Town Life in Australia | Page 9

it must not be
imagined that it is poorly built. On the contrary. Its buildings are put in
the shade as regards size by those of Melbourne but if you had not seen
Melbourne first, you would certainly have been surprised by the
number and size of the public buildings of Sydney. The rich man loses
his sense of the proportionate value of moneys. But Sydney has the
great advantage of possessing superior building material in a red and

grey sandstone of great durability, which forms the substratum of the
whole district in which it is built, while Melbourne has mainly to rely
on a blue stone found at some distance, and has to import the stone for
its best buildings from either Sydney or Tasmania. I must confess too,
that I prefer the general style of architecture in Sydney to that most
common in Melbourne. First and foremost, owing to the more limited
area of the business part of the town, the Sydney buildings are much
loftier. Melbourne and Adelaide always look to me as if some one had
taken his seat upon the top of them and squashed them down. Sydney is
taller and more irregular. It climbs up and down a whole series of hills,
and protrudes at all kinds of unexpected points. The city proper has no
very definite boundaries, and you hardly know where the city begins
and the suburbs end.
Of the public buildings of Sydney, the handsomest are the Treasury, the
Colonial Secretary's office, and the Lands Office, each four or five
stories high, and close to the water's edge. The Colonial Secretary's
office is only second to the Melbourne Law Courts amongst the
completed buildings of Australia. It is lofty, massive, and dignified
outwardly, elegant and spacious inside, although it has been fitted up in
the most incongruous fashion with odds and ends of third-rate statuary,
imitation bronzes, etc., until it looks like an old curiosity-shop. The
University, though comparatively an old building, still holds its ground
amongst the best, and may well be proud of its splendidly proportioned
hall, built in fifteenth-century Gothic. The Roman Catholic Cathedral,
which has just been opened, is also well proportioned. The length is
350 feet; width within transept 118 feet; width of nave and aisle 74 feet;
height about ninety feet. There is to be a central tower 120 feet high,
and two towers with spires which will rise to a height of 260 feet. The
Anglican Cathedral, though not large, is a handsome building with two
towers, in fourteenth-century Gothic. The Post Office will for many
years remain a fragment of what may or may not be a handsome
building. The Town Hall has evidently been built with the idea of at all
hazards making it larger than the Melbourne Town Hall. So far it is a
success. But architecturally it is nothing more than a splendid
failure--over-decorated and ginger-bready. Curiously enough it is built
upon the site of the burial-place of the early settlement---forming a sort

of Westminster Abbey for the first settlers. There are four theatres, but
none well fitted or decorated. Palatial hospitals and asylums of course
abound, but the Parliament House is wretchedly small.
Unfortunately Sydney has very few reserves, and those few she keeps
in bad order, with the exception of the Botanical Garden, situated on an
arm of the land almost entirely surrounded by water. It is the most
charming public garden I have ever seen; inferior to that of Adelaide in
detail, but superior in the tout ensemble. Almost equally beautiful is the
situation of Government House, a comfortable Tudor mansion, but
rather small for purposes of entertainment.
Amongst the commercial buildings, the new head offices of the
Australian Mutual Provident Society are pre-eminent. They cost no less
than £50,000. The banks are not equal to either the Melbourne or the
Adelaide banks. But the insurance offices, warehouses, etc., though not
nearly as numerous, are quite up to the Melbourne standard in size,
although for the reasons already given they do not show to so great an
advantage as their merit deserves. Of the appearance of the shops I
have already written in my letter about Melbourne. They are not so fine
as in Melbourne nor so well stocked, and are pretty much on a level
with those in an English town of the same size.
The names of the principal streets proclaim the age of the town. George
Street and Pitt Street are the two main thoroughfares, and there are
Castlereagh, Liverpool, and William Streets, while King, Hunter, Bligh,
Macquarie, and Philip Streets, and Darlinghurst preserve the names of
the first governors. The suburbs first formed preserve the
sweet-sounding native names--Wooloomooloo, Woolahra, Coogee,
Bondi. Of a later date are Randwick, Newtown, Stanmore, Ashfield,
Burwood, and Petersham--the last four