CHAPTER VII.ADELAIDE TO MELBOURNE—THE RABBIT PEST—DANGEROUS EXOTICS.
The distance from Adelaide to Melbourne is about six hundred miles. Our friends found that the journey was made very leisurely, the trains averaging not more then eighteen or twenty miles an hour. For quite a distance out of Adelaide the train ascends an incline as far as Mount Lofty station, where the hill or mountain of that name is situated. On the way up the last of the incline our friends watched with a great deal of interest the plains stretching out below them, and the city which they had just left lying at their feet like a section of carpet laid off into ornamental squares. Beyond Mount Lofty station the route descended into the valley of the Murray River, whose waters could be seen winding like a thread through the yellow soil.
“This is the longest river in Australia, is it not?” queried Ned.
“Yes,” replied the doctor, “it is the longest and largest river, and, as you have already learned, it is the only one that remains a real river throughout the year. Its mouth is not many miles from Adelaide, and a considerable part of its course is through South Australia.”
“I wonder they didn’t establish the capital city at the mouth of the Murray,” remarked Harry; “they wouldhave had the advantage of a navigable stream, which they have not in the present location.”
“Yes, that is quite true,” Dr. Whitney replied; “and they would have illustrated the saying of a philosopher, that great rivers nearly always run past large cities, but there was a practical difficulty in the way, of which you are not aware.”
“What is it?”
“The Murray at its mouth has a bar that is very difficult and dangerous to cross, and a large area at its entrance consists of shallow water. The mouth of the river, furthermore, is swept by southerly winds, which bring in great waves that have their origin in the neighborhood of the South Pole. Consequently it was concluded that the location of the city at the place with the largest entrance into the sea would not be advantageous, and a location on Spencer’s Gulf was considered preferable.”
“Very good reasons,” said Ned, “and I have no doubt that the founders of Adelaide acted wisely. They certainly have a very prosperous city where they are, although their seaport is several miles away.”
The train increased its speed as it descended the incline, and the youths found plenty of occupation and amusement in studying the scenery on each side of them, and noting the handsome residences of the merchants and other well-to-do inhabitants of Adelaide. The river was crossed by means of an iron bridge, a substantial structure which was evidently built to last. After crossing the Murray, the railway proceeded for awhile along its valley, and gradually left it to enter a region of long-continued monotony.
“For hours in succession,” said Harry in his journal, “we had little else but scrub. I imagine that when the surveyors laid out the railway line, they took their bearings by observation of the moon and stars, and laid it directly across from one side of the scrub country to the other. Scrub land is land covered with bushes. There are not many varieties of bushes, and this fact helps along the monotony. There is one bush that looks like an umbrella turned bottom upwards, and another that resembles an umbrella standing upright, as one holds it to keep off the rain. Then there are bushes and trees, some of them shaped like bottles, others like sugar loaves, and some like nothing else that I can think of at this moment. They vary from three or four feet in height up to fifteen and twenty feet, and sometimes we found them of a height of thirty feet or more.
“Mile after mile it is the same. I have heard what a terrible thing it is to be lost in the scrub. I can well understand that it is terrible, and can also understand how easily such a calamity could be brought about. One mile of scrub is exactly like another mile, or so very nearly like it that it is next to impossible to tell the difference. I have heard that people who stepped only a few yards from the side of the road have wandered for days before finding their way again, or have been sought for by many people before they were found. Many a man has lost his way in the scrub and never been heard of again, or perhaps years after his bones were discovered bleaching at the foot of a tree, where he had sat or lain down for his last rest when he could go no further.”
A portion of the road from Adelaide to Sydney iscalled “the ninety-mile desert,” in distinction from the rest of the scrub region. It was a great relief to any one to get out of this desert country, and reach the region of farms, and fences, cattle or sheep pastures, and cultivated fields. In some of the districts through which our travelers passed they saw great numbers of rabbits, and on calling attention to them, a gentleman who was in the railway carriage told them something about the rabbit pest from which the Australian colonies are suffering.
“If you want to make a fortune,” said the gentleman, “find some way for destroying the rabbits in Australia. There is a standing reward of twenty-five thousand pounds (one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars of your money) for any method that proves successful. The reward is offered by the colony of New South Wales, and the other colonies will pay as much more.”
“Were there rabbits in this country when it was first discovered?” Harry asked.
“There were no rabbits here,” was the reply; “nor any animals like them. In 1851, a gentleman living near Dunedin, New Zealand, was on a visit to the old country, and it occurred to him that it would be a nice thing to have rabbits in New Zealand, so that they could amuse themselves by chasing the little creatures with dogs. On his return from England he brought seven rabbits, and they were the progenitors of all the rabbits in New Zealand, Australia, and Tasmania. For a few years, as fast as rabbits were obtainable they were distributed throughout the colonies, but it was not long before the distributors found out their mistake.
“The rabbits increased and multiplied at a terrific rate. How many there are now in the colonies, nobody can tell, as it is impossible to take a census of them, but they certainly amount to many millions. They have destroyed millions of acres of sheep pasturage, so that many farms which once supported great numbers of sheep have been deserted in consequence of the rabbits. Let me give you an illustration that I know about, as I was one of the sufferers by these vermin. Fifteen years ago, I owned an interest in a sheep run on the bank of the Murray River in the colony of Victoria. Our holding extended back into the dry and comparatively worthless country.
“The rabbits got in there, and gradually the sheep were starved out. Year by year the number diminished, and five years ago I sold my interest in the run for a very small sum. From two hundred thousand sheep, the number had diminished to twenty-five hundred, and these were dying in the paddock for want of food. The rabbits were the cause of the whole destruction. They had eaten up all the grass and edible bushes, and it was some consolation to know that they were themselves being starved out, and were dying by the hundreds daily. When the rabbits there are all dead the place can be fenced in, so that no new ones can get there, and it is possible that the grass will grow again, and the run once more become a place of value.
“The story I have just told you,” the gentleman continued, “is the story of a great many sheep and cattle runs all over Australia and New Zealand. All sorts of means have been resorted to to get rid of the pest, and while somehave been partially successful, none have been wholly so. The best plan is the old one, to lock the stable before the horse is stolen; that is, enclose the place with rabbit-proof fences before any rabbits have been introduced. The Australian rabbit is a burrowing animal, and unless the fence is set well into the ground, he is very apt to dig under it. Thus it has happened that many an estate has become infested, even though the owners had gone to the expense of enclosing it.
“Most of the cities of Australia and New Zealand have a rabbit-skin exchange, just as you have a cotton exchange in New York. At these exchanges ten or fifteen millions of rabbit skins are sold every year, or an aggregate perhaps of fifty or sixty millions, and yet the number does not decrease perceptibly. Factories have been established for preserving the meat of the rabbits in tin cans, and sending it to market as an article of food. It was thought that this would certainly reduce the number of rabbits, but it has not yet succeeded in doing so.
“Various kinds of apparatus have been devised for filling the dens of the rabbits with noxious gases that kill them, but the process is too expensive for general introduction; and, besides, it does not work well in rocky ground. Rewards are given both by the government and by the owners of land for the destruction of rabbits, and these rewards have stimulated men, who go about the country with packs of dogs to hunt down the rabbits for the sake of the bounty. Sometimes the whole population turns out in a grand rabbit hunt and thousands of rabbits are killed. Pasteur, the celebrated French chemist, proposed to destroy the rabbitpopulation by introducing chicken cholera among them; he thought that by inoculating a few with the disease he could spread it among the others, so that they would all be killed off. He admitted that the chicken population would be killed at the same time, but none of us would object to that if we could get rid of the rabbits, as we could easily reintroduce domestic fowls.”
Ned said that he wondered why the rabbits increased so rapidly in the Australian colonies and not in the United States or England.
“Here is the reason of it,” said the gentleman. “In America there are plenty of wild animals, like wolves, weasels, foxes, ferrets, and the like, to keep down the rabbit population, but here there is not a single animal to interfere with them. They have no natural enemies whatever, and consequently have things entirely their own way. They breed several times a year and begin to breed very young, so that a pair of rabbits let loose in a given locality will in a few years amount to thousands or even to millions. There, look at that piece of ground and see what you think of it.”
The boys looked where the gentleman indicated, and saw what seemed to be a field of tall grass or grain waving in the wind. A nearer inspection showed that the ground was covered with rabbits, and it was the movements of the animals that caused the illusion just described.
“Rabbits are not the only pests from which the colonies have suffered,” the gentleman continued; “I will tell you about more of them.
“You must bear in mind,” said their informant, “thatwhen Australia was settled it contained very few of the products, either animal or vegetable, of other parts of the world. Among the animals there were no noxious ones except the dingo, or wild dog, which was found in various parts of the country. His origin has been a matter of conjecture, some believing that he is descended from dogs which were left here by those who discovered the continent, while others think he is indigenous to the soil. All the other animals, and they were not numerous, were harmless in their character. There are eight kinds of kangaroos, all of them herbivorous. They are, as you are doubtless aware, marsupials, that is, they carry their young in a pouch until they are able to run about by themselves. The dingo lived by feeding on the kangaroos, and thus kept down the number of those animals.
“Horned cattle, horses, and sheep were introduced and successfully raised. The wild dogs killed sheep and calves, and therefore the inhabitants set about killing them. As the dogs decreased in number the kangaroos increased, and they threatened to drive the sheep to starvation by eating up all the grass. Many a sheep run was rendered worthless by the kangaroos, and so it became necessary to establish methods of reducing the number of the latter. Battues or hunts were organized, the people gathering from all directions at an appointed time and place, and driving the kangaroos into pens or yards, where they were slaughtered by the thousand. You will probably have an opportunity of seeing a kangaroo hunt before you leave Australia.
“There were very few native fruits, and we introducedthe fruits of England and other parts of the world very successfully. We introduced garden plants and vegetables in great numbers, and nearly all of them turned out to our satisfaction, though this was not uniformly the case.
“You know that innocent and very acceptable plant called the watercress, which is sold in great quantities for table use in London, New York, and other English and American cities. Well, we brought the watercress to the Australian colonies, and it grew and thrived wonderfully. It grew altogether too well and thrived a great deal more than we could have wished, as it has choked our rivers, and caused freshets and floods which have devastated farms and fields to a large extent, and on several occasions have been destructive to human life.
“We introduced the sweet briar, thinking it would form an ornament and fill the air with its perfume. Instead of being ornamental, it has become an impenetrable bush, which neither man nor cattle can go through. It has become a nuisance, spreading over the ground and destroying pasturage, and we heartily wish that not a twig of it was ever brought here.
“When we began to grow fruits we found ourselves annoyed by insects of various kinds, the same sort of insects that are known to fruit growers everywhere. In order to get rid of them, we brought the English sparrow here. He is of great use to the fruit grower in the old country, as he lives principally on insects, or at any rate has the reputation of doing so, and he does not often attack the fruit.
“Well, we got the sparrow here, and he increased andmultiplied until he became very numerous, and what do you suppose the little wretch did?
“He did not do anything that we wanted him to do. He abandoned his English practise of eating insects, and lived wholly upon grain and fruit. In the fruit season he is a perfect terror in the devastation he makes among our fruit trees. A flock of sparrows will make its appearance in a cherry garden where there are twenty, fifty, or perhaps a hundred cherry trees bending beneath a burden of fruit just about ripe enough to be picked. They save the owner the trouble and expense of picking his fruit, as they take entire charge of it, and in a few days the whole crop is ruined. Other fruit suffers in the same way, and the testimony is the same from all parts of Australia. One of the colonial governments had an investigation of the subject at one time, and the testimony was something appalling. The sparrows abound here in countless millions, all of them descended from fifty birds that were imported about the year 1860. The owners of vineyards, as well as the fruit farmers, complain of the ravages of the sparrows, and at the official investigation that I mentioned one vine grower testified that his crop of grapes the previous year would have been two tons, but the sparrows destroyed the entire lot.
“Another bird almost as destructive as the sparrow is theminaormino, a bird which was brought here from India. It is quite a handsome bird, and can learn to talk almost as readily as the parrot, and that is why it was brought here. It lives on fruits and vegetables, and has very nearly the same habits as the sparrow. The colonial government have placed a bounty upon the heads and eggsof the sparrow, and also on those of the mina. A great many boys and men, too, make a fairly good revenue in killing the birds or plundering their nests. The birds are trapped, shot, or poisoned, but their number does not seem to diminish.
“Somebody brought a daisy to Australia, as it is a very popular flower in England, and was expected to remind the English settler of his old home. It has spread very rapidly, and on thousands upon thousands of acres it has rooted out the native grasses and taken full possession of the soil. Another plant has a history which would be ludicrous if it were not so serious, and that is the thistle.”
“You mean the regular thistle, such as is known in England and the United States?”
“I refer particularly to the Scotch thistle,” said the gentleman, “which is not particularly unlike the other thistles with which we are familiar. You know that the thistle is the emblem of Scotland, and may be said to be worshipped by all patriotic Scotchmen. Well, it happened that a Scotch resident of Melbourne, while visiting the old country, took it into his head to carry a thistle with him on his return to Australia. So he placed the plant in a pot and watered it carefully every day during the voyage from London to Melbourne. When he arrived his performance was noticed in the newspapers, and a subscription dinner was arranged in honor of the newly arrived plant. About two hundred Scotchmen sat down to the dinner, at which the thistle was the centerpiece and the great object of attraction. Speeches were made, and the festivities continued to a late hour of the night. The next day the thistlewas planted with a great deal of ceremony, and more speeches in the public garden at Melbourne, and it was carefully watched and tended by the gardener, who happened to be a Scotchman.
“Well, the thistle blossomed and everybody rejoiced. You know how the seeds of that plant are provided with down, that enables them to float on the wind. The seeds of that thistle were borne on the breezes, and all over the colony of Victoria they found a lodging in the soil, grew and prospered, and sent out more seeds. That thistle has been the cause of ruin to many a sheep and cattle run all over Australia. Thousands, yes, millions, of acres of grass have been destroyed by that pernicious weed. Anathemas without number and of the greatest severity have been showered upon the thick-headed Scotchman who brought the plant to Australia, and the other thick-headed Scotchmen who placed it in the public garden.
“While I am on this subject,” the gentleman continued, “I may as well tell you of a very curious circumstance in New Zealand.”
“What is that?”
“When the sheep farmers first established their business in the mountain regions of New Zealand, they observed flocks of parrots occupying the forest, and living entirely upon fruits and vegetables. They were very pretty birds and nobody thought that any harm would come from them, in view of their habits of life. The farmers used to kill some of their sheep for food purposes, and leave the meat hanging out over night in the cool air. It was observedthat the parrots got in the habit of coming down to the meat frames and picking off the layers of fat, particularly those around the kidneys. Their fondness for this kind of food seemed to increase as time went on, and they finally became such a nuisance as to compel the herders to give up their practise of leaving the meat out of doors in the night-time.
“After a while the farmers occasionally found the fattest and best of their sheep dead or dying of wounds across the smaller part of the back directly in the region of the kidneys. Nobody could tell how the wounds were made, but it was evident that the mischief-makers were numerous, as a good many sheep, always the finest of the flock, were killed. Finally, one of the men employed about a sheep run ventured to suggest that it must be done by the parrots. His suggestion was ridiculed so earnestly that the man was sorry he had made it, but he gave as his reason for it the fact that he had seen a parrot perched on the back of a sheep and the bird flew away when he approached.
“Watchers were set over the sheep, and the suggestion of the man proved to be the correct one. How the birds ever connected the existence of the fat which they tore from the carcases on the meat frames with the location of the same fat in the living animal, no one can tell, but certain it is that they did so. It was found that a parrot bent on securing a meal, would fasten his claws in the wool of the sheep, and then with his powerful beak he would tear away the skin and flesh until he reached the fat of which he was in search around the kidneys of the strugglinganimal. It was impossible for the sheep to shake him off; whether it ran or lay down and writhed in its agony, the bird retained its hold until its object was accomplished.”
“Of course this led to a war of extermination against the parrots, did it not?”
“Certainly it did. As soon as the fact was well established the colonial government offered a reward of one shilling for each parrot’s head, and the business of hunting these birds began at once. Formerly they used to come freely into the presence of man, but now they shun him, and it is very difficult to find them. They live in the forest, concealing themselves in the daytime, and only coming out at night. In fact, their depredations were committed in the night-time, and that is the reason why their offences continued so long without being discovered.”
“Did they cause great destruction among the flocks of sheep?”
“Yes, until they were found out and the war began against them they were terribly destructive. One man lost two hundred sheep out of three hundred, another lost nineteen out of twenty, and several others in the same proportion. Even now, although the number of parrots is diminished enormously, the flocks in the region where they abound lose at least two per cent. every year from that cause.”
“Is there any way of exterminating them by poison?”
“No way has been discovered as yet, as the birds are very cunning and cannot be readily induced to take poisoned food. They are more wary in this respect than rabbits and sparrows, as both of these creatures can bepoisoned, though the danger is that in attempting to poison them the food is apt to be taken by domestic animals or fowls.”
“Speaking of poisoning reminds me of an instance in Queensland some years ago, where there was a large number of blacks inhabiting the forest near a sheep station.
“The owner of the station had been greatly annoyed by the blacks, who had killed many of his sheep, and in several instances had threatened the shepherds with death, and driven them from their places. He determined to get even with them, and this is the way he did it. He loaded a cart with provisions such as flour, sugar, bacon, tea, and other things, which were distributed to the shepherds once a week. Then the cart started apparently on its round. Near the place where the blacks were congregated one of the wheels of the cart came off, and at the same time the vehicle became stuck in a gully. The driver took his horses from the shafts and rode back to the station for help, leaving the cart and its load unguarded.
“Here was a fine opportunity for the blacks to exercise their thieving propensities, and they did not miss it. In less than an hour the cart was stripped of everything edible, flour, sugar, and everything else being carried away. When the driver returned, he found only the empty vehicle with which to continue his journey.
“That afternoon the blacks had a grand feast over the stolen property. All the members of the tribe came together and took part in the feast, about two hundred in all. It so happened that everything edible had been dosed with strychnine before the cart was loaded, and in a few hoursall who had partaken of the feast were dead. Much as the white people around there had been annoyed by the blacks, there were few, if any, to approve of this wholesale poisoning which the sheep owner had undertaken entirely on his own responsibility.”
“I suppose it is due in some measure, at least, to performances of this sort that the blacks are diminishing in number,” Dr. Whitney remarked.
“No doubt that has a good deal to do with the matter,” was the reply. “I don’t know of any other instances than this of wholesale poisoning, but I do know that in a good many instances, black men have been shot down by whites for the reason that they had speared cattle or committed other depredations. The blacks have been treated very much the same way as your American Indians, and generally with as little provocation; but, beyond all this, it is well known that the number of births among them every year is considerably less than the number of deaths from natural causes. Some people believe that the blacks are addicted to infanticide, and that many of their children are put to death to save the expense of bringing them up. Understand me, nobody knows positively that this is the case, but only surmises it.”
CHAPTER VIII.CANNIBAL BLACKS—MELBOURNE AND ITS PECULIARITIES.
“I have heard,” said one of the youths, “that Australian blacks are cannibals. I wonder if that is really so?”
“Perhaps all the tribes in the country are not cannibals, but it is pretty certain that some of them are. They know that the white man is prejudiced against eating human flesh, and consequently they conceal very carefully their performances in this line. In former times they were not so particular, and there was the most positive proof that they devoured their enemies killed in battle, and also killed and devoured some of their own people. They were not such epicures in cannibalism as the inhabitants of the Feejee Islands formerly were, and did not make as much ceremony as the Feejeeans over their feasts of human flesh. Some of the tribes that indulged in the practise have given it up, but the belief is that those in the interior still adhere to it.”
“What do they live upon when they do not eat human flesh?” queried Ned.
“As to that,” was the reply, “they live upon pretty nearly everything they can lay their hands on. They hunt the kangaroo and are fond of its flesh, and they are also fond of the flesh of cattle and sheep. In fact, they commit a good many depredations upon the flocks andherds. They eat snakes, lizards, toads, and, in fact, anything that lives and moves, and they are not at all particular about the condition of the meat when they eat it. It is all the same to them whether it is fresh or putrid. A man would need have a very strong stomach to accept an invitation to take dinner with a family of uncivilized blacks, or even with one that had become civilized.”
While this conversation was going on the train was speeding on its way, and Harry observed that the houses were becoming more numerous, and the country more densely occupied, as they came nearer to Melbourne. Occasionally they caught sight of a house which looked like a gentleman’s residence rather than like an ordinary farmhouse, and he called attention to the circumstance.
“We are approaching Melbourne,” said their traveling companion, “and from this point on you will find a good many country seats of gentlemen who do business in the city. It is cooler here in summer than in Melbourne, and a great many people have established their summer homes in this region. It is so much the fashion, that it has become obligatory for the well-to-do citizen to have a town residence and a country one, and his establishment is considered incomplete unless he possesses both. A good many people occupy their country homes for the greater part of the year, going back and forth by railway according to the requirements of their business. It is the same in New York, London, and other great cities all over the world. Melbourne considers itself just as important as any other city, and I believe it claims to be the tenth city of the world in point of population.”
Ned asked what the population of the city was.
To this the gentleman replied that he did not have the exact figures at hand, but he believed the last census gave the number of inhabitants as very nearly half a million. “Including the suburbs,” said he, “I think it is fully that, and if it had not been for the dullness of business for the last two or three years, caused very largely by the labor strikes and other disturbances of trade, I think we would now exceed the half million figure.”
While he was saying this, Ned called attention to a large house on a little eminence about half a mile away, which resembled a palace more than it did a private dwelling. As Ned pointed towards it and told Harry to look in that direction, the gentleman said:—
“That house was built ten or twelve years ago by a millionaire merchant of Melbourne. He spent a great deal of money upon it, being determined to have the finest house in the country. About the time of its completion he met with heavy losses in business, and was unable to carry out his plans concerning the grounds around the building. It was his original intention to have a park, in which he would enclose specimens of all the animals of Australia, and an artificial lake, with specimens of all the fishes of the country. He has never carried out this part of the scheme, but declares that he will do so whenever his wealth returns to him.”
“A very good scheme, indeed,” said one of the youths, “and I hope the gentleman will be able to carry it out.”
“Yes; and I hope so, too,” was the reply. “The place would be made interesting if he should do so, but, after all,you can see the same thing in the parks of the principal cities of Australia. Each has, I believe, collections of the animals of the country, together with many animals of other countries, and any one is at full liberty to go and see them.”
Houses became more numerous, and towns and villages made their appearance as the train went along. Harry observed that in some of the towns which they passed through there were imposing buildings, which seemed rather out of proportion to the number of dwelling-houses.
Their impromptu guide explained that this was the outgrowth of Australian politics. “Every town in Australia,” said he, “is desirous of having some of the public money spent within its limits. It wants a courthouse, jail, or some other public edifice, and in order to secure his election to the legislature, a candidate is compelled to promise that he will obtain the desired appropriation. These appropriations are secured by what you call in America ‘logrolling.’ That is, Smith of one town makes an arrangement with Brown, Jones, Robinson, and I don’t know how many others of as many other towns that he will vote for their appropriations, provided they will vote for his. In this way a town of five hundred inhabitants gets a courthouse and jail large enough for a population of five thousand, or perhaps twice that number. A great deal of government money has been wasted in this way, but there is no help for it as long as human nature remains as it is.”
This led to a little talk on Australian politics, in which the youths learned that the people were divided into parties very much as in England and the United States, and their quarrels were just as fierce. The party in power is alwaysbitterly denounced by the party out of power, and the outs can always demonstrate how much better they could manage public affairs than the ins are doing it. The great questions usually before the people are the tariff and public improvements, and the fiercest fights are usually those concerning the tariff.
Protectionists and free traders are just as skillful and just as earnest as the same parties in the United States, and each can demonstrate mathematically how much better its own system is than that of the other side. The colonies are themselves divided on the subject of tariff, all of them favoring protection with the exception of New South Wales, where the free traders are in the majority.
There has been a great deal of talk about a federation of the colonies, but the stumbling-block in the way of it is the difference in the colonial tariff. Federation would have been brought about years ago had it not been for New South Wales and its free trade policy.
Ned and Harry started to take some notes on the subject of the tariff, but the doctor reminded them that they had better leave the subject alone, as it was a dangerous one to touch. Consequently they have not given us the benefit of their notes upon it, and we are unable to say what conclusion they reached.
At its appointed time the train reached Melbourne, and our friends found themselves in the spacious station of the railway company.
As soon as they could get their baggage, our friends proceeded to a hotel which had been recommended to them, and which they found quite satisfactory. Aftersecuring rooms they went out for a stroll, having been advised to take a promenade along Collins Street. Harry said he was sure that the street had been named after somebody who was prominent in the early history of the colony, at least, he felt that such was the case if Melbourne had followed the example of Adelaide.
“Melbourne was founded before Adelaide was,” said Dr. Whitney, “as the first settlement was made here in 1835, a year before the first settlement was made in Adelaide; but, all the same, your theory is correct. Collins Street was named after Colonel Collins, who established a convict settlement in this vicinity as far back as 1803, but for some reason he gave it up a year or two later, and transferred his convicts and their guards to Tasmania.”
“The next street parallel to this,” said Ned, “is Bourke Street. I wonder who Bourke was?”
“Bourke was the governor of the colony in 1836,” the doctor replied, “and that is why he was honored with a street.”
“We know about Captain Flinders,” said Harry, “after whom Flinders Street was named. He was a daring explorer who accompanied Captain Bass when the latter discovered Bass’s Strait, that separates Australia from Tasmania. There is also a range of mountains named after him.”
“Captain Lonsdale, who was in command of some of the troops at the time that the city was laid out,” said the doctor, “was honored with a street, and Swanston Street commemorates one of the early settlers. Then there are King Street, Queen Street, William Street, ElizabethStreet, which explain themselves, as they indicate the feelings of the early settlers towards the royal family.”
“This street is certainly as attractive to the eye as Broadway or Fifth Avenue in New York,” Ned remarked, as they strolled slowly along Collins Street. “See these magnificent buildings. You have only to shut your eyes and imagine yourself on Broadway, and when you open them again the illusion does not require a great stretch of the imagination. And all this has grown up since 1835. Just think of it!”
“Yes,” replied the doctor; “it was about the middle of 1835 that one John Batman came here with a small sailing vessel, and made a bargain with the chief of the tribe of blacks then occupying this neighborhood, by which he purchased about twelve hundred square miles of ground for a quantity of goods worth, perhaps, one hundred dollars.”
“That beats the purchase of Manhattan Island for twenty-four dollars,” remarked Harry as the doctor paused.
“Yes, it does,” was the reply; “the government afterwards repudiated Batman’s trade, and took possession of the ground he had purchased.”
“A pretty mean piece of business, wasn’t it?” queried Harry.
“As to that,” said the doctor, “there are arguments on both sides of the question. Batman felt that he had been unfairly dealt with, although the government paid him about thirty-five thousand dollars for his claim. At the time they paid the money to him the land was worth very much more than that amount.”
“Did he stay here and go to building a city at once?” queried one of the youths.
“No; he went back to Tasmania, whence he had come, in order to get a fresh supply of provisions, and while he was gone John Fawkner came here with a schooner called theEnterprise, and made a settlement. His party consisted, if we may include the quadrupeds, of five men, two pigs, one cat, two horses, and three dogs. When Batman came back he was very angry, and as long as both the men lived there was a bitter quarrel between them which threatened several times to result in a shooting affray. Batman died in 1839; his heirs and partners took up the quarrel, and traces of it are said to exist to the present day. The people of Melbourne have erected a monument to Batman’s memory, but Fawkner is generally regarded as the founder of Melbourne, as he made the first permanent settlement, and the colony may properly be considered to have begun on the date of his arrival.”
When the conversation had reached this point, the party found themselves at the corner of Elizabeth Street, which intersects Collins Street at right angles.
“You observe,” said the doctor, “that this street, Elizabeth, is the dividing line of the city. That is to say, from it the streets are called east and west just as they are so called in New York. At Fifth Avenue, East Forty-second Street and West Forty-second Street begin. In the same way we have here Collins Street, East, and Collins Street, West; Bourke Street, East, and Bourke Street, West; and so on through the whole list. They put the word designating the point of compass after thename of the street, while in New York we do just the opposite.”
“Oh, yes, I see,” Harry remarked, with a twinkle in his eye. “Melbourne is on the other side of the world from New York, and so they name the streets in the reverse manner. So, then, there is another proof that Australia is a land of contradictions.”
Ned laughed, and made no reply other than to ask if the great number of deaths that occurred here during the gold excitement had any allusion to the name of the city. Harry looked at him with a puzzled expression, and asked what he meant.
“Why, I was thinking,” said Ned, “that possibly Melbourne might have been ‘the bourne whence no traveler returns,’ mentioned by Shakespeare.”
“Oh, that is old,” said the doctor; “and while you are on this subject, I will inform you that the city obtained its name from Lord Melbourne, who was Prime Minister of Great Britain at the time that the place was laid out.”
“The surveyor who laid out the city,” remarked Harry, “had a ‘level’ head, as well as a leveling one. See what wide streets he gave it.”
“Yes, that is so,” replied Ned. “They must be one hundred feet wide, at least that is what I would guess.”
“You guessed very closely,” said the doctor, “as they are ninety-nine feet (one chain and a half) wide, and the tradition is that Melbourne was laid out by an American surveyor. The city, as originally planned, was one mile square, but it has received numerous additions, so that it now covers a great deal more than a square mile. Itreally occupies, with its suburbs, an area of nearly one hundred square miles, and every year sees a new suburb added. Of course, when population is mentioned, the whole of the suburbs should be included, and the inhabitants claim, with a great deal of reason, that within a radius of ten miles from the city hall, there are fully four hundred thousand people residing.”
“That is certainly a very rapid growth,” said one of the youths. “All that population since 1835! It is the most rapid growth of any city that I know of, is it not?”
“Yes, I think it is,” replied the doctor. “Neither San Francisco nor Chicago can show a growth equal to that of Melbourne in the first fifty years of its existence. Chicago is now a much larger city, but fifty years from its foundation it could not boast of as many inhabitants as could Melbourne when it was half a century old.”
To the eyes of our young friends Melbourne presented a very busy appearance. Cabs and carriages were rushing hither and thither. Crowds of people were on the sidewalks, and other crowds filled the tram-cars and omnibuses. Harry observed that Melbourne was sufficiently up with the times to be provided with electric cars, and that she also had cable lines, as well as the more primitive street cars. It was near the close of the afternoon, when the great majority of the population are seeking their homes, and the scene of busy life reminded the youths of lower Broadway, near the end of the day in New York.
The doctor explained that a very large part of the working population resembled the well-to-do portion, by having their homes in the suburbs, and, consequently, thata great many people required transportation. Hence the rush for the tram-cars and other public means of travel on the part of the great mass of the public, while those with better-lined purses patronized the cabs and carriages. Cab fares are high, being about one third more than in London, but not so high as in New York. In the days of the gold rush the most ordinary carriages could not be hired for less than fifteen dollars a day, and five dollars was the price for an hour or two.
There is a story in circulation that a gold miner was once bargaining for a carriage for which the driver demanded twelve pounds (sixty dollars) for a day’s hire. The miner said he would not pay it: he handed a ten-pound note to the driver, and said he must be satisfied with that. The driver assented, and there was no further discussion on the subject.
Prices of all sorts of things throughout Melbourne are somewhat above London figures, but they have been established a long time and nobody complains of them.
Our friends continued their walk to the Yarra River, up whose waters Batman and Fawkner sailed when they came here to found the city. Its native name is Yarra-Yarra, but the double word is rarely used by the inhabitants of Melbourne in speaking of the stream. Of itself, it is not a river of much consequence, as originally all but very small vessels had difficulty in ascending it. It has been dredged and deepened, so that craft drawing not more than sixteen feet of water can ascend it to Prince’s Bridge, the spot where our friends reached the stream. Vessels requiring more water than that must remain atFort Melbourne, about three miles further down. There are several other bridges crossing the river at different points. Near Prince’s Bridge our friends saw several passenger steamers crowded with people, on their way to their homes down the bay.
On their return towards the hotel our friends loitered among the shops, and especially among those in what are called the Arcades, of which there are four, modeled after the Arcades of London and the “Passages” of Paris. They are delightful places to lounge in, whether one is in search of purchases or not, and the three strangers were in no hurry to get through them.
One of the arcades is known as the Book Arcade, and the shops inside of it are almost wholly devoted to the sale of books. Harry remarked that he judged the Melbourne people to be a reading one, otherwise there would not be so much space devoted to the sale of books. The youths had a brief conversation with one of the proprietors, who told them that it was one of the largest book stores in the world, in fact, he did not know of any other as large as that. “We can give you anything you want,” said he; “everything is so arranged that we know just where to lay our hands on any book that a customer wants.”
Melbourne is a great source of supply for all the interior of Victoria. In the wholesale shops there were great quantities of goods intended for up-country use. “There were,” said Harry, “tons and tons of clothing destined for the mines or for sheep and cattle runs, and great quantities of tea, sugar, and other provisions, together with saddlery, harnesses, and ironmongery in great quantity and variety.”
“We observed,” wrote Ned, “that between every two wide streets there is a narrow street running in the same direction. I believe you will find the same arrangement in many parts of Philadelphia, and also in the new part of Boston. The original intention of the surveyor was that these small streets should be used as back entrances for the buildings on the larger ones, but this intention has not been carried out in the development of the city. Formerly these narrow streets took the name of the wide ones, with the prefix ‘Little’; for example, the one between Collins and Bourke Street being known as Little Collins Street. Most of them are now called lanes, and are spoken of as Collins Lane, Latrobe Lane, and the like, and many of them are devoted to special lines of trade. Flinders Lane, between Flinders and Collins Streets, is the principal locality of the wholesale dealers in clothing, and Bourke Lane is largely occupied by Chinese. We are told that the renting prices of stores along these lanes are very high, probably greater than either Batman or Fawkner ever dreamed they could be in their wildest moments.
“When we returned to the hotel we found an invitation for us to dine at one of the clubs, the gentleman who gave the invitation having called during our absence. We dressed as quickly as possible, and went at once to the club house, where we dined on the best that the city afforded. Melbourne is a great place for clubs, quite as much so as London or New York. Nearly everybody belongs to a club, and many gentleman have two, three, or more clubs on their lists. Nearly all of the clubs have lodging rooms for bachelor members, and the popularityof the institution is shown by the fact that most of these rooms are constantly occupied.
“Life at a club is somewhat expensive, though less so than at a first-class hotel. One gentleman probably stated the case very clearly when he said that life in a club house is pretty much as each individual chooses to make it. He could live economically or expensively, according to his preference. He could dine on the choicest or on the plainest food, and could entertain liberally or frugally. ‘There is no necessity,’ he added, ‘for a man to waste his money because he lives at a club, but there is no denying the fact that a club affords temptation and opportunity to do so.’
“During dinner the subject of horse racing came up, and our host said that he did not believe there was any city in the world where so large a proportion of the population was interested in equine sports as Melbourne. ‘On Cup Day,’ said he, ‘that is, on the day of the annual race for the cup which is given by the city of Melbourne, people come here from all parts of Australia.’
“‘Everybody who can afford the time and expense is reasonably sure to visit Melbourne, and a great many come here who can hardly afford to do so. Hotels and lodging houses are crowded to their fullest capacities for several days before the great event. When Cup Day comes, it is like the Derby Day in England. Half the population of Melbourne goes to Flemington, when the race is run, and nearly all the scenes of the great Derby Day in England are repeated. The winner of the Melbourne cup is greeted with the heartiest cheers at the close of the race, and if heis put up for sale on the spot, he is sure to bring an enormous price.’
“‘I asked if the horses competing for the cup were limited to those raised in the colony of Victoria?’
“‘Oh, not by any means,’ the gentleman answered; ‘horses from any of the colonies can be entered for the great race. They come from New South Wales, South and West Australia, and also from Queensland, and sometimes we have them from New Zealand or Tasmania. In some years it has happened that not one of the racers was bred in the colony of Victoria. There is never any lack of competitors, their number being usually quite equal to that in the race for the Derby. The race track is a little more than a mile from the center of the city, so that the public has not far to go. Vehicles of every kind command high prices on Cup Day, and many thousands of people go to the race on foot. For weeks before the event little else is talked of, and the great question on every tongue is, “What horse will win the cup?”’
“Melbourne is very fond of athletic sports, and there are numerous clubs devoted to baseball, football, cricket, golf, and the like. There are also rowing clubs, and their favorite rowing place is along the part of the Yarra above Prince’s Bridge. The course is somewhat crooked, but there is a good view of it from the banks, and a rowing match between two of the crack clubs is sure to attract a large crowd.”