VISIT TO AUSTRALIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 September 1923, Page 2

VISIT TO AUSTRALIA

V'v MAT MR DUUGAN SAW. Quite recently, Mr and Mrs H. F. Dougan returned from a trip to Australia, during the course of which they Visited botfi Sydney and Melbourne. Mr. Doogan’s impressions of the growth ot the two cities since he previously saw them are interesting. “Both Sydney and Melbourne are growing rapidly,” he said to a reporter. “There is a great deal of building going on not only in the centres of the towns, but also in the suburbs. Both cities are growing almost out of recognition.” Mr Doogan states that there is no comparison between Sydney and Melbourne as cities. The streets of Sydney are narrow and the growth of traffic accentuates this disadvantage. Melbourne’s streets, on the other hand, are wide and beautifully laid out. The trees and shrubs planted along some of them presented a wonderful sight. “Just as I was leaving,” said Mr Doogan, “the roses were just about to burst from their buds in one street, and it can be. easily imagined what a glorious sight they will present in full bloom.” At night the streets of Melbourne ’ lost none of their beauty. The main streets, said Mr Doogan, are a blaze of colour and movement on a Triday night. Lights of all colours and shades, bustling traffic and attractive shop fronts hold

the stranger almost spellbound. Sydney, too, was a very busy place, busier pernaps than Melbourne, but not so pretty. In both places, Mr Doogan considers, the control of the ever-increasing traffic is becoming a very real problem. In Sydney some of the main streets are very narrow and so crowded with other vehicular traffic that it is necessary to have ‘‘one way” trams. That is, the trams in such streets travel in one direction only, returning to the route by another street. Near Hyde Park a piece of excavation work was going on which he believed was part of a scheme to construct a tube' railway in Sydney. “I was greatly struck with the conditions at Flinders Street Station (Melbourne),” said Mr Doogan. ‘‘For many years, even before the traffic increased to its present volume the Flinders

Street Station has been recognised by all the authorities as the busiest station in the world. The trains that come there are electric trains for the c mveyance of passengers to the suburbs. All day long the place is choc-a-bloc. A ceaseless flow of trams, vehicles of all kinds, and pedestrians ooze their way through, and the traffic policeman has a busy time. Safety zones, such as those in Auckland and Christchurch, have been erected, but they are pot raised platforms like those in Christchurch. An area is simply marked off and the people stand there out of harm’s way.” A proposal was afoot, continued Mr Doogan, to erect a new station in Russell Street to relieve, the congestion and cater for the whole of the northern portion of the city. “I don’t think it is a. good thing for Australia to have two such large cities,” added Mr Doogan. “It would be much better if there were a number of smaller cities.”