Town Life in Australia

Town Life in Australia

Project Gutenberg's Town Life in Australia, by R. E. N. (Richard)
Twopeny This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Town Life in Australia 1883
Author: R. E. N. (Richard) Twopeny
Release Date: September 6, 2005 [EBook #16664]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOWN
LIFE IN AUSTRALIA ***

Produced by Col Choat

TOWN LIFE IN AUSTRALIA.
BY
R. E. N. TWOPENY,
OFFICER D'ACADEMIE DE FRANCE, AND LATE SECRETARY

TO THE ROYAL COMMISSION FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA AT
THE PARIS, SYDNEY, AND MELBOURNE EXHIBITIONS.
LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
1883.

INTRODUCTION.
The following work was originally written as a series of letters; but the
epistolary form has only been partially retained. As it has necessarily
been carried through the press without communication with the writer,
who is now in New Zealand, errors may possibly have been committed,
for which the editor rather than the writer is responsible; it is hoped,
however, that these will not be found numerous.

CONTENTS.
A WALK ROUND MELBOURNE SYDNEY ADELAIDE HOUSES
FURNITURE SERVANTS FOOD DRESS YOUNG AUSTRALIA
SOCIAL RELATIONS RELIGION AND MORALS EDUCATION
POLITICS BUSINESS SHOPS AMUSEMENTS NEWSPAPERS
LITERATURE, LANGUAGE, AND ART

A WALK ROUND MELBOURNE.
Although most educated people know that Melbourne, Sydney, and
Adelaide are populous towns, I should doubt whether one Englishman,
who has not been to Australia, out of a hundred realizes that fact. I well
remember that, although I had taken some trouble to read up
information about Melbourne, I was never more thoroughly surprised
than during the first few hours after my arrival there. And I hear almost
everyone who comes out from England say that his experience has been
the same as my own. In one sense the visitor is disappointed with his

first day in an Australian city. The novelties and the differences from
the Old Country do not strike him nearly so much as the resemblances.
It is only as he gets to know the place better that he begins to to notice
the differences. The first prevailing impression is that a slice of
Liverpool has been bodily transplanted to the Antipodes, that you must
have landed in England again by mistake, and it is only by degrees that
you begin to see that the resemblance is more superficial than real.
Although Sydney is the older town, Melbourne is justly entitled to be
considered the metropolis of the Southern Hemisphere. The natural
beauties of Sydney are worth coming all the way to Australia to see;
while the situation of Melbourne is commonplace if not actually ugly;
but it is in the Victorian city that the trade and capital, the business and
pleasure of Australia chiefly centre. Is there a company to be got up to
stock the wilds of Western Australia, or to form a railway on the
land-grant system in Queensland, to introduce the electric light, or to
spread education amongst the black fellows, the promoters either
belong to Melbourne, or go there for their capital. The headquarters of
nearly all the large commercial institutions which extend their
operation beyond the limits of any one colony are to be found there. If
you wish to transact business well and quickly, to organize a new
enterprise--in short, to estimate and understand the trade of Australia,
you must go to Melbourne and not to Sydney, and this in spite of the
fact that Victoria is a small colony handicapped by heavy protectionist
duties, whilst Sydney is, comparatively speaking, a free port, at the
base of an enormous area. The actual production does not take place in
Victoria, but it is in Melbourne that the money resulting from the
productions of other colonies as well as of Victoria is turned over. It is
Melbourne money chiefly that opens up new tracts of land for
settlement in the interior of the continent, and Melbourne brains that
find the outlets for fresh commerce in every direction. There is a bustle
and life about Melbourne which you altogether miss in Sydney. The
Melbourne man is always on the look-out for business, the Sydney man
waits for business to come to him. The one is always in a hurry, the
other takes life more easily. And as it is with business, so it is with
pleasure.

If you are a man of leisure you will find more society in Melbourne,
more balls and parties, a larger measure of intellectual life--i.e., more
books and men of education and intellect, more and better theatrical
and musical performances, more racing and cricket, football,