, on a beautiful 
bright spring day, at 9 a.M., returning at 5 P.M, 
after about an hour spent at the northern extremity. 


A PLEASANT EXCURSION. 183 


We were honoured by a special train supplied 
for the occasion. The excursion was delightful from 
the number of objects of novelty and interest, includ- 
ing the dense tangles of indigenous forest spread 
over many miles, and the considerable number of 
aboriginal natives, who were congregated in little 
villages along the railway line. 

The line’s main hopes, of course, were upon the 
future. The through traffic, however, yielded a fair 
return, which now paid, besides expenses, almost the 
large debenture interest, and was steadily, even 
rapidly, increasing towards a good dividend on the 
ordinary stock. Townships were dotted over the 
line, but, with scarce any exception, there was not 
yet a house in such townships excepting that of the 
station master. Nevertheless, these townships, where 
their allotments had been sold, had brought, in most 
cases, the large sums of £200 to £300 an acre, while 
the lands along or near the line had sold for 40s. 
to 65s. an acre. These latter were mostly extremely 
fertile, and were already largely overgrown with 
rich grass, which, after being but partially planted 
only a year or two before, had svon overspread 
wherever there was a clearing of the native timber 
or shrubs. One pretty spot, a little sandy bay, with 
an inlet of the sea, into which a small stream 
emptied itself, quite charmed us. It was called 
Porirua Harbour, on which was Plimmerton, so 
called after, as I have described him, the line’s 
father. Its allotments had been lately sold at the 
highest prices —as high as at the rate of from 
£300 to £400 an acre, as the prospect was that, 


184 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


being only sixteen miles from Wellington, it would 
in time be a holiday place of attraction for the rich 
Wellingtonians. 

At some of the stations we met small parties of 
the natives. At Otaki in particular, about half way 
over the line, where we stopped ten mimutes, we 
found a party of about a dozen, ineluding six or seven 
womeu. They were chiefly old people, but there was 
a nice-like young boy, with a ruddy brown cheek, not 
much distinguishable from an English lad, and there 
was also a pleasant-looking, if not absolutely pretty, 
young woman of about twenty-five. We drew out 
some amusing and interesting characteristics, chiefly 
from the women. The old women were mostly 
tattooed on and under the lower lip, but the young 
one was not. I intimated my deeided preference 
of the latter, which caused them much amusement, 
expressed in loud bursts of laughter. When the 
girl took me up, as she must have done, as rather 
admiring her as compared at least with the others, 
the expression of modesty on her face, as she turned 
it away, was very pleasing. Next came an amusing 
pass. We wanted to see how they kissed. This 
we had been told was very comical, as it ended by 
rubbing noses together. Apparently, however, 
nothing would induce them to do it. They laughed 
outright in the highest good nature, but would not 
kiss & la Maori. At last I promised a shilling if 
they would do it, and after a little more coaxing 
and continued laughter it was done. They are 
usually very careful of money and very keen to 
make it. When I promised the shilling, I 


(o 6) 


LANDED PROPRIETORS. 185 
happened to be looking at the elder female and 
not at my favourite, so she understood the bargain 
to have been made with her, and the moment the 
kissing was over she held out her hand for the 
shilling. Had I been mischievous, and affected to 
make it all a joke, and pretended to refuse the money, 
there would have been a row of some kind. How- 
ever, I gave both of them a shilling, to their entire 
satisfaction. 

The native chiefs are often large landed proprietors, 
and the line ran either through or near to parts of 
their reserves. One chief had granted, free to the 
company, the lands needed for the line, because, as 
he said, they deserved such support, from their 
courage in sending a line through such an unpeopled 
country. They are not prevented from reselling to 
colonists these assigned lands, and some have done 
so, but they may not thus sell their whole estate. 
They cannot, as I have already hinted, sell when 
they have not more left than fifty acres to each 
person. It is desirable, generally speaking, that 
they should sell, as very large tracts are otherwise 
left almost waste, to the detriment of the Colony. 
They have been liberally dealt with, if we consider 
that these land endowments have acquired all their 
modern value from our colonisation. Of course, 
the alternative view is that we have deprived the 
natives of the whole country, and can hardly be 
called too generous in giving them back a minute 
fraction of the whole. The natives themselves, how- 
ever, recognise our kindness. Doubtless they know 
well enough that they themselves, when the more 


186 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


powerful, as invaders, would have simply extirpated 
the invaded, and taken the whole land without a 
trace of scruple. 

Although the natives don’t like regular daily 
work, such as that of our civilisation, yet they are 
not wholly idle, especially where there is a sure and 
immediate money result. One of the labours which, 
as having that prompt result, suits them best, is 
cutting wood for the supply of the railway engine 
fires. We noticed this wood, cut in suitable pieces, 
stacked up along the line, where it passed through 
the native territory. Sometimes it would be piled 
on both sides, and one continuous line of it which 
we passed was quite a mile long. The colonists do 
a little in this way too, but it is chiefly the work 
of natives. The stacking was 3 to 4 feet high, and 
of about equal width, making a low broad wall 
on the line’s edge, ready to be used when wanted. 
Trollies sally out to gather the fuel, and the chief is 
duly credited with his price. An almost incredible 
quantity is used in substitution for coal. Standing 
upon the engine to witness this consumption between 
two stations, we saw the solid billets go in by the 
dozen and disappear in the furnace in a very few 
minutes. Mr. Wallace’s estimate, as between wood 
and coal cost, seemed decidedly for the former, as 
the respective prices then went; but, if approach 
to express speed were wanted, they must fall back 
upon the solid coal. 

The scenery was at times very beautiful, with occa- 
sional views of Cook’s Straits, of the opposite coast 
of the Southern Island, of the snow-capped peaks of 


BEAUTIFUL SCENERY. 187 


the interior ranges northwards, 4000 to 5000 feet 
in height, and, when quite clear atmospherically, 
of grand Mount Egmont to the N.W., upwards of 
8300 feet in height, rising lke a pyramidal white 
cloud on the far horizon, when as far as 120 miles 
distant. The indigenous forest was at times in such a 
tangle of impervious vegetation, as to remind me of 
the description of the dense vegetation, penetrated 
only by aid of the hatchet, by our troops in their 
march upon Coomassie from the African Guinea Coast. 
The fine lofty mountains, mostly covered with ever- 
green timber, and the pretty winding rivulets that 
issued from their valleys, recalled, to some extent, 
our Scotch Highlands, with the ceaseless gurgle 
of running water. On the hills was chiefly the 
white pine, a poor tree of neither size nor beauty. 
The flats and rich-soil marshes had much of the New 
Zealand flax, which is now an article of large trade, 
but, having a fibre less strong than Russian hemp 
and other like material, is used, as I have already 
said, for paper instead of roping. I formed a high 
opinion of the prospects of this line, and expect that 
ten years, if not sooner, will see it a succession of 
busy towns and commerce. 


— 
CO 
@ 6) 


AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


SECTION XVIII. 
WELLINGTON HARBOUR TO LYTTELTON HARBOUR. 


Wira reluctance we quitted Wellington, after our 
far too brief stay. It seemed to us a most pleasant 
abode. More than once I found myself standing 
musing, as I watched the peopie, especially the 
working men, to try if I could make out that they at 
all appreciated, or even troubled themselves to think 


about, their giorious surroundings as to climate and - 


scenery. When I touched, tenderly, on the point 
with my working-class friends before alluded to, the 
hide was evidently too thick for refinement of that 
non-practical kind. “Ob yes, climate good enough, 
and that sort of thing.” ‘“ Better than at home?” 
“Oh, yes, good enough.” They reminded me of 
Punch’s coming Reign of Science, which, depicted 
prior to Mr. Forster’s general Education Act of 1870, 
had left the working man in statu quo. So he makes 
his own easy swing through the jaw-breakers of 
science : “ Bill, hand us up them Zulphuds.” 

But whether the other classes had much more 
appreciation of the almost al fresco life which their 
delectable climate allowed them to enjoy may 
possibly be a question. Perhaps a rare good luck 
showed us Wellington rather better than average, for 
it isreputed to be rather rainy and windy. Perhaps 
also we were at just the most charming part of the 
year, when the rich life of spring was blooming every- 


a a 


COASTING STEAMERS. 189 


where. An American visitor, who had preceded us, 
on being told there had been, or been supposed to 
be, bad times in Wellington, and elsewhere in New 
Zealand, is stated to have held up his hands in 
amazement, exclaiming, “ Bad times in a climate like 
this! Impossible!” 


Fine Coasting Steamers: the “ Wairarapa.” 
9 } 


We were now to take boat from Wellington to 
Lyttleton by the fine steamer “ Wairarapa,” one of the 
finest and fastest of the Union Company’s large fleet, 
which had the day before come in from Auckland. 
We should have gone thence by her had we not 
decided for the west coast route, at once the shortest, 
and, as we thought, the best worth seeing. But, to 
have fulfilled its repute as the shortest, we should 
have got out of our little “ Penguin” steamer, and 
taken the rail from New Plymouth to Wellington. 
But this we were prevented from doing, because, 
although the line is there all made and ready, it is 
as yet kept running with only a bi-weekly or tri- 
weekly train. I fear I must admit that this is one, 
and far perhaps from the only one, instance of too- 
anticipatory railway building; for here, at great 
cost, was a long piece of railway, which was all but 
unusable for want as yet of people and commerce, 

The “ Wairarapa,” a Maori name of course, and in 
good taste such, was really a fine boat, in well-drawn 
lines of iron, with a well got-up interior, including 
the great comfort of the electric light, which was 
“Jaid on” with all the facilities of gas, excepting 
that the initiatory match was dispensed with, and 


190 AUSTRALASIAN FROGRESS. 


the heat and air-vitiation of the gas equally dis- 
posed of. The vessel was 1700 tons — no size 
nowadays, indeed, but sufficient for her own business 
on the intercolonial line between Auckland and 
Melbourne, vid Dunedin and “ the Bluff’? She went 
alternately, wd Hobart, and to Melbourne direct. 
Our turn was this time via Hobart, a delay which, 
however, did not disturb us, as I was still in plenty 
of time, for my only anxiety as to time, namely, an 
Old Colonist farewell dinner, with which, fixed for 
the Ist October, my distinguished friend, Mr. Francis 
Henty, Chairman of the O.C. Association, was to 
honour me before final departure for Home ten days 
afterwards. 

The Union line was generally well supported 
by passengers and goods traffic. I heard at times 
some sighing for an opposition that might lead to a 
more accommodating treatment, as well as lower 
rates for the struggling New Zealand trade, as on 
nearly every hand the turn of markets had been 
against the Colony, in low prices of wool and cereals, 
and the difficulties of establishing in London the 
new frozen-meat trade. The vessel was quite full of 
cabin passengers this time, besides a full complement 
in the steerage, consisting mainly of the working 
and smaller trading classes, who, as I afterwards 
describe, were trooping out of New Zealand, on the 
recent comparative cessation of railway-making. 
Some young lads, accompanied by their parents, 
were going to the Christchurch schools and colleges, 
which, on their Anglican foundation, and otherwise, 
are preferred in adjacent parts of the Colony. Some 


PUBLIC MEN. 191 


of these were fine muscular fellows, likely some day 
to leave their mark in football or cricket. 


Some New Zealand Public Men, and the Depressed 
Times. 


We had also on board some distinguished colonists ; 
chiefly, amongst others, Sir William Fox, the veteran 
ex-premier, who, although seventy-six, was upon an 
active propagandist temperance mission, and was to 
address, on that subject, a public meeting on his 
arrival at Christchurch. I easily introduced myself 
to Sir William, as we were each familiar with the 
other’s name. But we also recalled that we had met 
at the Bank of New Zealand in London a good many 
years before, when both were a trifle Jess aged than 
now. He spoke like a man still vigorous for any 
question. I did not hear his lecture on the night of 
our arrival, as I was too much otherwise engaged. 

Another important fellow-passenger was the Hon. 
Mr. Fergus, New Zealand Minister of Defence, upon 
whom I opened in the way of question and answer, 
after he had sufficiently recovered froma preliminary 
purgatory, or at least purging of its own kind, to 
which he was liable at sea. There was also Mr. 
Chapman, son of the late Judge Chapman, an old 
friend of mine, and both of these New Zealanders 
were bound for the Melbourne Exhibition. Judge 
Broad, who had accompanied us from Nelson to 
Wellington, but had gone off thence at once to 
Christchurch, on his South Island Circuit, afterwards 
rejoined us at Oamaru, en route for Dunedin. Dis- 
coursing with him on the late New Zealand depres- 


192 AUSTRALASIAN. PROGRESS. 


sion, he confirmed my own view that the bottom of 
the depression had been reached about the end of last 
year, because, as he significantly remarked, his list — 
then was blocked with bankruptcy cases, whereas 
this time these had virtually ceased. 

Mr. Fergus interested me upon his own subject of 
defence. Evidently colonists do not like, or rather 
perhaps cannot, with their scarce and dear labour, 
afford to like, the professional soldier. After a 
naval force, which must be the most immediate 
and pressing colonial aim, the artillery comes for 
first consideration as a land force, as the dread for 
a Colony is not so much a land fight of soldiery, as 
a hostile ironclad that is to bombard and burn the 
colonial towns and property, and that cannot be re- 
pelled except by good artillery. New Zealand, after 
having had a thousand regular artillerymen, is now 
down to only some hundreds. I raised the question 
of an old idea of mine that every colonial youth 
should go through military drill, not for a profession, 
but as part of education while at school, and subse- 
quently of juvenile recreation, without necessitating 
even an hour’s economic sacrifice. The step in morale 
also, apart from the other or defence question, must 
not be overlooked. I thought that a Colony thus 
defensively equipped, and at no great cost to itself, 
might be held to have done fairly her proportion 
for the Empire’s defence—I mean the military part 
of the defence ; the naval part is now being specially 
arranged for by a pro rata contribution. Mr. Fergus 
agreed with the idea generally, and said that it was 
already, to some extent, being realised. 


( 193 ) 


SECTION XIX. 
LYTTELTON HARBOUR, LYTTELTON, AND CHRISTCHURCH. 


A BRIGHT morning dawned upon us as we ap- 
proached Bank’s Peninsula and Lyttelton Harbour. 
The Peninsula is a large area of mountainous and 
fine scenery, forming, for the most part of its area, 
the very garden of the earth for a variety of pro- 
ducts. On the south side, within one more of 
New Zealand’s remarkable natural harbours, is 
Akaroa, the settlement formed by the first French 
colonisers, nearly fifty years ago, in the famous race 
of the two countries for the possession of this 
grand New Zealand. 

Akaroa has not indeed achieved greatness as a 
town, whether from the quiet, uncommercial disposi- 
tion of its people, or from having been shunted aside 
by the rise and prosperity of its rival Lyttelton, the 
port of Christchurch, the local capital. Akaroa has 
but 1200 of population to Lyttelton’s 4000. But 
the lesser French nest has had a fairly happy time. 

It has been invaded often from outside in that 
way that brings back to us the famous “ Rape of the 
Sabines,” only that the repeated invasions here, 
while they were those of love, were wholly without 
violence. Little Catholic Akaroa gets on well with 
her Protestant surroundings. She finds English 
Catholics around her as well. Her population gets 

Oo 


194 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


mixed, perhaps to the improvement of the new race 
that results. She has already ceased to speak 
French, excepting in a very few families. The 
Queen will not be long of having Akaroa as much 
her own, if indeed it is not so already, as the Lyttel- 
ton sister a few miles to the north. 

Lyttelton stands at the head of another noble 
natural harbour. It is prettily scattered over the 
steep slope of the coast range of hills, which cul- 
minates in an elevation of 2000 feet. The har- 
bour, however, has needed some artificial perfect- 
ing to bring it to its present suitable condition. 
The slimy shallow at the head of the fine moun- 
tainous natural inlet has been dredged to a sufficient 
depth, even at low water, for the large steamers, up 
to 4000 tons, which now come to the port, as well as 
for the other shipping engaged in the great trade of 
the Canterbury district in Christchurch. A long 
and completely sheltering breakwater has also been 
constructed. As we backed our speed after enter- 
ing, the screw’s motion stirred up the slimy bottom, 
and immediately the previously clear water was 
deeply fouled all around. Several large steamers 
and some smaller craft lay around us. But the 
bustle of the high shipping time was not yet come 
round, when all the cereals, the wool, the frozen 
sheep and bullocks of this rich agricultural and 
pastoral country come tumbling in by millions in 
value, for the use of the other kind of millions of 
the mother country. 

A railway pierces the coast range, by means of a 
tunnel two miles in length, a piece of early enter- 


CHRISTCHURCH AND ITS WATER SUPPLY. 195 


prise and engineering which does credit to the place. 
Christchurch, reached by this railway, is seven miles 
off, and trains go to and fro every hour or two. 
About twenty-five minutes brought us easily to the 
capital. 

That variety of feature which we had found in 
each place successively visited, each with its own 
attractions, characterised Christchurch as fully as 
any other. Quitting the coast range, we entered a 
vast plain, so perfectly level to all appearance as to 
give the effect of a great ocean with its pretty 
fringe, in your near neighbourhood, of many varie- 
ties of trees, and shrubs, and gardens, forming 
the suburban surroundings of the town. There 
are perhaps as much as 4000 to 5000 square miles 
of this plain, extending far north and still further 
south of the Christchurch latitude, with a soil 
mostly of the richest character, and covered with 
farms, and sheep and cattle pasturages. In the far 
distance beyond, fifty to seventy miles westwards, 
rose one of the interior mountain ranges, 4000 to 
5000 feet in elevation, and still covered, more than 
half down from the summit, with snow. Beyond 
this range, and above a hundred miles further west, 
is the higher range which culminates in Mount 
Cook, an elevation of about 12,300 feet. 


Christchurch, and its Remarkable Water Supply. 


Christchurch, with a population, including suburbs, 
of 35,000, covers a most pretentious quantity of 
ground. Her grand wide streets, of mathematical 

o 2 


196 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


straightness and miles in length, tell us what are 
the expectations of the ambitious colonists with 
regard to the future of the central capital of New 
Zealand’s Southern or greater Island. Many open 
spaces within and around the city give it great 
advantages, alike in a sanitary and a scenic sense. 
We wandered through botanic gardens, reserves for 
schools, colleges, and museums, and other purposes, 
in most cases tastefully planted with trees and shrubs, 
both indigenous and imported. A clear and copious 
stream, named, under English classic reminiscences, 
the Avon, with banks lined with weeping willows, 
now in the freshest foliage, runs, with many windings, 
through town and suburbs. This pretty Avon takes 


its rise in those snow-clad hills to the westward, but - 


it is largely reinforced, in its downward course, from 
perennial springs only a few miles inland from 
Christchurch. And, seeing that the city is other- 
wise supplied, all this fine stream may be said to be 
wasted and lost in the sea. 

Such was my feeling as I stood upon the bridge in 
the public gardens, looking down into the pure cool 
swift-running stream, where trout, eighteen inches 
in length, sported about in numbers beneath. But 
there was no occasion to bemoan the loss of so much 
fine fresh water, when Christchurch has other and 
even better supplies to fall back upon. 

This water supply is one of the curiosities of the 
place. It is entirely from “ Artesian” resources. 
Every house has its own Artesian well, and if 
there is a large or wealthy household, or an insti- 
tution, it has more than one well. The water 


ae ie hy 


PUBLIC EDIFICES IN CHRISTCHURCH. 197 


is tapped at depths varying up to a hundred feet, 
and is always there, and of the purest and best. In 
the lower levels towards the sea—for the great plain, 
although apparently, is not actually quite horizontal, 
but rising slightly inwards—the water spouts up 
several feet above the ground, as we saw in a public 
fountain in the central square of the town. Jn other 
places it comes short by from five to twenty feet; 
but by deeper sinking, at a trifle more cost, even in 
those higher parts the water may reach the ground 
level. Our friend and guide, Mr. Joseph Cooke, 
manager of The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile 
Agency Company, in taking us to his pleasant 
residence three miles from town, described to us the 
water arrangement, which was indeed the most 
curious and interesting feature of the place. The 
ground being 40 feet higher than the town level, 
the water is short of the surface by some yards, but 
by help of a small windmill apparatus, working with 
every breath of passing air, he not only overcomes 
this interval, but raises the water into elevated tanks 
for the supply of the two floors of the house; and so 
sufficient is this small power in its almost incessant 
night and day working, that he has not seldom to 
call a halt, and give the faithful machine a well- 
earned rest. The cost of these wells is surprisingly 
small, as low in some cases as £4, but more usually 
about twice that amount, or even £10 to £20, when 
saving of expense is not the chief object. 

There is a considerable display of good substantial 
and even elegant buildings in Christchurch. The 
public edifices, as the Post and Telegraph Offices, are 


198 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


hardly equal to those of the banks and other 
companies. There are several hotels, very comfort- 


able and of fairly good aspect. We went to an old 


one, Warner’s, still mostly of wood. But Christ- 
church generally, the central and business part at 
least, has largely emerged from wood, and contrasts 
strongly in this respect with Wellington, New 
Zealand’s official capital. 


The Late Earthquake. 


On 1st September, 1888, at early morn, before day- 
light, Christchurch and a wide area around it were 
visited by an earthquake. Looking at the vast level 
of the country, as if undisturbed from below in all 
previous time, one wondered what an earthquake 
had to do there, of all places. But it had in its way 
an alarming force, and at once sent hundreds, perhaps 
thousands, out of their warm beds into the sharp air 
of an early spring morning. When day dawned 
upon the disturbed citizens, it was found that the top 
of the spire of the Anglican Cathedral had been 
shaken off and lay in fragments below. Twenty-six 
feet to the culminating steeple-head, whatever that 
was, had come down. The part thus displaced had 
consisted of a rather top-heavy structure, made so for 
some reason or other, which had evidently excluded 
the consideration of earthquakes. This part alone was 
affected. The rest of the building, large, handsome, 
and, as I should architecturally describe it, of the 
cottage style, was to all appearance uninjured. Nor 


ee a 


EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 199 


was there any damage elsewhere in the town worth 
speaking about. One concludes, therefore, that the 
force took the direction of a lateral shaking, and 
not in any degree of a vertical or upraising motion. 

The extreme and Holland-like flatness of the 
country was relieved, first, by the coast range 
through which we had just passed in the railway 
tunnel, and again by the grand vista of the snow- 
clad range that terminated the plains on the western 
interior. The many parks and gardens around the 
city added further variety to this effect, and greatly 
redeemed the scene from the monotonous effect 
which the vast level must otherwise have had. 
We more fully realised this monotony as we travelled 
further south, into parts where the redeeming varieties 
ceased. 

In one quarter by themselves, and prettily 
varied by ample reserves of grass, and shrubs, and 
trees, are Christchurch’s educational institutions— 
schools, college, and a museum well and variously 
stored with natural history. The town is famous 
_ for this latter institution, which we duly visited. 
The chamber of the great moa, with his congeners, 
the lesser moas, the emu, cassowary, &c., had to me 
the objects of greatest interest. Only a short time 
before, some additional bones of this greatest of the 
wingless birds had been dug up in a moist or swampy 
part of the plain near the town. The education is 
chiefly on the Anglican basis, amongst at least the 
colonial upper or well-off class, who send their 
children from far and wide in the Colony to this 
famed and fashionable seminary. The Avon, wind- 


200 . AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


ing gracefully through these grounds, with its boat- 
building factories, and the neatly finished boats 
gliding over the waters, might already well recall to 
our university youth of the old country the Isis or 


the Cam. 


201") 


SECTION XX. 
CHRISTCHURCH TO DUNEDIN BY RAIL. 


At 8.10 am., after devoting, sad to say, rather less 
than twenty-four hours to see all its features, we left 
Christchurch by “the Express” for Dunedin, with 
the prospect of seeing Timaru and Oamaru on the 
way, but only, alas! during the fly past of our train. 
The latter had much to show to arouse our interest. 
First was the handsome little city, built of the famous 
Oamaru white freestone; then the quarries of this 
stone, which, on excavation, is so soft and workable 
as to be treated like wood with the saw and plane; 
and again the harbour, built with some skill and - 
difficulty against the tremendous sweep of the 
Southern Pacific; and finally the wonderful scale 
and success of the farming over the specially fertile 
soil of the surrounding country. In short, we had 
promised Mr. John Reid, of Eldersleigh, one of 
Oamaru’s principal colonists, in answer to his 
hospitable invitation, to make a halt for at least one 
day; but from a day’s unexpected delay at Wel- 
lington, we were compelled to pass on, and to be 
satisfied with the train’s ten minutes’ halt. 


The Canterbury Plains. “ The Gorse.” 

For some distance from Christchurch the vast 
level plain was pleasantly relieved, as I have indeed 
already partially described, by a variety of objects, 
There were, for instance, many plantations of trees, 


202 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


occasional small towns, and many neat villas with 
parks and gardens. Rivers and rivulets were fre- 
quently crossed, descending from the continuous — 
snowy range to our right, some of them with a con- 
siderable body of water, dismembered into three or 
four, or more separate streams, and spreading over a 
wide bed of shingle, which, in several instances, had a 
width of from one to two miles. These wide beds, on 
occasions of heavy rains or snow-melting, would be 
filled up to the brim of the plain, a depth of perhaps 
six to twelve feet, and on such occasions would roll 
down a mass of water altogether surprising. 

Fifty miles from Christchurch, we began to enter 
upon a vast area of the plain, utterly featureless in 
its monotony, and consisting apparently of a quality 
_ of land much less fertile than that which we had left. 
At times the only relief our eye could catch was 
some slight dividing line separating the estates or 
pasturages. Over large areas which we passed there 
was scarcely a wooden house or even a sod hut visible. 
We were thankful for the variety of the bright golden 
flower of the universally prevalent “ gorse,” or furze 
or whin, so familiar to Scotland. This plant has 
taken root everywhere throughout New Zealand, 
and in spite of the natural beauty and sweet per- 
fume of its flower, which was in its highest bloom 
just at this time, it is apt to be viewed as a nuisance 
by the colonists, in consequence of its irrepressible 
overspread. It made, however, most excellent 
hedges, and the effect of these hedges, distinctly 
marking out the fields, great and small, far as the 
eye could reach, was remarkably pleasing. 


THE BLUE GUM TREE, 203 


Another plant feature, giving also a pleasing 
diversity, was our old friend once more, the blue 
gum tree. This tree, remarkable for its sanitary 
qualities, has of late been introduced throughout 
Europe and North Africa, especially Algeria, and 
wherever, in marshy or malarial sites, it would grow 
freely. Our English climate is too chill for it. Its 
luxuriance in New Zealand far surpasses even that of 
its original source, Australia. There is, perhaps, no 
difficulty in finding the reason, for the tree is natur- 
ally of rapid growth, with a proportionate absorption 
of moisture. The droughts of Australia check this 
rapid growth, while the frequent forest fires, by 
scorching the bark, maim when they do not actually 
kill the tree. Neither of these troubles happens in 
New Zealand’s more favoured clime, and the tree 
grows apace, with a swelling stem and an unusually 
full and graceful foliage. It forms pretty small 
clumps, and fine roadside linings, everywhere from 
northern Auckland to southern Dunedin ; and we 
passed on the Canterbury Plains many plantations of 
the young trees. These seemed to us to be nurseries 
for transplantation; but, as we were afterwards 
informed, they were also of use, when thinned and 
further grown, as shelters from the warm winds of 
summer, not infrequently blowing over these wide 
and sun-heated plains. 


Timaru and its Harbour. 


Just before reaching Timaru, one hundred miles 
from Christchurch, the flat plain began to change 
into gentle undulations, which, covered with rich 


204 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


grass, indicated also an improvement of the soil. 
The snowy range too had closed in upon us with less 
than half the distance which separated us at our 
starting. Timaru, like Oamaru, further south, 
ventures to defy the ocean sweep with a breakwater 
harbour, and has hitherto succeeded, while that of 
Oamaru suffered two years ago a breach of its 
breakwater, although that barrier had been consti- 
tuted of great blocks of concrete locked together 
with iron. The breach is now being restored with 
such still greater strength as is supposed to be 
adequate to all emergencies. 


Oamaru and Harbour. 


During the ten minutes’ stay at Oamaru, I had the 
honour of a deputation from the Oamaru Town 
Council, headed by the Mayor, for the purpose of a 
consultation as to town and harbour finance. Both 
these interests had been somewhat strained, both by 
the high interest rates of their early loan issues, and 
by the late bad commercial times, which had reduced 
the expected amounts from harbour dues and town 
rates. My advice to them was to consolidate their 
various small loans into one comparatively large 
uniform stock, which, having thus a more market- 
able quality, could be issued at a lower rate of 
interest. Oamaru, they said, would never default, 
but there was at present so great a strain upon 
resources as to prevent a variety of improvements 
that were urgently wanted. I did my best to 
encourage my municipal friends by telling them that 
I had advised Sir Harry Atkinson, the New Zealand 


Et: 


OAMARU AND HARBOUR. 9205 


Premier, that if he could join the other Southern 
Colonies in the issue of an inter-colonial confederate 
3 per cent. stock, like that of the Canadian Dominion, 
these outstanding small high-interest stocks might, 
with great advantage to both Colony and muni- 
cipality, be exchanged for or converted into such 
stock. I ventured to console my friends with my 
humble assurance, that, so far as I could judge, dur- 
ing my rapid passage through New Zealand, the 
late bad times had evidently turned, so that greater 
prosperity appeared to be before them. 

Timaru and Oamaru are about the same size, with 
some 5000 to 6000 each of population. They are 
rivals to each other with their two adjacent harbours. 
Opinion is strong generally throughout the Colony 
that New Zealand is rather over-harboured, and that 
it has such a sufficiency of magnificent natural har- 
bours, such as those of Auckland, Manakau and 
Wellington, Nelson and Picton, Lyttelton, Otago 
and the Bluff, that colonial finance might have been 
spared the ordeal of the others. But that is not, of 
course, the mode of local reasoning. New Zealand, 
even more, as it seemed to me, than any other of 
these Colonies, grasps the facilities of progress, with- 
out counting very nicely whether the full time for 
them has yet come. If she cannot spare her own 
money for them, she will freely borrow outside. 
“The full time,” she says, “ will soon come round, 
and all the sooner by help of the facilities, whether 
these be premature or not.” This spirit is the secret, 
chiefly at least, of so many harbours, and such a host 
of branch railways. It made the Wellington and 


206 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Manawatu Railway, which, when first surveyed, like 
the famous Glenmutchkin line skit, had hardly a 
house or human being on or near its proposed track. 

A New Zealander, in short, in his business dis- 
patch, utterly scorns the old and slow ways. Even 
the telegraph gets to be too slow, and is being 
everywhere superseded, more or less, by the tele- 
phone. Only the lift convenience seems less pre- 
valent than in Australia, whether from the build- 
ings being as yet less elevated, or from that 
superior vigour of muscle in the New Zealander 
which delights itself in exercise. But, in all else in 
that way, New Zealand seems ahead; and I was 
amused by one illustration—a tiny railway inside 
one of the banks, which was used to save waste of 
time and strength in hurling to and fro the safes 
and other heavy apparatus of the business. But 
this bright, sunshiny spirit is apt to have its ordeal 
of cloud and trouble. The ball runs merrily in so- 
called good times, which, however, in their extrava- 
gance, are doubtfully so-called; but the last three 
years have given the Colony, perhaps to its lasting 
advantage, a strong taste of the bitter side. 

At and beyond Timaru we had a beautiful land- 
scape of undulating ground, the hills covered with 
grass for pasturage, the valleys and levels cultivated, 
with the plough actually at work in many directions. 
We did not see any of Oamaru’s great scale of farm- 
ing, which already threatens to rival that of the 
Western United States and the Canadian North 
West, where the steam plough, upon a five or ten 
mile square wheat field, passes clean out of sight, 


OTAGO HARBOUR BY MOONLIGIHT. 207 


except through a good telescope. The interior, but 
at too great a distance from Oamaru and the line of 
rail, affords the best illustrations of this progress. 
We passed, however, some large fields finely ploughed 
and harrowed. 

These Oamaru vicinities were succeeded by a con- 
siderable area once more of the monotonous plains, 
followed yet again by beautiful hill and dale scenery. 
As we were within two days of the equinox, and our 
time of arrival at Dunedin was 7.45 P.M., we were, of 
course, overtaken by the night for more than the last 
hour of our journey, during which, as we were told, 
we missed some of the finest scenes. But, by favour 
of a bright moonlight, we still saw something, and 
could realise somewhat the grand view of the Otago 
Harbour, as we passed along, high up upon the pre- 
cipitous side of its northern coast-line. 


bo 
—) 
(© 6) 


AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


SECTION XXI. 
DUNEDIN AND OTAGO HARBOUR. 


Ivy point of architectural and business appearance, 
Dunedin impressed me as standing next to Sydney 
and Melbourne. It is not nearly so large as 
Brisbane, nor has it the business stir and speculative 
excitement of that town in the assurance of a near 
future of enormous mining development; neither, 
in point of population, is it so large as Auckland ; 
but there is combined solidity and elegance in its 
principal streets to which the others have hardly yet 
come. We quartered at the Grand Hotel, which 
seemed to me second only, if indeed second, to the 
Melbourne and Sydney hotels. This hotel is in the 
very business centre, and around it were the edifices 
of banking, insurance, and other companies, which 
might have rivalled the finest in London, the Bank 
of New Zealand and the Colonial Bank of New 
Zealand leading the way. 

Sallying forth the next morning, as is my cus- 
tom, for a good walk before breakfast, I ascended 
a remarkably steep street, culminating in so lofty 
a site, that I set off for the crown at double-quick 
in the hope of a good view. I had noticed the 
tram rails laid down all along this steep street, 
and presently I heard the well-known noise of the 
Melbourne tram carriage coming up behind me. 
Almost at the same moment another came in sight 


DUNEDIN AND OTAGO HARBOUR. 209 


at the top I was making for, and bound in the 
contrary direction. The ascent was as easily accom- 
plished by these trams as the descent, and, as there 
was neither horse nor engine, I recognised the 
excellent Melbourne method. I afterwards learned, 
as I think I have already stated, that this unrivalled 
tram system had originated in Dunedin fifteen years 
ago, and had been since transferred to Melbourne, to 
which its originator, Mr. Duncan, had gone for the 
purpose. Mr. Duncan had, however, introduced it 
from San Francisco. At the summit I gained my 
fine view, and in descending I skirted a steep 
romantic gully on the left hand. 

Dunedin has a good deal of such romance in its 
site, as well becomes. the namesake of the Modern 
Athens in the old country, any one of whose three 
grand natural objects, Arthur’s Seat and The Crags, 
the Castle Rock, and the Calton Hill, would be 
wealth of scenery for any town. 

As I was known to be interested in the great 
scheme of the Otago Harbour, some of the directors, 
along with Mr. Mackenzie, the head of the Colonial 
Bank of New Zealand, did me the favour of showing 
me over the ground. This undertaking has involved 
an enormous outlay of money, far more indeed than 
was at first intended ; but the advantage of proceed- 
ing further and further with the improvement has 
been so obvious as to have induced the Harbour 
Board to pursue their conrse, in spite of grumbling 
bondholders and bad times. The chief resource of the 
Board is an endowment of no less than 450 acres of 
frontage to the city, at the head of the Otago inlet. 

P 


210 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Nearly all of this acreage has, indeed, to be re- 
claimed from the sea, and as yet but seventy acres 
have been so dealt with. But these latter are already 
covered with wharfs, warehouses, and business build- 
ings, yielding a large and increasing rental, and I 
could not but infer that, when all the remainder 
are in similar use, the Otago Harbour endowment, 
with the progress of Dunedin, may possibly make it 
one of the richest interests of its kind in the Empire. 

Until the harbour attained its present depth by 
dredging and direction of the tidal scour, the larger 
vessels of the shipping were arrested at Port Chal- 
mers, a small and rather pretty town of 1500 popu- 
lation, on the north side of the Otago entrance, and 
connected with Dunedin by rail, the said rail being 
in fact a part of the main line between Christchurch 
and Dunedin. But the biggest sailing vessels and 
steamers now frequenting the port pass straight up 
to the Southern.capital, and are at once discharged 
and reloaded at the Otago Harbour wharfs. 

One large steamer from China had just landed a 
cargo of teas, sugars, and rice. The rice, which had 
been “ cleaned” by the machinery now used for that 
purpose before shipment, was in most beautiful 
order, and, as we were told, would keep so here for 
any length of time, as the weevil, so destructive in 
lower latitudes, did not find the cool Otago climate 
at all to its taste. We went on board to see the 
curious assemblages of races which make up the 
crews of these vessels—Chinese, Japanese, Malays, 
Coolies, and ‘‘ various,” most of them picked up, as 
required, at Singapore, a place of general call. In 


GROWTH OF DUNEDIN. 211 


the afternoon we saw the steamer at the entrance of 
the harbour, already, with such prompt despatch, 
on her way back, there being no available return 
cargo to detain her. 

Some idea of the wonderful growth of Dunedin in 
wealth and importance may be formed from the fact 
that the piece of ground, now so central, on which 
the Grand Hotel stands, was bought thirty-five 
years ago for £75 by its present proprietor, who is 
still alive to enjoy from it a ground rental of £2000 
a year. Town values were even higher than now 
some few years ago, for the bad times of these later 
years have prevailed here as well as elsewhere, 
although the collapse has not been so great here as 
in some other parts, and in particular in overbuilt and 
over-speculated-upon Auckland. The bad times seem 
to have opened here much in the way in which they 
had in a good many places elsewhere. They had 
commenced with the bad condition of Home trade in 
1878, which culminated in the terrible failure of 
the City of Glasgow Bank, this failure being par- 
ticularly severe upon the southern part of New 
Zealand, as the Bank had bolstered up an enor- 
mous land speculation there, which, of course, col- 
lapsed at once upon this disaster. 

But Dunedin has a fair backbone of trading to 
support her. She revels in wool; she has gold too 
as well as the golden fleece, and she has golden corn 
and other cereals, potatoes, butter, and cheese, and 
the finest beef and mutton, in all but limitless 
quantity. Slaughtering and freezing of sheep and 
bullocks for exportation are upon a great scale. In 

P 2 


212 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


all of these substantial elements of commerce she 
is in the heat of a close race with her northern sister, 
Christchurch, which, with her vast background of — 
rich, productive plains, has latterly been rather creep- 
ing ahead. They are stalwart rivals, and the race 
between them is equally inspiring and interesting. 

Little Port Chalmers, unsatisfied with her mere 
natural beauties and the dignity of her name, which 
commemorates Scotland’s great theologian and 
philanthropist, has not taken kindly to the shunted 
position in which the Otago Harbour improvements 
have left her. She possesses still the old apparatus of 
her piers and wharfs, constructed under the larger 
prospects of the past. Are these to be abandoned 
without a struggle? Truly no, replies the Port; 
and accordingly she has launched the scheme of a 
ereat dock of her own, in the hope of intercepting 
some crumbs from the mass of good things that have 
latterly been sailing past her into the cormorant 
maw of Dunedin. How the new dock and the old 
piers and wharfs of plucky little Port Chalmers 
will fare in the free fight of the future remains to 
be seen. 


@si3")) 


SECTION XXII. 


“THE BLUFF” AND INVERCARGILL, FOVEAU STRAITS 
AND STEWART’S ISLAND. 


REJOINING our steamer, the fine fast “Wairarapa,” at 
Dunedin, as we feared we might be too late to meet 
it at The Bluff, if we delayed about six hours for the 
railway, we passed out of the Otago Harbour, having 
this time the full advantage of the daylight to admire 
its very considerable beauties. The southern side 
forms a peninsula, whose northern or warm exposure, 
rising in fine grassy slopes, of considerable elevation, 
from the harbour waters, affords delightful sites for 
residences, -much pleasanter, one would think, than 
the opposite or colder slope. But the convenience of 
the railway has as yet sent the residents nearly all to 
the latter. They include a large proportion of the 
working classes, whose tidy little mansions and plots 
of ground, for the most part their own property, 
were scattered in lively variety over the hill sides. 


A New Zealand Storm. 


Shortly after clearing the harbour a furious south- 
westerly gale came upon us, which delayed our 
traverse of the 113 miles of distance to eighteen 
hours, or nearly twice the usual time. Although 
most of us were seriously discomposed, and the next 
morning's breakfast table presented, as to occupants, 


214 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


a sadly mutilated spectacle, we had all to confess to 
an admirable boat, which with its powerful screw 
pushed nobly through the raging head sea. We 
were especially pleased with the ready obligingness 
of all the stewards, and the special tidiness of the 
cabins. We learnt one cause of the latter, namely 
that there is an inspection of all the berths every 
day, the captain, in company with the chief steward, 
making the regular round an hour before noon. 
But I have since heard that, in well-regulated 
“Lines” this is the common practice and precaution. 
We entered The Bluff, with the comfort of its smooth 
water, but in a wind almost enough to lift us bodily 
off the deck into the sea. 


The Bluff Harbour. 

“The Bluff,’ which is the handy designation com- 
mon to the harbour and the little township of about 
six hundred of population which has arisen upon the 
western side of the entrance, is a capacious inlet 
forming an all but completely landlocked shelter 
from the frequent furious gales over the outside 
ocean. It is still larger than that of Wellington, 
and therefore with still more room to accommodate 
all the navies of the world. But it is sadly deficient 
of any other charm save this amplitude of area. The 
surrounding scene was in fact the poorest in every 
way which we had met with in New Zealand. The 
ground was mostly covered with what I might call 
scrub bush, varied by patches of small stunted New 
Zealand forest, not unlike in kind the tangle of 


INVERCARGILL, A MODEL TOWN. 215 


forest we met with at intervals along the Manawatu 
Railway, but sorely monotonous in comparison, and 
deficient, in this chiller climate, in the dignity of 
generous growth and variety. 


Invercargill, a Model Town. 


The sudden plunge from this dreary scene into 
the urban beauties of Invercargill was a pleasant 
surprise. This is, for its size, the most elegant little 
city in my recollection. Its broad, straight, rectan- 
gularly planned streets, with already their fair filling 
up, in the central parts at least, of neat and substan- 
tial buildings, give even an imposing as well as a 
pleasing effect. But Invercargill, after a culmina 
tion of great hope and speculative anticipation ten 
to fifteen years ago, has suffered a rather severe 
reaction. Its population had reached, a few years 
back, 10,000 for the town and suburbs, from which, 
however, it has since receded by about 2000. This 
has been caused chiefly by the departure of some of 
the working classes, who found that the overbuilt 
place was no longer employing or paying them as 
formerly, and who therefore have been streaming 
over by the fortnightly steamer which calls at 
Hobart en route to Melbourne, and thus gives the 
chance of the two labour markets. 

With us in the ‘‘ Wairarapa,” there were, as I 
was told by some of themselves, no less than 250 of 
these working men, who had come on board between 
Auckland and Invercargill, but chiefly from the 
Southern Island, as passengers can go more directly 


216 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


to Sydney from Auckland and other places of the 
North Island. Some whom I accosted on board our 
steamer spoke rather bitterly against New Zealand 
and its Governmeut, and against its employers in 
general. But I could see that everything looks wrong 
when one’s own interests are touched. Some of them 
complained of having lost all their savings as well as 
the high wages of the past. That is to say, as I in- 
ferred, they have bought their little acreage, and 
reared their cottage upon it by premature help of 
borrowed money, and, as bad times had reduced the 
value of the whole estate below the borrowed amount, 
they have thus lost the whole. One man declared 
he had lost £1500, and in this unsatisfactory way as 
I supposed, although the subject was rather a delicate 
one to probe him upon, and he added that New 
Zealand would not see his face again in a hurry. 

My fellow-voyagers assured me that as many as 
1300 a month, chiefly working men, have of late 
been leaving New Zealand. This is certainly very 
serious, and the fact appears to militate against my 
idea that the Colony has turned round from the late 
bad times, But, no doubt, a slack interval is inevit- 
able between the wind-up of the old condition and 
the effective start of the new. I endeavoured to 
comfort my informants with what seemed to me 
the prospects of early improvement, which must, I 
thought, bring these deserters back ere long to the 
surpassing climate they were leaving. The quality 
of the climate they freely admitted, but of the other 
benefits they seemed still doubtful. 

Invercargill, however, has behind it towards the 


STEWART’S ISLAND AND FOVEAU STRAIT. 217 


north an extent and quality of fine land which 
insure it a great future after the speculative ups and 
downs of the first start have been adjusted. The 
Dunedin merchants already apprehend a rival race 
here as well as at Christchurch. The climate and 
products of Dunedin and Invercargill are much the 
same, and the latter has also facilities of shipment by 
means, for the present, of the Bluff Harbour, twenty 
miles south by rail, with, however, the prospect of 
more direct sea access some day by Invercargill’s 
own special inlet running alongside of the Bluff. 
This inlet requires considerable deepening, and it 
has also the additional drawback of a sand-banked 
entrance, so that the superseding of the Bluff, like 
another Port Chalmers, may still be far distant. 

Here we had to lament, not for the first time, the 
want of leisure to see the marvels of the country’s 
scenery, particularly the great lakes away amongst 
the lofty ranges, north of Invercargill, and north- 
west of Dunedin. These lakes receive such vast 
water supplies from the snow-clad ranges and the 
rainy regions of the west coast, that they send forth 
rivers of continental magnitude. The Clutha is the 
principal of these rivers, and I am informed, although 
to me incredible, that its water discharge is as much 
as that of the Nile. 


Stewart's Island and Foveau Strait, and their Oysters. 


Stewart's Island, and Foveau Strait which divides 
it from southern New Zealand, were another surprise 
tome. I had preconceived the former, from its far 


218 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


south latitude, to be some inhospitable shore, mainly 
occupied by seabirds. On the contrary, it is a 
beautiful land, full of picturesque inlets and natural | 
harbours, and with a surrounding of islands of rival 
beauty like a queen planet amidst her moons. Pat- 
terson Inlet, on the east side, is the chief resort of 
northern visitors. Near it to the north is Half Moon 
Bay, where the village capital is situated, and where 
the Bluff Harbour Board dispatch weekly throughout 
the year a small mail steamer, subsidised by the 
Colonial Government. There is an increasing number 
of visitors during summer months, when the com- 
parative coolness of the climate is most attractive. 
Visitors begin to arrive from afar. For instance, 
Sir William Stawell, from as far off as Melbourne, I 
heard, had paid lately a pleasant and healthful visit 
there. The winter, relatively speaking, is hardly 
less enjoyable than the summer, for, with the sea sur- 
rounding, the climate then is even milder than that 
of Southland or Otago, opposite to Stewart. One 
colonist, who has long resided upon a pretty island 
of Patterson Inlet, prides himself in having a 
garden, where trees, shrubs, and flowers, including 
even some of the Norfolk Island pine kind, which 
would die in the winter of those other districts, can 
live and flourish. 

But even these other districts, Otago and South- 
land, forming as they do the southern parts of 
New Zealand’s main island, are decidedly milder 
than that senior, Britain, with which they are 
generally compared. For instance, my friend the 
Hon. Mr. Fergus, Minister of Defence, who belongs 


STEWART’S ISLAND. 219 


to the central Otago district, tells me that the grape 
ripens there, and in large quantity. 

The same gentleman mentioned to me what seemed 
to be a curious phase of one part of that great and 
varied district of the Southern Island. Being lately 
on a visit to a little village called Macetown, 
situated in a small glen upon the Arrow River, 
between the Wakipu and Wanaha Lakes, and 
surrounded by mountains so high as to be, more or 
less, under perpetual snow, the place being in fact a 
part of his electoral constituency, the schoolmaster 
ealled his attention to a remarkable circumstance 
amongst the two dozen or so of his pupils. This 
was that every one of them—and all were born in 
the place—had either white or decidedly fair hair, 
while their parents had the black or dark hair usual 
to our people. I replied that I had never heard 
that Switzerland and many other places, which con- 
tained areas full of that sort of cold whitening, had 
produced such remarkable effects. However, as the 
circumstance was noticed by so good an authority 
as the local schoolmaster, I have thought it worth 
recording. 

Stewart's Island used to be called the Southern, 
and the two others the Northern and Middle 
Islands; but latterly the comparatively small size of 
the former has been gradually excluding it from that 
principal position, so that now it is more common to 
speak of the two main islands only, and call them 
the Northern and Southern. Stewart’s, like the 
others, is reputed to be rich in minerals, including 
gold, which seems to be diffused throughout almost 


220 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


the whole of New Zealand, although as yet but 
slightly worked anywhere for want of capital and 
adequate suitable machinery. 

But Stewart has another product hardly less 
acceptable than its precious metals, namely, its 
oysters. Gold, ‘silver, and oysters are the three 
things of the world for which there is a never- 
failing market. The oysters are large and fat to a 
degree that rather turned me from them, as I am 
not a great fancier of the raw commodity ; but they 
set some ladies, who had a weakness in that direction, 
off into ecstasies. These are, to some extent, mud 
oysters, but not entirely, for there is not properly 
any mud about Stewart’s Island, but only some sand 
mixed with a little mud; while the smaller kind 
from Sydney, Auckland, and elsewhere are rock 
oysters, 

It was supposed, until some years ago, that only 
Stewart had these grand oysters, but now they are 
found all along both sides of the Straits. Just at 
present they are frequently gathered from Ruapetu 
Island, one of the possessions left to the few Maories 
of this part, as they are more easily and plentifully 
picked up there. Our steamer had on board, besides 
beef and other products from Dunedin, 320 casks of 
these fine oysters, containing 66 dozen each, fresh 
gathered from the Straits. These shipments were 
made every fortnight, and were disposed of at 
Hobart and Melbourne. 

The natives, who include a proportion of half- 
castes, do a great deal in oyster fishing, and their 
brethren, from as far off as Auckland, come south to 


. 
‘ 
F 


——E————————— tlle eee 


THE MUTTON BIRD. 22% 


share in the trade. They use small ketches, or large 
decked boats, with mast and sails, of which we saw 
half a dozen anchored in the Bluff. The oysters 
have a “close” season, as at Home, which is the four 
months October to January. But it is found 
necessary here also to give at intervals a longer 
rest than this, and accordingly the beds are tabooed 
periodically for one, two, or three years, in order that 
they may the more effectually recruit. 

The natives have a large trade hereabout in 
another very favourite article, the young of the 
mutton bird. This bird might be described as a 
kind of sea duck. It is very plentiful, to those at 
least who have the skill to find and catch it. 
Only the very young bird is eaten, whether from 
the tougher and more fishy-flavoured quality of the 
senior, or from economic considerations about pre- 
serving “the goose for its golden eggs.” The nest 
is a long, rather horizontally directed hole in the 
ground. The natives, by a tap on the ground over 
the nest, can tell if the bird is below, and then, by a 
long insertion of the arm, they bring it forth. It is 
like a little down-covered ball, with a surrounding of 
fat or grease an inch in thickness. The natives are 
excessively fond of this rich morsel, which they 
devour, fat and all, after a halfhour’s cooking ; 
but colonists, on the other hand, cannot face so 
much fat, which they, therefore, reduce by a severe 
frying process, after which ey secure a fairly 
palatable dish. 


i) 
i) 
bo 


AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


An Interesting Story of early Colonial Life. 


Much of this and other information about New ~ 
Zealand was given to me by Mr. Frederick Revans 
Chapman, barrister, or rather, with the amalgamated 
profession in the Colony,  solicitor-barrister, of 
Dunedin, and one of the sons of my old friend Judge 
Chapman, of that city, who, in my time at Melbourne, 
was Attorney-General of Victoria. Amongst other 
things, he gave me so charming a story of his 
father’s early colonial life, almost bringing back into 
existence the old Pilgrim Fathers, that, although it 
refers altogether to another place than Australia, I 
venture to introduce it here, as it would be an 
acceptable addition to any colonial history. His 
father emigrated very early from England, so early 
in fact as 1823, when he settled as a merchant at 
Quebec, remaining there till 1832, when he removed 
to Montreal, where, in conjunction with his partner, 
Mr. Revans, he established the first daily paper. In 
the year 1824, young Chapman, in company with 
some other adventurous youths, procured a small 
steamboat, then a very rare article, and sailed from 
Montreal for an excursion over the lakes, the very 
first trip of the kind made in that way. They 
steamed as far as the head of Lake Michigan, whose 
western shore areas were then an almost empty ter- 
ritory. At this place they met a small United States 
Government surveying party, from whom they learnt 
that it had been resolved to begin a township at the 
Lake’s Head. This purpose, in fact, was publicly 
intimated, and a plan of the proposed town had been 


A TALK WITH WORKING MEN. 223 


drawn up, with the land laid out in lots to be sold at 
a dollar each. There was some joking amongst 
Chapman’s party at this expected sale, and one of 
them got up a mock auction, at which the lots were 
put up at the dollar as a minimum. But for some 
reason or other the real sale did not then come off, 
possibly, as Mr. Chapman suggested, and as was not 
infrequent then, because the probability of the bid- 
ding was not sufficiently encouraging. The sale was 
put off till some years later, and the township thus 
contemptuously treated was no other than the great 
modern Chicago. 


Another Talk with Working Men. 


Ere our voyage from The Bluff to Hobart ended, 
I had the opportunity of a talk with a number of 
working men who were leaving New Zealand for 
want of work, or rather, as they explained, for want 
of reliable regular work, and were bound for Mel- 
bourne. I have already alluded to this subject. 
They were complaining a good deal of the Colony, 
as though “the whole thing” were a sort of 
“take in.” I listened to them with a good deal of 
interest, and endeavoured by cross-questioning to 
make out their exact case. From their replies, 
checked by other information, I made it out to be 
somewhat as follows. There had been plentiful 
work and good wages up to two years ago, when a 
decline began, which got gradually worse, and grew 
into a positive crisis for the last six or seven months, 


224 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


when a sort of stampede of the working class to clear 
off from the Colony commenced, and has gone on 
until now. For example, they said, there are now 
in this boat 200 to 300 working men in flight for 
Melbourne, and these numbers go regularly by each 
weekly steamer to Melbourne, besides those who 
go from Auckland to Sydney. For these seven 
months, they added, some 1300 a month have thus 
emigrated, 

I was quite astonished at this statement, but on 
further inquiry I had reason to think that, although 
quite undesigned, it was a somewhat negligent over- 
estimate. In order to test its correctness to at least 
some partial extent, I went to the captain, with the 
request that he would give me particulars of the 
numbers, sex, and age of the steerage (second class 
they delicately call them) passengers. He brought 
me the following list: men, 104; women, 31; 
children, 41; total, 176. Evidently, therefore, there 
was great exaggeration, besides that, as the captain 
and others stated, some of the men were not work- 
people. A few, for instance, were bound for the 
Melbourne Exhibition, and, although in fair cireum- 
stances, went second to diminish the expenses. One 
of these, with proper politeness, had sent his wife to 
the first cabin, himself taking the second. Further 
explanation came in reference to the Colony’s late 
course in railway-making. Obliged to contract 
greatly this too-extravagant railway expenditure, 
many hands had been discharged, and no doubt most 
of this surplus labour arose from this cause. 


A TALK WITH WORKING MEN. 225 


There was another distinct cause for diminished 
employment, due to the men, by their Union’s 
influence, refusing lower wages in bad times, and 
from their election influence virtually compelling the 
Government to continue the high wages of the past, 
and to pay eight shillings a day when a private 
employer need not have paid more than six shillings. 
This had the effect of making work so costly in the 
Colony during these late depressed times, as greatly 
to arrest improvement outlay, and consequently to 
diminish employment. 

Yet another cause of complaint came out, to which 
indeed I have already alluded, when I described some 
of the working men as having said with a growl that 
they had not only lost their employment and wages, 
but their savings as well. The fact is that the general 
spirit of going ahead, or anticipating the future, and 
jumping over slow time, by borrowing money, had 
invaded the working man as well as the land specu- 
lator. It was more legitimate, no doubt, in the 
former case, but that did not save the usual con- 
sequence. One of the colonial features, and an 
excellent one too, was the numerous working-class 
holdings of a cottage and bit of ground. But the 
temptation to precipitate matters by getting a loan 
upon the half-finished house had been great under 
the prevalent example in the ranks above them. 
Bad times would then overtake them, and a 50 per 
cent. fall—no infrequent case — would, as I said 
before, simply leave them penniless. 

Perhaps one is hardly to be surprised at the con- 
clusion that these working men came to—unani- 

Q 


226 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


mously, as far as I could see—namely, that the Colony 
was already over-peopled with the labouring class ; 
in fact, as it seemed to them, over-peopled altogether. 
They roundly abused the Government and the em- 
ploying classes of New Zealand, who still called 
for more and more immigration, they said sarcastic- 
ally, when we who have been brought out here are 
running away again from “the blessed country” 
as fast as our legs can carry us. To this I remarked 
that the main aim in colonisation was to secure a 
piece of land, and thus people became employers 
of labour rather than employés, but that there had 
been much extravagance and speculation of late, 
which had temporarily disarranged the usual course 
and relations, and that it must be utterly absurd 
to call this vast, productive, and beautiful country, 
with the merest handful of people, over-populated. 
I also touched upon a rather delicate point, by 
adding that they themselves stood in their own way 
for the restoration of normal conditions, by refusing 
to turn their hand to any other work when their own 
particular line was for the time run out, and by their 
insisting upon the rates of wages of good times, 
when the Colony could not for the moment pay such 
wages, and when the other classes had all to cut 
their coat according to their cloth. Many an em- 
ployer, I said, would now be glad to make even half 
the wages they were asking. Some gave a ready 
and cheerful assent to these points, but evidently the 
majority sulked “ distemperedly.” The Government, 
I may add, feels so acutely the difficulty it is often 
placed in by this systematic demand, especially in 


CONTEMPLATED COMMISSION. 227 


_ bad times, for excess wages in the public service, 
that it is seriously contemplated to establish an inde- 
pendent Commission, which may deal with their 


~employés with more of the freedom and fairness 


which would be possible to a private employer. 


228 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


SECTION XXIII. 


RETURN TO HOBART, AND ONCE MORE TO MEL- 
BOURNE. 


ONcE more we were doomed to enter Hobart’s grand 
harbour by night, and by the same unwelcome mode 
we had, twelve hours later, to take our departure for 
Melbourne, so that we did not see the fine entrance 
to the Derwent estuary. The Governor and his 
lady were absent, fishing at New Norfolk, so that we 
missed them also. But we found Mr. Premier Fysh 
and Mr. Bird, his Treasurer, who both did me the 
honour to accept a luncheon at Westella, to which 
we again betook ourselves, and where we re-discussed 
the prospects of Australasian 3 per Cents. Both 
my honourable friends seemed to have made up their 
minds “to go for Threes,” and the next step was to 
induce the other Colonies to go with them. I duly 
made my report, to the effect that both Victoria and 
South Australia, which were likely to require more 
borrowing in about six or seven months, were to 
give the proposition due consideration, and would 
probably, as the time approached, refer the matter to 
the respective Agents-General in London, That, of 
course, was all that could be expected for the present. 

Hobart looked charming as compared with its 
aspect on the previous wintry occasion. Now all 
the tide of beautiful spring life was upon the scene. 
The trees were laden with fruit blossom, the sub- 


MELBOURNE ONCE MORE. 229 


urban gardens were full of flowers, and the green 
grass sprung up over all otherwise unoccupied sur- 
face. But we had unfortunately no time for jaunts, 
however pleasant they might now have been. My 
namesake of Weétella, however, took us a drive 
down the Derwent to Sandy Bay, which must needs 
satisfy us for this time. 

The next morning broke in stillness and sunny 
beauty, to find us just off the north-east bend of Tas- 
mania. The coast stretched westwards towards the 
Tamar entrance, while southwards, in the Tasmanian 
interior, arose upon the horizon the lofty back of 
Ben Lomond, about 5000 feet in height, still covered 
with last winter’s snow. But our interest centred 
chiefly in the long succession of islands that came 
upon our north-westerly course through Bass’s 
Strait. Having entered the minor Banks’ Strait, 
with Clarke’s Island on the north hand and its 170 
settlers, we passed the rest of Furneaux Group, the 
little Pyramid Rock, Curtis Island, and then sighted 
the well-known Rodondo, which was always a land- 
mark of forty years before, in our voyages to and 
from Sydney. Then we made out Wilson’s Pro- 
montory, the southern headland of Australia, which 
there dips into the cool waters of 40° south latitude. 
Night overtook us long ere entering the Port Phillip 
Heads. Next morning we stepped ashore upon Mel- 
bourne Wharf. 

After once more installing ourselves comfortably 
at “Scott’s,’ which, by the way, had been sold 
shortly before for £120,000, and let for five years 
by the buyers to the previous managers—for what 


230 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


rent I did not hear, although the purchase price may 
give some idea as to what things are “ booming” 
to in Melbourne—we set about to complete our Mel- 
bourne engagements, and to take what time remained 
to see a little of the Victorian interior. 


281: ) 


SECTION XXIV. 
MELBOURNE TO LILYDALE AND FERNSHAW. 


WE had postponed our country excursions as much 
into the spring weather as our time of stay would 
permit, and our first trip was to Lilydale and the 
mountainous region of the Upper Yarra beyond. 
We went upon the invitation of Mr. Cowderoy, 
Secretary to the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce, 
and Mr. Reid, President of the Chamber, with Mrs. 
Reid, accompanied us. Our companions, knowing, 
as they did, most of the localities and their people, 
contributed greatly to our enjoyment. Passing the 
protracted continuity of the Melbourne suburbs, with 
almost countless pretty cottages and gardens, we 
entered diversified undulating scenery, mostly of 
verdant and fertile-looking land, but without par- 
ticular feature till we reached Lilydale, about twenty- 
four miles from Melbourne, where we breakfasted, 
for we had started by early morning train. The 
lands we passed through had risen in value very 
considerably during the last few years, with great 
acceleration in the last twelve months, due to the 
reigning “land boom” in Melbourne. Suburban 
Melbourne generally, in this direction, had risen 
during the year quite 100 per cent. Indeed that 
rate of rise, great as it seemed, was held quite in- 
adequate to the ambition of many holders of the 
land. 


232 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. : 


Small Inland Towns: their Similarity. 


We left the railway, and drove on to Healesville, 
a town of the future, but as yet in the far wilderness, 
and were saluted with ever-increasing natural beauty 
as we advanced inland. We passed on the left the 
St. Hubert vineyards, where some of the best wines 
of Australia are now produced by Mr. De Castella. 
This was the old Yereng cattle-station of the Upper 
Yarra, where I visited, forty-five years before, my 
late most hospitable friends Wiliam and Donald 
Ryrie. We went as far altogether as Fernshaw, 
about fifteen miles beyond Lilydale, near which is to 
be a water-reservoir for additional supply to great 
and growing Melbourne. Some few residents, 
including a hotel-keeper, had been bought out by 
the Government, in case their vicinity and their 
doings might in any way taint the future water 
supply. Our friend of the hotel, who turned out to 
be an early acquaintance of mine, was no ways loth 
to quit, remarking that our Mr. Cowderoy, who had 
been the official valuator, had allowed him enough 
to decide him to retire from business for his few 
remaining years. We also encountered here the 
railway surveyors, who were pegging out an exten- 
sion line eastwards towards the upper Goulburne 
River. 

Interior towns, or ‘“ townships,” as they are at 
first called, have here as elsewhere much similarity 
of look. The streets are always rectangular, and 
usually conveniently wide. The first and most 
conspicuous edifice is the hotel or “ public” as it 


FOREST-CLAD MOUNTAINS. 933 


is summarily called, and which is not seldom a solid 
stone or brick edifice. The next is the blacksimith’s 
forge. Then cottages, mostly of wood, straggle 
like pigmies along the edges of the wide grassy 
streets. Then a little church or two, which have, 
at least, a better chance than the cottages of being 
of stone or brick, like the ‘“ public,” although of far 
inferior dimensions. The public school early rears 
its modest head, and one of the pleasant sights to us 
as we passed through both Lilydale and Healesville 
was the squads of boys and girls, with their satchels 

and books, playing on the roadside, or throwing an 
envious glance at us as we cracked the whip over 
our horses and sent them speeding past. Corner 
allotments sell high in these nascent Melbournes ; 
they will bring as much as £500 an acre, and they 
are apt to be held on unused in the hope of higher 
and still higher prices. This is an evil very pro- 
perly checked of late by rating such vacant and 
unused property at its fair value of the day. 


Forest-clad Mountains. 


At our furthest in this Fernshaw direction, the 
entire scene was of hill and dale covered everywhere 
with forest, mostly of the various gum trees, many of 
them of great size and height. The hills themselves 
are of no great height, till you go some distance 
further eastwards, approaching North Gipp’s Land, 
where they rise to from 5000 to 6500 feet, with 
perpetual snow on the highest summits. The beauty 
of this uniformly forest scene is, of course, somewhat 


234 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


monotonous. The trees are larger and less injured 
by bush fires here than in most other parts of my 
tour. Our road continued on to Wood’s Point, 
some sixty miles beyond our furthest, and a place 
famous for gold-digging “rushes” some years ago, 
although less attractive just for the present. 

Where we pulled up to return, in a great valley 
full of tree-ferns as well as great tall gum trees, 
there were two large specimens of the latter, one 
being thirty-six feet, the other about sixty feet, in 
circumference. We examined the smaller one, which 
was on the roadside, but the larger, being in a 
tangle of long grass and bush, all wet with a heavy 
rain at the time, we did not go to. One has usually 
no conception of the actual size of such trees till 
getting close up to them. Fernshaw had already 
some pleasant little gardens, with trees loaded with 
fruit blossoms, all of which had to go, the flora as 
well as the fauna, human and other, before the 
official order to clear out in the indispensable 
interests of undiluted water supply. 


An Aboriginal Native Reserve. 


Our return journey was pleasantly and most 
interestingly varied by a call at the aboriginal 
natives’ reserve, situated between Healesville and 
Lilydale, under the charge of Mr. Shaw. That 
gentleman, who was at first a lay reader in the 
Anglican communion, is now in charge of one of the 
batches of the waning remnants of the aborigines of 
the Colony. They now number, in this place, about 


—— eo 


AN ABORIGINAL NATIVE RESERVE. 235 


ninety in all, consisting of some old men and women 
of pure blood, with a large gathering of young, of 
whom a good many are half-castes. The respective 
families are mostly housed in small quite English- 
looking cottages, partly, if not wholly, built by 
themselves, and nearly all of wood, with, however, 
an occasional brick edifice. We noticed one ab- 
original “ mi-mi,’ made of bark, which probably 
some defiant old native still preferred, or pretended 
he preferred, to the specious superiorities of the white 
fellow. There was a church, a school, a store or 


shop, a flour-milling place, and other signs of 


civilised activity. 

As we drove in, the wet weather had sent nearly 
every one within the houses. But old and young 
soon came trooping out to see us, while many a little 
face pressed its nose against the window-glass in 
staring out from inside. All spoke, more or less, 
fairly good English.- Unfortunately for us, Mr. 
Shaw happened to be away at the time at the 


railway-station, some miles off, to bring back his 
wife, who had been to Melbourne. This was a 


misfortune to us in more than one sense, for, 
when we began to truck and traffic, we had reason 
to suspect that unconscionable prices were put 
upon the wares, under the providential opportunity 
of the master’s absence, The articles of chief 
attraction were large and small baskets, made, with 
wonderful neatness and finish, from the green 
rushes growing plentifully all about. There were 


also boomerengs, clubs, and other aboriginal wea- 
-pons. These articles, particularly the boomereng, 


236 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


are stil] made fairly well, in response to constant 
demand from visitors, but the old expert use of this 
famous throwing instrument, with its remarkable 
retrogressive path, is all but lost to the aboriginal 
of to-day. 

When we indicated our disposition to make pur- 
chases, two old men came out from their respective 
dwellings, and seemed to be the agents or directors 
of the dealing. They were most markedly abori- 
ginal, apparently sixty to sixty-five years of age, 
stout and healthy looking, very black in the face 
and getting very white in the hair. The entire 
party seemed cheerful and contented. They are 
much more so now than they were, or would have 
been, under like circumstances, twenty to forty years 
since. Many instances are given of the tenacity of 
aboriginal nature in those past times. The boys and 
girls show quickness in early schooling, hardly less 
than that of white children; but as boyhood passes 
they fall off in steadiness of application and _ pro- 
gress, with a tendency to return to aboriginal life. 
-One young man, who excited much interest by his 
talents and scholarship, was sent some time ago to 
Cambridge to finish, and did so with honours; but, 
on returning to Victoria, he voluntarily abandoned 
all his educational and social attainments, and 
returned to the parental ways, quitting the 
civilised home, and throwing off its trappings 
apparently without any regret. There is not now, 
however, the same difficulty. The young people go 
fairly through their lessons, and as they get older 
engage in agriculture or gardening, or in basket- 


AN ABORIGINAL NATIVE RESERVE. 237 


making or other work. Their locality here is found 
particularly favourable to hop-growing, and that 
vocation is much taken up by them. There is 
another such native establishment in Gipp’s Land, 
with a rather larger body of natives in charge. 


238 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


SECTION. XXV. 
MELBOURNE TO LANCEFIELD. 


Tus was another trip to the Melbourne vicinities, 
about forty-six miles northwards, to which we were 
invited by certain parties who were interested in 
establishing a large brewery in that locality, and 
who asked me to see the place and the beautiful 
water, an analysis of which showed it to be, for 
brewing purposes, superior to that of either Burton 
or Edinburgh. ‘The chief of the party was Mr. 
Lindsay, an experienced brewer, and he was accom- 
panied by another who was also interested, Mr. 
W. J. Disher, a very old Colonist, and son of an 
old and respected acquaintance of mine, the late 
manager of the Edinburgh and Leith Brewery 
Company of Edinburgh. 


A Remarkable Colonist, the late Mr. W. J. T. Clarke. 


We passed at first through a somewhat tame and 
level country, but everywhere covered with green, 
ereen grass, and most of it apparently of more than 
average fertility. The great bulk of this magnificent 
property, to the extent, I was told, of 26,000 acres 
in one block, is the property, or more properly only 
one of the properties, of Sir William John Clarke, 
Bart., of Melbourne and Sunbury, whose beautiful 


A REMARKABLE COLONIST. 239 


country residence at the latter place we saw and 
admired, as we passed northwards to our destination. 
He has other vast properties between these parts and 
Ballarat, and a mansion, or rather palace, in Hast 
Melbourne, only just completed, and probably the 
grandest of its kind in our southern empire. 

Sir William is the eldest son of a most extra- 
ordinary man, the late Mr. W. J. T. Clarke, of 
Tasmania and Victoria, who left us lessons in the 
art of piling up a vast fortune. I often met him 
in Victoria’s early days. His large and busy head, 
his tall and robust form, his rough but energetic 
and commanding way gave the impression of one 
who, while ostensibly engaged only with his own 
private interests, acted like a pitchfork upon his 
Colony’s progress. He cared nothing for spending 
his money upon himself, for to the last he retained 
the simplicity of his earlier bush or squatting life ; 
and he had, perhaps, as little as most other business 
men, the miser’s mere love of money. But his great 
delight was the employment of making the money, 
together, no doubt, with the pleasing consciousness 
of his art or power, above other men, in doing so. 
He reminded me of a story which I heard long ago 
of one of the elder Rothschilds, who was also one 
of the richest of the family group, and who, on 
being asked what possible need he could have for 
so much money, replied that he needed it all as a 
basis for making more money. Mr. Clarke left 
three sons, each of them enormously endowed in 
lands and other effects, situated in Victoria, Tasmania, 
and New Zealand. 


240 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Brewing, and the Importance of the Water. 


At Lancefield we were close to the rise of the Salt 
Water River, where the “creek,” as it should be 
called, rather than river, with that word’s idea of a 
constant stream, has the common Australian feature 
of a succession of water holes, some of them both 
large and deep. Mr. Lindsay’s brewery here stood 
upon the bank of one of these great holes, of about 
forty feet in depth, and which never dries up, even 
in the severest and most protracted drought. It 
seems at first curious that such deep holes are not 
filled up gradually by the mud and débris of stones 
or trees brought down from above. One is left to 
suppose that the sudden and violent floods of these 
creeks clear out the holes at times, as well as fill 
them up, and are thus in fact as likely even to deepen 
them still further as to silt them up. 

There was a good stream in the little creek at this 
time, with the water slightly muddy, and of a dis- 
tinctly bitter taste, probably from the heavy discharge 
of gum tree leaves that ever pours into such creeks, 
lined as their banks usually are by this commonest 
of Australia’s trees. But some springs close to the 
creek had beautifully clear and fresh-tasted water, 
which, along with a larger additional supply a few 
miles off, was to be the fundamental element of a 
proposed great extension of the brewery. The 
chemical analysis of this water had been given, and 
a couple of large bottles of it were intrusted to my 
care for conveyance to London, to compare with 
Home varieties. 


LANCEFIELD AND SUNBURY. 241 


Lancefield is already a pretty and _ promising 
little town, with the usual wide rectangular streets, 
indicative of the common ambition and the expecta- 
tion of a great future. The place was not without 
its resources and gaieties. Mr. Little, J.P., an old 
colonist, with his wife and two daughters, received 
us hospitably, and gave us tea, still the universal 
bush beverage. They discoursed too of balls and 
dances in the neighbourhood, while, in our pere- 
grination through the streets, we noticed a public 
library. There were probably a hundred houses 
in all as yet, but Australian towns or townships 
are apt to make sudden jumps. The surrounding 
country was extremely rich and fertile. The crop 
most in favour seemed to be peas; but everything 
else appeared to grow profusely. This soil had been 
mostly heavily timbered, but its quality admitted of 
an expense of from £15 to £18 an acre for clearing, 
and the land thus cleared was valued now at £50 
au acre. Let us compare this price with £10 to £40 
an acre, at which much land in populous old 
England is now selling. 

Sunbury is another such small township, with a 
neighbourhood of pleasant and varied scenery. On 
the left hand, going out from Melbourne, we had 
some pretty green hills, the nearest of which, Mount 
Aitken, was the pastoral station of the late Mr. 
John Aitken, one of the earliest pioneers of Vic- 
torian colonisation, and, along with his fine wife, 
now Mrs. Kaye, and young family of the early days, 
recalling some of my most pleasant memories. 

In front of Lancefield are two picturesque hill 

R 


242 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


ranges; on the left that of Mount Macedon, so called 
from a fancy of its explorer, Sir Thomas Mitchell, 
and a most conspicuous object to the North West 
from Melbourne; and on the right hand the Dividing 
Range, whose northern slopes send their consider- 
able contributions to Australia’s chief river, the 
Murray, while the southern slopes, on the contrary, 
send only some comparatively tiny or intermit- 
tent water-courses into Port Phillip, the Yarra 
Yarra (meaning in native tongue the Ever-flowing) 
being the triton amongst the minnows of the small 
family. The cool heights of Mount Macedon, litle 
above an hour’s railway journey from Melbourne, 
are a favourite summer residence, where are to be 
found the Governor of Victoria, and my banking 
friend Sir George Verdon, and others of the richer 
citizens of Melbourne. 


SECTION XXVI. 


MELBOURNE TO GEELONG, QUEENSCLIFF, AND 
BALLARAT. 


Ix order to see these places effectually, we had 
resolved to sacrifice no less than two days to the 
three towns. Geelong was an old and admired 
friend of mine. “Pretty Geelong” still rings in 
my ears from old recollection, and I wanted to see 
how she looked now in her maturer womanhood. 
Then, again, Queenscliff had no existence in my time, 
excepting her two lighthouses, while now, as I heard, 
she was, in the summer season at least, a gay and 
overflowing watering-place. Ballarat too had been 
born under my very eyes, and had not come into 
existence until I had been eleven years in the 
Colony. 

Starting about eleven 4.M., we reached Geelong a 
little before one o’clock—no great speed for forty- 
five miles of distance. We traversed a vast plain, 
which, in my earlier time, was devoted to squatting 
solitudes, but which was now, on‘all sides, alive with 
small towns and hamlets, cottages, and farms, and 
gardens. But there were still the old winding 
creeks, the Koroit, the Little River, the Werribee and 
others, none of them of perennial stream, but rather 
each of them a series of water-holes, marked out by 
the winding lines of self-planted gum trees. 

About forty years ago I made the acquaintance of 

R 2 


244 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


one of these water-holes in a rather troublesome way. 
Driving with a friend in a dog-eart from Geelong to 
Melbourne, in crossing the Little River, we decided 
to give our nag a drink, after his long journey, at a 
tempting-looking water-hole. It was a small hole, of 
only about thirty feet diameter; but, although of un- 
known depth, there was the appearance of quite firm 
footing right down to the water's edge. We had 
expected that the horse, with the usual instincts, 
would have paused at the edge, and have managed 
to stretch his neck till his lips reached the water. 
But, instead of that, he made just one short step 
over, and down he went like a stone, with the 
vehicle and the two of us almost on his back. We 
ourselves got out safely, and with some trouble we 
at last backed out the dog-cart, but by no effort 
could we in the least extricate the horse, which 
vainly floundered about until quite exhausted. For- 
tunately a dray and bullock team hove in sight some 
hours after, and, by means of a rope which we con- 
trived to get under the horse, the team promptly 
hauled him out upon terra firma, but half dead from 
cold and fatigue. Indeed he required a month’s 
recruiting ere we could take him back to Melbourne. 


Geelong. 

Geelong, pretty as she is acknowledged to be, has 
not progressed like the rest of Victoria. At first, 
for more than a dozen years, her fine situation, as 
the outlet for a great wool production, sent her 
rapidly ahead, and she threatened Melbourne with a 


<x —_—=.-~ ae 


—~ 


GEELONG. 245 


formidable rivalry in wool and other shipments direct 
to Europe. At the critical turning point of the gold 
discovery in 1851, if she could have at once made a 
railway direct to Ballarat, there is no saying what 
might not have been Geelong’s fortunes. She is 
much nearer to that rich field than Melbourne, and 
with an easier construction of railway line ; in fact, 
the direct line from Melbourne to Ballarat is not 
even yet finished. But Dr. Thomson and the other 
Geelong magnates turned their rail efforts, not to 
Ballarat, but to Melbourne, thus playing, in all inno- 
cence of course, into the hands of the enemy, who 
quite complacently allowed them the rope to hang 


- themselves. 


But nothing can deprive Geelong of her fine site, 
and her “quiet as a mill-pond” harbour, She had 
made such improvements also, since my time, as to be 
now all but unrecognisable. I made out my late friend 
Mr. J. F. Strachan’s house, on the bay shore, a little 
north of the town; but old Mack’s Hotel had an 
obseuring dress—doubtless, however, a more orna- 
mental one, in the character of a neatly got-up 
temperance coffee palace. Unawed and unrepelled 
by this novel style, we took up our quarters there 
for our one night’s visit. There was a large wool 
warehouse of C. J. Dennys & Co.—an old local 
name—near us, and there was a botanic garden 
within the town limits, together with many wide 
and variegated streets, full of good houses and 
pretty cottages with gardens. But Geelong, with 
about 20,000 people, has been standing still, while 
sister towns or cities, notably Ballarat and Sandhurst, 


246 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


have been dashing ahead, the former being already 
far in advance of Geelong even in_ population, 
while the latter is close upon her heels. 


Queenscliff. 


Early in the afternoon of our arrival, we went on 
by train to Queenscliff, on the western headland of 
Port Phillip entrance, twenty-two miles distant. 
There novelty in every form awaited us; long and 
wide streets, good hotels and churches, and the new 
feature to me, par excellence, of a military defence 
system, brought up, as I understood, to the very hour 
in all modern effectiveness. Withal, however, the - 
place was at present in the extreme of quiet, not only 
because there was no enemy to try, in the literal 
sense, its metal upon, but because the season had not 
yet, by almost two months to come, set in, when 
hotels, shops, streets, and so on, would give a very 
different account of themselves. We duly met there, 
as expected, Major Daniell, the commandant, son of 
my London friend and South Kensington neighbour, 
Colonel Daniell ; and with the Major, one of his lieu- 
tenants, Mr. Wm. R. Christie, son of another of my 
old friends at Home, and already, under his soldierly 
chief, also a very soldierly-looking young fellow. 


Military Defences. 


As there was so little else to be seen at present 
than the military department, we entirely resigned 
ourselves, and our whole two hours of time, to Major 


MILITARY DEFENCES. 247 


Daniell, and had good reason to think, when that 
time was up, that we could not have spent it better. 
The arts of defence—in the interests of a peace- 
loving empire, I prefer that word “defence” to its 
antithesis, “ offence’’-—make such rapid change and 
progress, that, if one is not often in contact with it, 
there is only one succession of surprises. And so we 
found it here. For instance, the old system of point- 
ing guns by hand and eye, and letting fly at the enemy 
with trust in Providence for a hit, and with many a 
miss none the less, is entirely done with, and in its 
place has come mathematical certainty. Two small 
reflectors are placed in line on the gun’s side, one to 
take up the enemy’s ship, the other to pass the 
reflection on the waiting gunner’s eye. The instant 
the ship comes into this lme—there having been of 
course preliminary preparation to that effect-—the 
electric is discharged, and the shot goes straight to 
its object. Nor is it necessary in firing, even to 
stand beside or near the gun. Major Daniell took 
us upstairs, where, upon a small innocent-looking 
table or desk, was a map or view of the Harbour 
opening, with some slight “finding” apparatus, 
through which a subjacent gun could be put in 
accurate line with an enemy, and be fired at will by 
himself. And, again, the “energy” developed by 
the rebound of the gun was utilised towards moving 
or removing it after firing. 

Passing next the hill brow, overlooking the 
Harbour opening, we noticed an elegant article, and 
so slim of structure, that we might almost have taken 
it for a walking-stick—the harmless cane, let us 


248 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


suppose, for some gigantic Sir Lucius O’Trigger. 
This was a powerful small-bore gun-rifle, if I might 
so call it, for the purpose of picking off and frustrat- 
ing any kind of vessel that might be sent, in self- 
sacrifice, to break the submarine line of torpedoes, 
which, over and above the other defences, guards 
the passage leading through these Heads to wealthy 
Melbourne and its surroundings. When I asked next 
if the night might not be taken advantage of by 
an enemy who was well piloted, I was shown an 
electric light apparatus, which lighted the passage 
as sufficiently for all practical purposes as the sun 
itself. 

Still, I had the weakness to think that half a dozen 
Russian men-of-war, at the sacrifice, of course, of half 
their number, might effect an entrance in spite of an 
opposing militaro-naval Nelson or his ambitious and 
eager pupil before me, and that a Skobeleff would 
accept the odds without a moment’s hesitation. But, 
when I learnt that on the opposite head there existed 
an even stronger defence, besides further death-spout- 
ing apparatus on the Mud Islands and at Williams- 
town, I felt my courage approaching to what was but 
too evidently in Major Daniell’s mind, namely, the 
wish that the said Russians would but give him his 
chance of a deal with them. “ Is it not a pity,” he 
said, with a sigh, “that such preparation should all 
go for nothing?” I did not answer, partly under 
non-professional excuse, and partly because by this 
time we had entered his pretty cottage residence, and 
I was already busy over some fine Indian tea, which 
his elegant young wife had got ready for us. There 


~ 


MORE OF THE DEFENSIVE. 249 


was, besides, a restlessly active little boy of his, who 
made such an incessant din, that, if I had framed any 
well-balanced reply, its hesitating tones might hardly 
have been heard. 


More of the Defensive. 


I reopened with Major Daniell the subject I had 
discussed with the Hon. Mr. Fergus, and, to my 
great satisfaction, with still more complete success. 
The Major particularly commented on the advance 
in morale, along the entire line of society, by this 


military drill, which morale was indeed quite another 


question, and one superadded for good to that of 
military defence. If we at home, for instance, could 
turn out a couple of millions of youths, fairly drilled 
to the rifle, and with such rifles as are produced 
nowadays, what country would dream of invading 
us? That, as it seems to me, is how war is to be 
ended in this civilised and multiplying, but still 
contentious and fighting, world of ours. Our two 
millions or more would not all be exactly the full 
soldier, but so far on towards it, that the rest would 
quickly follow when needed. Gambetta might have 
saved France in 1870-1, if he could have fallen back 
upon such half or three-quarter disciplined French- 
men. But, when the last of the regular army 
surrendered at Metz, the fighting materials that 
remained for Gambetta and Bourbaki were, for the 
sudden needs of the moment, hardly better than 
school-girls. We would not need in such case to 
continue the humiliation of arresting, by our fears, 
well enough grounded, perhaps, as we now stand, the 


250 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


grand want of modern travel progress, the Channel 
Tunnel, 

When I proposed a few years ago to bring this 
question before the Liberal and Radical Association 
of my electorate of South Kensington, my friend the 
Secretary hinted that it was regarded unfavourably 
by the mass of the electors. This seems to me 
incredible. If it were a case of a Russian autocracy, 
using men like machinery without reference to their 
consent, or of a Napoleon the First, who would have 
drained his last man for his own grand schemes, one 
could have understood such feeling. | 

But, again, this public service—for, although, in 
one view, only youthful recreation, it is real national 
service, and may save defensive.expense in other ways 
—ought to command some pay, appreciable without 
being very heavy. Such moderate allowances to 
the youths, if placed to their respective credit in a 
national fund, might be enough afterwards for a 
sickness and old-age allowance to the recipient.* 


* When Canon Blackley, under the auspices of the London 
Chamber of Commerce, held his interesting public meeting 
lately on behalf of some insurance fund for sickness and old 
age, especially amongst the poorer classes, I directed his atten- 
tion to this new and possible resource towards his object. My 
friend, Mr. Henry Robson, of the London Stock Exchange, 
has since supplied me with a striking instance of the successful 
benefits of military drill in the case of “* The Boys’ Brigade,” an 
institution which originated in Glasgow so lately as 1883, and 
which has since spread throughout England and Scotland, 
numbering, as it does now (Sept. 1888), 230 companies, 800 
officers, and 11,000 boys. ‘“ The original Company is now known 
as the ‘First Glasgow Company’ of the Boys’ Brigade, con- 
nected with the Free College Church Sabbath School Society.” 


VICTORIAN AGRICULTURE. 251 


A chief point of interest for the Colonies in this 
question is, as I have already hinted, that if their 
youth were all thus militarily drilled, such an ap- 
proximately defensive condition might be considered, 
so far as the military section of defence was con- 
cerned, as the Colonies share under an Hmpire 
government. | 


Indented Head and Victorian Agriculture. 


As we returned to Geelong, we cast a glance over 
the comparatively flat but rich-looking lands on our 
right that culminate in Indented Head, a locality 
famous, in Port Phillip settlement, as the first land- 
ing-place of Batman, who, in May 1835, opened 
Victoria to colonisation by its grand central door- 
way, after the Henty family had commenced the great 
work the year before at the western extremity. One 
of the stations in this part was called Drysdale, in 
honour of another very early and well-known settler, 
Miss Drysdale, an Edinburgh lady, who, with a 
somewhat masculine mind, had found no difficulty in 
getting through life and business, even in its rather 
rough and miscellaneous quality, in a new settle- 
ment, without the aid and comfort of a husband. 
Some soils and climes hereabout are remarkable 
for special products. I have spoken of peas at 
Lancefield, and hops about Lilydale. Here it was 
onions, of which we heard of prodigious crops. But 
Portarlington and Indented Head, generally, are one 
entire nest of successful agriculture. Walking down 
to Melbourne Wharf the morning after my arrival, 


252 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


I noticed countless great bags and casks of vegetables 
— potatoes, carrots, parsnips, onions, leeks, cauli- 
flowers, all of the most portentous size and quality, 
which on inquiry I found had just been landed by 
a vessel from Portarlington. For potatoes, the prize 
place, as I was told when there, was Nelson in New 
Zealand, where, incredible as it may seem, crops 
have been got of 18 to 22 tons per acre, or more 
than double of what would be called a good crop 
anywhere else. Returning to tke Portarlington 
case, the wonder is increased by the fact of the still 
early season, for the time I speak of was the first 
day of August, or only the very dawn of the 
Australian spring. 

We had some friends at Geelong, Mrs. Scott, her 
husband, and their large family, she herself being a 
daughter of my old friend and early fellow colonist, 
Mr. George Sinclair Brodie. She was one of my 
favourites in her very juvenile years, somewhat 
over a quarter of a century ago, and was then 
certainly very charming. The question now was 
whether this charm had been maintained, possibly 
even increased since. ‘This question was all the 
more delicate, as more than one of her daughters 
already threatened their mother, however uncon- 
sciously, with a disloyal rivalry. I fell back upon 
Byron, who, as we all know, pronounced school-girl 
juvenility to be mere “ bread and butter” in love's 
food, and sent his hero in preference to the matured 
siren. My matronly friend had now nine children, 
no less, including five fair daughters. As I had 
myself, on the contrary, only a small family to boast 


GEELONG TO BALLARAT. 253 


of, I could assure her that these pleasant and lively 
surroundings were more precious than land or gold, 
or even the fullest assurance of her own still sur- 
viving superiorities. - 


Geelong to Ballarat. 


Passing out of Geelong, we went on, for half of the 
way to Ballarat, over a flat, monotonous country, the 
only redeeming feature of which was its pastoral 
greenness. Victoria had this season sufficient rains 
to cover all the country with verdure, while all the 
neighbouring Colonies had been subject more or less 
to drought. After this, however, the country 
improved as we went on, with hill and dale, and 
pretty vistas of grass-carpeted open forest. At Lal 
Lal station and hotel, however, we could get no view 
of the beautiful falls, fairly full of water as they were 
at that time, and in whose vicinity my old friend, 
the late Mr. Peter Inglis, had his sheep-run from 
very early times. Mount Buninyong rose finely on 
our left, and soon after we entered Ballarat East, 
passing on, however, to the more considerable Ballarat 
West, only a mile further. 


Ballarat. 


This is the second city of its Colony. It is, we 
suppose, a city by right, as at Home, of its Anglican 
bishop. Any way as to that, it is quite a magnifi-- 
cent place, with wide and handsome streets, already 
tree-planted, and even in double rows in not a 
few cases. Sturt Street, the principal, is hardly 


254 AUSTRALASIAN~. PROGRESS. 


second in effect, as a whole at least, to any street 
in Australasia, with imposing structures of banks, 
insurance, and other institutions, and its grand 
breadth as well as length. The botanical gardens 
are worth looking at. <A pretty lake, with fine 
houses, gardens, and public plantations around it, 
was in my time a solitary shallow swamp, overgrown 
with weeds and rushes, although otherwise a pretty 
enough object to diversify the almost empty country 
of that early day. 

I recalled a visit I paid to the site and scene of 
Ballarat exactly thirty-seven years before, when on 
the 3rd of October, 1851, just twelve days after the 
discovery of gold there, I arrived on horseback, as 
there was no other mode of conveyance in those days. 
I witnessed then a marvellous and noisy spectacle, 
people of all classes having arrived, many of them 
with black coats, spectacles and eye-glasses, as 
though just from counting-houses or law offices, 
Thousands were already there, and so much gold 
was being got, under my own eyes, chiefly from an 
upper drift-bed called the blue clay, that I estimated 
the quantity at £10,000 per day. This estimate was 
long deemed incredible at Melbourne, for its addi- 
tion would at once quadruple the Colony’s whole 
export amount of a million sterling for the preceding 
year, But Victorians, hardly yet realising their 
great position, had soon to strain much higher than 
even that, when, in the following year (1852), there 
was an estimated gold production of no less than 
fifteen millions. 

We had but seven hours to devote to great golden 


ae 


A BALLARAT GOLD MINE. 255 


Ballarat, so we hired a cab and went at once to 
work, after depositing some effects at Craig’s Hotel, 
and strengthening ourselves with a good luncheon. 
Our friends, the Rev. Mr. Cairns, Presbyterian 
clergyman, and Mr. Wm. G. McCrae, whom I had 
known from almost infancy, accompanied us, and 
the former brought in addition one of his elders, Mr. 
Murray, President of the local Old Colonists’ As- 
sociation, to our help. Another old friend, Mr. 
Wanliss, whose acquaintance dates from the Ballarat 
riot and the consequent Gold Commission of 1854-5, 
was unfortunately absent in Queensland, but we saw 


Mrs. Wanliss and family at their pleasant residence 


a little outside of the city. 

Mr. Murray took us chiefly in hand. We had 
first a drive round “the Lake,” which I remembered, 
as already said, as a shallow swamp, half filled with 
reeds and weeds, and with such crowds of leeches 
that, when I waded into it with my bare feet on the 
occasion of my long back previous visit, I had to 
make a precipitate retreat to the land. But now the 
reeds or rushes have been mostly cleared, the bounds 
extended, and the water deepened, so that during the 
season there are several passenger steamers and 
frequent regatta races. The public gardens had 
some fine Italian statuary, presented by a wealthy 
and generous citizen. 


A Ballarat Gold Mine. 


But we must needs see also some of the great gold 
mining, and Mr. Murray selected, among the many 
mines, one in particular with which he had, in a 


256 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


business way, something to do. It was within the 
city bounds, was in fact, so to say, one of the members 
or occupants of one of the streets, and it was not at all 
singular in that respect, as the peculiar sort of wooden 
chimney-looking superstructure here and there else- 
where indicated. The depth was 1500 feet, and 
our daughter, who has no want of curiosity and the 
requisite courage in such adventure, expressed the 
wish to make the descent. And, if she went, I must, 
of course, go with her. Approaching the edge, and 
looking down the misty darkness of the shaft, a hot 
steam came up almost with a rush against our faces. 
Even this did not divert our purpose, as, where others 
lived daily for hours together, we could easily, as we 
inferred, manage for minutes. But when we heard 
of the wet and dirt, and that a digger’s enveloping 
would be indispensable, we “caved in” upon the 
matter, and remained where we were. Forthwith a 
couple of men, who had been waiting our decision, 
and were to have accompanied us, making the 
maximum party of a rather closely packed four, 
entered the box and began a quick descent. When 
we returned three minutes after, they were still 
twirling down, and with a seeming rapidity which 
made me wonder that they had not yet got to the 
bottom. But we were told that this requires as much 
as three and a half minutes; so, altogether, I was not 
sorry to have given the go-by to this auriferous 
Tartarus. 

We next followed the process of the “ wash dirt,” 
as it came up from this vast depth. I understood it 
was the quartz reef; but there was little appearance 


MAYOR AND TOWN HALL. 257 


of the sort of thing our fancy paints to be bright and 
cleanly quartz. It was a mixture of stones and mud, 
which, after draining a little, was tumbled into a 
great hopper, whence it reached countless little 
stampers, which with terrific noise reduced it all to 
dust, so as to enable the quicksilver to make, by its 
superior attraction, an amalgam of the gold. The 
proportion of gold at this mine was about one ounce 
to the ton of material, a proportion which “ paid” 
very well. There are some other mines in Victoria 
considerably deeper than this one, but we understood 
that it was the deepest in Ballarat. The deepest of all 
as yet in the Colony was at Sandhurst—between 2200 
and 2300 feet. I compared this very advanced gold- 
digging process with that at the time of my first 
visit to this place in 1851, when digging was hardly 
a fortnight old, when the blue clay, some ten to 
twenty feet below the surface, was only just tapped, 
and had not even been bottomed, and when dig- 
gings were simply great open holes in the clay. 
And yet withal more gold per man was got then than 
now. 


Mayor and Town Hall. 


We concluded our day by a call upon His Wor- 
ship the Mayor, whose very creditable palace, or 
Town Hall, made no small appearance in the main 
street. But, as this would be past business hours, his 
friend Mr. Murray “telephoned” his Worship to 
remain at his post for his distinguished company. 
And thus we found him. Mr. Macdonald, the 
Mayor, was Scotch; so were Mr. Murray, Mr. 

. 


958 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


McCrae, and ourselves, while Mr. Cairns was 
Scotch-Irish. We naturally, therefore, descanted 
complacently on the supremacy of the Scotch 
element in these Colonies, and were easily assured 
that it greatly contributed to their prosperity. 
The Mayor and I having got into an absorbing 
discussion about early Ballarat, Mr. Murray, who 
was a bit of a wag, remarked, in a rather loud 
under-tone, that it was regrettable that the 
company were teetotal, as otherwise, no doubt, His 
Worship’s hospitalities would have been more ap- 
parent. His Worship penitentially jumped to his 
feet, and within the next half minute the table was 
spread with a dozen varieties of “refreshment,” 
home and imported. We selected by preference 
some fairly good Victorian wine, and drank pros- 
perity to our host and his great Ballarat. 


SECTION XXVII. 


A VISIT TO MR. ELLERY AND THE MELBOURNE 
OBSERVATORY. 


I HAD never happened to see the heavens through 
any unusually great telescope, and this was one of 
the pleasures I promised myself in revisiting Mel- 
bourne. Accordingly I kept a look-out for Mr. 
Ellery. Having a lingering idea that his place 
might still be the old Flag Staff Hill, which had the 
only “Observatory” of its kind in my day, that 
namely where arriving and departing shipping were 
observed, I started, a morning or two after my 
arrival, on my usual preprandial walk, about eight 
o'clock A.M., in order, amongst other things, to show 
him what activity still remained to the old sons of 
the effete mother at the other end of the earth. But 
I found that there had been long ago a removal of 
observation to the Government grounds on the other 
side of the Yarra, near the Governor’s residence, so 
I had to wait for another leisure interval. 

Mr. Ellery is an unpretending-looking man, rather 
less than average height, and very frank and ap- 
proachable, which is assuring when you encounter a 
leading astronomer. But, although by profession he 
lives in the region of the gods, he has all the 
curiosity or other desire which these upper classes of 
the ancient classic times had to look in at the haunts 
of ordinary mankind, for I first met him at one of 

s 2 


260 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


the Government balls, where he appeared in earthly 
uniform, as if he fully belonged to ourselves. He 
readily promised to transport me beyond the clouds 
and to display the wonders of ‘the spheres” on any 
evening I might fix. I was for long after unable to 
break off from a constant succession of earthly ties, 
but at last, resolute by despair, I fixed the night 
before my final leave, and made all else “go to the 
wall” for that occasion. Our party, starting after 
dark, in a cab, had some difficulty in finding, first 
the authorised entrance from the main or St. Kilda 
Road, and next the observatory offices, situated in 
the large open surrounding, Our cabby knew only 
about the earth, nor very accurately about that, in 
this section of it leading to the heavens. At length, 
however, we found Mr. Ellery and his assistant, and 
we were soon devoutly gazing upon the great 
telescope. 

There were two great instruments, and the one 
before us was the lesser. The other, which was 
needed chiefly for very faint remote objects, was 
then under repair, its great reflectors requiring a 
very long burnishing. So we could not see that one. 
But the other was also a grand instrument. Along- 
side of it was a comparatively small telescope, as a 
ready pointer or finder, like a pilot fish to a shark. 
This one, however, was only by comparison small, for 
the moon, to wiich we first turned, was large and 
beautifully dstinct through it. But, turning now 
to the same object through the larger glass, we 
saw an immonse area, with some of the lunar craters 
along the edye of the light very distinct, the moon 


THE MELBOURNE OBSERVATORY. 261 


being about one-third full. In the very centre view 
was Plato, one of the largest and most perfect, with 
its central sun-lighted summit, and the dark crater 
surrounding. The sun glinted also upon some lofty 
peaks outside along the light line. 

We would have liked much to have seen Mars, 
with the wonders taking place of late there. But he 
was now so far from his nearest, that it was of no 
use wasting time over him. Jupiter also was badly 
placed, being then too low upon the horizon, and for 
some other reasons we could not see Saturn. But 
we found some amends by a sight of our nearest 
star-neighbour, a Centauri, a star having a com- 
panion, but at relatively so small a distance that 
only a very powerful glass can show the separation. 
The “ pilot” could not do this, but the greater glass 
did it most distinctly. 

Now I felt I was on the track to get astronomic 
information in a much simpler and directer way 
than by searching through all the pages and mathe- 
matics of Proctor for just the points one was at the 
moment interested in. There was an incessant and 
to the eye most painful quivering in the above 
double star’s aspect, which seemed hopeless for any 
purposes of accuracy. But for this we should no 
doubt have seen quite distinctly two brilliant small 
suns, one of them, however, very much brighter than 
the other. And yet there was no visible disc in 
either case, such as the planets show, as no telescope 
hitherto has been of power sufficient to show this in 
even our nearest star neighbours. This quivering, 
explained Mr. Ellery, is one of the limiting causes 


262 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


of our vision, fer we magnify the air’s vibrations 
with the magnified object. This vibration, he 
went on to say, greatly disappeared as the observer 
ascended high into the air, as at the United States 
Observatory, 4000 feet high in the Rocky Moun- 
tains; and still more, as Piazzi Smyth showed, from 
the top of Teneriffe. If we could place ourselves 
entirely outside our quivering atmosphere, our tele- 
scopic limit would be greatly extended.- We must, 
therefore, contrive to be able to climb to, and 
live and work in, the Himalaya summits, where we 
shall be in a comparatively tremorless thinness of 
medium, and be possibly kept alive by compressed air 
within an air-tight surrounding. 

I freely exercised my right to ask questions. 
What was to prevent an indefinite magnifying of 
photographs of the moon, of Mars, &c.? But there is 
the concurrently magnified surface, like the mag- 
nified air tremors, and so we are stopped as much as 
if we tried to sketch a picture upon a surface of sea 
or river boulders. The surface then is all that is 
wanted. Well, suppose we threw an instantaneous 
photo upon the crown of a soap bubble, and as 
instantaneously brought it under one of Sam Weller’s 
“double million magnifying gas microscopes of 
hextra power,” we might see, actually at work, some 
of those mysterious people of Mars, whom Proctor 
and others conjecture to be digging fifteen-mile-wide 
canals, and who of late, with marvellous rapidity, 
but for purposes we can in no way imagine, have cut 
some such breadth of passages through the snow cap 
of one of their poles. Possibly, by a slight alteration 


THE MELBOURNE OBSERVATORY. 263 


of composition, we may induce the soap bubble to 
live for a minute instead of a second, so as to show 
things more leisurely, Proctor seemed to think that 
men in Mars might be tall and powerful in some 
proportion to the reduced gravity, so that these large 
works might only be proportionate. Possibly these 
Marsians, in sheer wantonness of strength, seek 
something adequate to do. 

[asked Mr. Ellery if he did not think Venus to 
be more like our Earth under all circumstances than 
Mars, the only difficulty being that we could not 
see her surface for her clouds. But he seemed 
decidedly of opinion that Venus, owing to her 
greater proximity to the sun, had not yet cooled 
down to a solidity of surface sufficient for life, or at 
least human life. That suggests curious reflection 
as to Mars, for, by his much earlier cooling, he may 
have been in human occupation for countless years 
before our earth. But at our present pace of. 
scientific progress, now that we have at last got 
into the Baconian-Newtonian method of advance, a 
mere thousand years, if not, indeed, very much less 
time, may see us sending, perhaps, electric or light- 
borne messages to the planets. What, then, has 
Mars been about all this time? But who knows 
whether, after all, he may not have been, for the last 
million or so of years, sending us messages which 
have merely passed, all undetected, into our meteor- 
ology, to the wonder of our advanced brother planet 
at our slumbering barbarism? Or, again, may the 
case be that Mars, with his largely absorbed seas 
and thin vanishing air, is already approaching the 


264 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


condition of our lifeless moon, and has ceased to 
possess human beings at least, whatever else of life 
may still linger there ? 

Mr. Ellery next showed us an object which, under 
even powerful telescopes, seemed only a faint and 
rather mazy star, but which was now distinctly seen 
to be a mass of countless stars. Then we looked at 
a faint nebula, and one or two other objects. After 
which came a discussion on the spiders of the three- 
ply thread, alluded to by Mr. Froude as so much 
more suitable than the more usual seven-ply thread. 
These three-ply spiders, after having been brought, 
years ago, purposely to the place, have bred so 
vigorously, as to be already a nuisance. We had, 
however, a good proof of the important bearing of all 
this fine-thread business. Looking through the 
smaller glass, I noticed that the aperture was 
rectangularly crossed by lines of the thickness of 
erocer’s ordinary twine. Inquiring of Mr. Ellery 
what this meant, he said that it was the three-ply 
spider’s thread, used to divide accurately the area. 
The unravelling of three-ply was, of course, less 
difficult than that of the seven-ply. What was 
only twine thickness in the smaller telescope must 
approach that of a ship’s cable in the larger. 


SECTION XXVIII. 


A MUCH-NEEDED REFORM, 


An independent reference for valuations of Colonial 
interests brought upon the London market. 


My last day in Melbourne was taken up by several 
duties of more or less importance, but none of them 
so important as that which, in its novelty, for want 
- of better, I have described as heads this Section. 
By appointment I met four of Melbourne’s chief 
men in her mercantile, political, and social world. 
I had previously interested these gentlemen in the 
large question I have above foreshadowed. It had 
come repeatedly before me in my Australasian tour, 
just then terminating. They, too, had concurrently 
expressed their interest in the subject, and at last 
their willingness to second my endeavours to provide 
some remedy for what had been, until then, a very 
great evil and hindrance throughout Australasia. 

In short, it had long been practically impossible 
to place even the soundest interests upon the London 
market, owing to the systematic fraud in valuations 
—for it can have no other name—with which, in 
the absence of any known possible check, the capi- 
talist and investor had been dealt with in that 
market. I give in the Appendix* two illustrative 
cases which, although only samples of many and 


* See p. 413. 


266 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


perhaps by no means the worst, happened to come- 
in my own way: the one showing the unscrupulous 
license taken in the matter of valuation; the other 
the hardly less unscrupulous commissions or pro- 
motion charges made against those who, in the 
colonies, try to raise funds in London upon their 
local interests. 

The direction which struck me as best towards a 
remedy was the establishment in London of some 

~great Trust, of conspicuous strength and responsi- 
bility, which, besides the usual agency, loaning 
and other business of an ordinary trust, would act 
as a perfectly independent reference as to valuations 
of interests sent for negotiation to the London 
market. The valuation should be supplied to those 
acting for the Home investor. The Trust must not 
come in contact, at least as dependent agent or 
employé, with any of these Colonial interests. The 
Trust’s Colonial Branches must gather as it best can, 
but always with perfect independence, its local in- 
formation on values. It will receive its fee or com- 
mission for its services, no small one in many or 
most cases, solely from those who have been pro- 
tected and benefited. 

The business that almost at once opened out in 
this direction appeared to me all but incalculable. 
Lands, mines, trades, in countless array, seem all 
awaiting a development which depends mainly on 
London capital, as the comparatively small fund of 
the Colonies seems always otherwise engaged. 

Then the Trust had best be of conspicuously large 
foundation—be in fact the king company of its kind. 


a“ 


A MUCH-NEEDED REFORM. 267 


There is no want of room for such a Trust. At 
every step through these Colonies I was successively 
reminded of the want of ready means. Over-rail- 
way construction and expenditure, for the time, in 
New Zealand, did not in the least help, for instance, 
the mining development, but rather impoverished its 
interests all round, by drawing away people and 
money to other and premature interests. Nor did 
an enormously rich mine, like Mount Morgan, in 
Queensland, for example, give immediate help, as 
those lucky speculators who were ever clearing out 
and taking their gains with them, would, in most 


eases, withdraw much more of the Colony’s life- 


blood than the mine had as yet given it. The Trust 
may not have much to do in advancing on such 
mines, but the mining towns’ lands, and the lands of 
the Colony generally, advanced in value by mineral 
development, present a safe, wide, and ever-extending 
field. 

There is another point, second only to the first in 
mining importance. The uncertainty of mining 
results is of course proverbial. But if there were 
some system of assorting these individual uncer- 
tainties, so as to give the advantage of an average 
over some considerable number, everyone can see 
what greater certainty of result might at once be 
attained. 

This step would be advantageous and desirable 
also on other and quite different grounds, sufh- 
cient already as these just stated may be regarded. 
The London market begins to be overwhelmed 
with an almost countless crowd of small indivi- 


268 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


dual mining concerns, so small as to render hope- 
less a Stock Exchange quotation, so small also 
as to have hardly negotiable quality; and thus, for 
both reasons, always avoided by the facilitating 
jobber or dealer of the market, who, if he effects a 
purchase, or chances a sale, in such slow directions, 
can never tell when he may clear his operation. 
This proposed averaging into substantial totals 
would not only make a steady dividend, and probably 
also a large one, all but certain, but the stocks would 
also be quoted, and be as readily negotiable as any 
others. 

With the urgency alike of necessity and advan- 
tage, a modus operandi would doubtless arise in this 
last case. But it is rather a delicate and difficult 
matter if delayed until after concerns, even the 
minutest and least promising, have subsided into the 
definitive forms of officiate and directorate. My late 
most intimate and pleasant friend, Mr. A. L. Elder, 
equally well known and well esteemed, used to 
amuse me, times without number, by the unfailing 
humour of his story of ‘‘the Seats.” But the song 
of “the Seat’ was not at all of the same kind as 
Hood’s sad, sad “Song of the Shirt.” Still, it had 
its own useful moral as well. 

A certain nameless concern had, after due trial, 
not by any means done as well as might have been 
wished, and the proposition was to merge it into 
another which had done much better. The terms 
were quite unexceptionally good to the weaker 
vessel, so that the arrangement at first ran merrily. 
Still, something ever blocked the final execution, and 


A MUCH-NEEDED REFORM. 269 


at last a black and white inquiry of the impatient 
shareholders brought out the block of “the seats.” 
The Directors were waiting to know what was to be 
given them for throwing up their seats? When 
my friend first told me of the pending difficulty, I 
suggested, entirely as a specially benevolent amicus 
curie, that as the seats were only yearly, the matter 
could hardly be worth quarrelling about. Oh, 
dear, no!” he responded, “the arts of re-election 
being in view, when my comrades cast their eyes 
upon their seats, the venerable image of Eternity 
rises before them.” The matter was compromised 
somehow; but that never stopped the joke, which 
in fact was far too good to die. So we see that 
amalgamations, to have fair and free chance, must 
be begun prior to “ the seat” stage. 

Thus I had the satisfaction to leave behind me 
at Melbourne a Board contingently complete for the 
new Trust, and consisting rather in quality than 
quantity. I had made just an initiation in the 
same direction in Brisbane, where, however, further 
progress was for the time stopped, from the too 
evident fact that every leading or likely resident 
seemed, one more than another, up to the eyes in 
the mining or other enterprises of the time. In 
Sydney I had not time to open the matter at all, 
leaving that, as well as the rest, under the proposed 
headship of Melbourne. Having sketched out the 
constitution of the Trust, as it would probably be 
brought out in London on my return, I left 
Australia with the understanding that a simple 
telegram, intimating a certain bank credit, would 


Rr 


270 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 7 


Melbourne Board’s duties commenced at once. This 
is our mode nowadays of jumping the distance of _ 
the earth’s diameter, as though but a next doors — 


remove. 


SECTION XXIX. 
MELBOURNE TO ADELAIDE BY RAIL. 


Avr last had the time arrived when we must quit my 
dear old home Melbourne, made still dearer by the 
kind reception we had everywhere met with. We 
had preferently given to Melbourne and Victoria by 
far the longest attentions, seeing that those two 
visits made up an entire month, or not much short 
_of the time we had left for all the rest of Australasia. 
We had to time our departure by the sailing of the 
Steamship “ Orizaba,” in which we had, during our 
previous visit here, secured our Home passage. 
This fine vessel, starting from Sydney, vid Melbourne, 
for Adelaide, was to leave the latter place on the 
15th October, with the expectation of landing us at 
Plymouth about the 22nd November. We wished 
much to see Adelaide, and what more was possible of 
the Colony of South Australia, before leaving the 
pleasant sunny south; and a hospitable invitation 
from Sir Thomas Elder enabled us to do so under the 
most agreeable auspices. So we fixed the 11th of 
October for leaving Melbourne, in order that we 
might have, at any rate, three days to devote to the 
sister capital and its surroundings. 


A Farewell Address. 


There was yet, for me, one most important 
business before we started. I was to have one more 
meeting, just a few hours before departure, with the 


272 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Melbourne Chamber of Commerce, whose members 
proposed to give me a farewell address. A copy of 
the proposed address had been previously sent to me, 
in order that I might be ready with a suitable reply. 
I was glad of the opportunity, as I had not a few 
interesting subjects to speak about after my many 
perambulations. The subject that appeared to me of 
the most pressing and immediate importance was that 
of the Trust which I have just discussed in the pre- 
ceding section, and I had to thank the President, 
and some others of the members, for some good help 
which they had given me towards maturing my 


proposed plan. 
The Start for Adelaide. 


Our train to Adelaide, which was the mail or 
express, left Melbourne at 4 p.m., so that for the 
three hours of daylight we passed over only the 
old ground already described, and entered Ballarat 
once more about 7 P.M., and once more we met there, 
for the few minutes’ stay, some of our friends of 
the preceding visit. 

We regretted that much fine and most interesting 
country must be passed in the night, and this was 
especially regrettable to myself, as I had traversed 
much of it many years before, and would have been 
pleased with the endless succession of surprises at its 
progress since. However, there was no help for it, 
and so we called for our bed accommodations, and 
were soon after in the most comfortable condition 
that I have ever experienced in railway night 
travelling. We had already expected as much as 


sau SIEneneeeeeeneeee eee 


THE MALLEE SCRUB. 273 


this, because we had been told that the Melbourne 
and Adelaide line had reached the head position in 
this respect. 


The Mallee Scrub. 


Next morning by daylight I looked out of my 
window, as Noah might have done from his Ark, 
upon a vast level, horizonless expanse, only that it 
was not of the waters of the Flood, but of the very 
driest of land. In short we were in the vast Mallee 
Scrub, so extensive in North-west Victoria and the 
_ adjacent part of South Australia. We had left the 
Victorian boundary, at Servicetown on the one side, 
and Bordertown on the other, far behind us, and 
were already half-way to the River Murray, and the 
station there, called Murray Bridge, where we were 
promised a 7 oclock breakfast. The Mallee is a 
dwarf species of gum tree, and forms at times, with 
various other bushes or shrubs and flowers, a tangled 
vegetation so thick as not to be easily permeable 
to the traveller. The soil beneath this growth is 
usually little better than pure sand. It has no grass, 
properly speaking, but in its stead some green rush- 
looking tufts, more pleasant to our eyes, I fear, than 
nourishing to any quadrupeds placed before it. The 
scene was not without beauty of its kind, for there 
was a pleasing diversity of bright green bushes, 
and a profusion of variously coloured flowers, most 
of them of the heath character, with their pink or 
white bells. Almost instantly, however, we would 
dash at times into a complete change of soil and 
vegetation. Green grass surrounded us, sheep 


274 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


were feeding in great numbers about, and a small 
squatting homestead completed the new scene. 
But no live humanity were yet about at that 
early hour. Anon, we were in yet another variety 
of country, where the soil was again poorer than 
this last, but yet covered, although only thinly, 
with the pleasant grass, and with the variety, 
pleasant also in no small degree, of an open forest 
of gum and “she-oak” trees. And then once 
more we plunged into the Mallee. 


The River Murray, the Australian Mississippi. 


All this time the country was mostly quite flat ; 
but, as we approached the river Murray, there was 
a general improvement, alike in soil and scenery. 
The bridge hove in sight, and the Mississippi of 
Australia, in a course of grand sweeps and inter- 
mittent expansions of bed, ran before us. The 
bridge sought of course, as at Albury, the narrowest 
and most practicable part, but above us were some of 
the reedy expansions, where cattle revel in the 
spring of the year, greedily devouring the sweet 
young growth, and not seldom fatally gorging them- 
selves with it. Australia’s Mississippi, however, is, 
after all, a comparatively small one, although a 
great triton amongst Australian minnows. It is 
one of the few Australian rivers that have never 
been known to cease running. Indeed, only the 
rivers from the Gipps Land Alps, where the Murray 
rises, have this distinction. Even its long northern 
tributary, the Darling, much longer in its course, 
in fact, than the main stream of the Murray itself, 


FROM MURRAY TO ADELAIDE. 275 


has repeatedly failed of running water in dry 
years. 

The Murray Bridge is a wooden structure, solid 
indeed of its kind, but the Railway Station is 
built of stone, and there are some few other 
stone houses mixed with the commoner wooden 
structures—all forming the commencement of what, 
in ten years’ time, may be a large and busy interior 
emporium. Two young school-girls, with sun-browned 
laughing faces and lint-white locks, paced the station 
platform, amused with the novelty of the arriving 
passengers. I asked them, “ Did they fish sometimes 
in the Murray?” “Yes.” “Catch Murray cod?” 
“Yes.” “Very big at times and more than they 
could lift?” “ Yes.” Indeed, as we were told at 
Albury, they grow to a hundredweight; but, unlike 
our salmon, which js best at its biggest, the cod gets 
coarse at this stage, and is choicest for eating at 
only five to six pounds. 

Onwards from the Murray to Adelaide the country 
was almost throughout one succession of fairly good 
pasturage, with hill and dale in a pleasing variety. 
I was agreeably disappointed, having uo idea that 
there was so much good land about Adelaide. In 
fact, we Melbourne and Victoria people had, in my 
day at least, been in the habit of very much under- 
rating our sister, so that, as I have presently to tell, 
we had to get ourselves very considerably undeceived. 
We passed Nairne, a pretty township founded by 
the Smillie family, who were early settlers from Leith ; 
then Mount Lofty and the Glen Osmond Hills, and 
a few minutes more sent us into Adelaide. 

T ») 


- 


276 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


SECTION XXX. 
ADELAIDE AND SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 


By early forenoon we entered Adelaide. Our friend 
Sir Thomas Elder was at the station to meet us. 
We were glad to see him well again, for we heard 
that he had been seriously ill some months before. 
His life is valuable to the Colony, alike for his pros- 
perous enterprise and the generous help he gives 
its institutions. He arrived in 1854, and has 
built up a great fortune since; but the senior 
and founder of the leading mercantile house 
of the Elders there, my late intimate, and most 
valued friend, Alexander Lang Elder, arrived so 
early as 1838, almost amongst the first. The 
house, still-in the first position, is now Elder, 
Smith, & Company, Limited. Sir Thomas drove 
us at once to Birksgate, his beautiful residence on 
the western slope of the Glen Osmond Hills, four 
miles east of Adelaide, where we revelled in every- 
thing that man can want or desire, along with, at 
this springtime of the year at least, the most para- 
disaic of climates. 

There is only one drawback, but a serious one, to 
such fine places, namely, that you must be propor- 
tionately unwilling to quit them at “the call of 
God” and failing nature. It is then, as it seems to 
me, that the poorer folks of a harder life have in 


oy 


BEAUTIFUL ADELAIDE. 277 


turn their triumph, or, as it were, their counter- 
balancing Nemesis. Solon, or some other of the 
seven wiseacres of old time, has said that the end is 
the thing to judge the happiness by, because, stand- 
ing on the last ledge, all the earthly good before has 
passed away, and is not of the least benefit to us any 
longer. Sir Thomas, however, had one saving 
trouble; he confessed that he did not at all like the 
full South Australian summer. If therefore his call 
come to him at this obnoxious season, he may 
happily pair off with ordinary mortals on a less 


disadvantageous comparison than might have been 


otherwise expected. 


Beautiful Adelaide. 


I had heard of the great beauty as well as the 
considerable extent of the Adelaide of to-day. My 
recollection of it on a previous visit, as far back 
as 1853, was not particularly favourable. But, 
prepared as I was to find now something worth 
seeing, I found that I had formed an idea much 
short of the reality. The streets wide, beautifully 
kept, full of great and handsome buildings, formed 
to me, on the whole, the most tasteful urban 
spectacle I had yet witnessed in Australasia. King 
William Street was superior in this respect to the 
chief streets of Melbourne or Sydney, while the 
cross streets also, as Governor Robinson remarked 
to me, had their beauty scenically enhanced by 


the pretty vista of green hills at their extremity. 


Of course, I do not compare general dimensions 


278 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


of structures, and the scale and visible tide of 
business. Adelaide, although no small place, with 
its 150,000 of population in town and conjoined 
suburbs, is greatly behind Sydney with 350,000, 
and Melbourne with 400,000 people. Adelaide 
has still other beauties; for within the city are 
Government House, with its pretty grounds, 
elegant and well-stocked botanical and zoological 
gardens, and such a highly artistic disposition of 
the originally unpretending little Torrens Creek, 
traversing the city, as to reproduce a Serpentine 
and a Hyde Park, more beautiful, if less extended, 
than their northern prototypes. 

Adelaide’s beauty did not save her, and the Colony 
of which she is the capital, from cruelly bad times of 
late years. First a severe drought befell her, in 
common, no doubt, if that were to her comfort, with 
her sister Colonies; and this was hardly over by a 
couple of years, when she was smitten “ hip and 
thigh” by almost unprecedented depression in the 
value in the London market of her three great 
staples, wool, cereals, and copper. There was conse- 
quently a terrible tumble in all colonial values, with 
the usual losing results to individuals and firms. But 
there is a bottom at last to everything of that kind, 
and Australia in particular has shown herself 
wonderfully elastic to rise again once the bottom has 
been reached. We found Adelaide recovering her 
cheerfulness, under the feeling that her corner had 
been turned. 

The Colony has long taken quite a lead in wine- 
making, until surpassed the last year or two by 


PROGRESS IN ADELAIDE. 279 


Victoria. But the progress is still good, for while 
in 1887 there were 510,000 gallons made, in 1888 
the quantity reached 708,000 gallons. Wheat- 
growing and flour- making have also been con- 
spicuous ; there being now eighty-five flour mills 
of 1951 horse power, and employing 644 hands. 
The customers for this flour, besides the adjacent 
Colonies and the mother country, include Hong 
Kong, China, and other remote markets. 

After calling upon the Governor, Sir William 
Robinson, tall, middle-aged, intelligent, who frankly, 
-and with critical appreciation, discussed the Colony 
with me, I passed to the Premier and Treasurer, Mr. 
Playford, to whom, as to the other Australasian 
Premiers, I had given myself a mission, the chief 
object of which was to endeavour to persuade them 
to leave off giving us 4 per cent. interest for 
their loans, or even 34, and to come down at 
once to 3 per cent. But it is astonishing how 
difficult this is, owing, let us suppose, to habit, 
which is at least a more probable cause than any 
generously loyal desire to give lenders at home more 
interest even than they would be satisfied to take. 
There was also another contingency. Their own 
voters, and the public generally, had a_ strong 
objection to receiving the proceeds of loans sold 
at a discount. This was, in fact, Mr. Playford’s 
chief obstacle and difficulty. He is a man of large 
head and physique, like our friend in common, Sir 
Arthur Blyth, the London Agent-General, who had 
enjoined upon me to see him and discuss with him 
the finance question. Both of these high func- 


280 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


tionaries are men of a presence—such as naturally 
take the political or social lead. The discussion, 


I think, tended to some result, and Sir Arthur, — 


in his Agent-General’s capacity, is likely to be | 
concerned in it ere long. 


SECTION XXXI. 
THE AUSTRALIAN TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY. 


My interest in the public objects of the Colony 
centred chiefly in this great railway, which has 
already been courageously begun at either ex- 
tremity, and is still proceeding. South Australia 
is still inadequately strong for so costly a business. 
Twelve hundred miles of intermediate passage still 
lie non-railed, and the minimum cost to finish has 
been put at eight millions, although more likely to 
be two, three, or even four millions more. South 
Australia, whose colonist, McDouall Stuart, first 
crossed from south to north within what is now her 
own territory to the sea, had the ambition to claim 
and govern the entire through area. Bourke and 
Wills, from Melbourne, had previously crossed to 
the eastwards, reaching the tidal salt water at the 
mouth of one of the rivers at the head of the Gulf of 
Carpentaria, but not seeing the actual ocean. 

South Australia’s ambition to secure all of this 
through area was most readily gratified by the 
Home Government, and considerably more honour 
than profit is understood to have as yet come to 
South Australia in consequence. One of the anti- 
economic honours which have fallen to her in con- 
sequence has been the duty of making this great 
trans-Australian railway, by virtue of the fact of its 
being entirely within the later bounds of South 


282 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Australian territory. But in other and general 
respects the line is quite as much a Victorian 
interest. Tasmania is also interested. New South 
Wales is so also, but in a less degree, as she 
partially sways towards Queensland, which is already 
contemplating another line, not perhaps in the exact 
sense of a rival, round by the eastern coasts. Thus 
more than one of the other colonies might righteously 
help their sister in her struggle. 

The question whether this great line should be 
gone on with to completion occupied much attention 
in Adelaide, and was the cause of strong divergence 
of opinion. Some of the leading merchants decried 
it absolutely. It will drag the Colony into in- 
solvency, said Mr. Barr Smith. It leads nowhere, 
and its last chance in the north is taken away by 
exclusion of the Chinaman. His relative, Sir 
Thomas Elder, was equally opposed to the small 
financial strength of the Colony being pitted against 
such a job, but he would willingly see the railway 
made, with all its as yet unknowable chances, if 
that could be done by substantial help from out- 
side. The agency most surely attainable seemed 
that of a bargain between the Home capitalists 
who would make the line, and the Colony, which 
would give an estimated equivalent in land. I am 
rather against that plan, because such lands, which 
may have no realisable value for fifteen or twenty 
years, go for hardly any pecuniary consideration to a 
capitalist, looking, as he mainly does, of course, for 
immediate dividends. Thus the Colony’s great estate 
is practically thrown away. It seems to me always 


TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILWAY. 283 


better for the Australian Government to make the 
lines themselves as cheaply as may be, and reserve 
the sale of their great landed estate for a better time 
later on. 

My own most decided view is in accordance with 
Sir Thomas Elder’s. The mineral developments of 
Australia, hardly as yet even one-tenth part slightly 
“ prospected,” seem practically boundless, and the 
railway may well be completed, if only upon the 
probabilities in this sole direction. Australia has 
proved curiously compensatory in the qualities of its 
soil. With the richer qualities for agriculture, and 
the lighter for pasture, the sterile, of which there is 
no small proportion, give the inspiration of the 
mineral, for, wherever we see granitic or quartzy 
sterility, we instinctively look for the precious 
metals. 

Besides this leading consideration, a railway 
through the Australian centre, by facilitating the 
conveyance of artesian apparatus, might sensibly 
ameliorate the Australian climate over the central 
flats and general depression of that very peculiarly 
constituted country. This railway, then, is a high 
Australasian interest, and indeed an interest even 
wider still ; and it would be pitiful, in these days of 
the Empire’s boundless financial power, to suffer the 
grand possibilities of such a line to be delayed. I 
hardly look for much use of it, at first at least, as a 
direct through-passage route from Europe to South 
Eastern Australia, for if we are to have, as we soon 
must, the speed of twenty knots an hour, which is 
already established between Liverpool and New York, 


284 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


I expect that the old Cape route would be apt to 
reassert itself in preference to so much hot land- 
travel. But no doubt, when, early next century, 
there is an unbroken continuity of a fast express 
between London and Singapore, the Australian 
Transcontinental will have its full chance. 


The Chinese and the Coloured Labour Question in 
connection with this Railway. 


| 


The Chinese question, and the “ coloured labour’ 
question generally, are no doubt also a large part of 
the general case; and, as the Chinese question must 
be faced and discussed by any one who deals with 
Australian socio-economics, I am disposed to take it 
here once for all. The case of the Chinese is quite 
peculiar. They are not bad colonists; quite the 
reverse, generally speaking. But every one, whose 
thoughts go below the surface, sees or infers that 
from their readily adaptive qualities, as regards all 
the various circumstances of human life, backed by 
the ready mobility and countless multitude of their 
race, they will, if freely admitted, and perhaps far 
sooner than we can dream of, possess and de- 
nationalise Australasia. Australians will be too late 
if they do not at once begin their restrictions. Later 
on, when the Chinese may stream in by the million, 
we cannot, actuated, as we must hope we are, by 
civilisation and religion, seize the sword and treat 
them as we might do a pestilence of locusts, But 
for the stupid foreign Tartar despotism, which 
represses the readily self-adapting and trading 


CHINESE AND COLOURED LABOUR. 285 


Chinaman, China would be, in this swarming 
exodus, far more threatening than she even now is. 
But the Tartars may be cleared out some day, 
and soon thereafter China, with her hundreds 
of millions, may roam far and wide over the world, 
to the considerable disturbance perhaps of other 
people some generations hence. The Chinese 
authorities should be simply told that Australia has 
the same objection to a million Chinese that they 
themselves would have to a hundred millions of a 
European influx, for such are the relative propor- 
_ tions. All treaties must give way to common-sense 
considerations of this kind. d 

The other coloured races, if indeed the grand old 
historical Chinaman ought to be gathered indis- 
criminately amongst this human miscellany, present 
no difficulty whatever. They, the Coolies, Malays, 
Kanakas, will make no effort, either consciously or 
unconsciously, to denationalise us. Generally speak- 
ing, they, contrary to Chinese tendencies, will not 
even go southwards out of their favourite tropics, 
and out of the association, respectively, of their own 
races. They may, therefore, be freely admitted, to 
develop, to the fullest possible, our tropical terri- 
tory. 

Our tropical colonies, like the case of the Chinese, 
form indeed a special question. The European can- 
not work there as he can in his own temperate lati- 
tudes, or, if he persists in doing so, he early finishes 
himself and deteriorates the race he leaves behind 
him. Consequently there is for our tropical pos- 
sessions either dark labour progress or none at all. 


286 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Such Colonies have indeed only a destiny of the 


second order before them. But that is not an 
altogether unworthy destiny, and it may, through 
our colonisation, become one much higher than any 
other available to the races in question. 


The Mode of Government of Tropical Colonies. 


The only other question in this connection con- 
cerns the government of such territories. With the 
few of the superior race, and the mass of the 
inferior, while the former exist at all, they must do 
so as masters. What follows is only too well known, 
so much so as to cause incurable suspicion where the 
mastery is practically given to the superior few by 
the concession of constitutional government. Such 
a government, in such circumstances, would, by 
its instincts, institute a practical slavery, and even 
if it could virtuously abstain from this result, it 
would be ever suspected, and therefore more or less 
restricted, to the injury of the country’s economic 
interests. Such territories, then, should become, 
or should remain, Crown Colonies. In this sus- 
picion-disarming form, the tropical sections of our 
Colonies would march forward unimpeded to the 
maximum of the prosperity possible to their cir- 
cumstances. 

There may be difficulties in “reducing,” so to 
say, constitutionally free territory to Crown Colony 
conditions. But to me the difference of political 
conditions in such cases appears hardly more than 
mere sentiment. If our Australasian group is to be 
federated into one general Colonial government, as I 


GOVERNMENT OF TROPICAL COLONIES. 287 


cannot doubt it will be ere long, what would South 
Australia, for instance, lose by giving up the 
Northern Territory to Crown administration? It 
will be equally open to all her colonists as before, 
with the probability of its rising td a far greater 
commercial height than if governed from Adelaide. 
Going still farther, if our Empire is to be united 
under one Executive, in which the Colonial element 
is proportionately present, what substantial or 
practical difference is there in a Crown Colony as 
compared with any other of the Empire, save indeed 
to the Crown Colony’s decided advantage in that 
all-important matter of the coloured labour ? 

So much, then, for this “ Northern Territory” of 
the vast area of the Colony of South Australia, with 
its present total of 904,000 square miles, an area 
equal to one-fourth of that of Europe. But there is 
considerably more of tropical Australia than this to 
deal with. Happily, the West Australian section, 
on the one hand, is still in imperial hands, most 
properly as yet unconceded to the handful of colonists 
at its far south-western extremity.* The Queens- 
land section, however, vast as it also is, and specially 
important in its contiguity to New Guinea, is ina 
different position, and is perhaps a case less easy of 
management. 

In discussing this question not long since with 
my friend Sir Thomas Mellwraith, who is now, 


* Since this was written, I observe that Lord Knutsford has 
offered to the West Australian Colony up to south latitude 26°, 
reserving the more tropical section towards the equator, This 
question is again discussed further on. 


288 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


but was not then, the Queensland Premier, I was 
at once enabled to get at all the difficulties, as 
well as the other aspects, of the case. Sir Thomas, 
who, I believe, had some personal interests—sugar- 
plantation or pastoral squattage — extending into 
the tropical area, did not seem averse, personally 
any more than generally, to the Crown Colony 
prospect. Indeed I could readily surmise that, 
looking to the reasonable probability of an early 
separation, as to local government, of North from 
South Queensland, owing to the marked difference 
of interests and prospects, the South, where race 
and climatics will always continue it the predomi- 
nant section, would decidedly prefer to deal with a 
Crown Colony, rather than one constitutionally free, 
on its northern skirts. 

But Sir Thomas apprehended a different view of 
the matter from the urban and mining centres which 
were being rapidly developed over the north. And 
there is no doubt of the difficulty, if their vote were 
to go “solid” upon the question. But that is just 
what I am unable to believe. On the other hand, 
the squatters, planters, agriculturists of whatever 
sorts, may be expected, to a man, to go for “the 
Crown,” so as to attain the twofold benefit of securing 
the full supply of coloured labour, and escaping 
the possibly vagarious political dominancy of these 
town and mining masses. ‘These masses, however, 
inherit, every individual of them, all the infirmities 
of our cool-blooded race, when brought under the 
blazing tropical sun. They are all now, besides, 
whether under Colonial or Imperial Acts of Parlia- 


A KANAKA SERVANT. 989 


ment, the recipients of a good, and in some cases, as 
that of New Zealand, of a high-class education. 
Such men, in the tropics, where they are compara- 
tively few, and are the best adapted to rule, should 
be employers and not employees. I could never see, 
even in Brisbane, which, although hot enough at 
times, is not within the tropics, any of my country- 
men doing exposed and menial work, which a 
Kanaka was much better fitted for, without the 
wish to give them a month’s imprisonment for 
needlessly affronting, as well as injuring, their blood 
and race. 


A Kanaka or Coloured Servant in Australia. 


One of my relatives, residing in the suburbs of 
the Queensland capital, had a Kanaka man for the 
miscellaneous outdoor work, and a better, alike for 
work and climate, it was hardly possible to imagine. 
Tommy, as he was called, was rather on the younger 
slope of middle age, active and vigorous, ever greet- 
ing the bright sun as an old accustomed friend, and 
with a contented or smiling broad face, of a non- 
repellent light yellow-brown hue, finding nothing 
but enjoyment in his daily routine from early morn 
to dewy eve. He was tidy and cleanly in dress and 
habits, and his little bedroom, outside, under the 
raised verandah floor, was quite a picture for neat- 
ness. He had ten shillings a week of wages, besides 
his board and lodging, and he had a sacred regard 
for the money, which he trustfully invested under 
the friendly direction of his master. 

U 


290 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Tommy belonged to the New Hebrides group, hav- 
ing found his way to where he now was somehow or 
other not very clearly explained. He did intend re- 
turning some day, he said, with all his money, but 
was in no immediate hurry. He always attended 
church on Sunday, the Anglican I think, but what 
he brought back thence was not clear. I fear that 
Tommy had not been converted, in spite of mission- 
aries and missions thick about him, both at home 
and abroad. His views of things were much too 
broad and too easy for that. He had a way of 
enunciating sage general reflections; not, however, 
without a suspicion of their parrot character as mere 
repetitions of “ wise saws and modern instances” 
always in the colonial air about him. Has not The 
Times suggested the lke explanation in attacking 
much higher game than Tommy, when opposing 
certain of our Indian fellow subjects, who tried to 
enter Parliament under a flood of the most orthodox 
political and constitutional talk ? Possibly Tommy, 
after all, approached, in at least some partial way, 
Gibbon’s Roman magistrate, and had found that all 
the kaleidoscopic civilisation he had been pitchforked 
into might be equally true or equally false, but to 
him and his co-Kanakas at least it was all equally 
useful. 

But Tommy’s excellences, in their way, were 
diversified by certain sad infirmities of his race. 
For who, indeed, could reasonably expect that those 
who were used, with merciless indifference, to hack 
and hew, and perhaps, as the finale, eat up one 
another, should show much consideration for the 


A KANAKA SERVANT. 29] 


sufferings of mortal beings still lower in the scale. 
Tommy, who was equally ready to “ thraw” a couple 
of ducks’ necks, chastise the dog, or stroke his fast 
friend the cat, was ordered one morning to make 
away with a litter of kittens of this same cat; for, 
although a cat is essential to complete the domestic 
picture, the vigorous reproduction in that direction 
has already made cats rather a nuisance in Queens- 
land. Tommy was told to save suffering by dis- 
patching the poor things at once. But we were 
horrified, shortly after, to see him deliberately 
placing them all in a shallow hole in the garden, 
with a covering of about an inch of soil, which he 
flattened down with the spade as though gently and 
lovingly bedding so many hyacinth or tulip roots. 
We vigorously called to him to end at once this inch 
by inch torture, and forthwith he began chopping 
the kittens with the spade, causing a score of little 
legs to be thrown up in agonised gesticulation, 
Once more we strongly reproached Tommy, ordering 
him to indict immediate death, an order he obeyed 
with undiminished serenity, after what he probably 
considered to have been an unusually pleasant and 
varied morning’s work. 

The Coolies, Malays, and especially these cosmo- 
politan philosophers of Kanakas, might, to some 
limited extent, transgress tropical boundaries and 
thus pass into Brisbane and elsewhere, but not I 
think to a degree socially injurious, or indeed other- 
wise than advantageous, for they relieve the domestic 
servant of our own blood—the nobility of her class 
—of a kind of labour and exposure that might at 

u 2 


292 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


once injure and discontent her. There is not, there- 
fore, cause of alarm from any quantity of dark labour 
importation into tropical Australia. But the 
Chinese are a danger not to be overlooked. In 
moderate number, even in the semi-tropics, they are 
exemplary and useful in many respects, and those 
who have been allowed to enter should be pro- 
tected, no matter at what cost, from the illegal 
and cowardly attacks made upon them by some 
of our colonists. But, as to the future, the Chinese 
authorities should distinctly understand that, as I 
have already said, we have in Australia the same 
objection to their swarming countrymen that they 
themselves would have to a relatively proportionate 
influx of ours. 


Interviewing. 


With Adelaide terminated a feature of my tour, 
which had been alike constant and _ vivacious, 
whether going northwards to Brisbane, or south- 
wards through New Zealand. This was the inter- 
viewing on behalf of the successive local press. 
Some of the reports that followed were given with 
creditable accuracy ; others were, in parts at least, 
most ludicrously wrong; while these latter were 
usually the parts I was most concerned, and had 
taken most pains to make right. But this I tear 
was chiefly from my own fault. Only upon general 
subjects which a reporter, in common with every one 
else, can understand, is it safe to pour out in 
voluminous irregularity, trusting to your listener’s 


q 
7 


INTERVIEWING. 293 


powers of abbreviation. In less known or technical 
subjects, the same license or the same negligence is 
reasonably sure of some miscarriage of the meaning. 
I improved by discipline as I went along. Only on 
general subjects and questions did I take a con- 
versational freedom. On technical subjects, such as 
market laws about loan issues, I delivered myself 
slowly and carefully, so that every word should be 
taken down, neither more nor less. 

The most comic results occurred prematurely, I 
fear, in my disciplinary course, at Brisbane, at which 
_ town [ was as usual promptly interviewed. One of 
my favourite expositions was upon the consolidation 
of stocks, so that a Colony should have its borrowings 
in one perfectly uniform stock, instead of a number 
more or less differing. The main reason for this 
was, that the larger quantity of the one stock, by 
bringing it oftener into the market, made it more 
conveniently negotiable than if subdivided into a 
number of different small stocks. This convenience 
gave to mere quantity a distinct item of value over 
and above what might be due to quality. For 
example, if Queensland had one uniform £15,000,000 
stock, its price would stand appreciably higher, say 
by 1 to 2 per cent., if not more, than if there 
were fifteen different stocks of £1,000,000 each. 
Every one in the London Exchange was familiar 
with the fact that the old ‘“Consols” stood higher, 
relatively, than any other British stock from sheer 
convenience of the readier marketability due to 
quantity. And evenalready the New 2? Consols, or 
“ Goschens,” are always higher, relatively, than, for 


294 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


instance, the “ Local Loans ” Threes, although both 
are, of course, identical in point of security. 

My reporter, wearied perhaps at my long hammer- 
ing out of unfamiliar distinctions, had summarised 
me into saying that the value of a stock in the 
market was due to its quantity. Some idea of that 
convenient kind must have been in the mind of the 
Turkish Sultan with regard to one of his loans in 
the London market about thirty years ago, whether 
the “Mutton Turks” or some other equally good, 
for, when he heard that fifteen millions had been 
tendered for the five offered, he was understood to 
have graciously agreed to take the whole. 

But my story’s climax is still to come. Along 
with this report next morning was a grave “leader ” 
of the editor, to the effect that, although these London 
financiers perhaps knew many things that were 
denied to more ordinary mortals, yet they were apt 
to be mistaken in such simple things as every one 
else knew but themselves; and one of these was that 
British Consols, and such leading securities, do not 
acquire their high value by their quantity, but only 
by their quality. 


: 
; 
i 
f 
. 


Cy 209i) 


SECTION XXXII. 


THE §.S. “‘ORIZABA’’: ADELAIDE TO KING GEORGE’S 
SOUND, WEST AUSTRALIA. 


On the 15th October we had to quit with regret 
the fair and pleasant city of Adelaide. At the 
railway station for the harbour, Chief Justice Way, 
to whom we had introductions, did us the honour to 
see us off, as we had been unable to meet before. 
But I had gone over his house and surroundings, 
one of the sights of the town in that way, the day 
before. Mr. Boothby, secretary of the Chamber of 
Commerce, and next neighbour to our host, accom- 
panied us on board, and brought the useful present 
of a bag of magnificent lemons, all of his own 
growing. 


Superiorities of our Vessel. 


Now we run through the “ Orizaba,” in order to 
see what kind of home we are to be immured in for 
the next five to six weeks. We are first struck by 
the grand sweep of continuous deck, not much short 
of a hundred yards of a straight promenade. In 
fact, eleven walks to and fro make about a mile. I 
have never had such a vast marine field as this to 
live upon. My berth was equally to my satisfaction. 
I had applied early, and, as there was not the ex- 


296 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


pectation of a full ship, my old friends Messrs. Gibbs, 
Bright, & Co., the Melbourne agents, had secured me 
the best of the cabins, and all to myself, a convenience 
I duly appreciate while writing my present work, 
The “ Orizaba’s ” superiorities opened upon us more 
and more as the voyage proceeded. The very 
climax of convenience seemed everywhere reached 
in the accommodations. Even in the small matter 
of hooks, bolts and suchlike, which in other vessels 
would be at times put too high or too low, or in 
unreachable nooks or corners, were all here just 
where they exactly suited. My wife, however, found 
that the water-bottle of the berth washstand might 
be thought a trifle too high up, at least for the less 
tall humanities ; but, as it must be either that ora 
diminution of the height of the intermediate looking- 
glass, those concerned in the matter had, doubtless, 
deemed the latter the more important. 

Captain Conlan was at once a pleasant man and a 
good and strict seaman. He was surprised that I 
should forthwith detect him to be Irish. But the Irish 
tone is the most easily detected of all by those of 
“the adjacent island of Great Britain.” Besides the 
Trish, I easily pick out the Edinburgh, the Glasgow, 
the Aberdeen tone. There is a broad guttural Scotch 
in Forfar and Fife, and the south of Scotland 
in general, not easily inter-distinguishable. But the 
Northumberland tone about Newcastle is again very 
clear ; Yorkshire and Lancashire too perhaps; but 
beyond these, on the southward march, I have not as 
yet taken my bearings. 

I had deemed the ‘* Orizaba” to be the climax of 


. 
a 
> 


DESCRIPTION OF THE “ ORIZABA.” 297 


steamboat attainment, with her sufficiently ample 
dimensions of over 6000 tons, her beautiful and 
roomy cabins, her fair speed of 13 to 14 knots, and so 
forth. Captain Conlan, however, put us in the way 
of expecting still higher attainments. He thought, 
for instance, that berths should be furnished with 
chests of drawers, so as to get rid of passengers 
unsavoury leather and other portmanteaux and bags, 
Even a greater improvement he proposed to attain 
by a system of periodical washing on board, which 
a few Chinamen, as part of the crew, could easily 
accomplish. One consequence of this would be that 
the heaps of old “ duds” that are gathered together 
“ good enough for the long voyage” would be left 
at home, and passengers, who need bring only an 
ordinary array of luggage, would dress themselves 
more decently, and be much less of a trouble and 
obstacle both to themselves and their neighbours. 
The scale of washing in a ship like the “ Orizaba’ 
may be imagined from the fact that after her pre- 
ceding voyage, she turned out (not, of course, includ- 
ing any passengers’ things) between twenty-nine and 
thirty thousand pieces for the tub, some of them 
table-cloths eight or nine yards in length. The ship’s 
Company have a washing establishment of their own 
at Liverpool, where all the washing of the fleet is 
done. I should further explain that the “ Orizaba”’ 
belongs to the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, 
whereas we now sail under the Orient line, the 
explanation being that the latter invited the co-oper- 
ation of the other, by means of a loan of some of its 
vessels on fair terms, in order to supply the increas- 


> 


298 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


ing demands of the Australian line, and thus keep 
down a competition by which those in esse might be 
disturbed by those in posse. 


West Australia. The Railway from Albany to Perth. 


We sped swiftly and pleasantly across the Great 
Australian Bight. It is, or should be, a voyage of 
three and a half days to a vessel of the “ Orizaba’s” 
quality, and we should have been there well 
within that time, indeed all but {within the 
three days, had not ‘‘orders” arrived at Adelaide 
to await certain mail deliveries at Albany, West 
Australia, not expected till half a day later, so we 
lost in all about fourteen hours. Most unfortunately 
too, as we did not enter the Inner Harbour of King 
George’s Sound, a most noble inlet equal to the 
accommodation of the greatest of fleets, we were to 
be denied the pleasure of landing, and I in particular 
of marking the ;progress of Albany since my last 
visit in 1857. 

The chief item of that progress is the railway 
from Perth on the western coast, nearly north by 
west from Albany, and 268 miles in length. This 
is expected to be finished by the end of this year, 
1888. It has not been made by the Government, as 
usual in Australian railways, but by a Company, 
which is paid by land grant at the rate of 12,000 
acres per mile of rail, and in alternate blocks along 
the line, so as to keep for the Colony an equal 
participation in the expected value the railway 
would confer upon the ground it traversed. The 


| 
| 


WEST AUSTRALIA. 299 


line, when finished, is to be handed over to the 
Colonia] Government, and by no means unwillingly 
on the builders’ part, as the idea of such a line even 
paying its expenses for the present, in a place of 
such a handful of people, is out of the question. 
Even a daily train is perhaps a luxury yet very far 
ahead. But, again, all things may happen any day 
to auriferous and argentiferous Australia. Besides, 
the South Western or Cape Leeuwin corner of that 
vast expanse has a peculiarly fine climate, more 
genial and less in extremes than any other part. 
There is also into the bargain a good proportion of 


available land, which, amongst other natural 


products, has great forests of the Jarra tree, a wood 
of peculiar closeness of grain and fineness of polish, 
which cannot fail of finding application for many 
uses, and the trade in which has been already taken 
up by three considerable companies. In short, the 
harvest is great thereabout, but as yet the labourers 
are few. 


300 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


SECTION XXXIII. 


THE VOYAGE HOME. 
West Australia to Colombo. 


THE voyage home, like the voyage out, is part of my 
case. The progress in speed, in accommodations, in 
the general amenities of sea travel, are before me 
here also, Besides, we traverse, for great part of 
the way to India what are properly Australian seas. 
Bright and beautiful seas these so often are in this 
part, and especially at this season of the close of 
spring or dawn of summer! As the deep azure 
waves danced around us, under a stiff cool southerly 
breeze, which, however, did not very much disturb 
the quick steady pace of our great ship, we had 
enough of ocean vivacity to recall and to justify our 
noble poet, who saw, reflected from the everlasting 
unrest of surface, the grand image of eternity : 
“ Unchangeable, 
Save to thy wild wave’s play. 


Time writes no wrinkle on thy azure brow: 
Such as Creation’s dawn beheld, thou rollest now.” 


We were all delighted to learn, and that too, in 
most agreeable disappointment, after most of us had 
taken our passages in Australia, that the company 
had decided on the “ Orizaba” calling at Colombo. 
This was a new departure, as between the rival 
lines, for Colombo had been strictly a P. & O. nest, 


| 


THE VOYAGE HOME. 301 


which, however, it had now become necessary for 
the rival line to invade. These great rival caterers 
for the public good do try, I doubt not, to avoid one 
another’s toes; but a crunching tramp will come 
sometimes. As for us passengers, as our captain 
remarked, there was a happy break to a protracted 
monotony of course from Albany to Aden; besides 
that there was so preciously little of a variety when 
arrived there; for I suppose that Aden bids hard 
for the palm of being at once intolerably hot and 
intolerably destitute of any other local feature or 
quality, good, bad, or indifferent. Elsewhere we 
steer clear of our rivals the P. & O., for while they 
go to Malta, we turn north, past classic Syracuse, 
Etna, and the Messina Strait, to lovely Naples. So 
altogether, as we scudded over the Western Austra- 
lian main, and only too rapidly, as some might have 
regretfully thought, we had a very varied and plea- 
sant prospect before us. 


The Australian Seas. 


Well out, as we were, to sea, in our north-westerly 
course in the Ceylon direction, we had the most 
charming of climates, with the usual clear and sunny 
weather of this most favoured of ocean areas. A 
more in-shore course, over the fifteen degrees of 
latitude north from Cape Leeuwin, would have 
proved decidedly, perhaps unpleasantly, hotter, for 
already over that great land area to the north of 
the temperate Swan River region the fierce heat of 
the northern sun was descending. But most of that 


302 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


region, and the wide domain still further to the north 
and east, has been lately awakened from silent solitude 
and desolation to the well-known sounds of gold 
digging ; while, if my threefold division of Austra- 
lian soils, which assigns the most sterile to the 
precious metals, have any confirmation up there- 
about, an unprecedented harvest may be in waiting 
for that heretofore but little known or little appre- 
ciated part of the empire. 

While we traversed 1200 miles of Australian 
seas, and experienced the pleasant climate we moved 
in, my imagination fell to work upon the future. 
These are indeed claimable as Australian waters, 
because, although the distance of the Australian 
shore increased, with our north-westerly course, up 
to a thousand miles, there was no other nearer main 
shore to dispute the proprietorship. India, Ceylon, 
Sumatra, Java, were all over and away into the 
torrid zones of a lower destiny and civilisation. 
I realised the future, when progress in shipping and 
in all else will immeasurably further utilise this 
delicious ocean area. With a steady southerly or 
south-westerly breeze upon our quarter, the shade 
temperature hardly exceeded 70° as the day 
maximum, and was only 72° when we had passed by 
several degrees within the southern tropic. After 
that, indeed, when we must needs resign the seas to 
the Indies, the change of wind to the north-east 
trades sent our thermometer to 80°, and to the 
realisation of a final adieu in that direction to 
Australia. 


“—- 


COALING AT GALLE. 303 


Ceylon and Native Labour. 


Night overtook us as we made the Point de Galle 
light, 78 miles from Colombo, and I went to sleep, 
regretting that green spice-smelling Ceylon was to be 
passed in the night. But very early next morning, 
hours before daylight, I was awoke by a terrible 
clatter of human voices, and of a variety of other 
noises. I knew perfectly what it was all about, for 
I had been twice before at Galle, where I had experi- 
enced the coaling of the steamer, and I now recognised 


the old scene, and its noisy accompaniment. I looked 


down from my cabin scuttle upon a hundred Coolies, 
yelling and working together amongst countless bags 
of coal, which they hoisted to successive stages, and 
finally into the “Orizaba,” in a wonderfully rapid 
and orderly way. Each bag might have almost a 
hundredweight, and to each were four Coolies at the 
respective stages, who lifted it cornerways, till 
emptied into the great coal bunk. These. men, per- 
fectly naked beyond a mere rag at the middle, their 
oiled and perspiring bodies shining in the sun, after 
the sun had risen, seemed to be absolutely untirable. 
They seemed, too, to enjoy their work, if one might 
so interpret their satisfied faces. No disposition to 
strike here, even although but 9d. a day was all 
their pay, as compared with the 10s. 6d.-to 13s. 
which was just then being so angrily rejected in 
Australia. 


304 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


The Humblest may, in his Turn, be King of the 
Situation. 


I was reminded once more here, as I have been 
in other ways and places before, of the supreme 
value of the man, as distinguished from his wrap- 
pings, however pretentious or the reverse. Men all 
so much need one another, that every class seems, in 
turn, upon opportunity, and for the time being, to 
come in as king of the situation. Now it is, 
may-be, a great king, another time a poor naked 
Coolie, and at other times other classes, in great, 
in small, or in indifferent positions, as men view 
these cases. 

Let us take some instances. A friend of mine, on 
one occasion, was detained so unexpectedly long that 
it seemed hopeless to reach his train in the nine 
minutes of time that remained; and yet, if he missed 
that train, what to him was of the greatest conse- 
quence was seriously jeopardised. All but in 
despair, he called a hansom. Holding up his watch, 
‘‘Kuston, nine minutes, possible?” he gasped 
inquiringly out; “remember that special service 
requires a special fare.” Cabby, who was very 
leisurely smoking his pipe, removed the pipe quietly 
but quickly, and had his coat and knee-wraps all in 
order as soon as his “ fare” was seated. “It’s to be 
done,” he said, in a quiet but clear voice, and the 
next instant his race for the throne began. “ God's 
mercy, how near a violent collision with that 
carriage-wheel!” Yes, but it is cleared, and with a 
good quarter inch to spare. And, again, can this 


7 
q 
> 
A 
— 
4 
q 


Ae as 


THE KING OF THE SITUATION. 305 


block ahead be possibly turned? My friend had 
hardly seen it ere it was flanked. The wheel had 
got somehow twelve inches upon the footway, and 
one old lady’s toes made a marvellous escape. The 
policeman, officially angry, but really in admiration, 
let the culprit go, because, as he seemed to plead in 
excuse, at his pace it was impossible to do otherwise. 
When cabby suddenly stopped, his fare was almost 
sent forward into the railway porter’s arms, but there 
was just time before to catch a quiet voice from the 
little porthole above, “ All right.” My friend put 


the sovereign he had ready in cabby’s hand, almost 


feeling that he should have made it five. But the 
satisfied face of the recipient settled that point. 
“Sir,” said the latter, with an emphasis that con- 
trasted with his previous quietness, “Sir, you are a 
gentleman.” And my friend passed on, impressed 
that he had received both the crowning service and 
crowning compliment of his life. 

In this case cabby was king. In another, more 
directly to my purpose, and of which I was myself 
the witness, Jack Tar passed, for his time and oppor- 
tunity, to the crown. When, as I have told, in the 
tight little S.S. “ Penguin,” of the nowadays despised 
size of 900 tons, we proceeded from Manakau Har- 
bour southwards to Wellington, we were caught in 
crossing Cook’s Strait, from New Plymouth to 
Nelson, by one of those terrific squalls not un- 
common to that restless marine quarter. Never in 
my life did I see or feel such wind. Our sails were 
out, and they seemed to me doomed, unless indeed 
they could be hauled in by rope machinery in place 

Xx 


306 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


of human hands. Mortal man, thought I, could never 
ascend those masts and come down again in safety. 
The sails flapped so furiously that they presently 
went into ribbons, and pieces of a foot square or so 
were chucked out of the sail as if had been soft card- 
board. 

But to my astonishment, and almost horror, and 
almost ere I could tell where they came from, four 
men had got aloft, and were fighting with the furious 
chief sail. Having mastered it somewhat with the 
tie cords (whatever their right name is), one of the 
men, I suppose the weightiest, jumped right out 
upon the still bulging and flapping sail, as though 
upon some furious wild beast, and I looked for his 
being momentarily jerked off by its contortions. But 
he had calculated better than I had, and, sliding 
down while the fastening from above by the other 
hands followed him, the job was already done. 
“Captain,” said I, “those are good men.” The 
captain, who impressed me as being a fine seaman, 
and whose eyes and mind had before been riveted 
upon his struggling hands, had now leisure for other 
things. “ Yes,” he replied, “ and if they weren’t they 
would not be here.” 

Next morning, as we approached Nelson, peace- 
fully asleep as it lay within its grand panorama of 
snow-topped mountains, at the head of the Tasman 
Bay, now quiet as a mill-pond, I asked the captain 
if I might speak to those four men. ‘Oh, never 
mind that yesterday affair,” he said; “they are all 
busy now; they'll have forgotten all about it by this 
time.” “But I would like to see them,” I still 


THE KING OF THE SITUATION. 307 


pleaded. ‘‘ Well, here happens to be one of them. 
Tom, this way; give an account of yourself.” Tom 
came modestly forward with an inquiring face as to 
why he was wanted. When I spoke of the terrible 
squall the day before, “Yes,” said he, with an 
emphatic accompaniment, “ and it cost me my cap.” 
I dropped a sovereign into his hand, to restore the 
cap, and give all four a bonus besides. So all that 
had remained in Tom’s mind from this heroic 
incident was the loss of the cap. One of the luxuries 
of these kingship cases is the fact that the actors 
themselves are often so utterly unconscious of their 
grand rank. 

There was another variety in this way which I 
may also mention. While looking down with intense 
interest on the hard-working kings below me, on 
whose sweating but indefatigable bodies the ship’s 
voyage and all her passengers’ interests now 
depended, I noticed alongside of me a lad of about 
fifteen, whose rather slim but still handsome figure 
and pleasant young face at once attracted me. I con- 
sidered how I had best accost him, for that requires 
care, as otherwise he drops at once into the impor- 
tunate beggar, and then all poetry, like love, flies out 
of the window. He was evidently no capitalist, 
judging from the little bit of coarse dirty shirt, his 
sole clothing, from his loins halfway to his knees, 
unless indeed my late friend Professor Bonamy Price’s 
view be sustainable, in taking the man bodily as 
capital. I pinched his shoulder to realise the velvety 
softness of the light-brown skin. As I expected, he 
got all alive the moment he realised that he was in 

x 2 


308 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


my mind. Previously, when not aware that I was 
even looking at him, he seemed the most care-free, 
unconcerned of human beings, seemingly without the 
trace of an idea that he was an object of interest or 
poetry or other such incomprehensible nonsense to 
anybody. 

I took him for a young Tamil, not yet ready for 
the hard work around him by two or three years. 
I found that the young fellow spoke English, so I 
asked if he was at school. ‘No school,” he said. 
He lived with his father, who worked in Colombo. 
Then I asked his age, but he began to assume that 
look which says, as distinctly as words, “ that sort of 
useless gibberish be hanged; what are you going to 
give me?” He pointed to his stomach, as though 
rather empty, and to his poor rag of greasy clothing, 
and asked for a penny. There was a touching plain- 
tiveness in his voice, but whether of nature or artful 
imitation, who could tell? I noticed that he was 
chewing something, indeed he was so constantly 
spirting out the dirty jnice that I wondered where so 
much saliva could come from out of so young a 
frame, and how he could keep in the health he 
seemed to enjoy under such waste of Nature’s proper 
sap. He said it was tobacco, but when, after one 
last strong suck, he spat it all out, I saw, in the dry 
“bones,” the most wretched of quality. I shook my 
head, and said “ Don’t smoke; very nasty.” But he 
took no heed of this. With my handkerchief I then 
wiped away the dirt from the lips, which were soon 
so natural and inviting, with bright white teeth 
behind them, better by infinity than my own, that I 


as 


MOHAMMEDAN AND OTHER DEALERS. 309 


would have enjoyed a kiss of them, albeit they had 
just a little of the negro fulness and pouting. But I 
thought better of it under all the circumstances. Then 
I gave him a silver threepenny. There was in 
response a gleam of pleased surprise, almost rising — 
to gratitude. But the next moment the expression 
reminded me of the proverb that gratitude consists 
of a lively sense of still more favours to come. I 
thought, therefore, that I had best make off, in case 
the last shreds of the poetry of the case might 
disappear. 

The “ Orizaba” burns a hundred tons of coal per 
day, so that an awful number of bags had to be lifted 
and emptied in order to supply us for at least ten or 
eleven days’ voyage to Port Said. And all this 
was done in wonderfully few hours, so that we were 
off once more, primed to the full by 4.30 P.m.,, in- 
cluding some spare hours of time besides, to sweep 
up the coal-dust. These hardy workers are not the 
Cingalese, who are a delicate, effeminate: looking race, 
wearing their long black hair put up with round 
combs, in a way to confuse them, to our minds, with 
women. These Cingalese, then, are mostly employed 
in shops and in the lighter work of trade. The 
Mohammedans again are a distinct class, as well as 
race, in general markedly superior, and distinguished 
by high skull-caps of varied basket-work ; while the 
Parsees, or Fire-worshippers, a race usually marked 
by corpulency, and with the peculiar dark basket 
head-dress, leaning back off the forehead, completed 
the variety. which swarmed around, ceaselessly 
trafficking in money and wares. They got a good 


310 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


harvest at first by pretending that the rupee ex- 
change was fourteen to £1, when it was within a 
small fraction of fifteen. The hard workers are 
chiefly of the Tamil race, belonging to Southern 
India, and coming mostly from the west coast about 
Calicut. Very moderate pay, about ninepence a day, 
suffices them. 


Ceylon Features: Trafficking ; Schools. 


Our vessel was soon one great market, in fruits of 
many kinds, and all sorts of native fabrics, in silver | 
and gold, tortoise-shell, ivory and porcupine, ebony 
and cocoa-nut wood. After early breakfast, we 
sallied forth with friends, who were residents, for 
sight-seeing. We drove out about a mile and a half 
to our friend’s “ compound,” through native streets, 
crowded with people of either sex and every age. 
All the young people were all but naked, and the 
older people, the working males at least, not very 
much better. But the dark skin has always the 
effect of clothing, else how could our modest young 
damsels complacently regard the fantastic movements 
around them, especially the diving after silver 
money. The scene of so much busy life was pleasant 
and inspiring. All the different races and faiths 
lived in real or apparent amity, under one and the 
same government, which gave them all equal rights 
and laws. 

Opposite our friend’s compound was a Catholic 
church, into which I sauntered with, my friend’s 
sister-in-law. We found about one hundred little 


CATHOLIC SCHOOLS. 311 


boys at school, all darkies, more or less, with bright 
eyes and cheery, smiling or laughing faces; and 
when we went back to the far interior of the build- 
ing we found as many girls. These are almost 
without exception Cingalese children. They are 
brought up in the Catholic faith, and taught reading 
in their own characters and language. It is gene- 
rally difficult to get regular attendance at school, as 
the parents miss the children’s help at home, and 
attach but little value to the lessons. 

The Catholics, as they tell us at least, have been suc- 
_cessful here far beyond Protestants, whose feeble rival 
power, although backed by so much money-spending, 
as the local priest here significantly remarked, 
their rivals rather despise. This church building 
was originally Italian, as the inscription over the 
doorway showed, but is now under French charge. 
About one-fourth of Colombo, with 109,000 people, 
is Catholic. This priest told us that in all Ceylon 
there were about a quarter of a million Catholics 
to 50,000 Protestants. He was an affable, pleasant 
young Frenchman, apparently interested and happy 
in his religious duties, for what else could keep 
him in this tropical climate, with a monotonous and 
inferior society of this kind? We discussed French 
affairs—“ la belle France, toujours la belle,’ but with 
so varied and uncertain a government, General 
Boulanger being the last hand that was once more 
stirring up the Chapter of Accidents. | 


312 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS, 


Colombo Harbour. 


Colombo has been made a great and convenient 
harbour, by a half-mile of a low but substantial 
breakwater over which the fury of the westerly 
winds spends itself in a ceaseless spray and over- 
wash. There is much commerce with the larger 
class of steamers of through-line passages. A large 
P. & O. boat had arrived the day before us, and a 
“Clan Line” boat the same morning, while the 
“ Thisbe,” a German steamer, left early that morn- 
ing, further eastward bound. The mail steamers, 
going and returning, with their many purchasers 
greedy upon bargains, keep the shops and dealers all 
alive. We had not time for many of the sights, but 
one worth seeing came in our way, namely a vener- 
able tortoise, known, it was said, to be at least 200 
years old. We saw him with his long projected 
neck eating grass like a great unshapely goose. He 
is one of the “adscripti glebe” of a private property, 
and always goes with the occupant, whether owner 
or merely renter. Having read up the telegraphic 
suinmaries since we left Albany, ten days before, we 
started once more, having in prospect another ten 
days’ reading up at Port Said, our captain already 
hinting a disappointment, namely, that we may not 
‘require to call at Aden. 


( 813 ) 


SECTION XXXIV. 
THE VOYAGE HOME: COLOMBO TO ADEN. 


Tue Captain declined to say positively if we were 
to be indulged or not with the call at Aden until 
the day before our arrival there. It depended on 
the coal question. But a day or two before the 
decision a whisper was started amongst the ones 
knowing in the coal case that we would call, and 
accordingly some of us got their shillings and rupees 
in readiness for further trafficking. 

But we had, on the whole, a fairly pleasant voyage 
prior to reaching Aden, for, after all, at the appointed 
time, the decision was to go in there. We were to 
see no land from leaving Colombo till we were off 
Socotra, four days’ distance. We would sail close to 
that new acquisition to our Empire, and were to 
diverge slightly from the straight course so as to 
pass it on the north side. Our greatest heat hitherto 
had been for three days after westing from Cape 
Comorin, when the thermometer touched 834° in the 
morning and 85 after noon. Towards Socotra, with 
a south wind from the open ocean, it was rather 
cooler, with the glass ranging from 783° to 81°. 

This intensely tropical Socotra is a large island, 
virtually within our empire, because, a dozen years 
ago, we agreed with a kind of sultan there, who had 
5000 subjects engaged in pastoral pursuits and aloe- 
growing, producing, it is said, the best aloes in the 


314 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


b] 


world, that, for a “ consideration’? on our part, he 
should not permit foreign settlement without our 
consent. The island rises in marked outline from 
the ocean, is 80 miles long by 23 wide, and consists 
mainly of an elevated plateau 800 feet above the 
sea, with mountain heights exceeding 4600 feet. 
Rapidly, while we neared the island, the deep azure 
of the water changed to almost a light green, indi- 
cating the reduced depth, as we had noticed on the 
outward voyage, on nearing the Cape de Verdes in 
West Africa. But past Socotra it became darker, 
and towards Aden almost the deep azure once more. 
Supposing, which we must do, that this change is a 
question of depth of water, are we not to explain 
the Aden depth, by the everlasting current or scour 
caused by the influx into the Red Sea, to restore the 
diminution there by evaporation? Curious to say, 
not one river runs into this vast inland gulf, so that 
the yearly evaporation would soon tell upon its 
level, if the Perim strait did not let in the outer 
ocean. The yearly evaporation is estimated at so 
much as 243 feet. 


Coaling at Aden. 


We were to enter Aden at three in the morning. 
The genial air of the night brought several of us on 
deck to usher in the fiery Arabia. We were unex- 
pectedly pleased with the temperateness of the 
weather. With the earliest streaks of light, if not 
indeed sooner, came a Babel of voices—men and 
boys in everlasting chatter. Two great hulks, full 
of bags of coal, had already been drawn alongside, 


COALING AT ADEN. 315 


The stewards were already busy lifting the carpets 
to save them from coal dust, and all ports on either 
side had been screwed tight. From the deck we 
saw a spectacle somewhat similar to that of Colombo, 
differing chiefly in the race and aspect of the 
workers. There we had Tamils; here we had 
Arabs; the latter the finer and stronger men. 
They worked under their sheikh, and to him was 
the united earning paid. The two races seemed to 
me to work equally well, never shirking the toil, but 
on the contrary taking it joyously, as if the plea- 
santest thing in the world. Money is wonderfully 
efficacious in making man enjoy his exertion and bis 
labour powers. 

Around the steamer were a score or more of boys 
with their little canoes, all offering to dive for silver 
money, if thrown over to them. There is foolish 
waste often in this way. One passenger opened the 
ball by throwing down a florin, which a boy picked 
up and put in his mouth before it had sunk twelve 
inches. This only demoralises them. The money 
does not sink fast, and is easily seen by the little 
fellows’ sharp eyes under water. A threepenny 
silver piece at a time is best, as all then have fair 
chance of a share. These nimble little fellows seem 
to have no fear of sharks, which, no doubt, are as 
plentiful here as elsewhere in such latitudes. 
Indeed I was told that a shark or two are at 
times playing amongst them, with great mutual 
forbearance. But one man did pretend that sharkie 
crunched little fellow at times. I suspect not, how- 
ever. The little fellows are much too cool and 


316 '  AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


quick, and could, with their eyes always open, easily 


be warned in time and get out of the way of the — 


shark’s cumbrous motions. 


Bargaining. - 


Almost as early as the diving boys, came those 
with the local wares, of which there is now, with the 
large and settled population, and regular and fre- 
quent calling of large steamers full of rich passen- 
gers, no small variety. The wares are also really 
good, and remarkably cheap if you know how to 
deal with these practised hands. Ostrich eggs and — 
feathers, party-coloured basket ware, and prettily 
patterned grass cloths, were amongst the real native — 
wares, along with a dubious lot of finer fabrics, 
sticks, blackwood elephants, porcupine boxes, &e., 
most of which I suspected were only importations 
from Ceylon. Other indigenous products were pairs 
of Oryx or Gemsbok horns, beautiful flowers of white 
coral, and rarely fine shells, particularly spinous 
murexes, which went in basketfuls for a shilling. 
English money had now got to be preferred to the 
rupee for its steadiness. The poor rupee had been 
travelling down continuously from 2s. in the old 
bimetallic times fifteen years ago, to 1s, 4d. in these 
excess silver-producing days. The rupee was indeed 
accepted, but with a disposition to affront it even to 
beyond the depreciation of the last Calcutta or 
Bombay exchange rate. When, for want of more 
English change, I tendered rupees, they were refused 
except at a shilling each. 


BARGAINING. 317 


Unfortunately there was no time to land, as we 
were to leave before breakfast. As the time ap- 
proached, there was visible commotion amongst the 
traders to complete their sales. Like the common 
Whitechapel or Houndsditch ticket, ‘no reasonable 
offer refused,” so there was an eager waiting for any 
offer. . Prettily patterned and strong well-woven 
water-bottle-shaped baskets, of the larger size, which 
had opened at 2s. each and had long struggled at 9d., 
fell at the last to 6d., which seemed indeed incredibly 
cheap. ‘The line must be drawn somewhere ” even 
in baskets, and this 6d. must have been just outside 
of the line, for I heard of but one sale, all the rest 
of the baskets having been indignantly hurled back 
into the trade boats at final departure. 

Our purser must have been alive to all the local 
dodges, as he easily managed his opportunities. One 
boat came alongside with a good score of fine solid 
fresh-caught crimp blue mullet. He showed no indi- 
cation of wanting them till the departure bell rang 
out. But ere this the impatient sellers had begun 
to fill two large tin cans, and, in real or pretended 
confidence, were just gliding the fish up the side 
ladder, when the purser sent an offer of 5s. for the 
lot. With all the signs of violent indignation for 
such an affronting offer, the cans were hauled down 
again, and emptied into the boat, with the apparent 
intention of going off at once. But still Mr. Purser 
made no sign. Then, after a few seconds, the boat 
chief, in a much less hostile way, made an indication 
that the 5s. would be taken. In a few more seconds, 
with the two half-crowns in his hand, I noticed a 


318 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


chuckle of satisfaction as though to tell that, what- 
ever more he might have preferred, what he had 


got was at any rate better for all the sellers than the 
fish. 


Importance of Aden: its Various Races. 


Aden has now a variety worth seeing, as it grows 
in importance every year. There are above 30,000 
people here under British rule, who all seem very 
busy, and, so far as we could tell, very content, and 
fairly prosperous. What was to them a prodigious 
sum of money must have flowed out of our “ Orizaba,” 
possibly not much, if at all, under a hundred pounds 
in a brief two hours of early morn. There is a 
curious variety of races, amongst which one easily 
distinguishes the light-hued true Arab, with his 
congener, not much removed, the Arabian or Syrian 
Jew. Then we have the Hindoo, chiefly from 
Southern India, more swarthy than Edom, but often 
a fine, handsome fellow. From this we leap very 
distinctly to the African, the negroid man of the 
Galla tribes across the Aden Gulf, with his rather 
protruding lips, whitest ivory teeth, and curly jet 
black hair, unless turned to a dark ochre by use of 
lime. The difficulty to discriminate is with an 
evidently intermediate race, called the African 
Arabs, who boast of being Arab and Mohammedan, 
but admit that “ Afric’s sun” has darkened their 
skins. But one would think that Aden’s sun was 
not much short of Afric’s in that matter. Any way, 
they are a fine race, the youths tall, well formed, 
although in hair, protruding lips, &c., they sway 


IMPORTTANCE OF ADEN. 319 


nearer to Africa than Arabia. The Abyssinians, 
Nubians, Coptic or original Egyptians are all, I 
believe, similar puzzles, where a race originally 
mixed, of two or more elements, from very far back, 
has assumed later a permanency of type. 

Several considerable steamers lay around us in the 
Aden anchorage, all English, as far as we could 
judge, and there were a number of sailing vessels 
small and large, mostly dhows and other natives, 
further up the harbour, towards the fortifications and 
Aden proper, a considerable Arabic town. One 
‘steamer was the “Quetta,” for some years past in 
the Queensland mail service. Another had lately 
arrived after running upon a previously unknown 
coral reef in the Red Sea, which had ripped open her 
bottom, so that she had a sinking look, with a section 
of her hold filled with water. This reef was rather 
an unpleasantly alarming discovery at this late time 
of day. Shortly after starting we overtook a cargo 
steamer which had left Melbourne, a week before us, 
with the early wools for the first or November 
London Sales, our own “ Orizaba” also having, at 
the last moment, bargained to take, for a moderate 
freight, a good deal of wool for the same destination. 

Aden’s present importance only restores it to the 
consideration it repeatedly enjoyed in past times from 
a far antiquity. But the remarkable great water 
tanks, which, buried by time, we began to unearth 
about forty years ago, were not older than the 
twelfth century, when they were constructed under 
Mohammedan civilisation, further advanced as it 
was in some respects, than European at that time. 


320 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Returning Home this way in 1853, I saw our 
people at work clearing out from these tanks the 
débris of gravel, &c., which centuries had ac- 
cumulated. Aden was of comparative importance 
also 2000 years ago. Much more could be done for 
it now by irrigation, as there is soil all about which 
would be at once largely productive with the life- 
giving water. 


SECTION XXXV. 
THE VOYAGE HOME: ADEN TO PORT SAID. 


As we left Aden on the 6th of November, we were 
allowed to enjoy the idea that about the third day 
in the Red Sea, when we had passed through its 
southern half, we would be wafted into temperate 
weather, with the north winds there prevalent 
towards ‘the winter and spring seasons. <A south 
wind blew stiffly from Africa as we went full speed, 
with our better quality of coal, towards Babelmandeb 
Strait, and was not unpleasantly hot with the 
thermometer about 83°. We took the broader 
channel on the west side of little Perim Island, where 
once more we looked upon our Empire’s territory. 
It is three miles long, in north and south direction, 
by one mile wide, and, while the wider passage 
which we entered is twelve miles across, the 
narrower, on the east side of Perim, is only one 
mile and a half. We saw a small harbour and a 
fort, and several other buildings on the island. 


The Red Sea. 


Some of us, perhaps only a few, seemed to feel a 
sense of awe and interest in entering this famous 
old sea, which is indeed the most remarkable sea 
of the whole earth in its geographical physics. 

Y 


322 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Although with a coast line of twice twelve hundred 
miles in length, besides indents, not a single river, 
as I have previously remarked, runs into it. The 
consequence is, that with its great evaporation—24 
to 25 feet of depth of surface a year—all the water 
would have been dried up geological ages ago, but 
for the constant indraught on either side of Perim, 
As the evaporated water is fresh and the re-supply 
salt, one would expect that in time this long and 
comparatively narrow sea would be filled with solid 
salt. There seem no indications of this as yet, 
although, doubtless, its waters are much salter than 
those outside, especially towards Suez at the head. 
The sea, however, is full of fish ; we saw more flying 
fish, up past its middle parts, than any where else, 
The canal now pours into the upper end at Sueza 
small supply of water from the Mediterranean. 

The Red Sea is extraordinarily deep for its area, 
as we might indeed have inferred from the deep- 
ocean azure hue of its waters. About the middle it 
is 1050 fathoms or 6300 feet, a depth which would 
swallow our Highland Ben Nevis bodily with 2000 
feet to spare overhead. Suez Gulf is comparatively 
shallow, but its sister inlet to the east, the Akaba 
Gulf, continues the deep cleft of the main sea, and is 
200 fathoms close to the furthest end. The deep 
cleft recurs in the famous old “Dead Sea” of 
Palestine, which was no doubt the upper Akaba in a 
geological retrospect. As the Jordan does not nearly 
compensate the evaporation, there is not only no 
outlet of the sea, but a balance on the drying up 
account which settles itself at a reduction of surface 


THE SUEZ CANAL. 323 


level of more than 1300 feet below the Mediter- 
ranean. 

The only perfect calm of the voyage occurred on 
the second day after entering the Red Sea. It 
lasted hardly twelve hours, and was an interesting 
variety, as we looked far and wide over the deep blue 
of the water, smooth and bright as a mirror, no land 
being anywhere in sight. We had, shortly before, 
emerged from a sort of scum on the surface, which I 
supposed might be a light pumice sort of sand, blown 
from the desert on either side, but which our captain 
explained as an off-throw from the subjacent canal. 
It had an oleaginous appearance, and emitted at 
times an unpleasant smell, although that was not at 
present discernible. 

As we expected, we met a strong cool north wind 
when half way up the sea, and thenceforwards our 
heat trials terminated. ‘The thermometer, which, 
two or three days before, had touched 86° in the 
shade at the southern extremity, fell to 80° at noon 
in this central part, and was at 72° off Suez. 


The Suez Canal. 


Unfortunately it was night when we approached 
the Suez Gulf entrance, so that we did not see grand 
Mounts Horeb and Sinai; but we had compensation 
in many objects at and about Suez in the morning, 
and, later on, in the Canal, and the next morning at 
Port Said. I can imagine the Canal to be mono- 
tonous to those who go often through it, but to 
myself who saw it for the first time it was through- 

¥-3 


824 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


out most lively, varied, and interesting. In two 
previcus passages of the Isthmus, in 1853 and 1857, 
I had seen just the dawn of modern progress, leaving | 
behind it the old traditional Biblical conditions, 
The first time, we had only horse waggons from 
Suez to Cairo, and thence, by the Nile steamer and 
the Mahmoudie Canal boat, to Alexandria. The 
second time we had improved vehicles to Cairo, and 
the rail beyond to the Mediterranean. Now M. de 
Lesseps has changed all this old story. 

There was quite a busy and varied life along the 
two canal banks. There were now and then native 
villages or hamlets of a few mud and straw huts, 
These were varied by the comparatively good houses 
of canal stations. There were jetties and boats at 
intervals. Many native “ navvies,” in blue cottons, 
were working along the canal. On either side was 
a sort of public highway, along which many Arab 
men and women were travelling. We would also 
see an occasional Arab or two posting across the 
desert. Everywhere there were camels by the dozen 
helping at work, and everywhere as we passed 
young and old would roar out for backsheish, 


Port Said. 


Between three and four in the morning we were 
up at Port Said, as we knew by our bed-steward 
entering to screw up our lights, so as to keep 
out the approaching coal dust. Presently the 
great coal barges were hauled alongside, heralded 
by the usual Babel of the voices of the workers, 


PORT SAID. 325 


their directing chiefs or shiekhs, and the agents 
of their employers. After some little time to 
adjust the successive stages in passing up the 
coal bags, that being a matter of first import- 
ance, the coaling work began in right earnest, for 
no workers are equal to those coloured sons of the 
tropics and their vicinities. The fair “ Orizaba” 
was presently in a shower of coal dust; and as we 
looked back upon her in our escape ashore, like so 
many Lots rushing out of Sodom, we saw the smoke, 
but happily not, this time, the smoke of her torment, 
ascending up towards heaven. 

We had nearly two hours of early morn for a 
ramble through Port Said. The large passage- 
vessels are out in the stream. Countless smaller, 
including Arab dhows, &c., are along many lines 
and cross lines of wharfs. It was Sunday morning, 
but this did not seem to make much difference, 
excepting that we passed some well-dressed people 
and European children coming out of French 
Catholic churches or other public institutions, which 
seemed numerous all about, distinguished by the 
plain cross. These were varied by mosques, &c., 
distinguished by the crescent. A structure with a 
small Byzantine-looking dome, and a complex cross, 
we set down for a Greek church, the Greek element 
here being large, as it was in Alexandria, preced- 
ing Port Said. As we probed our way through the 
rectangularly laid-out town, we were surprised at 
its extent and population. There seemed nearly 
a square mile of streets, the principal thoroughfares 
being well packed with an endless diversity of 


326 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


humanity. There was also ceaseless trucking and 
trafficking, and only one beggar crossed our path, 


a man with both his feet doubled up, and who, as 


the sole nuisance in that way, and as a mere 
curiosity, had some right to backsheish. 

All this vast work we had come through was due 
to the initiation of one man; and it was accom- 
plished under such apathy on the one hand, and 
opposition on the other, as might, without him, have 
delayed the work for generations yet to come, 
although, of course, it must, in the cause of progress, 
have been ultimately done somehow. I have met 
M. de Lesseps twice. The first time was when he 
lectured at Edinburgh, in 1854, upon his grand 
project, and to an audience which, like myself, was, 
I fear, wholly unbelieving. The second time, a 
generation later, was after the canal had proved an 
enormous success, and when its author met the 
London Chamber of Commerce, of whose first 
council I had the honour to be a member, in order to 
arrive at agreement about transit charges. Even 
M. de Lesseps, it was alleged, had condescended to 
John Bull’s habit of making a good dividend, to 
those who had supplied him with the money, the 
first consideration as to the canal. The Chamber, 
however, could respond that English commerce 
supplied nearly all the dividend. There was even- 
tually, I think, a fairly amicable agreement. 

This master spirit of the time, not satisfied with 
his one surprising triumph, has made a still greater 
plunge to bring up a second. We must all hope 
that he will live to witness the Panama enterprise, 


M. DE LESSEPS. 327 


delayed, as yet, by unexpected, and indeed, non- 
calculable costs and difficulties, finally completed, for 
completed this greater work also must needs be, like 
the lesser work of Suez, at some time in the world’s 
interests ; but if eighty-four years of age may en- 
danger that further honour, the hero of the Suez 
Canal must be content to have already attained to 
the forefront in the physical progress of the world. 


328 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


SECTION XXXVI 
THE VOYAGE HOME: PORT SAID TO NAPLES. 


Brpprne adieu to the busy Babel of Port Said, we 
stood out into the Levant with a pleasant south- 
westerly breeze, warmed by adjacent Africa. Egypt 
is, perhaps, at its perfection in this month of Novem- 
ber, with thermometer at 60° to 70°, and with the 
mellow steadiness of autumn, as compared with the 
hot sun of the day, and the cold nights and eold 
winds of spring. The next day, with a change of 
wind to north-west, we had quite a storm, the first 
of this experience since we left Adelaide. Con- 
sequently we did not take well to it, and the dinner 
table, at least in its female muster, approached 
*‘ decimation,” the nine-tenths, however, being this 
time decimated instead of the one-tenth. Towards 
midnight, we were glad, like a more illustrious 
voyager of many centuries back, to find some 
shelter under the lee of Crete. The next morning, 
however, dawned beautiful and genial, and the 
morning after, just before daylight, the faithful 
stewards summoned us all to deck for the entrance 
of the picturesque and beautiful LItalo-Sicilian © 
strait. 

There, for three successive and far too rapidly 
speeding hours, we passed a scene which, for the 
beauty of variety, conjoined with its crowding 
classical associations, extending back to the very 


END OF OUR PLEASANT VOYAGE, 329 


dawn of history, was perhaps the most interesting in 
the world. It was not till we were twenty miles 
beyond Messina that grand old Etna cleared up for 
our view, with one half of her 11,000 feet of height 
covered with snow. Stromboli had a dense white 
cap of cloud just upon its top. We presumed it was 
cloud,as we saw the heavier, darker smoke of the 
voleano struggling out from beneath. While we 
looked in the direction of Lipari, a great dense 
smoke arose from its northern extremity, indicating 

* a volcanic outbreak. We all fell to discussing the 
exact cause, some asserting that the island had been 
quiet for centuries, others that it was regularly or 
fitfully active. In any case we regarded a most 
interesting object, and at such safe distance as made 
us rather disposed to welcome a great speciacle ; but 
after an hour or two the thick mass was evidently 
on the wane. After arrival at Naples, we learnt 
that there had been a fresh outbreak in that quarter, 
beginning some few days before, so that what we 
saw was not the first of the eruption. 


The End of our Pleasant Voyage. 


And now, as we steer at our thirteen to fourteen 
knots for Naples, where we are to arrive soon after 
dark, our most pleasant voyage by the “ Orizaba” 
draws to its end, for by telegrams at Port Said we 
find that we must hasten home, to see certain dear 
ones of our circle who are to proceed to that far-off 
Melbourne, from which we have just returned. A 
long voyage is generally credited as an ordeal which 


330 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


exposes accurately what people really are, whether 
good or bad. A young man may safely marry any 
attractive young maiden who, in temper and con- 
duct, has well acquitted herself during an Austra- 
lian voyage. This ordeal has thus its advantage in 
showing and attesting personal excellence better 
perhaps than any other. I am pleasantly reminded 
of this in the attachments we have already formed 
on shipboard. The value of women to society is 
there especially prominent. To have the privilege 
of the constant company of a number of pure- - 
minded, well-educated, and well-conducted women, 
not a few of them clever and well informed besides, 
is something that may alter one’s whole aspect of 
life. I suppose we are to be considered fortunate in 
having every one of our lady cabin passengers 
more or less up to this high mark, as well as to 
have been free of even one ill-conducted male cabin 
passenger. 

Nor were we at all an undistinguished company, 
in matters even beyond “ mere” respectability, if I 
may dare so reckless a way of speaking of so high a 
quality. Besides our own family party, whom, by 
right of the law of opportunity, I will venture to 
speak of first, but will not further discuss, we had 
the wife and daughter of the late distinguished 
political economist, Professor Cairnes, the senior 
charming for her general information, the junior not. 
less so in other and appropriate ways. Next we 
had Mr. and Mrs. May; she a bright young life 
and wife, most pleasant to look upon; he an artistic 
delineator of the first power, attached to the Sydney 


END OF OUR PLEASANT VOYAGE. 331 


illustrated press—a power he exercised at times upon 
some of the more delineative of the passengers, to 
our and their own intense amusement. The couple 
divided just fifty-one years almost exactly between 
them, and there was a mutual devotion which en- 
hanced all their other qualities. 

Then we had a son of “ Thomas Cook and Son,” 
but not possibly the son, seeing he was so young. 
We understood he was the grandson of the original. 
He was travelling, doubtless, to qualify himself to 
succeed his senior. He was a pleasant, intelligent 
young fellow, and could not be called a too preten- 
tious youth, seeing that his distinguished senior had 
attained to the position of the prince of the world’s 
modern business of travel. And, again, we had one 
of those strong practical spirits of young Colonial 
life, who help their respective colonies to run as by 
Mr. Gladstone’s “Jeaps and bounds,” to their fast 
developing destiny. This was Mr. John Wagner, 
whom I have elsewhere occasion to mention as a 
chief proprietor of the Mount Morgan Gold Mine, as 
well as a chief flockmaster of Australia. Although 
already even a millionaire in means, he had a good 
quiet common sense, as though he were only begin- 
ning, instead of ending, his fortune-making. 

We had also our friend Mrs. Stewart, the late 
lady mayoress of great Melbourne, who, like the 
present mayoress, Mrs. Benjamin, of whom I have 
already spoken, was able to entertain and astonish 
us by accounts of the scale and style of the civic 
hospitalities. On the occasions of the balls got up 
during the voyage, she would, in honour of her 


332 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


company of course, array herself in a costly gift of 
diamonds, to our captain’s visible anxiety, in view 
of the opportunities thus afforded to possible dis-— 
honest individuals of crew or passengers. At last, 
on such riskful occasions, he “ detailed” a man to 
watch her cabin. As a robbery of £1500 in bills, 
bank-notes, and gold, had occurred on board during 
the last of these balls, our captain’s precautions were 
not unneeded. Mrs. Stewart, however, could claim 
higher merits than even those associated with her 
public gift of diamonds, for she was the mother of 
no less than twelve sons and daughters born to her 
great Colony. | 

Lastly, we had Mrs. Dickins, who, with her hus- 
band, was returning from a three years’ starring 
upon the Australian stage. Although I have placed 
her the last, that is not because she was the least in 
my category of qualities, but rather because, having 
the most to say of her, she makes my most effective 
ending. Mrs. Dickins rather surprised me by say- 
ing that she did not like the stage, for I remembered 
her successful appearances at the Savoy in the fairy 
way and otherwise, under her stage name of Miss 
Alice Barnet. She, however, had taken to it by 
compulsion of family necessities, which may some- 
what account for the dislike of her vocation, in spite 
of her success. She amused us by some of her 
remarks, She did not like actresses, she said, and 
would never, if she could help it, ask any of them 
to her house, for the bad ones were not, of course, 
to be asked, and the good ones were not worth 
asking. Her tall and robust form told us that it 


END OF OUR PLEASANT VOYAGE. 333 


is only in fairyland that she could possibly dance 
upon a gossamer (whatever that may be) with 
Iolanthe; or, with nimble toe, pass, with the same 
light comrade, along one of Mr. Astronomer Ellery’s 
attenuated three-ply spider thread. But we were not 
to wonder at her high dramatic talent, which she 
showed, in fact, in much of her amusing’ conversa- 
tion, when she proved to be a granddaughter of 
Mrs. Henry Kemble, and a great-grand-niece of the 
still more famous Mrs. Siddons. She was, further, a 
most accomplished pianoforte player and singer, and 
she increased in favour with us every day of our 
acquaintance. 

I may allow myself this opportunity of saying 
that I am myself profoundly affected with the 
importance of “the stage;” that is to say, of the 
dramatic method, alike for instruction and amuse- 
ment. Iregard Mr. Irving as amongst the greatest 
reformers of our age, for his energetic and, so far, 
successful effurts to redeem the cause from its un- 
savoury admixture and surroundings. By way of 
illustrating the superiority of the dramatic method, 
take our Sunday-schools, and suppose that the 
children are set to learn their parts, in the beautiful 
stories, for instance, of Joseph or Ruth. Can any 
one doubt of the additional interest infused into the 
reading of Scripture? Suppose we go just a step 
further, and by a little dress arrangement bring the 
picture still nearer to the actual life. How few of 
the children would willingly absent themselves from 
such life-telling reading as this, and with how much 
more power would the Bible contents go home to 


334 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


them. But all this is the theatre, exclaims old pre- 
judice; and, of all things, the theatre on Sunday! 
Is not this a prejudice very much akin to that against — 
the organ in church worship in Scotland, which took 
its rise, as is, | believe, well understood, from the 
Catholic images that used to adorn the mere outer 
ease! Indeed the dramatic or lifelike method might 
be beneficially extended much beyond Sunday-schools, 
and on Sunday as well as Monday. But I must admit 
that the modern theatre has drifted into bad ways that 
hardly fit it for the Monday, let alone Sunday. 

In conclusion, there is one more of our pleasant 
company whom I must not omit, although not one of 
the passengers. That is our worthy and most effi- 
cient Captain Conlan. He had a rare and rich fund 
of Irish humour, which stood us on many occasions. 
He was devoted to his passengers as well as his ship. 
Those of us who expressed opinions agreed that the 
“Orizaba” voyage, what between the captain and 
the ship, had surpassed, in comfort and enjoyment, 
all previous sea voyaging. 


PART II. 


GENERAL QUESTIONS OF THE COLONIES AND 
THE EMPIRE. 


QuITTING now the itinerary character and _ local 
detail which have been distinctively my subject 
hitherto, I propose to conclude with some remarks 
of a general. kind, upon our Australasian group, 
upon Colonial questious generally, and upon the 
relations of the Colonies and the Empire. 

I propose to discuss these subjects in a series of 
ten separate and distinct Articles, taking them in the 
following order :— 

First, On the prospects for a still improved service 
of intercommunication between England and Aus- 
tralasia. 

Second, On the amelioration of the Australian 
climate. 

Third, On the great and newly developing trade 
in frozen meat. 

Fourth, on the policy of the Empire’s extension. 

Fifth, On the socio-political principles of the 
Empire’s Government. 

Sixth, On the question of freedom or restriction 
in trading for the United Empire. 

Seventh, On Intercolonial Federation, or the 
federating of natural Colonial groups into one 
government, 


336 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Eighth, On the political unity of the entire 
Empire. 

Ninth, Suggestion of a Monarchic - Democratic 
Peerage of the Empire. 

Tenth, The Mount Morgan Gold Mine. 


ARTICLE I. 


ON THE PROSPECT FOR A STILL IMPROVED SERVICE 
OF INTERCOMMUNICATION BETWEEN HOME AND 
AUSTRALASIA. 


Wuen I boarded the “Orizaba’’ off Adelaide, 
and was introduced to a style and convenience of 
passenger accommodation, and to sea qualities, 
speed, and so on, such as I had never experienced 
previously, and perhaps, in some respects, had 
hardly dreamt of, it seems rather a bad turn of 
mind that, after getting used to such luxury, one 
should face about upon the perfection of yesterday, 
in order to convict it as the imperfection of to-day 
and to-morrow. But such is human nature under 
the inevitable doom of progress. Gratitude in 
progress is, like that feeling in: more usual ways, 
a lively sense of what more is to come. 

When our gallant ship, at her thirteen knot speed, 
carried us so easily, pleasantly, quickly, over tempe- 
rate and tropical waters, now forcing through the head 
wind by her powerful screw at but little reduction of 
speed, and again, in the calm and heat, creating for 
us the cooling breeze by her own rapid motion, some 


AN INSPIRING IDEA. 337 


of us might even regret that so pleasant a time must, 
at such rapid pace, be so soon ended. Even thirteen 
knots speed makes our world seem small by the 
rapidity with which we are plunged out of one 
climate into another, and with which we daily run 
down degrees of longitude by the half dozen, in our 
daily race either to meet or to follow after the sun, 
not seldom shortening or lengthening the day by as 
much as a good half-hour. But none the less is one 
aware that well on to twice this speed, and in vessels 
even still larger and more elegant, has been already 
attained on other lines; and the question naturally 
occurs whether the vast commercial development 
now being realised in Australasian business can be 
any longer regarded as second to anything in the 
outside interests of our country. 

Indeed there is something inexpressibly inspiring 
in the idea, that even with the present attainments in 
maritime intercommunication, the Australian passage 
might be made within three weeks, either vid 
Gibraltar and Suez, or round the Cape. When 
France accomplishes her grand canal from the 
Channel to her “ French Lake,” which is surely also 
one of the needs of the day, we shall considerably 
diminish even that brief time. If M. de Lesseps 
completes his second grand canal scheme by 1890, 
as he still hopes, here is a third which, in the com- 
parison, he has no need to despise. But as speed is 
the first consideration now in our locomotion, and as 
water is an obstacle far more serious than air, the 
question arises whether a great ship railway is not 
the more suitable to the other advanced conditions 

Z 


338 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


of the case. Besides the leading consideration of 
speed, would not such a viaduct be more promptly 
made than the other, and be less costly in both the 
required area and the required money? If Paris is 
ever to hope to overtake London, and to retrieve her 
old position as the capital of civilisation, it will be 
by means of such a line, whether viaduct or aque- 
duct; and, if M. de Lesseps constructs that also, he 
must be ranked as beyond ordinary human nature. 
And, finally, when South A ustralia finishes her Trans- 
continental Railway, and there follows that possi- 
bility of modern progress, perhaps withal no great 
distance off, namely, a through line from London to 
Singapore, it may be possible, for any at least to 
whom such mad fury of pace is an object, to reach 
Adelaide, or even Melbourne, from London within 
ten days. 

In these bestirring remarks, one of my objects is 
to prepare our Australian shipping interests for 
what may come upon them, perhaps with disconcert- 
ing suddenness, by a due realisation of the Mount 
Morgan Gold Mine. Those who recollect the effect 
at Home thiriy-six years ago, when Ballarat and 
Mount Alexander were realised, may form some idea, 
albeit probably a faint one, of what will follow upon 
Mount Morgan, in conjunction with the actual effect 
upon the world by the instreaming millions of gold. 
This is a question chiefly of transporting to the far- 
off Antipodes a great multitude of persons, quickly, 
comfortably, and economically, in the great ships of 
to-day, and the still greater of to-morrow. 

One point that particularly struck me regarding, 


SERVICE BETWEEN HOME AND AUSTRALIA. 339 


for instance, our fine “ Orizaba,” that the spacious 
and elegant saloons and drawing-room, and the 
amplitude of deck, were rarely more than merely 
sprinkled by the cabin passengers, and that very 
many more of such passengers could have been 
taken, and quite commodiously distributed there, if 
the dormitory arrangements had been less exacting 
in respect of space. Could we not, for instance, go 
back to the small cubicles that contented the Greeks 
and Romans for the eight hours of night, in view 
of the compensation of sixteen hours of roomy al 
fresco life of the day? The contingency of “ hatches 
down ” in a storm, and of the still adequate ventila- 
tion and endurable condition of a crowd of passen- 
gers in such emergencies, are, of course, of the very 
first consideration, when one would contemplate any 
such great rearrangement of the Australian voyage. 
But, taking things altogether, as it seemed to me, 
the “Orizaba” might have carried almost as com- 
fortably, still more swiftly, and, most important of 
all, much more cheaply, a thousand instead of a 
hundred cabin passengers. 

One more of interesting prospects let me allude 
to, and one perhaps of no remote character. I 
believe it to be well-nigh certain, from what I 
heard while on the spot, that Melbourne will 
invite a visit of the British Association, probably 
for either 1892 or 1893. The time of year selected 
for this great science meeting will likely be either 
the first or the second week of October, when 
the country is covered with the beautiful bloom 
of spring, and when as yet even the more northern 

Z 2 


840 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


and tropical Colonies, to which the visiting will 
no doubt be extended, are still under a pleasant 
or at least a tolerable atmosphere. By help of 
such ample notice, by the attractive facilities of 
such a passenger transit as I have sketched, by all 
the marvels of Mount Morgan, and of a natural his- 
tory almost still in the regions of mystery, the tide 
of passengers may be unprecedented, including, no 
doubt, many high personages of our country, possibly 
not excepting even the very highest. The finest 
ships, like the finest hotels with us of late, will then 
carry the day. And so, O ye rival London shipping 
companies, look out! We must hope that Liverpool 
is not permanently to head you. Let me remind you 
that two of the latest built steamers of the “ Inman” 
Liverpool and American line, the “City of New 
York” and the “ City of Paris,” are each of 10,500 
tons, with an attained maximum speed of nineteen 
knots an hour. Prior to these great twin sisters, the 
palm rested with the Anchor Line’s ss. City of Rome, 
of 8300 tons. The race, however, once begun, goes 
on vigorously, and Messrs. Ismay & Co. are now 
building two vessels, of about 10,000 tons each, of 
improved lines, calculated for still greater speed. Let 
me add, by way of further incentive, that a speed 
of 234 knots an hour has been attained by three 
torpedo boats just completed for the Indian Govern- 
ment. They were built by Thorneycrofts, and their 
speed tested recently (November, 1888) in the 
Thames off Gravesend. In 1892, four more years 
may possibly show an improvement even upon all 
this. 


( 341 ) 


ARTICLE II. 
ON THE AMELIORATION OF THE AUSTRALIAN CLIMATE, 


Iv has often been remarked that, but for the alterna- 
tion of Australian drought, Australian progress 
would be alike beyond all precedent and all concur- 
rent comparisons. The country is mostly ready for 
immediate use, and the powerful sun, in his usually 
cloudless sky, will grow anything with unsurpass- 
able speed, if tempered and abetted by adequate 
moisture. The flatness of the interior seems the 
chief cause of this unfavourable feature. The rain- 
charged clouds, uncaught by inland mountain heights, 
sail on to the surrounding seas, discharging the need- 
less water in that quarter, instead of upon the too- 
thirsty ground. At the height of Australia’s great 
periodical droughts vegetation is all but arrested, 
and domesticated animal life, in many parts, is help- 
lessly sacrificed in a horrible wholesale. The latest 
drought of this description, which, after a very 
general reign over Australia of about three years, 
expired but two years ago, lost to the country twelve 
millions out of about fifty to sixty millions of sheep, 
«besides much cattle.” 

One of the many peculiarities of this most peculiar 
of countries is this intermittent rainless interval. 
If the evil be not obviated in some way by the 
progress of art and science, the rapid growth of 
the country’s interests ever supplies a more and 
more crowded field of victims. But all the 
Colonies thus affected have latterly been untiring 


342 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


in remedial application, chiefly by means of irri- 
gation. Private effort has followed, in many 
cases has preceded, that of the Government. The 
numerous great creek beds are being dammed up, 
and artesian boring is extensively and_success- 
fully undertaken. As regards the latter, for in- 
stance, one of the very latest cases is thus reported 
from the far interior of New South Wales: “A 
splendid supply of artesian water has been struck 
at a depth of 823 feet at Tambo. The water is 
overflowing the surface, and the supply is im- 
proving.” 

The great business of tiding through even years of 
drought ordeal with the great flocks and herds of the 
interior is seldom very dangerous, if there be the 
manifold resource of water. My friend Mr. Wagner, 
who is further alluded to in connection with the great 
Mount Morgan Mine, gave me an illustration of what 
could be done by this sole resource towards securing 
safety to squatting interests. Having joined some 
others in the purchase of a great pasturage, with a 
multitude of stock, in the northern part of New South 
Wales some eight years ago, the first few years’ results 
of what I may call unameliorated squatting, involv- 
ing the partnership, as it did, in £30,000 of loss, 
instead of expected profit, produced that energetic 
despair which usually precedes success. As the total 
failure of local water had been the chief cause of loss, 
so the securing of that element became the chief aim 
of the series of ‘improvements.’ The large creek 
or river the Namoi, which, although only itself an 
intermittent stream, had chains of large deep holes 


= -=) 


THE AUSTRALIAN CLIMATE. 343 


or reaches of water which were never empty, passed 
at forty miles’ distance from their station. But a 
creek bed, which wound through their own run, 
touched a point in its course within half a mile of 
the Namoi. On this river at this point a steam 
pumping engine was erected, with a pipe for the 
half-mile of about eighteen inches in diameter, and 
at the beginning of each summer the smaller creek 
bed was duly filled with water from the larger. All 
this was accomplished within an expense of £10,000; 
and the happy result was that, during even that 
latest and perhaps severest of Australian droughts 
ever there experienced, not one animal was lost 
throughout its continuance. 

Such an example as this, together with countless 
others, have aroused a very genera! attention to such 
obvious remedies. Nor is the advantage merely 
economic in regard to the live stock, or even, in 
further extension, to the irrigation of crops. The 
climatic amelioration and the sanitary advantages 
are at least equaliy important. The too-well-known 
hot winds, so prevalent during midsummer at Mel- 
bourne, because they pass over a long stretch of 
desiccated interior to the North West, are tempered 
at once by a good shower of rain. “ Sturt’s Desert,” 
beyond Cooper’s Creek, where the intrepid traveller 
had nearly ended his days, is supposed to be the 
fertile factory of these winds, when its vast area is, 
as Sturt found it, a perfectly waterless Sahara. But, 
in the odd contradictions of Australian climatology, 
where Sturt found this hopeless desert in 1845, Mac 
Kinlay, in search of Leichhardt in 1862, was as 


344 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


nearly overwhelmed with water, the wide and deep 
creek beds being filled up to their very brims, and 
not seldom by five or even ten feet higher, with — 
the whole country running with water, and for a 
time progress through it only possible by refuge 
on the very top of the backs of the camels with 
which the party travelled. Melbourne, we may be 
sure, had but little of hot winds that year, but I 
perfectly recollect that the summer of Sturt’s visit, 
that of 1844-5, was one of unusual drought and hot 
wind in Victoria, as was another six years later, 
whose culminating day has since borne the dis- 
tinguishing title of Black Thursday. That day was 
the 6th of February, 1851, and I recollect this later 
occasion even more clearly than the other, The 
destruction of property over the Colony was un- 
precedented and enormous. But the accumulated 
precautions since taken render now the recurrence 
of such a calamity impossible. 3 


ARTICLE III. 
{HE GREAT FROZEN MEAT TRADE OF AUSTRALASIA. 


THE great resource of curing or preserving the sur- 
plus meat of these pastoral Colonies, so as to fit it 
for the limitless market awaiting it at Home, came 
early before the colonists. I recollect this trade of 
the future struggling into its first existence in Mel- 
bourne and Geelong during the year 1844, when, 


THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE. 345 


after two or three preceding years of bad business, 
sheep and cattle had fallen to so low a price, that 
the best market for the time was to render them 
into tallow. The alternative resource of curing the 
meat for food for the Home market was concur- 
rently tried, and what passed as “a good amount” 
in those days of small things was sent Home, espe- 
cially of good colonial beef, packed, slightly salted, in 
strong, tight barrels. Not much came of all this. 
No one, I think, made a profit of it. The arts of 
a trade of delicate manipulation like that are not 
acquired at once. It was superseded by the rise of 
live stock prices with the return of good business 
times beginning in 1845. In these attempts the 
New South Wales people participated, and were 
even a year before those of Port Phillip. 

When flesh meat began to get once more super- 
abundant a few years later, the mode in favour this 
time was that of packing the meat in ice—a very 
risky as well as costly method, for, if by any unfore- 
seen accident the ice ran out, the whole stock had to 
be at once thrown into the sea. It was reserved for 
science to show that all this might be easily accom- 
plished without any risk, and almost also without 
any cost. Nature supplies free and ready to our 
hand the chief materials. Air is compressed. The 
heat thus created is cooled by the sea. ‘The cooled 
compressed air is then released into an airtight 
chamber containing the meat, and any required 
degree of cold is secured. 

I have no record as to when exactly this new 
system began, or where. It was at work in Aus- 


346 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


tralia some time before appearing in New Zealand. 
Amongst the earliest in the latter Colony was Mr. 
Gear, of Wellington, who, about six years ago, 
began on a modest scale to tin the meat, and asa 
collateral branch to institute the newer freezing 
system. He sold his interests to a company, and 
this concern, as I have already stated, has consider- 
ably extended operations. Only three years since 
did Christchurch take up this trade, of which it is 
now the acknowledged head. The Belfast Works, 
where this start was made, are about eight miles 
outside the city, and there is already an energetic 
rivalry, which promises a trade upon a scale which, 
as having arisen so recently, is probably much 
greater, present and prospective, than our general 
public have any idea of. . 

I am favoured with much of my later information 
from my intelligent fellow-passenger per “ Orizaba,” 
Mr. Snowdon, who returns from a New Zealand 
visit made in connection with large interests in this 
new trade. I am further indebted to this friend for 
turning my attention to a most practical letter on 
the whole subject, written so lately as last September 
by Mr. Alexander McHardy, sheep farmer of Black- 
head, New Zealand, who went to England in the 
present year, 1888, with the object of improving the 
Home arrangements for the sale of frozen meat. 

The Colonial flockmasters, or their local agents, or 
local buyers, have had some reason to be dissatisfied 
with the results to them of the earlier inauguration 
of the great meat trade. The Home butchers, acting 
in the wholesale way, have, as the old story of 


THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE. 347 


human nature, uniformly preferred their own 
interests to those of any one else. Account sales have 
been returned from London at 33d. per pound, which 
left only the odd fraction for the price to the Colonial 
grower, while the 100 per cent. upon 33d. paid by the 
consumer was supposed to have passed into a hocus- 
pocus, which defied impertinent actuarial investiga- 
tion. This was merciless at least, if not illegally 
dangerous. But the professional mercilessness of 
butchers excluded them from the jury-list of early 
England, and how can they be even superior to other 
men now? It is to be hoped that none of these par- 
ticular butchers, with so much else upon their con- 
sciences, were parties to the scandalous trick, which 
seems to have been quite common in some quarters, 
until threatened with the law, of regularly ticketing 
River Plate mutton as New Zealand, the quality of 
the latter being always markedly superior. The 
River Plate, in fact, is a most formidable opponent ; 
but, although its carcases are large and well put on, 
the quality of the meat is inferior, as the nature of 
the grass seems unfavourable to good flavour. 

When I heard these various complaints as I 
passed lately through New Zealand, I predicted that 
the complainant’s turn would soon come. He had 
only to do his article justice, not merely by its 
quality, but by having it always, in regular and 
adequate supply, in its market. 

This end has already come, accelerated, no doubt, 
by the reaction of business in New Zealand, which 
has at last begun a decidedly prosperous develop- 
ment. The butchers cannot get their full possibili- 


348 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


ties of profit without adequate quantity, and they 
cannot get the increased quantity without advancing 
the price to the grower very considerably above his 
starvation allowance of jd. net per pound. That 
price, even as a casual minimum, is now wholly past. 
The latest agreement which I have noted allows him 
24d., and Mr. Snowdon tells me that the Colonial 
market is already so strong, that even that price will 


not now be generally accepted by the flockmasters. — 
Within only the last six months, he says, the price of 


the net carcase of a fat sheep, of 56 to 60 Ibs. 
weight, trimmed and ready for freezing, is up from 
8s. or 10s. to 16s. 

The pace of this trade may be judged by that of 
the Belfast Works, where already the operations 
have reached 300,000 sheep carcases a year, besides 
some considerable business in bullocks. The Com- 
pany are making arrangements for twice that quan- 
tity next year. Although this is the largest indivi- 
dual scale, yet there are other like establishments at 
Dunedin, Wellington, Napier, and I think one or 
two other places in New Zealand, besides others in 
Australia. The former Colony bids strongly for 
eventually the whole of this great trade, because she 
can at once breed more rapidly and produce the 
better quality. Mr. McHardy, with the skill of a 
man who is master of his own business, throws out 
various hints towards “ finish”’ in the set out of the 
carease, by which it looks better in the eye of the 
buyer. The kidneys, for instance, are usually taken 
out as “tit bits” for separate disposal, but the fat 


a ee ee al 


should remain for the “ filling-up” effect. The — 


THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE. 349 


kidney trade, by the way, is one of the curiosities. 
They are packed in such handy articles as old one- 
dozen brandy cases, said to be still very plentiful in 
“Coffee Palace” Australasia. In their frozen state 
they are as hard as pebble stones, and might stand a 
good deal of the hammer. In some everlastingly 
Greenland climate they might even be cut and 
polished, with a fine pebbly interior. 

The total New Zealand shipment for this year 
cannot be much short of a million sheep carcases. 
What it might rise to during the next few years 
‘may be difficult to calculate, seeing it depends on 
varying contingencies. The fact that, as Mr. Mc- 
Hardy remarks, the favourite age in the sheep is no 
more than from one to two years, the days of “ five- 
year-old mutton” having now passed away, is 
favourable to enormous possibilities of supply, while 
the advancing price will lead to a much quicker 
breeding system than there was any occasion, or 
temptation, for under the low prices lately reigning. 
New Zealand has now not very much short of 
twenty millions of sheep.* J am not qualified to 
predict how many millions she could yearly export 
out of such a capital of stock, and yet maintain or 
increase the fund. Perhaps more experience is 
required to decide this important question. 


* The number of sheep in the various Australasian Colonies, 
on Ist of April, 1888, was no less than 96,462,038. New South 
Wales had 47 millions, or nearly one half; Victoria, nearly 
11 millions; Queensland, 13 millions; South Australia, about 
7 millions; West Australia, 2 millions; Tasmania, one and a 
half millions, while New Zealand had as yet but 15,236,000. 


300 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


ARTICLE IV. 
ON THE POLICY OF THE EMPIRE'S EXTENSION. 


] ruink that I may venture to say that, until hardly 
ten years ago, the policy of our Government had 
been one of opposition to the Empire’s further ex- 
tension. The expenses were one cause, for our 
Mother had wholly or chiefly to bear the expense, 
the Colonies not having as yet got into the habit of 
doing without her, as they had by no means the 
financial strength they have now attained. Another 
cause was a lingering feeling that the Empire’s 
flanks were additionally exposed to possible enemies 
by every addition made to assailable territory. 
Meanwhile quite an opposite view was being held 
in the Colonies, or at least the Australasian Colonies, 
brought practically in contact, as they were, with 
the French in adjacent New Caledonia. To our 
colonists, therefore, it appeared that the greatest 
safety to the Empire, and its best chances for com- 
plete freedom from foreign complications, lay in our 
annexing to that Empire every uncivilised and 
unclaimed region throughout the vast area of our 
trade and colonisation. And this the colonists 
thought we might reasonably do, either negatively, 
from such areas being unclaimed by other powers, 
or, positively, from their being morally ours by the 
fact that it was our adjacent colonisation that gave 
them any economic value. So long as there was no 
such value, other powers were indifferent to these 
areas, but, when the successive contact of our advane- 


CASE OF NEW GUINEA. 351 


ing settlements gives them that value, other powers 
are then alive with interest, and eager to share the 
spoil. 


Case of New Guinea. 


The case of New Guinea is our best illustration, 
both from the magnitude and prospective im- 
portance of the place, and from the fact that, in 
the complications attending it of late, nearly all 
possible principles or contingencies now affecting the 
Empire's extension arise. 

New Guinea is so vast a country, it makes so 
prominent a figure upon the world’s chart, together 
with its golden name and its fame as one of the 
sunny tropics, that one wonders that it should until 
quite lately have been so little coveted or even thought 
of colonially, by any of the powers, including even 
our own Government. But the truth is that early 
private colonising efforts, begun from Sydney as far 
back as 1864, had come to so little good, the place 
being so far from markets, and so really unknown as 
to resources, that, until quite recently, every succes- 
sive trial was abandoned. The only parties who had 
the courage and perseverance to stick to their work 
were the English missionaries, who, scattered over 
the eastern shores of the Gulf of Papua, made sub- 
stantial way with increasing numbers of the native 
children. The earliest claim to New Guinea was 
made by the Dutch, who, in 1828, took possession, 
but in a purely formal way, of all the western moiety 
of the great island as far as 141° east longitude. 
They completed this merely nominal act by estab- 


352 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


lishing a small fort, which however, as well as, 
in a practical sense, all the rest of this business, 
was entirely abandoned within a very few years 
after. 

The New Guinea question opens with us in 
earnest about fifteen years ago, when in the Austra- 
lian Colonies on the one side, and in the Royal 
Colonial Institute on the other, the annexation began 
to be urged upon the Home Government. The 
“masterly inaction” of the latter enabled them for 
some time to beat off these disturbing enemies of 
the official peace. But the cry became at last so 
loud and so repeated, that the old Mother became 
uncomfortable. The voice from the Colonies got 
ever stronger for annexation, and the Colonial Office 
had by this time so far changed its colonial tactics 
as to appear even extremely attentive to the expressed 
wishes of colonists. 

Meanwhile, that which alone was giving New 
Guinea any value as a colonial territory, namely, the 
near approach of the settlements of our adjacent 
Australia, was in full irrepressible.tide until, a few 
years ago, it had already extended to the furthest 
northern extremity, where Cape York almost touches 
south-eastern New Guinea. It was, therefore, high 
time when, in 1883, Sir Thomas Mellwraith, then 
Premier of Queensland, alike on that Colony’s and 
on the Empire’s behalf, annexed all unclaimed New 
Guinea, that is to say, east of 141 E. long. 

Now follows a series of blundering which some 
few years hence may be looked back to with blank 
amazement. Sir Thomas may, perhaps, be accused 


CASE OF NEW GUINEA. 353 


of beginning the blundering, because he acted with- 
out that proper imperial authority which a course 
of telegraph might possibly have then secured him; 
and thus he exposed the Imperial Government to 
a very cruel alternative as between Imperial interests 
and their own-amour propre ; whichever alternative 
prevailed, the result was that Sir Thomas's other- 
wise timely action was not endorsed. 

Sir Thomas had assigned. as his reasons that 
the possession of New Guinea was useful to the 
Empire, and especially to Queensland; and that 
its possession by any foreign Power would be 
disadvantageous in the same direction. Blunder 
number one has been alluded to, and we may 
regard as number two, that the Empire’s real and 
_ full claim to the eastern section, if not, indeed, to 
entire New Guinea, was on account of that com- 
pleted Australian settlement which had solely given 
to it its now commencing value. This, the best 
part of our case, was in no way alluded to; but, 
in the blundering that succeeded, Sir Thomas was 
utterly outstripped at the Colonial Office. There 
is a grim irony in Lord Derby’s answer to Sir 
Thomas, to the effect that the apprehension in 
Australia that some foreign Power was about to 
occupy New Guinea appeared to be indefinite and 
unfounded, when, only seven months afterwards, 
namely, in December 1884, Germany formally 
annexed the northern moiety, including the magnifi- 
cent tropical islands of New Britain and New Ive- 
land. As if to perplex the case beyond all explica- 
tion, our Government, two months prior to this final 

2A 


bot AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


climax, had appropriated only the southern moiety 
of what the Dutch had left in 1828.* 

Of all foreign Powers amongst us, we probably 
the least object to the Germans. They are almost 
our second selves. We shall never be at war with 
Germany. Still, by needless delay and incredible 
negligence in this New Guinea case, we may have 
involved ourselves in future trouble, at least of a 
commercial kind. The German press has’ been 
lately in very bad temper on this question. We 
are accused by it of grasping everything for our- 
selves in this colonising way, and grudging anything 
whatever to others. Of course this view is natural 
where there has been no trouble taken to look at all 
sides of the case. Regarding the past of New 
(Juinea, Germany has been simply looking on (f 
indeed, she has shown interest even to that extent), 
while we have been long and continuously preparing 
a harvest. But, as soon as the harvest is ripe, she 
steps in, and helps herself to the half of it. Not 
only does Germany seem wholly unconscious of any- 
thing unreasonable in this procedure, but—possibly 
to infuse some humour into the case—she even 
assumes to be in a pet at the Australian colonists for 
raising the question. 


* T am indebted for dates and events here, as well as for 
much else, to that compendium of everything on its subject, 
“ Gordon and Gotch’s Australasian Handbook.” 

+ Germany has more recently crossed us again with some 
abnormal proceedings at Samoa, of which territory the Germans, 
the United States, and ourselves have, by agreement, made joint 
prize. Germany here, however, has been long in the colonial 


oe) & Sainte 


CASE OF NEW GUINEA. 355 


The position of Holland, if she does still claim 
Western New Guinea, after having totally aban- 
doned it for sixty years, is hardly better than that 
of Germany. Now that we have given possible or 
probable value to the part she had deserted, she 
may possibly think to reclaim it. Probably it will 
never yield her a florin of benefit, as is the common 
experience in such colonies. Australasia had best 
make her an offer of money for it, involving an 
amount that could hardly be any comparative con- 
sideration to such an advanced and advancing sec- 
tion of our Ennpire. 

Our policy of making every country welcome to 
our colonial settlements, and on the same terms even 
as we give ourselves, makes our colonial extensions 
acceptable generally to all other countries. No 
other nation acts in this way. We might still, 
therefore, recover also, of course not now without 
a “ consideration,” this German New Guinea moiety 
which has slipped us. I have spoken of the Canary 


Islands and “The Rock” as a matter of exchange. 


field, so that this is not another mere New Guinea case. Well, 
Germany thinks fit to declare war against the nominal Samoan 
king (surely the most fainéant of monarchs), and thereupon she 
exacts belligerent rights, from which even the other two “ pro- 
tecting ” Powers are not exempted. That is tosay, that Samoa, 
having been appropriated as savage, is now made war upon by 
the rules applicable to civilised condition. Australia might 
excusably cumplain, as, indeed, she has already done, that such 
foreign interventions were a serious danger to her interests; 
for her shipping and contents might possibly at any time be 
captured or destroyed under such unexpected and contradictory 
proceedings. 


356 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


There is another spot, in another sea, which might, 
antithetically to “ the Rock,” but not incorrectly, be 
called “The Sand,” which past accidents gave us, 
when there was no expectation of a great German 
Empire at its back door, and to which, on all con- 
siderations, it properly belongs. Another exchange 
here might get us back our purloined, may I call 
it, New Guinea. Lastly, our friends across the 
Channel might, for perhaps the matter of a better 
position in Egypt, where in any case some ‘early 
change seems demanded of us, give up another batch 
of southern islands, which, without being, on a 
balance of accounts, of the slightest economic advan- 
tage to them, are not unlikely to be, in various ways, 
as regards our far too adjacent Australasia, only a 
permanent trouble to both France and ourselves.* 


ARTICLE V. 


THE QUESTION OF FREEDOM OR RESTRICTION IN THE 
EMPIRE'S TRADING. 


Wuen our Empire pulls itself together in that form 
of unity which will give to it all the power and 
influence in the world that is possible to its cireum- 


* The French Government, it is understood, intimated lately 
an intention to cease sending convicts to New Caledonia. This 
would certainly remove the strongest of Australian objections, 
and prove a grateful concession. But, after that, what interest 
worth considering very much about, as regards New Caledonian 
commerce, would remain to France? 


AN ECONOMIC PARLIAMENT. 357 


stances, and which, I am assured, its people now 
feel to be, every day, more and more an imperative 
duty and obligation, the great question which heads 
this article will be opened almost at once over its 
entire area. I have elsewhere stated that prelimi- 
nary tariff agreement, however much to be preferred, 
is not at all indispensable to Imperial unity, if for no 
other than this obvious reason, that, when politically 
united, we shall be no worse as to tariff diversity 
than now, while we are immensely better by the 
political unity; and the political unity, if accom- 
_ plished, will have a powerful tendency to bring 
about this comparatively secondary consideration of 
the tariff unity. 


First Attempt at an Economic Parliament of the 
Empire. 

The only experience we have to guide us as to the 
possible or probable result of a consensus of the 
Empire on this great trade question is furnished by 
the results of the summons sent forth, eight years 
ago, by the chief Canadian “ Board of Trade” to the 
Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, to meet by 
proportionate representation in London, in order to 
discuss the question of the possible “ improvement 
of the trade relations of the Empire.” There was 
a general, although not an universal, acceptance of 
the invitation, and delegates from far and near 
were gathered together into an economic parliament, 
which certainly might claim to be one of the most 
interesting, not to say important, events of the kind 
which the Empire had witnessed. 


308 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


The meeting took place in February 1881, in the 
Westminster Palace Hotel, and was attended by a 
decided majority of the Chambers invited, including 
the Home Associated Chambers. As London was 
then without a Chamber, which, however, was esta- 
blished later on in that very year, the eight members 
assigned to the commercial metropolis of the world 
were not forthcoming, leaving London unable to 
speak her views. As I appeared as one of the repre- 
sentatives of the Melbourne Chamber, and took some 
part in the discussions, I may briefly here allude to 
what resulted. 

No one entertained, from the first, a doubt about 
the real object of the Canadian movement. Canada, 
three years before, had decided to pass from com- 
parative freedom of trading for her labour products 
to very considerable exchange restrictions upon 
her own industry. She wished now to sound the 
prospect as to applying like restrictions throughout 
the Empire, with the effect of reserving each other’s 
markets, and excluding or substantially handicapping 
the foreigner. There was a substantial protectionist 
force in the Congress to abet the Canadian view, 
coming chiefly, besides Canada herself, from the 
Cape and the West Indies; but the trading freedom 
of the Parent, supported as it was generally by the 
Home chambers, and by the decided majority of 
those of Australasia and India, carried the case 
against Canadian expectation, and thus led to 
Canada’s early ceasing to take further interest in 
the very important movement which she had inaugu- 
rated, That movement, therefore, dropped, and has 


THE QUESTION AS TO THE EMPIRE. 309 


not since been resumed. We learn lately, however, 
that a similar movement is now proposed, at the 
instance, this time, of the Dominion Government. 


The General Question as to the Empire. 


Perhaps we must now regard it as impossible, 
after so many years’ experience, to hope that this con- 
tention will ever be settled by a purely economic argu- 
ment. Ifa company of traders were to meet for the 
purpose of deciding whether they should choose for 
their money one pile of miscellaneous values of the 
amount of £20,000, or a rival pile of like miscel- 
laneous values of the amount of £25,000, it can hardly 
be doubted that even the most crotchety-minded of 
the party would never hesitate as to the choice. But 
evidently it is to be quite another matter, when we 
consider a pre-stage of our case, namely, those labour 
dispositions which are calculated to produce the 
larger pile, as compared with those which are to 
produce the smaller pile of labour-product. Econo- 
mists from Adam Smith downwards have demon- 
strated over and over again, and each one clearer 
than the other, that a system of freedom of exchange 
must produce a larger labour product than a system 
of restricted exchange; and that to divert labour, 
from the natural tendency which it has to take the 
most profitable channel, into a channel that is less 
productive, but which is made to yield profit by 
imposition of a higher price, must surely result in 
the smaller product. But all this demonstration 
seems utterly unavailing to convince the protec- 


360 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


tionist, who shrouds himself in selections, partly of 
facts, partly of fancies, by which he has convinced 
himself that to be protected must be better than to 
be unprotected, that we should exclude imports that 
compete with or undersell our own producers, that 
we should get all we can out of our own soil, instead 
of buying the product of foreign soils, and that as 
the general rule we should reserve our own market 
for our own people, and not for strangers. 

The fallacy in all this jingling of words is that 
it puts the minor interest in the place of the major, 
and the interest of the few in that of the many. 
Every society, in its individuals or classes, especially 
those of new countries and colonies, may be said to be 
workers or producers of some kind, and their chief 
interest is that no sections of individuals or classes 
amongst them be specially favoured at the expense 
of all the rest. 

But, after these principles have been enunciated 
for a thousand and one times, we must needs, as 
experience shows, abandon them, so far at least as to 
the hope of any conviction they are ever to carry to 
the other side. There is, however, one better hope, 
namely, that of the increased influence of the parent, 
after the whole family have been united under one 
effective government. Hitherto influence and in- 
fluential example have been somewhat the sport of 
accident for either side. Merchants are influenced 
to free trade by their obvious interests, through 
which they easily create and store up their ready 
arguments, much as farmers and manufacturers are 
influenced in just the opposite direction, and easily 


THE QUESTION AS TO THE EMPIRE. 361 


rear up a pile of the opposite arguments. Probably 
most of our merchants, however convinced of free 
trade, would soon lose their logical sequences in an 
argument with a smart and well-practised protec- 
tionist, who would possibly smash them all round as 
effectually as the squire did Moses, by showing that 
“‘the concatenation of self-existences, proceeding in 
a reciprocal duplicate ratio, naturally tends to 
produce a problematical dialogism, which goes to 
prove that” protection is secure prosperity, and free 
trading is the ready road to ruin. 

_ This parental influence, as I have said, will tell 
when the Empire in union comes to consider this 
question, and I have no doubt whatever that this 
influence, gentle, leading, guiding, will eventually 
prevail even to every Colony of the Empire. It is 
marvellous how the sense of being under one great 
government rids us of the small and the separative 
in our ideas. In speaking of inter-colonial federa- 
tion I ventured to predict that, when Australasians 
felt that they were under one and the same colonial 
government, those small and separative tendencies 
that resulted in such anomalies as intercolonial border 
duties, and at times all but border bloodshed, would 
gradually and even rapidly die out. And much 
more so, let us hope and trust, will it be with the 
United Empire. 


362 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


ARTICLE VI. 


ON THE SOCIO-POLITICAL PRINCIPLES OF THE 
EMPIRES GOVERNMENT, 


Tue only point that is in question here relates to the 
government of the tropical parts of our Empire— 
those countries where our countrymen either cannot 
or will not labour, or where, even if willing, it is 
undesirable, on public grounds, that they should 
labour, as the result would be injurious and even 
destructive to the race; and where, therefore, if 
such places are to go forward to their economic pos- 
sibilities of destiny, it must be by coloured labour. 

Then comes the question as to the form of Colonial 
Government for such countries and their mdispens- 
able coloured populations. If we give them consti- 
tutionally free administration, that will mean either 
the supremacy of the few of white race, and a prac- 
tical slavery to the many others; or it may mean, 
as the alternative, some egregious political fiasco. 
The question, then, is, should not such countries be 
always administered as Crown Colonies? 

One might have supposed that, as for instance, in 
the case of Queensland, the socially and numerically 
overweighting southern section of her great area 
might readily control the northern; that in short 
the former might act towards the latter as the 
“Crown” or Home Government itself might do, so 
as to check those legislative enactments, or those 
practices, which have the objectionable tendency. 
And, no doubt, some such action might be expected 


THE TROPICAL SETTLEMENTS. 363 


if colonial politics were not liable to extremes of 
views and action, which may go very injuriously 
indeed beyond all that was necessary for the precise 
object in question. 

This was very clearly seen in the case of Queens- 
land herself. The political parties ranged themselves, 
inter alia, for or against “ Kanaka” labour, and the 
acrimony of party, together with some difficulty in 
“ drawing the line,” soon made the Kanaka, or dark- 
labour question one for the entire colony, tropical 
or non-tropical, with the consequence that, for an 
inexorable party triumph, the sugar and_ other 
plantation interests of Northern Queensland were 
sacrificed and nearly ruined, with the grossest 
injustice to individuals, and with serious injury to 
the country. 


The Tropical Settlements to be under Crown 
Government. 


The principle, I think, should be recognised as 
general for the Empire, that all tropical territory, 
depending for its development upon dark labour, 
should remain permanently under Crown Govern- 
ment. Ithas been suggested that, after Australasian 
federation, tropical Australasia may be left to the 
Federal Colonial Government, as in itself an approach 
to that imperial breadth of basis which ensures the 
disinterested and the equitable. This is not to be 
denied, and it may arise for consideration upon the 
fait accompli. But in the mean time let the Imperial 
Government retain what it has, and, further, initiate 


364 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


a movement to get back what it has inadvertently 
let slip, more especially as I feel sure that, with 
some good management, this result will not be at all 
difficult of attainment. 

Lord Knutsford may be said to have inaugurated 
the right course by reserving, from lat. 26° north- 
wards, the tropical parts of the great territory of 
West Australia. In any case, indeed, the handful 
of colonists at the south-western angle around Cape 
Leeuwin, could hardly have been conceded any more 
for the present. Later on, with the Colony’s increase, 
there may be some still further extension of territory 
northwards towards true tropical conditions, which, 
in Australia’s peculiarly dry climate, may pass even 
a little inside the geographical tropical line of 23$°. 

As to the question of recovering, for Crown 
government, the northern or tropical territories of 
South Australia and Queensland, it is certain that, 
as population increases in these parts, there will 
be an irresistible movement for separation from the 
control of the respective southern territories, with 
their climate, their vocations, and their interests 
generally so different. This movement is already 
at work in- Queensland, and by-and-by it will come 
on at Port Darwin also. This is the Home 
Government’s opportunity; and there might be 
a good effect towards the end in view by some 
understanding that separation would readily be 
granted on agreement to the Crown Colony con- 
dition. Every flockmaster and planter, I doubt not, 
would, by the instincts of his interests, agree to this 
condition, both because it secures him from the 


4 


~~ aa 


INTER-COLONIAL FEDERATION. 365 


uncertain political economics of a working class of 
miners, Which may be, numerically, political master 
of the situation, and because he is thus likely, and 
in ways and measures quite free from invidious 
suspicions and precautions, to be, almost by infinity, 


better supplied with his indispensable coloured 
labour. 


ARTICLE VII. 


ON INTER-COLONIAL FEDERATION ; OR THE UNION OF 
NATURAL COLONIAL GROUPS INTO ONE SUB- 
IMPERIAL POWER AND GOVERNMENT. 


The Australasian Case. 


So far as theory is concerned, the very great 
majority of Colonies and colonists have, I think, 
undoubtedly pronounced for Inter-colonial Feder- 
ation, the object being, of course, as with the further 
question or step of the Unity of the whole Empire, a 
subject I am next to deal with, to attain the greatest 
power and influence, together with the greatest 
wisdom of government, possible to all the circum- 
stances. 

The only difference of view which I have met 
with, on this inter-colonial federating question 
worth noticing, is one which is still entertained by 
some few colonists, who included in their number the 
late Mr. Foster of Sydney, ex-Premier of New 
South Wales. Mr. Foster did not, I think, from 


566 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


my recollection of a discussion with him on the 
subject when he was in England, either deny or 
ignore the benefits of the federation above alluded to; 
but he had the impression, or, call it, the suspicion, 
that a united and strong Australasia would have a 
tendency to depart from the Mother more pro- | 
nounced than in the comparatively helpless cases of 
individual colonies. In my late Australasian tour I 
met with some, although comparatively few, who 
still held that view. It was an entirely loyal oppo- 
sition, if it amounted to opposition, prompted by the 
fear that such a step might, in the way assumed, 
prove unfavourable to the cherished unity of the 
Empire. 


Guidance of the Canadian Case. 


This is a very important consideration, if there 
were any reality in its view. Happily we have, in 
the case of the Canadian Dominion, a realisation 
which is at entire variance with that view. No one 
can now doubt that our federated North American 
Colonies are in a position which is in every way 
better, alike for the Empire’s cause and for them- 
selves. The Canadian Dominion, as such, in com- 
parison with the preceding individualism, is at once 
more Joyal to the Empire, less troublesome to the 
parent Government, less uncertain in its political 
procedure, and more mutually amicable and politically 
contented amongst themselves. 


THE CASE OF QUEENSLAND. 367 


Exceptional Cases: Queensland. 


Indeed, had Mr. Foster lived until now, he might 
have seen, in his Australian group itself, reasons 
for coming to quite an opposite conclusion, An 
oceasional fractiousness of political temper which 
has been shown of late, particularly in Queensland, 


would certainly, as I think, disappear in an Austra- 
lasian Dominion. I am not able to say by what 
accidents of the past this Colony, as represented in 
this matter by one of its political parties, took a 
“national” or independent direction In this 
respect, as a Colony of Englishmen, it has differed 
from all the other Colonies of Englishmen of the 
group. I therefore attach the less importance to the 
indication. This latter view.is strengthened by the 
fact that the McIlwraith party, which leads the so- 
called Nationalists, is associated with the squatting 
and planting interest, which, as the rule in Australia, 
is the most loyal of all. The Griffith (anti-national- 
ist) party goes with the “ democracy,” who, if there is ~ 
any real or supposed separative or republican ten- 
dency, may be expected to represent it rather than 
the other. 

Again, in this direction of guidance as to any 
depth of reality in this “national”? movement, we 
have the motto of the said party, “ Alliance, not 
Dependence,” the final word indicating, now at least, 
and for years past, an entire misapprehension, as the 
views at Home, alike of Government and people, are 
for the unity of the Empire pases a perfectly equal 
political basis. 


368 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


But, even if this separative feeling be really so 
much of the mere surface as I find reason to assume 
it to be, it may still have its inconveniences at 
times, in the present political individualism of Aus- 
tralasia, and in particular at times when this national 
party of Queensland happened to be in a majority in 
the political representation of the Colony, upon any 
question arising that might be held to touch the 
party interest. And, no doubt, this has been one 
cause, although not the sole cause, of the movement 
in opposition to the late appointment of Governor, by 
which, as now undoubtedly appears, the Colony lost, 
to say the least of it; a decidedly super-average man. 
Another case of like local party bearing is the un- 
expected refusal of Queensland, at the last moment, 
and after preliminary assent, to join all the others 
of the group in the naval defence arrangement with 
the parent government. 

Nor must we ignore that this step as to the 
Governor, unusual, or rather unprecedented, as it 
was, has been partially supported by some of the 
other Colonies. And thus we see how delicate a 
situation may at times arise for the Imperial 
Government, which, in conceding to its offshoots the 
constitutional political freedom which itself enjoys, 
has given them a practically free hand. But 
Victoria has, I am sure, spoken the true colonial and 
Joyal feeling of the group of our brother Englishmen 


at the antipodes, as indicated first by the deliberate ~ 


refusal of the Premier to join in supporting Queens- 
land, and afterwards by the Assembly, when Sir 
Bryan O’Loughlan pressed the question to a division, 


GOVERNORSHIP OF QUEENSLAND. 369 


by such an almost unheard-of majority nowadays as 
59 to 3. 

This question of appointment of governor is 
happily now at rest, Queensland having loyally 
accepted the second nomination. A suggestion had 
been thrown out in what seemed an “ inspired” * 
direction, to the effect that the Colonies might arrive 
at some special understanding on governor nomin- 
ationships. If that meant any form whatever of 
prior submission of any proposed governor to the 
ministry of the day of any Colony, it appears to me 
of utterly mischievous tendency. The frequent 
acrimony of colonial party is enough to prove this. 
A governor who has come in under the auspices 
of one party in power may be all the less 
welcome with the next. I am glad to see Lord 
Knutsford’s recent firm language on this vital point. 
But all Australia knows well enough that this 
Queensland embroglio was fundamentally Irish ; 
which indeed only emphasises my remarks in the 
postscript to this article, on the importance of 
colonial Irish sympathy in the cause of their Home 
countrymen. The real point is not the demurring 
of colonists at some Home appointment, seeing that 
liberty of speech and opinion cannot be controlled 
even on that delicate point, while the selections 
themselves have not always been the most advisable 


* A telegram of January says that “the Governor of South 
Australia remarked at a public dinner, with cordial response, 
that the colonists did not wish to reduce the responsibilities of 
the Home Government in appointment of Governors. He 
advised a delegation of colonists to settle the whole matter.” 


2B 


370 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


(a matter, however, it is only fair to add, rather of 
the past than the present). The point lies in any 
preliminary juggle with a Colony as to the appoint- 
ment. With due care on the Home part, and par- 
ticularly while the Irish question lasts, this kind of 
incident is not likely, I am sure, ever to occur 
again. 

The Imperial Government has usually, for the 
last thirty to forty years at least, met colonial 
political emergencies in a generously conceding 
spirit, where concession was possible in principle. 
The Crown loses nothing by this course, which 
always falls with good effect on the occasional blunt- 
ness or roughness of procedure of Colonies. It 
exemplifies the French saying of “reculer pour 
mieux sauter.” I do not for a moment doubt that 
an Australasian Dominion will work as satisfactorily 
as that of Canada. Whatever any party in Queens- 
land may at times dream of, even that Colony’s 
dreams are always on behalf of a united Austral- 
asia; she never seriously indulges in a dream of 
any kind upon her own separated and individual 
behalf. : 


Modes of Procedure towards Federation. 


With these preliminary remarks, let me now 
approach the question of practically carrying out 
Inter-colonial Federation. When difficulties present 
themselves, we must keep in view preponderating 
advantages. When these latter create and maintain 
the will towards unity, there will always be a way 


o 


: 
; 
. 


ee eee ee ke ee 


THE TARIFF QUESTION. 371 


through the difficulties. One very great difficulty, 
however, is to put the machinery in motion. Con- 
ferences have sat on the question for many years 
past, and have resulted in nothing, —a strange 
result surely, with its positively awful waste of time, 
in so profoundly important a question, in which, too, 
all seem to have been agreed in principle. 


Chief Difficulty that of the differing Tariffs. 
But the “ Federal Council Bills,” which the different 


Colonies have lately passed, promise to be one 


effective beginning of this movement ; and now we 
are to confront what is perhaps the only real difficulty 
apparent in the case, namely the Tariff diversity. 
Those Federal Council Bills, let me add, by no means 
relate to complete inter-colonial federation. They are 
based upon a permissive Imperial Act,and were chiefly 
intended for unity of authority in certain civil and 
criminal procedure. So New Zealand, as so far off, was 
not included. Nor was the Tariff question included, 
because, as my friend Sir James Garrick, late Agent- 
General for Queensland, informs me, previous private 
discussion had convinced the different parties of the 
hopelessness ofagreement there. This latter incident 
may help to show that the Tariffs are the real 
difficulty in the federative course. But, none the 
less, those Federal Council Bills indicate a good 
beginning. 


372 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Great Advantages from Canadian Federation. 


In conversing on this federative subject with my 
distinguished and experienced friend Sir Charles 
Tupper, who took so leading a part in Canadian 
federation, I find that much the same diversity of 
Tariffs prevailed amongst the Canadian as now 
amongst the Australasian Colonies ; for Nova Scotia, 
for instance, like New South Wales, was favourable 
to free trading, while the others were, more or less, 
protectionist. Nevertheless, the different legislatures 
were swayed into federation by due consideration of 
the vast resulting advantages. And thus they were 
induced to surrender the Tariff question, as well as 
the others, to the Federation. 

One of the most prominent of these great resulting 
advantages was the financial. As Sir Charles went 
on to point out, Canada’s financial credit rose to a 
height that seems well-nigh incredible. He illus- 
trated this from his own personal experience. About 
a quarter of a century ago he had occasion to 
negotiate a loan of £400,000 for Nova Scotia, which 
was then perhaps the best accredited Colony of the 
group in the London market. The only offer he 
could get was 95 per cent. from Messrs. Baring 
Brothers, for a 6 per cent. stock; whereas, within 
the last six months, he had sold by public tender in 
London, and through the same agency channel, 
£4,000,000 of the Dominion 3 per cents. for a 
rather higher price! Of course, the whole of this 
vast advance of value is not due to specially Canadian 
circumstances, seeing that the Colonies generally 


HOW THE TARIFF DIFFICULTY MAY BE MET. 373 


have of late been advancing in favour with Home 
investors, while the Home money market has been 
progressively in more abundant supply. But we 
may well attribute quite the larger moiety of the 
advance to the Canadian political changes in 
question. 


How the Australasian Tariff’ Difficulty may be met. 


I did not fail, in my interviews with premiers and 
treasurers, during my late Australasian tour, to 
urge in particular this great financial advantage. 
But, having already touched upon that subject in its 
proper place, I now pass on to the Tariff difficulty. 
I do not underrate it, as my above allusion may 
show. Indeed I found Tariff antagonisms so sharp, 
that I came to the conclusion that, unless Tariff 
freedom were reserved to each Colony, the federation 
would linger undone, in spite of all the advantages. 
But, as was argued against me, can there be a 
united Inter-colonial Government with the Tariffs 
left out? What else, comparatively speaking, is 
there to govern? I do not see the question in that 
formidable light. I do not see what is to prevent 
the Australasian Colonies coming into complete 
political federation, with the sole exception of the 
Tariffs, which, for each Colony, may be left in the 
hands of a special Commission, in the view of being 
finally dealt with by each Colony for itself. My 
belief is that, so soon as these Colonies found them- 
selves actually under one and the same government, 
with all the satisfying results of such a union, the 


3874 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Tariff question would begin to assume a far less 
hostile aspect, and within a very few years be 
entirely disposed of. 


ARTICLE VIII. 
THE UNITY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 
Definition of the Case. 


Like my friend, Mr. James Service, late Premier of 
Victoria, who may claim the leadership in this 
question in his colonial group, I prefer the term 
Unity of the Empire to Federation. The latter 
signifies the supposed means ; the former is the real 
object. Imperial unionists, however, have mostly 
come to the conclusion, that as federation, some- 
what, for example, like that of the United States, 
can be the only mode of unity amongst Colonial 
societies, each with its own local self-government, 
we may as well go at once to the term “ federation ” 
of the Empire. We must leave the Colonies, 
separated and remote societies as they are, with 
that self-government which they now possess, so far, 
at least, as regards all local interests; but the 
question may still be, whether we cannot, withal, 
institute a union which may deserve rather the term 
‘unity ” than “ federation.” 

I speak here of union between the parent state, 
and what are properly our Colonies, or the emana- 


DEFECTS OF THE PRESENT SITUATION. 375 


tions of our own people, such as the Canadian 
Dominion, Australasia, and South Africa. I do not 
enter upon the quite distinct question of such parts 
of our Empire as India, and other like sections, 
usually in tropical regions, which are occupied 
mainly by races differing, in more or less extremes, 
from our own. But, doubtless, that is also a question 
to be dealt with in a completed union. 


Defects of the present Situation. 


We have granted to all our chief Colonies the full 
form of “ constitutional” self-government which we 
ourselves enjoy at Home. We can see better now 
than we probably did at first, that we should, along 
with this important, this decisive grant, have in- 
stituted some Imperial supremacy which, to be 
consistent, should have been also constitutional. We 
should, that is to say, have simultaneously instituted 
some convenient form of executive for the Empire, 
in which there was due provision for the Colonies 
having always their due proportion. The leading 
Imperial questions might have been then easily 
sketched out, including the command by this ex- 
ecutive of all Colonial, as well as Home, force, 
military or naval, All this might have been easily 
done at the first; and the Colonies would have since 
grown up under a sense of the Imperial supremacy, 
of which in its grand united strength, present and 
prospective, they. would, doubtless, have been proud. 
Instead of this, they have been growing up under a 
sense of practical local freedom, which has naturally 


376 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


produced that instinctive segregative tendency, 
which we have latterly seen most strongly exem- 
plified in Queensland, but also in other Colonies, as, 
for instance, by an occasional outburst in our other- 
wise loyal New South Wales, where already three 
successive generations have been born on the 
Australian soil. , 

That which was left undone we have now to do, 
and it is by no means so easy to do it now. But the 
question is now happily much studied both at home 
and abroad, and neither loyalty nor enthusiasm are 
wanting on either side. This feeling has arisen 
almost entirely within the last fifteen or twenty 
years; for, prior to that brief retrospect, with 
regard more especially to Home feeling, an indiffer- 
ence as to the colonial connection, which seems now 
altogether incredible, was nearly everywhere the 
rule. As the result already of this new feeling we 
may, correctly, I think, say there is unanimity on 
the Home part for the most complete political unity 
of the Empire possible to all its circumstances. On 
the colonial part, there is substantially the same 
general feeling, but it is diluted or weakened, more 
or less, from the colonists having lived, for the 
last one or two generations, under a sky and upon 
a soil which were always practically before each 
separate people as exclusively their own, uncon- 
trolled, at least in any every-day and practical sense, 
by anything whatever situated outside of them. 


MR. W. H. SMITH’S VIEWS. 377 


Rt. Hon. W. HH. Smith on the Unity of the Empire. 


I could not give a better illustration of the com- 
plete change of feeling at Home, from the former 
apathy or indifference, in regard to the colonial 
connection, than the following telegraphic abstract 
of a public speech by the present Right Honourable 
leader of the House of Commons, early in last October. 
I may add that, from such a position, such language 
on its subject would have been utterly undreamt of 
twenty years ago. 

“Mr. W. H. Smith, leader of the House of Com- 
mons, in a speech which he delivered at Gloucester, 
referred to the question of Imperial federation, and 
to the importance of maintaining the connection 
between the Colonies and the Empire. Alluding 
to the difficulties which were supposed to block the 
way against the establishment of a scheme of 
Imperial federation, he said that such federation 
had practically been already achieved, for, by their 
adoption of the defence scheme so far as it related 
to themselves, the Colonies had really become 
partners with England. The Colonies had in the 
past given ample evidence of their attachment to 
the mother country ; and, as an illustration in point, 
he referred to the despatch of the Australian con- 
tingent to the Soudan. Mr. Smith said the Colonies 
were almost as the life-blood of England, and their 
future gave promise of such splendour, that he 
believed the time would come when they would 
prove stronger than the Mother Country, and super- 
sede her as a nation.” 


378 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


Inevitable Tendency of the Present Relations, 


As these chief Colonies now stand to us, it may — 
be said that neither party is bound to defend the 
other. There exists no doubt, however, that the 
mother would defend any, or all, of her children if 
attacked, either in her own quarrels, or in theirs, 
if they had any with foreigners, as Victoria, and, 
indeed, Australasia with her, might not impossibly 
have had with France lately, about New Caledonia 
or might still have with China upon the irritating 
Chinese Exclusion Acts. 

But even already the separative feeling might 
be strong enough here and there to occasion oppo- 
site views and action. On the one hand, New South 
Wales, with surpassing loyalty, as being unasked, des- 
patched a considerable force to help us in the Soudan, 
others of the group also offering the same. On the 
other hand, Queensland, her offshoot and daughter, . 
and situated upon her immediate border, refused, at the 
last, by Parliamentary vote, as I have already stated, 
to come into an agreement to contribute towards 
naval defence, not only after all the other Colonies 
of the group had done so, but after the preliminary 
consent had been already given through a preceding 
Queensland ministry.* 


* At the election of May last (1888), which brought in the 
Mcllwraith ministry, there was much display of “ nationality” 
banners, and about “ Australia for the Australians.” Sir 
Thomas MclIlwraith, while indicating that he intended to 
refuse for the:Colony the said contribution for the defence 
fund, made the statement, to me utterly incredible as from an 


SIR CHARLES TUPPER. 379 


Under the foregoing considerations, I agree with 
a view as to the Empire’s prospects which has 
latterly come into increasing force, especially since 
the Imperial Federation League has introduced 
system and logical sequence into this great question, 
—the view, namely, that the Empire will go on to 
inevitable disintegration, if left much longer in this 
non-united condition. My friend, Sir Charles Tupper, 
in my own hearing, at a late meeting of the Royal 
Colonial Institute, disputed the existence, or, at any 
rate, the dangerous strength of this tendency. Sir 
Charles, as at once the most experienced of colonists 
and the most loyal of federationists, both inter- 
Colonial and Imperial, must always, on such a 
subject, be worthy of attention. But he and 
myself, I may say, have both agreed, in discussing, 
more than once, this subject, that the Dominion is 
peculiarly protected, in her Imperial loyalty, by the 
fear of her being swallowed up by her huge neigh- 
bour. Every society, like each human being com- 
posing it, naturally clings to life; while to Canada a 
junction at present with the great Republic means 


Englishman, with reference to an Empire of Englishmen, that 
he regarded this contribution as a tribute levied upon subject 
Queensland. But withal, we must not attach too much impor- 
tance to sudden popular demonstrations of this kind, which 
have occurred more than once in loyal New South Wales and 
elsewhere. Queensland had been bitterly disappointed shortly 
before in the New Guinea affair, which was probably the chief 
cause for the time of this unusually disloyal outbreak, and was 
especially irritating to Sir T. McIlwraith, whose timely action, 
if supported, would have landed all Eastern New Guinea safely 
in the Empire. 


380 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


death. Canada is no doubt distinctly swayed to the 
States by commercial interests; but as distinctly, 
and far more powerfully, is she stayed where she is 
by the simple consideration of existence; “ yea, all 
that a man hath, will he give for his life.” If 
Australasia had some such great state as France or 
Germany alongside, we should perhaps be as devoid 
of fears for her as to the separative effects of time 
as Sir Charles Tupper is for the Dominion. 


Some Colonial Prospects, fanciful and otherwise. 


Let meadd yet a word as to Canada and the States. 
Mr. Reverdy Johnston, the States ambassador some 
quarter of a century ago, undisguisedly claimed our 
North American territory, while Mr. Blaine, the 
other day, with a more adroit strategy, intimated 
that Canada would be welcome, but only as coming 
with its people’s consent. At the British Associa- 
tion meeting at Montreal, in 1884, a most interesting 
occasion in which I was happily able to join, I read 
a paper, the chief object of which was to institute a 
comparison, present and prospective, between the 
Dominion and Australasia. I was bound to assert 
that Australasian progress, under the conjoined 
circumstances of geniality of climate and a ready- 
to-hand country, was, and would, for some time, be 
comparatively far swifter than that of Canada, with 
its colder climate and ice-bound ground for a large 
part of the year. But I had to go on to say, that 
the whole course of the world’s civilisation has been 
a hardly interrupted passage from the warm climate, 


THE UNITY AIMED AT. 381 


with its early and rapid advance, to the cold, with 
its deferred but- solid and surpassing progress. 
Thus the “indigenous” Germans of contemptuous 
Tacitus already bid for the intellectual supremacy of 
the world; and thus the chill Canadian Dominion of 
to-day may not only eventually head Australasia, but 
also the great adjacent Republic itself, and possess 
that dominancy over all to the southward, which is 
already indicated as between North and South in the 
American Union. Canada, therefore, may have only 
to pursue, sufficiently long, “a waiting game,” in 
order to turn the tables completely upon her 
southern cousins.* 


The Unity aimed at. 


Practically, then, we are in the position of the 
scattered sticks of the fable, which must be united 


* Meanwhile the hoped-for course of Canadian annexation runs 
quite merrily in the adjacent Union. Only the other day, and since 
the above was written, Mr. Butterworth, member for Ohio, intro- 
duced a resolution in the House of Representatives at Washing- 
ton, on 13th December, 1888, suggestive of the terms of invitation 
for Canada to join the States. If nothing comes shortly of this— 
for why waste precious time ?—I advise the Honourable member 
to try a still stronger step upon the supposably hesitating 
Canadians. He might, for instance, go on to name con- 
tingently, to the future head offices of the proposed new States, 
some of the present leading, and especially the tronblesomely 
opposing, Canadians, with perhaps double salaries to boot, 
payable in the hardest of dollars. I suggest particularly Sir 
Charles Tupper for the best berth going; for who knows what 
the effect might be, of so many prospective Almighty Dollars, 
upon the well-known present loyalty of that leading Dominion 
_ statesman ! 


382 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


into one bundle in order to give them their greatest 
possible strength. This is the question before the 
Empire; and attention has happily been called to it 
all over that Empire for nearly the last twenty 
years. The almost incredibly apathetic feeling 


previously held on this subject let us now pass over, | 


seeing it no longer exists. 


Foreign View on the Question, 


I am here reminded of an article in a leading 
Paris newspaper, which I met with about ten years 
ago on this question of the unity of our Empire. 
By that time the movement at home had been 
sufficiently conspicuous to attract outside attention. 
The writer made the remark, surely all-significant to 
us, that if this movement went on to completion, there 
would be so vast a change ahead in the distribution 
of the international power of the world as to require 
a reconsideration of that subject. 


A Public Discussion in Melbourne. 


By invitation, while in Melbourne, I gave a 
public address on the subject of unity or federation, 
alike Inter-colonial and Imperial. There was a 
crowded audience, and the most satisfactory loyalty 
displayed towards the idea of the united Empire of 
our English race. Two of the audience, however, 
young men, and native-born Australians, dissented, 
and urged an independent Australia, which they 
regarded as a necessity, with all the differences, in 
climate and circumstances, from the Mother. 

Now there is a habit in Melbourne, and many 


FS 


PUBLIC DISCUSSION. 383 


other places, of forming “Native Associations.” 
These are not by any means, either in intention or 
fact, disloyal; but it is quite natural that some of 
the members, especially the younger ones, who are 
as yet the great majority, should be tempted, in the 
present non-united state of the Empire, to take up 
such views. Amongst my fellow seniors in Victoria, 
as far as I can now recollect, the only opponent to, 
or unbeliever in, the Empire’s unity whom I 
happened to meet with was my old and most able 
friend, Sir Archibald Michie, Q.C. In a note, 
dated 9th October last (1888), he says, “If I can 
find time, and can conquer the indolence incident to 
advancing years, | must have a tilt against your 
views on Imperial Federation, in which I do most 
devoutly disbelieve.” Now, reversing the Sodom 
case, if in this matter there were the weight of 
fifty unrighteous Michies (I only mean “ unright” 
in Imperial perception), this might be formidable 
opposition. But the minority of one, however 
otherwise distinguished, savours rather of the acci- 
dent than the principle. 

The most distinctive feature of the discussion that 
followed my address was a powerful speech of Mr. 
Fitzgibbon, the able town clerk of the city, upon 
the exposed position in the world of such a compara 
tively small power as an independent Australasia 
must expect for a long time to be. He showed, by 
a variety of instances, the sad facility with which 
international differences can be got up, especially 
where one of the parties may be weak as well as 
wealthy, and where perhaps national vanity, or 


384 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


special political considerations, were at work with 
an aggressor. Only a few years ago, Spain savagely 
attacked her own daughter Chili. Chili has since 
fought and mastered her own sister Peru, after a 
most deadly struggle; but she was not equal to her 
Mother, Spain, and had to suffer in consequence a 
most bitter humiliation. 


Some Lejlections. 


It is to be feared that the peace and consideration 
which the Colonies enjoy under the egis of their 
great Mother has a most deceptive effect upon that 
younger generation of the native Australian element, 
which, with all the enthusiasm and_hopefulness 
natural to their youth and inexperience, look out 
upon the seemingly tranquil horizon of such a life. 
Let us suppose for a moment, that Australasia has 
seceded to-day into the romancing of such a life, 
Probably, within two or three years, if indeed so 
long an interval, China, with all the facilities of adroit 
diplomacy, wherever there is the will for it, might 
fix a quarrel with the new power, in revenge for 
the repeated mortal affronts of the Australian 
Chinese Exclusion Acts. In such a case the weaker 
power might learn a sad and sore lesson from the 
cool atrocity of the race, and with incredible 
dispatch experience an incalculable barbarism of 
injury and outrage. Australasia, for yet a good 
many years, would be no more equal to match China, 
with all her modern armaments and her countless 
forces, headed probably by Europeans, than she 
would be able to match her own powerful Mother. 


q 
. 
I 


METHODS OF UNITING THE EMPIRE. 385 


My own impression, after visiting Australasia, 
agrees with that of Lord Rosebery, and not a few 
others, that although the unifying of the Empire, 
now that we turn to it so late in the day, may have 
its difficulties, including even partial apathy or 
opposition, yet that the strength of colonial loyalty 
generally is amply sufficient, if we go to the business 
in the right way and with the due diligence. Let 
us, then, consider as to the mode of procedure. 


Consideration of Methods for uniting the Empire. 


I have already said that two things are funda- 
mentally necessary for a united Empire, namely, 
first, that all the forces, of whichever kind, be under 
one executive, and that the Colonies be proportion- 
ately represented in that executive. The form of 
executive, therefore, is the question. 

For some years after the subject was taken up 
in the Royal Colonial Institute, two modes of an 
Imperial executive, or government, were in more or 
less favour: first, an extension of the present so- 
called Imperial Parliament, so as to make it consti- 
tutionally Imperial by proportionate inclusion of 
Colonial members; and, second, a great federative 
body, elected proportionately from Home and Colonial 
elements, and dominating the present Home Parlia- 
ment—indeed, putting it, in principle, on a common 
level with the Colonial Parliaments. There was an 
attractive theoretical perfection in this plan, and it 
had not a few zealous advocates. Let me offer some 
remarks upon both plans. 

2 C 


386 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


1. Granting even that the Home Parliament would 
be willing to receive such an influx as some two 
hundred or more members from the Colonies, it seems 
to me utterly hopeless to induce the colonial popula- 
tions to take a step so costly and disturbing. They 
could never dream of sending so many of their most 
prominent citizens so far away upon legislative 
duty. There must be some much simpler and less 
costly mode of an executive than that which is to be 
drawn from an impossible Parliament of this kind. 

2. The other mode is even still more difficult and 
less possible of accomplishment, because, in addition 
to some like strain as to numerical membership, there 
is the immense difficulty, in every great and old 
society, and in ours particularly, of the change 
of political form. Only imagine our present Lords 
and Commons introducing and fighting over a Bill 
which is to impose over themselves respectively a 
dominating body, whether a federal assembly or any- 
thing else! We might all possibly approve the step 
in abstract principle, and so on; but the step, none 
the less, would never be taken. 

It is perhaps our special case to have effected very 
great political changes in the popular or democratic 
direction without any change in point of political 
form. Thus, keeping within the lines of the consti- 
tution, we have made all these changes with com- 
parative ease, and with, comparatively at least, slight 
opposition. The late General Peel, on the occasion 
of some allusion to the possibility of an early 
republic in this country, in connection with its 
democratic progress, made the energetic reply, that 


Pe’ 


METHODS OF UNITING THE EMPIRE. 387 


the Thames should run with blood ere that came 
about. The gallant general is said to have afterwards 
reoretted so strong an expression. He might have 
still more regretted it if he had seen that his in- 
dignation and his fears were alike vain. The change 
of political form is too violent for any possibility of 
a republic, in a society at once so wide and so old 
as ours; and that, too, in spite of any number of 
‘‘academic” republicans amongst us. On the other 
hand, however, the new societies of our Colonies will 
certainly be republics, if, and when, they are to secede 
from their Mother. Whether, say a century or two 
hence, under an united Empire, the Colonies, in that 
probably predominant progress anticipated by Mr. 
W. H. Smith, may in turn sway the parent, as she 
for the present sways them, and thus make the 
whole Empire one grand republic, is, of course, a 
possible question, but hardly as yet, as one might 
say, “ within the range of practical politics.” 

But, although any persons amongst us, few or 
many, may engage in Federal Assembly-making, 
without the risk of even the tiniest Thames tribu- 
tary running with blood,—for it would be really 
only a variety of our constitutional form—yet I feel 
assured that, in this mode of the unifying, the step 
is too great ever to be taken, and that we only waste 
precious time over its discussion. 

There are, no doubt, other modes of federation. 
For instance, Sir Henry Loch, Governor of Victoria, 
had one of his own; and the readiness with which 
he discussed it with me, although I had called upon 


another matter, showed most encouragingly how 
202 


388 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


much the subject was thought about, from top to 
bottom of colonial society. Substantially, his idea was 
that.the Colonial Legislatures should appoint repre-— 
sentative Imperial delegates. But, in the first place, 
this implies not only practical unanimity as to 
Empire unity, but also as to this particular plan of 
it; so that I must infer, on the preceding principles, 
that such a step outside the current line would 
never be taken. In the second place, the delegates’ 
conclusions were to be referred for confirmation to 
the respective Colonial Parliaments, which might, 
or might not, agree to them. This latter contin- 
gency seems to me fatal to all right and complete 
idea of the political unity of the Empire. 


The Cabinet, plus Colonial Representation, as the 
Empire's Executive. 


It has long seemed to me that the Cabinet is the 
convenient instrument which we have, ready to 
hand, to play upon in this all-important question. 
This is not my own suggestion. It was first made, I 
think, some fifteen years ago, in the Royal Colonial In- 
stitute, by my relative, Mr. R. A. Macfie of Dreghorn 
Castle, Midlothian, when M.P. for the Leith Boroughs. 
It was afterwards, quite independently, I believe, 
advocated by Sir Charles Tupper and others. But, 
curiously enough, these gentlemen went for limiting 
the Colonial element to Colonial questions. But, 
although this might be the beginning, it could’ 
hardly be the finality, in an equally represented 
Empire. 


POSTSCRIPT. 389 


Of course, we have constitutional forms to arrange 
ere fully empowered Colonial Cabinet Ministers could 
appear. Let me point out what might be done in the 
mean time under the marvellously adaptive facilities 
of our constitutional system. What is to prevent the 
Queen, by advice of her ministry, naming Colonial 
representatives, to sit, for the present, as an advisory 
body in the Cabinet? The nominations might be 
made under some guiding indications invited from 
the Colonies. Such a significant preparatory step 
would be practically equivalent to one half the 
accomplishment of the Empire’s unity, and would 
certainly, I think, be followed ere long by the com- 
pleting steps. 

In conclusion, let us aim to have no needless delays ; 
not only on behalf of the Empire’s power, influence, 
and safety, but in order that we may have the better 
chance of completing so great a work within the 
lifetime of the Queen, and of giving so fitting a 
climax to so long and so glorious a reign. 


PosTSscRIPT. 


On the present Colonial relations, as a supposed 
basis for Irish Home Rule. 


A few words on this subject may clear up some 
tendency to confusion. In that Irish question, 
which now so seriously divides our country, some 
Home Rule advocates have most crudely proposed to 
place Ireland on the present footing of the Colonies, 
as though the latter belonged to a regular system, 


390 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


as well as a system which was supposed to have 
worked acceptably and satisfactorily as between 


mother and offspring. But the fact is, that there is: 


no mutuality of system whatever in the present 
colonial relations, nothing having arisen but the 
blindly hap-hazard that has come out of meeting of 
emergencies or wants, in hand-to-mouth fashion, 
just as they arose. Practically, our chief colonies, 
with the concession made to them by their mother, 
of their own respective constitutional governments, 
are now in a state of political separation, which, 
as we fear, must, however gradually, result, by 
quite natural tendencies, in the disintegration of the 
Empire. 

The object of our Imperial Federation League 
movement is to change this anomalous and under- 
mining position for one which, while reserving 
to the Colonies the charge of all their respective 
local concerns, gathers all questions of the Empire 
under one supreme executive, in which Home and 
Colonies are to be in proportionately equal political 
representation. 

But, again, as to whether the new system now 
sought for regarding the Colonies might also suit 
Ireland, supposmg Home Rule to be conceded to 
its more or less special circumstances, I prefer to 
avoid the expression of an opinion. That isa Home 
question, and this is a colonial book. I may, 
however, venture to point out how the proposed 
reformed colonial system would look as applied to 
Ireland. Ireland’s connection, then, would resemble 
that of the Colonies as we propose to make it, if, 


x 
2 
Ps 
* 
L 
r 
: 
< 


“Zr 


VIEW OF THE IRISH QUESTION. ool 


with an approximative Parliament of her own in 
Dublin, she ceased to send her full quota of members 
to the Imperial Parliament; but sent there instead 
a small selection, say about four, who were 
however, also to be in supreme Imperial Executive 
position as members of the Cabinet. That is to say, 
in short, that when the Colonies are proportionately 
there also, Ireland will be duly represented along 
with them in the whole Empire’s Executive. 


A Colonist’s View of the Irish Question. 


Personally I have been constrained, against will 
and abstract principle, into the Home Rule and 
*‘Gladstonian”” ranks, on the ground that the first 
interest, safety, and duty to the Empire is to re- 
concile the Irish people. But, although now a Home 
resident, I am still colonist enough to retain, on 
Home Party questions, the tempered colonial senti- 
ment, which can, without prejudice, appreciate 
at least the men of all sides. Indeed the experienced 
and large-minded head of the present Government is 
hardly less an object of my admiration and national 
pride, than the venerable and crowning statesinan 
who happily still, and, vigorous as ever, heads my 
own proper party. I fear that the present course 
as to Ireland is a drift into an endless fight. 
England can, of course, with her greater power, 
repress Ireland; but, when the pressure ceases, the 
Home Rule want again crops up; and so Tantalus 
is secured in his unending work. Perhaps not the 
least grave fact of the case, in the eyes of us colonists 


392 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


at least, is the general sympathy of the colonial 
Irish throughout the Empire with the Home Rule 
demand. This is happily as yet a hardly known 
power for disturbance; but the late incident as to 
the Queensland Governor may be regarded as not 
impossibly only the beginning of trouble, while at 
the same time it is not necessarily associated with 
disloyalty in the Colonies. 

Treland’s case, alike past and present, is to me 
distinctly special. Home Rule is an frish, not a 
general question. Which side is to blame for Ire- 
land’s ceaseless alienation is perhaps now a fruitless 
inquiry. But that the Irish, naturally joyous and 
generous, get on well with all the world’s people 
except the English, is surely a significant part of the 
ease. The Anti-Home Rule Government now in power 
are prone to urge that they are engaged simply in 
maintaining in Ireland the laws common to the whole 
country, while their opponents there are engaged 
in breaking them. That may be mainly conceded 
if we are to look only at one side. The Irish do not, 
any more than the common sense of other civilised 
society, oppose the benefits of law and order; they 
oppose the English local administration of them. 
It is really the Anti-Home Rule policy which is 
responsible for the law-breaking, as there is ever 
apt to be a ready crop of desperadoes where there is 
a long-continued political grievance. The question 
then, is, whether we are to go on for ever with Irish 
repression and Irish alienation, or concede the far 
less serious matter of Home Rule. Ireland gets 
steadily worse under the former course.* What 


ain a ingeee 


a 


eo 


HOME POLITICS. 393 


would have satisfied her under O’Connell will not do 
now; what may do now will be insufficient in 
another quarter or half century. The constitutional 
Parnells of to-day will then have been aggravated 
into Davitts, the Davitts into O’Donovan Rossas, 
and the utterly desperate be a further great step the 
nearer. Grant the Home Rule to-day, and the pro- 
bability is that all this array of law-breaking, so far 
as connected with this question, ceases at once, and a 
new page in Ireland’s temper is definitively turned. 

When I speak of the tempered colonial sentiment 


_as to the Home political parties, I prefer to go on to 


express my strong and pleasing expectation, that 
when the colonial element has been duly fused with 
the Home, in the future unity of the Empire, an 
altogether new era may begin to arise in Home 
Politics. Not only the sharp edge of to-day’s party 
feeling may be rounded off, but an entirely new 
basis or direction be given to the party government 
of the future. 


ARTICLE IX. 


SUGGESTION OF A MONARCHIC-DEMOCRATIC PEERAGE 
OF THE EMPIRE. 


Tals question, which, in the progress of the United 
Empire movement, with its effect of marshalling 
more prominently the natural democracy of colonies, 
might come shortly to be one of no small] interest, 
occurred to me while lately in Australia. The occa- 
sion was in connection with the royal grant of some 


o94 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


specially distinctive honour to the two illustrious 
survivors of the Henty family, who represent to-day 
the foundation of the great Colony of Victoria.* I 
do not know whether my friend Sir Robert Herbert, 
to whom, in writing on the subject from the Colony, 
I gave the mere hint of my idea, has deemed it 
worth taking in any wise into his counsels. I will 
now, however, add a few remarks that occur to me 
on the details, in the hope that they may not be 
without interest to those of my readers who enjoy 
such questions; and I will venture to add also, 
that they are all made in a spirit of entire loyalty 
to the venerable institutions of my country. 

The question is as to how the old socio-political 
forms of our society are to live and work along 
with the inevitable modern democratic tendency. 
This tendency is being developed at Home, but it is 
more incisively prominent in the new societies of 
the Colonies. There is perhaps something even 
grand in the idea of a sort of reconciling “ peerage 
of the Empire,’ which will accord with the new 
democratic and not be at variance with the old 
monarchic ideal, and which might be conferred im- 
partially, at Home and Abroad, upon great personal 
merit or public service, particularly with reference 
to surpassing service on behalf of the many great 
interests bearing upon the Empire. 


* Since the above was written, my friend and most hospitable 
entertainer in Melbourne, Mr. Francis Henty, has “ passed to 
the majority.” He died, as the announcing telegram states, on 
18 January, 1889, the last survivor of a noble brotherhood, who 
all contributed, more or less, towards founding Victoria. 


a NL Ss SCC 


GERMAN OF FICIALDOM. 395 


Outside of England, amongst the old subsisting 
monarchies of Europe, the progress of admitting, or 
submitting to, democracy has not been a fast race. 
France, with her impulsive irregularity, is, however, 
an exception. Science in all its wide inclusiveness 
of to-day, and literature and commerce, which are 
the powers that now move the world, are as yet only 
very gradually struggling to the front. They are 
bent on at least a co-mastership on its surface, so that 
those who turn the world round may be no longer 
dominated by those who are only turned round 
with it. Russia, where officialdom alone comes to 
the front, we put at the lower extreme, ourselves at 
the upper end, and struggling Germany somewhere 
between. But Germany’s march has not been a 
gallop, if, at least, we may judge from an exquisite 
story of German travel which I read some years ago. 
The author was evidently one amongst his country’s 
legion of officialdom, and if not very high in that, 
or indeed, as we might infer, in much else, he had yet 
evidently a most competent idea of his own class. 
He tells that, passing through one of the German 
towns forty years ago, he witnessed a most imposing 
funeral cortege. HEnquiring who it was who was 
thus honoured, he was told, as he naively states, that 
it was a person of the name of Goethe, and that as 
much fuss was made over this man as if he had 
been a major in the army. 

Well, after all these various preliminary remarks, 
we come at last to the exact point, namely, what, in 
all the various circumstances of our Empire— 
~monarchic at Home, and strongly democratic, even 


396 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


republican in natural tendency in the Colonies— 
should be the suitable constitution of a new, a pro re 
nata, Hmpire peerage? 

First, of course, and as principle of principles, it 
should be a life and not a hereditary honour; one of 
a person, and not of a family. The high honour 
should be attainable only for high personal qualities 
or services. 

Second, “ My Lord” has too often been a difficulty 
with the work-a-day world of science and business, 
little as it may be deemed or felt so by those “ who 
are to the manner born;” and accordingly one of 
the questions or difficulties of the case is some 
democratic compromise with My Lord. 

Old France had a delicacy of adroitness in this 
sort of thing, which was only one of her many 
superiorities in point of the manner. ‘ Monsieur” 
was the title common at once to the heir to the 
throne and the heir to the charwoman and the 
rag-picker. The ponderous ‘“ Monseigneur” was 
left fitly to the high clergy. The small, hardly 
visible particle “de” signified nobility. If our less 
expert ways in such delicate matters have at times 
exposed “Milord Anglais” to some chaff from the 
lively humour across the Channel, the Empire Peer, 
besides other advantages, may hope to escape even 
this small ordeal. 

But, as compromise is the order in my present 
case, there must be fair give and take. “The Demo- 
cratic” having escaped from ‘‘My Lord” in its 
ordinary or work-a-day life, must in turn be con- 
ceding, if from no higher than considerations of 


MUTUAL COMPROMISES. 397 


gratitude. All should be officially “My Lord” 
within Parliament, much as the brother of the 
Lower House is “The Honourable Member” upon 
his own floor. 

But, is a lesson to us from the French method still 
impossible ? Let us look at both old Scotland and 
old Ireland, where “the” may stand for the French 
“de,” and where we have still those most true and 
ancient nobles, “* The ’’ Macintosh, ‘ The” Chisholm, 
“The” O'Donoghue, and many other heads of the 
old clans. Here is an opening for democratic inge- 


_nuity in compromises. Heredity is, no doubt, still a 


part of this Highland and Irish case, but that part 
may be dropped out. 

srd. But the Empire Peerage, in any case as to 
the matter or manner of title, must have full peerage 
rank. It must not be inferior to mere United King- 
dom peerages, the Royal Family, of course, excepted. 
At the same time it is not fitting that our grand 
national traditions should be affronted by the senior 
institution, although the narrower of the two, being 
dominated by the junior. And, again, those of the 
ancient but narrower rank may always, if so minded, 
aspire to the broader through the common gateway 
of “the merits.” 

Ath. But where the peer, under this great pros- 
pective extension of his order, is to count by thou- 
sands instead of the present hundreds, the crowding 
ease must needs involve other changes. This need 
for limitation brings in the principle of election. 
The future Upper House of Legislation will have to 
be elected, in suitable number, out of the whole 


398 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


peerage, and thus the incapable and the unworthy, 
who were fixtures under heredity, may be dropped 
out. And, again, those Right Reverend Peers, 
whose National Church political exigency already 
threatens, may add materially to the length of its 
life, besides, perhaps, securing permanently, if they 
value such mere temporal things, their own peerage 
rank, in the new system, by being dropped out of 
the more invidious legislative category. And lastly, 
as this expanding upper society must contemplate 
“peeresses in their own right,” as well as peers, and 
perhaps also in no small numerical proportion, there 
is a rare opportunity for certain steps in woman’s 
rights, which are now increasingly associated with 
a true socio-political advance. The new London 
government has already indicated a leaning in that 
direction. A peerage thus reconstituted may show 
that the old immobility in that high quarter is now 
not only done with, but possibly converted into a 
successful rivalry of progress. 

Turning here to a side issue which may not be 
without interest, our American cousins, let me say, 
when they slid away from us, might well have com- 
promised for some such form of purely democratic 
nobility as this Empire Peerage, in substitution for 
the monarchical which naturally fell from them. 
Their earliest and greatest citizen, by inaugurating 
“The Washington,” would have been more specially 
or personally titled than as an _ indiscriminate 
“Lord” Washington. And thus a kind of grand 
national Upper House, ever being selected out of the 
most approved of the whole people, and accessible 


op & & “hee Ba i iii . Yen 


THE HOME PEERAGE. 399 


as to membership, like their presidency, to every 
citizen “ on the merits,’ might have been established 
with all the steadying advantage of presenting always, 
and in every direction, a solid front of recognised 
superiority. Indeed, has not something of that 
ameliorative kind been wanting to the Great 
Republic, whose ubiquitous democratic plains have 
hardly been varied, in socio-scenic effect, excepting 
by mountains of dollars ? 

The Empire Peerage must of, course, be largely 
Colonial, seeing it forms the Colonies’ first chance 
in that way, as no peerage has, I think, been yet 
granted in a strictly Colonial direction, although 
knighthoods are already superabundant, and_baro- 
netcies later on have had a fair beginning. But 
the Colonies are not to be, by any means, exclusively 
masters in this new field, seeing there are at Home 
many heads of the moving powers of the world who 
are still excluded from the Peerage, widely opened 
as, In a comparative sense, that has been of late.. 
Perhaps the most remarkable exclusion of all has 
been that of men of science. Darwin and Owen, 
Tindall, Huxley, and Thompson should all have 
been, even long ago, in the House of Lords, if our 
Upper House is to have any connection with the 
highest human attainments, and with pursuits in the 
very grandest sections of practical and general science. 

Some years ago, while enjoying a great dinner at 
our hospitable Mansion House, and looking around, in 
the spirit of one who seeks concernedly to implement 
the Scripture as to “‘ who is my neighbour,” my eyes 
lighted upon the well-known and now aged form 


400 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


of Professor Owen. He was seated amongst the 
common crowd, not.far from myself, and in a position 
which, in the jumble of accidents and head-counting 
of that section of the company, might have been 
hardly so good as myown. Had I been Lord Mayor 
at the time, I should certainly have at least tried to 
place the venerable Prince of Science next to the 
Prince of Wales, whose most genial presence happily 
graced the occasion. 

In conclusion, there can be no doubt that an 
Empire Peerage, of the democratic kind proposed, 
with its marked effect of mixing or tempering the 
old with the new, does somewhat dim the glitter of 
traditional aristocracy, and deprive it of much of its 
long-accustomed objectiveness in the society. But 
indeed, in these practical and common-sense times, the 
truth is that most of even our hereditary upper class 
have preferred already to descend to the terra jirma of 
ordinary life and work, rather than to unconcernedly 
-vegetate in the clouds overhead. Thus a Salisbury 
and a Granville, a Carnarvon and a Rosebery, splash 
the common mud as vigorously as if in their native 
element, or as if, in a new and an entirely reversed 
sense of an old phrase already quoted, they were 
altogether “to the manner born.” This equalising 
tendency, in short, seems precisely the want of the 
case. To attain that result must mean success, for 
our Empire is no longer simply monarchical, but, in 
the term that heads this Article, monarchic-demo- 
cratic. 


MOUNT MORGAN GOLD MINE. 401 


ARTICLE X, 
THE MOUNT MORGAN GOLD MINE. 


I wap not intended to notice particularly the 
Mount Morgan Gold Mine, as I had not, while 
lately in Queensland, any information to the effect 
of its differing from other gold mines, further than 
being of an unusually rich character. But the 
description given to me of it by my friend and 
Home fellow passenger, Mr. John Wagner, who is 
one of the earliest, and who still continues one of the 
lurgest shareholders, so aroused my interest, that I 
have since been on the outlook for all the guiding 
data as yet to be had, in order to present my readers 
with some reliable account of a most remarkable 
natural phenomenon. Mount Morgan seems to be 
an entirely unique instance of its kind, alike as to 
the character of the mineral formation and the un- 
precedented quality and richness of the auriferous 
matrix. As the mining on the Mount hitherto has 
hardly more than dealt with one mere corner, the 
world’s market has as yet felt no evidence of what 
really awaits it in this hill of gold. And such is 
in fact my chief reason or excuse for this Article X. 

Scientific observation and deduction are, of course, 
invaluable, to compare with the views of practical 
miners. Accordingly I have been waiting, but am 
sorry to say as yet in vain, for the published report 
of the examination of the mine made in the middle 
of last year, 1888, by Mr. Wilkinson, the Govern- 

2D 


402 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


ment geologist of New South Wales. Wanting that, 
I had still two scientific descriptions to help me, as 
far back, however, as 1884, namely that of Dr. 
Leibius, in his “ Notes on Gold” (Sydney Morning 
Flerald, 3rd July, 1884), and the official report of 
the Queensland Government geologist, Mr. Robert 
L. Jack, who gives the further help of a map of the 
district. I have also derived much information 
from a series of four articles of the Rockhampton 
Daily Northern Argus, of dates 17th, 19th, 21st, 
and 26th January, 1887, the author of which is 
evidently well informed in practical gold-mining. 
With these I had to compare the information 
given me by Mr. Wagner, and his friend and co- 
partner Mr. Walter Hall, to whom he introduced 
me in London since my return. 1 propose, then, to 
give briefly here, first, a history and description of 
the Mount; second, an estimate of its gold contents ; 
third, some guessing as to how it was produced ; and, 
fourth, some estimate of the effect upon the world’s 
market. 


_ History and Description of the Mount. 


The first persons to give attention to the Mount 
were three brothers called Morgan (whose name was 
afterwards given to it), who in the year 1882 were 
engaged in gold or other prospecting thereabout. 
They noticed the remarkable-looking stone of the hill, 
and not to lose any chance, although no gold was 
visible, they sent a sample to Sydney for analysis. 


"7 vee JAA Oe 


- — vs 


HISTORY OF MOUNT MORGAN. 403 


The result was so extraordinary as to richness, that 
fearing some mistake, they sent a second sample, but 
only with the like result. They then took measures 
to secure their prize, assisted by the money of some 
Rockhampton residents who shared in the enterprise. 
Half the Mount was at this time included in the 
square mile, or 640 acre section, belonging to a land- 
selector called Gordon, who was promptly bought 
out at 10s. per acre, and who, under such an unac- 
eustomed load of money, betook himself to the 
public-house, where he soon laid down both his life 
and his means. Next, the other half of the Mount 
was secured by mining lease of 21 years from the 
Government upon comparatively nominal terms. 
Mount Morgan fame was now established, and above 
a year afterwards the Morgans, four in number, in- 
cluding a son of one of the brothers, sold out their 
whole interest, realising about £100,000. One of 
them has since reappeared in Wales, with further 
honours in successful gold prospecting. Mr. Walter 
Hall, Mr. John Wagner, his partner Mr. Robertson, 
and some few others had by this time acquired the 
whole property. Three years ago they formed it 
into a company of 1,000,060 shares, each of £1, 
with 17s. 6d. paid up. Of this stock these original 
owners still held the largest portion, only about 
300,000 shares having passed to the public in order 
to provide funds to work the mine. 

- Mount Morgan is situated 26 miles south and 
slightly west of Rockhampton, the capital of Central 
Queensland. It is about 500 feet in height above 
the surrounding plain, while the plain is about 700 

2D 2 


404 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


feet above sea level. The upper two-thirds of the hill 
are by far the richest in gold. Two tunnels driven 
at different levels into this part, one of 200 feet, the 
other of 500 feet in length, have disclosed matrixes 
in no small quantity, rising to the unprecedented 
richness of 700 to 900 ounces to the ton. The lower 
flanks of the hill are much poorer, -and in some 
directions have scarcely any gold. The notorious 
Mount Morgan West boundary, on the lower western 
flank, comes within a furlong of this rich material, 
and yet, neither at that place nor further off to the 
westward, has it as yet yielded any dividend to its 
owners. 


Estimate of the Gold of Mount Morgan. 


Mr. Jack, in his geological map of the hill and 
surroundings, gives the shape of the richer upper 
section as that of an egg, whose longer diameter was 
rather more than a quarter of a mile, the shorter 
section being rather less. The flanks he describes 
as comparatively poor, being the overflow of the hot 
spring or geyser, to which he supposes the auriferous 
hill to be due; but, beyond remarking that there is 
both very much and very rich auriferous material, he 
makes no estimate whatever that might guide us to 
the total. Neither does the Argus writer to whom I 
have alluded. He mentions that much of the stone 
has averaged 5 ounces to the ton, and some sections of 
it as much as 130 ounces. But, from what Mr. Hall 
and Mr. Wagner have told me, the two years which 


YIELD OF GOLD. 405 


have elapsed since the remarks of the Argus writer 
have shown it to be almost incredibly richer than 
was then supposed. The estimate now made is that 
the whole hill may average 7 ounces to the ton. 
The hill and its flanks may average two-thirds of a 
mile in diameter. In shape the hill has an ordinary 
rounded peak appearance. The stone is sufficiently 
compact to be taken at one ton weight per cubic 
yard. And thus we reach a rough estimate of 
perhaps quite three hundred millions of gold, sup- 
posing the still unexplored interior to correspond to 
-what has been exposed. 

And now we come to ask what has been doing 
all this time with all this gold? When I repeatedly 
asked my friend Mr. Wagner to explain this, his 
unvarying reply was to the effect that, however 
remiss in the past, the company were now all alive 
to the future, and are preparing the necessary means, 
Hitherto Mount Morgan has yielded to the gold- 
famished world only from half a million to a million 
and a half of gold yearly. But this year the ma- 
chinery has been so perfected, that it is to yield a 
little over three millions. This, however, is from 
work in one section only, while all the rest of the hill 
is In abeyance. 

One cause of this inadequate procedure has been 
the very unusual, or rather the unique, character of 
the auriferous matrix. All gold found hitherto, 
however minutely distributed, has been, as [ under- 
stand, in simple mechanical combination with the 
matrix, which is generally a form of quartz. It has 
thus only to be reduced to powder, and, by running 


406 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


quicksilver through the mass, all the disengaged 
gold is picked up in the amalgam. But in this case 
the gold has been to a large extent in a state of 
chemical combination, and thus, with this portion, a 
chemical process called chlorination has to be used. 
But chlorination is a most explosive process, so that, 
when the richer stone is dealt with, the strong 
barrels which are made use of are apt to be blown to 
pieces. The richer stone, therefore, can be only very 
gradually realised by being mixed with the poorer. 
A concise and remarkably clear account of Mount 
Morgan, and of this chlorination process in par- 
ticular, is given by the late Lady Brassey, and with 
the usual life of her style, in “The Last Voyage 
of the Sunbeam,” 1887. 

Mr. Wagner mentioned that the owners of a small 
vessel had on one occasion bought from the company 
a loading of some of the richer stone, and taken it, 
as was supposed, to Germany, the vessel being 
German, where it was reported to have realised such 
an enormous profit that, viewing themselves as 
practically cheated, they avoided further dealings in 
that way. I asked him how this incident did not 
suggest to the company to ship this richer stone on 
their own account. There were Houses in London 
which might be trusted to account faithfully for 
every penny of proceeds. My impression from his 
reply was that this course might be considered along 
with others. It would, of course, lead to a much 
prompter realisation of the gold. 


CONFLICTING VIEWS. 407 


How the Mount was produced. 


Both Mr. Jack and Dr. Leibius agree in attri- 
buting this auriferous deposit to thermal spring 
operation. Mr. Jack in particular is clear upon the 
geyser-like aspect of the case, the mineralogical 
features of the deposit having generally the appear- 
ance of such origin. The apa writer, on the other 
hand, totally denies this conclusion, although he 
admits that some parts of the surface may have the 
appearance contended for. He thinks that strong 
magnetic or electric currents have brought up the 
gold, and that in the direction of these currents we 
may still find more of such rich deposits not far off. 
He thinks too that much of the quartz matrix has 
the appearance of igneous origin. 

I had just — aS this article when I happily 
received from the Colony the Brisbane Courier of 
10th January, with the second report of Mr. Jack 
upon the mine, based on observations made so lately 
as November last (1888), at the instance of the 
Queensland Government. By this time the hill had 
been tunnelled at various levels, and to great interior 
distances, with a total driving of above 7000 feet, so 
that there was now the means of very enlarged 
examination. Mr. Jack, however, still adheres to 
his first idea. ‘“ The evidence now in hand, in my 
opinion,’ he says, “goes to confirm my original 
view, that the auriferous material was deposited by 
a thermal spring.” He quotes the quite contrary 
opinion of Mr. J. Macdonald Cameron, member of 


408 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


the Legislature, and a local geologist, who reported 
upon the mine to the directors in March 1887. “I 
certainly differ from Mr. Jack,” he says, “as to the 
nature of the method of formation.” The further 
exposure of the interior of the mount has shown a 
great variety of matrix character, from the prevalent 
ferruginous quartz, usually rich in gold, to “ silicious 
sinter” and other mineral forms, much of which is 
very poor, and in some instances without any gold. 
The other view as to the origin of the gold traced 
it to a great bed of iron pyrites, mingled with 
quartz, the decomposition of the pyrites having 
supplied the gold. Further peculiarities of the 
Mount Morgan gold were its freedom from the 
combination of silver, and its remarkable purity 
in other respects—to the unprecedented extent, 
indeed, of 99°98 per cent. with a value at the 
Sydney Mint of 84s. 8d. per ounce. I must also add 
that a more critical observation of late has found 
some partial resemblances between the Mount 
Morgan circumstances and those of some other 
Queensland gold mines. I still adhere to Messrs. 
Hall and Wagner’s estimate of the hill, because they 
had both just returned from the place, and were 
thus the latest authorities. 

Evidently “doctors differ” here as elsewhere. 
Science has as yet very little explained the gold 
indications, and Murchison’s chief “ constants” have 
proved, at least in Australia, the most inconstant 
of things. Two difficulties, besides the disputed 
mineralogical indications, seem in the way of the 
thermal springs origin. Ist. Such a mass of gold 


GOLD OF MOUNT MORGAN, 409 


from the comparatively moderate depth of any spring 
or geyser is altogether unprecedented and unlikely. 
We must suppose that the spring or springs traversed 
auriferous regions beneath, of which what was 
brought up was the merest fraction. 2nd. The 
spring theory hardly accounts for the chemically 
combined state of so much of the gold. This seems 
to point to a much higher temperature than any 
that is likely to be associated with geysers, even 
under the strongest subterranean pressure, 

Two of Murchison’s principles may help us in this 
difficulty. Heremarks, first, that gold is never found 
unless with subterranean upheaval. Thus all the flat 
country of Kuropean Russia is without a particle of 
gold, till we reach what is geologically the same 
country upheaved in the Ural, and there is the gold. 
Next he lays down that the gold is found only where 
the upheaval has a general north and south direc- 
tion, and not where it is easterly and westerly. 

If we could suppose that at the subsiding of the 
earth’s crust the heavy and refractory elements such 
as gold fell into the lower positions, it might be that 
gold was no scarcer than many other things, if we 
only succeeded in penetrating low enough to reach 
it. Mount Morgan may have come of an exceedingly 
hot jet set in upward movement from an unusual 
depth—a comparatively small neck, which cracked 
and melted, rather than upheaved, in its upward 
course, and on reaching the surface emptied its vent 
into the present Mount Morgan. We might go on to 
suppose, of gold indications generally, that the north 
and south directions of upheaval were helped in 


410 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


intensity and depth by magnetic or electric forces, 
while the other directions of upheaval, which were 
without such help and such depth, failed to touch 
the gold. 


Effect upon the World’s Market. 


If this calculation as to Mount Morgan gold be 
substantially confirmed, and if it begin to be turned 
out upon the world’s market ere very long with that 
ereater promptitude which seems to me inevitable, 
the amount and the pace of supply will form together 
an unprecedented instance in the life and history 
of the precious metals. Australia and California 
unitedly, nearly forty years ago, increased, almost 
suddenly, the yearly gold supply from eight millions 
to thirty millions. This total supply gradually 
decreased, during thirty-five successive subsequent 
years, to a minimum of eighteen millions, from which, 
however, it has now recovered to twenty-two millions, 
with the prospect for this year, 1889, of being 
perhaps quite twenty-six millions, in view of the 
South African and the definitely ascertained Mount 
Morgan increase. 

When we add, by way of crowning these vast 
figures, the estimated capitalised proceeds of Mount 
Morgan, we would seem on the verge of unprece- 
dented, nay, incredible, revolution. But there are 
two circumstances which, working concurrently, will 
probably enable us to sweep through all this pros- 
pective ordeal with at once such facility and such 
quietness as hardly to create even the consciousness, 


APPRECIATION OF GOLD. 411 


amongst any of our countless pecuniary interests, 
that anything very unusual is affecting them. These 
are, first, the enormous additions that began, some 
years later on than the gold, to be made to the 
supply of silver, and which continue unabated until 
now, the yearly supply having risen from about six 
millions to twenty-six millions; and, second, the 
vast scale upon which gold and silver are now 
dealt with in the world, one of the items of the 
stock—of course the chief item—being the collective 
coinages of all the commercial states, estimated now 
to be but little short of two thousand millions, and 
probably divided very conveniently into almost equal 
proportions of each metal. 

Mr. Goschen, three years ago, indicated clearly an 
“appreciation” of gold, which had been going on 
steadily for some ten years before, not merely from 
the above stated decreasing supply, but from a com- 
mon scare in some chief states, inducing them to 
increase tlieir gold and diminish their silver coinage. 
Dr. Giffen has at last reached the same view. He 
finds that gold, while not increasing in production, 
is yet very largely increasing in use in the world, 
and he predicts that ere long a pound may be a 
seriously heavier obligation than it is now. Our 
Colonies for instance, he says, which run merrily into 
scores and even hundreds of millions of debt to-day, 
may have more than they bargained for to reckon 
with to-morrow. 

Our London bankers and capitalists made no 
objection whatever to this increased exchange power 
of the pound which told so well for them, They 


412 AUSTRALASIAN PROGRESS. 


were more than ever gold monometallists. The 
appreciation might indeed oppress the debtor where- 
ever gold was the standard; but, as England was 
everywhere creditor, her gain was thought to be 
indisputable. But, now that Mount Morgan threa- 
tens not only to arrest gold appreciation, but to cause 
even some extent of depreciation, the philosophical 
indifference of the said bankers may be scriously 
shaken. Do they like the pure alternative that gold, 
as silver did when bimetallic action was suspended, 
should “come down like a shot,” or would they not 
prefer that, as the late M. Chevalier would have put 
it, that the gold should come down like a shot 
attached to a parachute? That is how the bimetallic 
action would result, in associating the two precious 
metals so as to work practically as one standard by 
means of a fixed ratio of value. The timely gold 
supplies of Mount Morgan, coming so shortly after 
the favourable view of bimetallism from the late 
Monetary Commission, may possibly lead to the 
prompt restoration of bimetallic action under the old 
and convenient ratio of 153 to 1, to the unbounded 
relief and satisfaction of a large section of our own 
and of the world’s commerce. 


APPENDIX. 


+ 


Tue following extracts are from the letter of an old Mel- 
bourne friend, who, unable from ill-health to call upon me, 
had written his letter in consequence of some remarks I had 
made in a public speech. I have deemed it best to suppress 
all names, as my object is solely to illustrate principles. 

“Yesterday I saw you had a farewell with the members 
of the Chamber of Commerce, of which I was a member— 
I think fiom your founding it—for many years. But I am 
not a member now, as I have been engaged, as you may 
know, in mining. It was your speech on this branch of our 
Colonial industries which attracted my attention, and espe- 
cially those remarks in reference to the flotation of mines 
by London promoters, and the outrageous ‘loading’ for 
commissions, &e., &e., which so terribly handicap such 
ventures. 

“Some years ago I wrote to you about my having sent 
such mines to London, especially the. . . . This mine 
was cruelly overloaded, and so failed. Since then it has 
paid over £30,000 (I speak from memory) in dividends, and 
is as likely to pay for years and years, as when I had 
it under offer. I shall indeed be glad if you can instil a 
little more fair dealing into the promoters. It is a fact 
that where I sent properties ‘Home’ at a cash valuation of 
£130,000, the promoters wanted to get £400,000! 

“T never thought you would take any interest in mining, 
as you treated my approach to you on the subject with so 
distinct a negative. If 1 had known in time I imagine I 
could have given some good facts; and if in the future 
I can assist you in the good work, pray command me.” 

The other case was a somewhat different phase of extor- 
tion. But I might, as to it, repeat my friend’s words above 
quoted : “this mine was cruelly overloaded, and so failed.” 
Eyen these promoters would be benefited if their overload- 


414 APPENDIX. 


ing should be abolished, because then their schemes would 
have better chance of life. 

An old Colonial friend of mine, who was chairman of two 
small New Zealand gold mines, opened negotiations some 
few years ago with London for raising £25,000 upon each, 
in order to increase the water supply, by which they could 
very greatly increase their gold product. The money was 
to be raised by preference shares at 12 per cent. dividend, 
and the buyers of these shares, chiefly or wholly, I think, 
the London ordinary shareholders themselves, were ready 
with their payments. At the last stage, a commission of 
12 per cent. was put in as a seme gua non; and this so exas- 
peiated my friend, as a charge that seemed to him alike 
unconscionable and disreputable, that he at once broke off 
the transaction, so the promoter got nothing at all for his 
trouble, while my friend’s mines are just where they were 
instead of yielding to a good many investors, on very fair 
security, a most comfortable return for their money. 


INDEX, 


—_~_—. 


A 


A’Beckett, Mr. T. T., 76 
. Adelaide, 43, 272, 276-280 ; Govern- 

~ ment House, 278; wine-making, 
279; interviewing at, 292 

Aden, 313-320; various races at, 
318-20 

Akaba Gulf, 322 

Akaroa, 193, 194 

- Aitken, the late Mr. J., 241 

Albany, 298 

Albi, Mons., 110 

Albury (N. 8S. Wale), 87, 91, 93, 
274 - 

Arrow River, 219 

Arthur Seat, 37 

Atkinson, Sir H., 117, 157-160, 204 

Atkinson, Messrs., 167 

Auckland, 151; climate, &c.; 152- 
156 ; Cairn’s Hotel, 152 

Australasian Association for the Pro- 
motion of Science, 105 

Australasian Federal Council, 1889, 
x; Colonial Group, 13; frozen 
meat trade of, 344-350; Tariff 
difficulty, 373 

_ Australasian Dominion stock, 27, 28 

Australian climate (and drought), 
Preface, v, 341-344 

Australian Mortgage Land and Fi- 
nance Co., 105. 


Australian Transcontinental Railway, 
281-286; Chinese and, 284-286; 
Act, 384; Preface, vii, 338 


B 


Ballarat, 243, 245, 253-255; gold 
mine, 255-257 ; Town Hall, 268 
Bank of New Zealand, 153, 161, 
191, 208 

Banks’ Strait, 229; Peninsula, 193 

Barker, Mr. J., 58 

Bass’s Strait, 36, 229 

Batman, John, 44; Batman’s Hill, 
47, 78, 144, 251 

Bay of Islands, 151 

Beit, Mr. John, 164 

Benjamin, Alderman, 58, 63, 72, 73; 
Mrs., 331 

Ben Lomond (Tasmania), 84, 229 

Ben Nevis (Mt.) and depth of Red 
Sea, 322 

Bergh, Rev. Mr. (R. C.), 152 

Bird, Mr. (Tasmanian Treasurer), 
25, 228 

Bischoff (Mount) and tin, 30 

Black, Dr., 76 

Blackley, Canon, 250 

Black, Mr. R. I., 105 

Blaine, Mr., 380 

Blaxland, Mr., 147 

Blue Mountains, 124, 143-148 


Blue Gum Tree of Australia, 155, 
203, 234 


416 


Blyth, Sir Arthur, 279, 280 

Bonwick, Mr. Jas., Preface, xxii, 
xxiii 

Boothby, Mr. (See. C. of C.), 295 

Botany Bay, 99 : 

Boulanger, Genl., 311 

Brassey (late Lady) and Mount Mor- 
gan, 406 

Breakfast Creek, 135 

Bride, Dr., 69 

Brigham, President, 8 

Brisbane, 124; Custom House, 130; 
streets and buildings, 132; banks, 
132; waterworks, 135; river, 129 

British Association, 10, 55, 339; 
at Montreal, 12, 380 

British India Steam Co., 5 

Broad, Judge, 166, 191 

Brodie, Mr. G. 8., 252 

Broken Hill Silver Mine, 62 

Brown, Mr., 172 

Burns, Hon. Mr., 104 

Butterworth, Mr. (of Ohio), 381 


C 


Cairnes, Professor, 330 

Cairns, Mr. A., 79; Rev. Mr., 255, 
258 

Cameron, Mr. J. McD., 407 

Campbell, Hon. Alex., 94 

Canadian Board of Trade, 357-359 ; 
Pacific Railway, 5, 26; Dominion, 
25, 205, 366, 381; stock, 26 

Canada, Federation of, 26 

Canary Islands, 15, 16 

Cape Leeuwin, 299, 301, 364 

Cape Town, 16, 17 

Carr, late Captain 8., 85 

Carrington, Lord and Lady, 102 

Casseli, Mr. and Mrs, 74; Hon. 
J. H. Nelson, 74 

Ceylon and Coolies, 303, 304; fea- 
tures, schools, &e., 310, 811 


INDEX. 


Channel Tunnel, 249, 250 

Chapman, Mr. Fred. Revans (son of 
Judge Chapman), 191, 222 

Chartered Bank of Australia, Bris= 
bane, 132 

Chevalier, M., 412 

Childers, Mr., 29 

Chinese and Ausiralian Transcon- 
tinental Railway, 284-286 

Christchurch, 154; schvols, 190; 
and water supply, &c., 195-198 ; 
earthquake, 198-200; frozen meat 
trade, 546 

Christie, Mr. Wm. R., 246 

Chubb, Mr., Sen., 138 

Churchill, Lord and Lady Arthur, 
14, 21 

City of Glasgow Bank failure, 211 

Clarke, Sir Wm. J., Bart., 238, 239 

Clarke’s Island, 229 

Clutha River, 217 

Colac, 144 

Colombo Harbour, 312 ' 

Colonial Bank of New Zealand, 208, 
209 

Colonial Exhibition, London, 
175 

Colonial loan issues, 22; finance, 
22; interests and London markets, 
265-270; government, 362 

Commercial Banking Co, of Sydney, 
105 

Comorin, Cape, 313 

Conlan, Captain, 296, 297, 334 

Consols, 28 

Cooke, Mr. J., 197 

Cook, Thos., & Son, 331 

Cook’s Strait, 154; squall in, 157, 
165, 186 

Coppin, Hon. George, 66 

“Coptic” s.s., 5, 14, 19, 152 

Cowderoy (Mr.), Secretary Melbourne 
C. of C., 39, 231, 232 

Curr, late Mr. Edward, 74 


41, 


| Curtis Island, 229 


— ee ee 


INDEX. 417 


D 


Damyon, Mr., 58 

Dangar, Hon. H. C., 105 

Daniell, Major (and Colonel D ), 246- 
251 

Darling River, 274 

De Castella, Mr., 232 

Delius (of Bremen), 85 

Dennys, C. J. & Co., 245 

D’Entrecausteaux Channel, 18 

Derby, Lord, and New Guinea, 352 

Derwent River (Tasmania), 18; Up- 
per Derwent River, 34, 100, 228 


- Dibbs, Mr., Preface, xxi, xxii, 105 


Dickins, Mrs., 332 

Disher, Mr. W. J., 238 

“‘ Dividing ” Range, 242 

Drury, Mr., 137. 

Drysdale, Miss, 251, and town 

Duckett, Mr. Edward, 54, 55 

Duncan, Mr., 48, 209 

Dunedin (and trams), 48, 154, 208- 
212 

D'Urville Island and Channel, 167- 
172 


E 


Elder, Mr. A. L,, 268, 276; Sir 
Thos., 271, 276, 282 

Ellery, Mr., 259-264 

“ Empire Peerage,” 393-400 

Esk River (Tasmania), 34 

Etna, Mount, 329 


F 


Fallon, Mr., 92 

Fawkner, late Mr. J. P., 44 

Federal Colonial Government, 363; 
Council Bills, 371 


Fell, Mr. Charles T., 166 

Fergus, Hon. Mr., 191, 192, 218, 
249 

Fernshaw, 232-234 

Fern-Tree Gully, 20 

Fitzgibbon, Mr., 58, 72, 77, 383 

Fitzherbert, Sir Wm., 162, 174-179 

Flagstaff Hill, 47 

Foster, Mr., 365, 367 

Foveau Strait, 217 

Fox, Sir William, 191 

French Government and New Cale- 
donia, 356 

Froude (Mr.) and the Mormons, 7, 8 

Furneaux Group, 229 

Fysh, Mr. (‘Tasmanian Premier), 21, 
22, 31, 34, 87, 228 


G 


Gambetta, Monsieur, 249 

Garrick, Sir Jas., and Tariff question, 
371 

Gear Company in Petoné, 179-181, 
346 

Geelong—football, 35, 36, 45, 243- 
246; Mack’s Hotel, 245, 251-253; 
cured meat trade, 344 

Germany and New Guinea, 354; 
and Samoa, 354, 355 

Gibbs, Bright, & Co., 296 

Gibraltar, 15, 16 

Giffen, Dr., 411 

Gill, Mr. Jas., 74 

Gillies, Mr., 104 

Gipp’s Land (north), 233, 237; Alps, 
274 

Glen Osmond Hills, 275, 276 

Godeffroy’s ships, 85 

Gordon and Gotch (Messrs.), 49; 
Australian Handbook, 354 

Goschen, Mr., and 3 per cents., 23; 
and 24 per cents., 29; Preface, iii ; 
and gold, 411 


bo 
i>] 


418 


Goulbourn, 93 ; Upper River, 232 
Govet’s Leap, 145 

Grampian Mountains, 89 

Great Australian Bight, 298 
Grey, Sir Geo., 151 

Griffith Party, The, 367 


H 


Hadji-Baba, of Ispahan, 48 

Half Moon Bay, 218 

Hall, Mr. Walter, 402, 403 

Hamilton, Sir Robert and Lady, 21 

Hamilton (Canada), 160 

Hauraki Gulf, 151, 154 

Hawkesbury River, 141 

Healesville, 232, 233 

Heaton, Mr. H., M.P., Preface, vi 

Hector, Sir Jas., 163 

Henty, Mr. Francis and the Henty 
Family, 41-46, 58, 89, 190, 251, 
394 

Herbert, Sir Rt., 391 

Hobart, Lord, 43 

Hobart (Tasmania), 5, 16, 19; 
Government House, 21; jams of, 
35; Harbour, 228 

Hobson, Dr. E. C., 7 

Hobson’s Bay, 37, 38, 79, 80 

Hope, Dr., 180 

Hopkins, Henry (of Hobart), 19 

Hotham, Governor, 14 

“ Humbug Reach,” 38 

Huon River Road, 20 


I 


Imperial Government, 363, 370; 
Federation, 377, 382; League, 
3879, 390 

Indented Head, 37,45, 251 

Inglis, Mr. Peter, 253 


INDEX. 


Inter-Colonial Federation, 
xix, 25, 361, 365, 370, 382 

Invercargill, 215, 216 

Ipswich (Queensland), 133, 138 


Prefzce, 


Trish Home Rule, 389; a colonist’s 


view, 391-3893 
Irving, Mr. Henry, 333 
Ismay, Imrie, & Co., 340 


J 


Jack, Mr. R. L., 402, 404, 407 
Jackson, Mr. Jas., of Toorak, 74 
Jarra Tree, 299 

Johnson, Mr., of Manchester, 55 
Johnston, Mr. Jas. 8S , 75, 76 
Jvhnston, Mr, Reverdy, 380 
Joseph, Mr. 8. A., 104, 105 


K 


“ Kanaka” or coloured servant, 289- 
292; labour, 363 

Kangaroo Island, 43 

Katoomba, 144-148 

Kauri Timber Co. (Limited), 155 

Kawau Island, 151 

Kaye, Mrs., 241 

Kemble, Mrs. H., 333 

Kerguelen Islands, 18 

Kilmore, 89 

King George’s Sound, 298 

Knutsford, Lord, 175, 287, 364, 369 

Koroit Creek, 243 


L 


Labertouche, Mr., 87 
L’Agulhas Bank, 17 
Laguna, 16 

Lal Lal Station, 253 
Lancefield, 240, 242, 251 


A hee 


INDEX. 


Langhornes, the, 74 

La Trobe, Mr., 70, 71, 78 

Launceston, 34, 35, 42, 43 

Lawson, 147 

Leckie, Mr., 157, 158 

Lee, Bishop (Mormon), 9 

Leibius, Dr., 402, 407 

Le Souef, Mr., 69 

Lesseps, M. de, 324, 326, 327, 337, 
338 

“ Leura” s.s., 124 

Lilydale, 231-233 

Lindsay, Mr., 238, 240 

Lipari, 329 

Little, Mr. (J. P.), 241 

Little River Creek, 243, 244 

_ Lloyd, Hon. Geo. Alf., 94, 98 

Loch, Sir Henry, on Federation, 387 

Longburn, 182 

Lorimer, Hon. Sir Jas., 65, 82 

Lyttelton Town and Harbour, 193- 
195 


M 


McArthur, Mr. David C., 75 

McCrae, Mr., 107, 113-123, 255, 258 

McDonald, Mr. (Mayor of Ballarat), 
257 

McEwan & Co. (Limited), 54 

Macetown, 219 

Macfie, Mr. R.A., 388 

McHardie, Mr. Alexander, 346-349 

MclIlwraith, Sir Thomas (Queens- 
land Premier), 27, 58, 88, 106, 
122, 138, 287, 288, 352; party, 
367, 378 

Mackenzie, Mr., 209 

Mackinlay, 343 

Mackinnon, Mr. L. C. (‘ Melbourne 
Argus’), 39, 46 

Maitland, 140 

Mallee Scrub, 273 

Manawatu and Wellington Railway, 
181-187, 206 


419 


Manley Beach, 143; town, 148 

Manning, Sir Wm., 94 

Manukau Harbour, 154, 157 

Maori language, 177; chiefs, 185 

Marsden, Mr. J. A., 76 

Mate, Mr. Mayor, 92 

Max Miller, Professor, 9, 176 

May, Mr. and Mrs., 330, 331 

Melbourne Centennial Exhibition, 2, 
21, 32, 56, 57-63 

Melbourne, winter at, 20; (Port), 
37; Harbour Scheme, 38; wharf, 
38, 251; Scott’s Hotel, 39, 229; 
Menzies’, 39; suburbs, 45; found- 
ing of, 45, 46; ‘Argus’ office, 
46; Patent Office, 47; tramway 
system, 47; postage rate, 49; 
Press (the ‘ Argus,’ the ‘ Age,’ the 
‘Telegraph’), 51, 52, 75, 92; 
Trade, 53-56; Collins Street, 
64, 82; Fitzroy Gardens, 65; 
Government offices, 65; Parlia- 
ment House, 65; Grand Hotel, 
65; Temperance Coffee Palace, 65 ; 
Opera House, 66; The Benevolent 
Asylum, 66; Victoria Parade, 66 ; 
Public Library, 69; Botanical 
Gardens, 69; Zoological Gardens, 
69; Old Colonists’ Home, 69; 
Dinner, 190; Hospital, 69; Uni- 
versity and Royal Mint, 70; new 
bridge over the Yarra, 70; other 
bridges, 70; Town Hall and Clerk, 
72; the Mayor, 72 ; Cemeteries, 73- 
76; suburban municipality, 76-78, 
231; Harbour, 79-82; improve- 
ments; 82; comparison with Syd- 
ney, 95-98; Emerald Hill, 100; 
sewerage, 100; chimney smoke, 
118; Bell bird in, 135; Observ- 
atory, 259-264; last day in, 265- 
270 ; mines, 267 ; farewell to, 271, 
272; British Association, 339; 
hot winds, 343, 344; frozen meat 
trade, 345. 


420 


Merri Creek, 45, 76 

Messageries Maritimes, 4 

Michie, Sir Archibald, 76, 383 

Mill on “ Protection,” 111, 120 

Mining Speculations, 267-269 

Mitchell, Sir Thomas, 89, 242 

Monetary Commission, 412 

Moore, Mr. David, 76 

Moreton Bay and Islands, 129, 133, 
136 

Morgan Brothers, 402 

Mormonism, 5-10 

Morris, Mr. Augustus, 94, 143 

Mort, Hon. Henry, 104 

Mount Aitken, 241 

Mount Cook, painting of, 62, 157 

Mount Coot-tha, 133 

Mount Eden, 153, 154 

Mount Egmont, 154, 157, 187 

Mount Eliza, 37 

Mount Lofty, 275 

Mount Macedon, 242 

Mount Martha, 37 

Mountain Meadow Massacre, 9 

Mount Morgan Gold Mine, 61, 134, 
135, 187, 1389, 267, 338, 401-412 

Mount Wellington (near Hobart), 
17, 20 

Mouritz, Mr., 76, 82 

Mud Islands, 248 

Mullens, Mr. Josiah, 105 

Murchison, 408 

Murphy, Sir Francis, 76 

Murray, Mr., 255, 257 

Murray River, 91, 242, 273-275 


N 
Nairne, 275 
Namoi Creek, 342, 343 
Nankevill, T. J., 76 
Naples, 329 
“ Native Associations,” 383 
Neild, Mr. Cash, M.P., 150 


INDEX. 


Nelson, 154, 164-167; mayor of, 
166; potatoes, 252 

Newcastle Labour Strike, 125-129; 
paper, 140 

New Guinea, 351-356; eastern, 379 

New Norfolk, 228 

New Plymouth, 154, 157,158; Har- 
bour, 158-160, 162-164 

New South Wales Government, 11; 
32 per cents. 24; coal, 61; the 
Soudan War, 378 

New Zealand Stock, 28, 61; har- 
bours, 161; flax, 187; artillery- 
men, 193; storm, 213; govern- 
ment, 216 ; working men, 223-227 ; 
shipment of frozen meat, 349 

Nicholson, Mr. G., 76 

Nimmo, Hon. Mr., 77 

Nowlan, Mr, John, 76, 85 


O 


O’Loughlan, Sir Bryan, 368 

Oamaru, 191, 201; harbour, 204- 
207 

Orient Line, 4, 297 

“ Orizaba” s.8., 271, 295-334, 336, 
339 

Orr, Mr. (manager, Union Bank of 
Australia), 105 

O’Shanassy, Sir John, 75 

Otago Harbour, 207, 209, 213 

Otaki, 184 

Owen, Professor Sir Richard, 74, 400 


e 


Pacific Steam Navigation Co,, 297 

Paris Nuns, 10 

Parkes, Sir H., Preface, iii, x, xxi, 88, 
102-106, 127, 161 


INDEX. 


421 


Parramatta Junction, 93; town of, , Reid, Mr. Rt. (President ©. of C.), 41, 


142 

Patterson Inlet, 218 

Peel, General, 386 

“Penguin ” s.s., 157, 305 

Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navi- 
gation Co., 3, 4, 301 

Perim Island, 321 

Perth, Western Australia, 298 

Petoné, 176, 179 

Picton, 154, 167, 172, 173 

Pinschof, Mr., 58 

Plimmer, Mr. J., 131, 174, 181-184 

Plimmerton, 183 

Playford, Hon. Mr., 279 

Plymouth, 14 

- Porirua Harbour, 183 

Portarlington, 251, 252 

Port Chalmers, 210-212 

Port Jackson, 99; scenery of, 105; 
Heads, 125, 141, 149 

Portland Bay, 43, 44, 89 

Port Phillip, 37, 48-45, 229, 242; 

_ military defences, 246-251 

Port Said, 323-327 

Price, Professor B., 307 

Pyramid Rock, 229 


Q 


Queenscliff, 243, 246 

Queensland 33 per cents., 24; stock, 
293; Premier, 27; wool, 60; cats 
in, 291; 362, 367 

Queensland, 131; National Bank of, 
Queensland, 132, 137; trees in, 133 

“ Quetta” s.s. at Aden, 319 


R 


Raleigh, Mrs. Jos., 74 
Red Sea, Tne, 4, 321-3 


54; and Mrs., 231 
Reid, Mr. J., 201 
Renny, Mr. A. K., 74 
Revans, Mr., 222 
Richardson, Dr. B. W., 84 
Robertson, Wm. (of Hobart), 20 
Robertson, Mr., 403 
Robinson (Sir Wm.), 277, 279 
Robson, Mr. Henry, 250 
Rockhampton, 139, 403 
Rockwell (“ Danite ”), 10 
Rodondo, 229 
Rome, 143 
Rosebery, Lord, on Australia, 385 
Ross, Alfred, and A. G., 39, 74 
Ross, Mr. John, 168-172 
Rothschilds, one of the elder, 239 
Rounding, Captain, 150 
Royal Colonial Institute, Preface, 
xiii, 352, 379, 385, 388 
Ruapetu Island, 220 
Rucker’s Hill, 45 
Russell, 151 
Ryrie, Wm. and Donald, 232 


Ss 


St. Hubert Vineyards, 232 

St. Vincent Gulf, 43 

Salisbury, Lord, and foreign policy, 
Preface, xvi 

Salt Water River, 240 

Samoa and Germany, 354, 355 

Sandgate, 136 

Sandhurst, 245, 246; gold mines at, 
257 

Sandridge, 37, 80 

Sandy Bay, 229 

Santa Cruz (capital of ‘Teneriffe), 
16 

Sargood, Colonel, 53, 56 

Schleswig-Holstein, Prince of, 1850, 
85 


422 


Scott, Mrs., 252 

Scrimgeours, Messrs., 181 

Service, Mr, (ex-Premier of Victoria), 
11, 104, 374 

Shadforth, Mr., 58 

Sharp, Mr. T., 166 

Shaw, Mr., 234-237 

Shaw Savill Line, 5 

Siddons, Mrs., 333 

Smillie Family, 275 

Smith, Adam, the 
359 

Smith, Mr. Barr, 282 ; 

Smith, Joseph (Mormon), called the 
‘“ Prophet,” 7 

Smith, Rt. Hon. W. H., on Unity of 
the Empire, 377, 387 

Snowdon, Mr., 346, 348 

Society of Arts, 84 

Socotra, Island of, 313 

Standard Bank of 8. Africa, 17 

Station Peak of the Anakies, 37 

Stawell, Sir Wm., 76, 218 

Stewart, Mrs., 331, 332 

Stewart’s Island, 217, 219 

Strachan, Mr. J. F., 245 

Stradbroke, 129 

Stromboli, Mount, 329 

Sturt and Sturt Desert, 343 

Suez Canal, 323, 324 

Sunbury, 241 

Swan River, 42, 801 

Sydney, 93; Roberts’ Hotel, 94; 
comparison with Melbourne, 94 to 
98; George Street, 95; trams in, 
96; Town Hall, 97; New Hospi- 
tal, 97; commerce, 98 ; population, 
98; harbour, 99; sewerage, 100; 


Economist, 


Government House, 102; Stock 
Exchange, 105; 122, 143- 
149 


‘Sydney Herald,’ 25, 51; ‘Sydney 
Evening News,’ 51, 53 
Syme, Mr. (Melbourne 

108 


‘ Age’), 


INDEX. 


T 


Table Mountain, 17 

Tamar River, 35, 229 

Tambo, 342 

Taranaki, 169 

Tasman Bay, 164, 165, 306 

Tasmania, 18; stock, 28, 30; Tas- 
mania Main Line, 32-34 

Teneriffe Peak, 16, 262 

Tenterfield, 139 

The Bluff and Harbour, 213-215; 
Board, 218 

Thomson, Dr., 245 

Thorneycrofts and torpedo boats, 340 

Timaru, 201; harbour, 203; popu- 
lation, 205 

‘The Times,’ 290 

Toowoomba, 139 

Tropical colonies, 
286-289 

Tupper, Sir Charles, and Federation, 
372, 379, 380, 388 

Turnbull, Messrs., 174 


government of, 


U 


Union Company 8. of N. Zealand, 
189 

Unity of the Empire (or Federation), 
374, 877, 385; Preface, viii, xvii ; 
Peerage of the Empire, 393 


vV 


Verdon, Sir George, 242 

Victoria, mineral wealth of, 61, 98; 
candle-making, 111 

Victorian Gold Commission, 1854- 
1855, 179, 255 


INDEX. 


W 


Wagner, Mr. John, 331, 342; Mount 
Morgan Gold Mire, 401-412 

“ Wairarapa” s.s., 189-191, 215 

Wakefield, Gibbon, 174 

Wakipu and Wanaha Lakes, 219 

Wales, H.R.H. Prince of, 400; Pre- 
face, iii 

Wallace, Mr., 181 

Wanliss, Mrs., 255 

Wannon River, 46 

Warrego River, 139 

Warwick, 139 


. Way, Chief Justice, 295 


Wellington, 154, 174-188; Mana- 
watu Railway, 181-187 

Wentworth, 147 

Werribee Creek, 243 

Westgarth, Wm. (of Hobart), 19; 
Miss, 21; Westella, 229 


423 


Westport, N.Z. (coal), 61 
Wilkinson, Mr., 401 
Williamson, Mr., 76 
Williamstown, 248; quays, 37 
Wilson, Mr. Edward, 75 
Wilson’s Promontory, 229 
Wood's Point, 234 

Wynberg, near False Bay, 17 


Y 


Yarra River, entrance, 37; bank, 38; 
south side, 48; new bridge over, 
70, 72, 80; upper, 231, 242 

Yass, 93 

Yosemite Valley, 5 


Z 


“ Zealandia” s.8., 150 


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