IN AUSTRALIA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 110, 11 May 1910, Page 8

IN AUSTRALIA.

FROM SYDNEY TO MELBOURNE. FERTILE COUNTRY, BUT DRY. The railway journey from Sydney to ! Melbourne by the limited express is made as comfortable as possible by the railway departments in the respective States, the carriages being excellently appointed, j and arranged into compartments seating i three on each side. There is an admirable steadiness in the train, and the broad quag* (4 feet 8£ inches in New South Wales and 5 feet 3 inches in Victoria) permits of a, fairly high average speed. In certain stages of the journey frem Albury to Melbourne, the express tops sixty miles an hour. The distance ' between the two centres i& live hundred j and eighty miles, and this is covered in seventeen hours — an average of about thirty-four miles an hour, including stoppages. There are excellent "sleepers" on ihe dewn train from Sydney, leaving Redfern at 8 p.m. and also on the up train, leaving Albury at about 10.46 p.m. and arriving in iSyaney at 10.5 a.m. the next day. iTrom the point of view of the sightseer, however, the journey ib uninteresting. One passes mile after mile of level, monotonous, country, with scraggy shrub, coarse grass, and stunted bush on either side. \Vhen the writer passed along everything looked dry and barren; botn the Murray and the Murrumbidgee were considerably shrunk in volume, and appeared to be only turbid and sluggish canals. On the Victoria side one notices, in places where some rubhing stream has eaten out a course for itself after torrential rain, layers of splendid soil, sometimes six ana more teet in depth, which gives the impression that it could grow almost anything. I "Yes, it could," volunteered a Victorian on the train, "we are passing through some of the finest land in Australia. It is almost barren, only because it receives insufficient moisture." Rain is indeed the crying need of the inland tracts of Australia — rain that brings a copious benison and that may be depended upon to return. As the train rushes on through Northern Victoria clouds of dust whirled up, .and a, blazing sun scorches tho life out of every thing on the earth. Yet this is the very land which, after a heavy downpour oi rain, is covered with a luxuriant growth of vegetation in remarkably short time. From the express, be it said in justice to Victoria, one sees only a poor part of the country. Land to the west, and to the south-east, is much more fertile, because better watered. Several tributaries of the Murray meander slowly through the northern part of the State, but the summer sun reduces these to mudpools for the most part, and irrigation is taking the plact of natural waterways. By this latter means, large tracts of otherwise barren country are being "reclaimed." POINTS OF COMPARISON. Because of the wide guage, and the long stretches of level or gently undulating country, the Sydney-Melbourne express is faster than the Auckland-Wel-lington, and the Christchurch-Dunedin trains. It is noteworthy, however, that despite the- difference in the gauges, the New Zealand carriages are narrower by only a few inches than those in Victoria and New South Wales, and the locomotives in use in this country for express services are a good deal heavier than the Australian. Seventy-five ton engines are used to haul the mail train between Sydney and Melbourne ; on the WellingtonAuckland express ninety -five ton locomotives are in service. The new carriages being built for the Main Trunk line will doubtless compare favourably uith the Australian in point of comfort and internal arrangement ; but it must be said that the seats in a lirst-class Victorian carriage are a revelation of comfort to the New Zealander. There are adjustable arm-rests, and a wealth of cushions at the back and sides. Special compartments are available for smoking. One can walk the whole length of the train without being assailed by a tornado of dust when passing from one carnage to another, the intervening spaces being thoroughly closed up by a dark weather-proof material. On the down train from Albury to Melbourne there is a luxuriantly-furnished parlourcar for observation purposes, this being placed at the rear of the train, and the New Zealand Minister for Railways might consider the advisableness of running such a car over sections of the Main Trunk line ; also on the Christ-church-Dunedin journey, which is effected in daylight. For a seat in the observation-car on the Melbourne express one pays a fee of four shillings, and seats are reserved at Sydney. There is a small library on this car, and the large windows give the traveller an uninterrupted view of the country on both sides. At the end is a rail-ed-in platform, provided with seats, and the spectacle of country vanishing at sixty miles an hour, under a warm, genial sky, is decidedly pleasant. This car is well-patronised, despite the fact that there is no scenery worth mention along the iine. On the Main Trunk route there are long tracts of interesting country passed in daylight, and the impressive scenery would surely justify the running of an obsorvationtar. TICKETS. The traveller from Sydney Lo Melbotirne does not need to worry and fume about catching his train while he awaits the serving of twenty people in front of him, single-file, at a small booking office, which supplies tickets for all points along the lino. He need not, in fact, go to the railway station at all until near the time of departure of his train. AH he needs to do is to visit the Government Tourist Bureau in Martin-place, and there may buy his ticket, book his seat, and (if desired) book a sleeping berth and seat on the' observation-car. On arrival at Redfern, he is immediately conducted to his part of the train. The ticket (return) is a paper slip about six inches long, perforated into four sections, which are torn off as different stages of the journeys are completed. In Melbourne, also, one may book seats *or the ride to Sydney at the Government Tourist Bureau, and, generally speaking, the traveller is given a minimum of trouble. An admirable feature of the express trains in Australia is the promptitude with whicn they lea\je. The express scheduled to leave Sydney for Melbourne at 8 o'clock each evening is rapidly gathering speed at a minute past eight, and its first stop is about fifty miles away. The same applies to the train f:om Melbourne, leaving at 5 p.m. Redfern Station is the embodiment of system. Trains for different parts of the State and Commonwealth leave from different platforms (all numbered), and the booking offices are also numbered according to the destination of the tickets issued. Flinders-street Station, Melbourne, is another astonishing result of system as applied to one of the most extensive suburban services in the world. This station has just been completed, and is practically a large collection of different platforms, witti underground approaches from Flindersstreet. The booking offices are together, it? tixo miin enjpna., When tho writer

paid a visit, there were no fewer than thirty trains, inward and outward, receiving attention. No time is lost indischarging a suburban train ; the large . Bide doors permit of a speedy exit, and in a minute or two the train can move on to make room for the next. i''rom the point of view of the tourist, the railway systems in both States seem efficiently conducted under commissioner control.