OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 236, 18 December 1888, Page 3

OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

[FBOM om OWN CORRESPONDENT.] A PECULIAR ENTERPRISE. Sidney, Dec. !• Our country cousins visiting Sydney will probably find their attention arrested, as they leave the Bedfern railway station, by a huge circular brick building which recalls to the mind the idea of the Roman Colosseum. It is not, however, intended for any purpose akin to the blood-thirsty diversions of the ancients. The immense.outlay of erecting this ugly pile of brickwork has been undertaken for the purpose of exhibiting an enormous picture, representing the battle of Gettysburg, the most fiercely contested battle in the American war. The structure is about 120 feet in diameter. It has 16 sides without any opening for doors or windows except the main entrance. Light is provided through the roof, which contains 16 large skylights each 15 feet by 14 feet, and terminates in a cupola, which will carry a flagstafi 80 feet high. The idea, I may at 'once say, is an American one. The building is to be known as the Cyclorama, and it is being built for a local company by Mr J. N. Reed, manager of the Universal Cyclorama Company, from plans and specifications by Mr Normon Selfe, the well-known architect and engineer. It will cost about £21,000, of which £15,000 is allowed for the picture klone. .

And now for this picture, which is to ■wallow up so much money, but which it is hoped will prove sufficiently attractive to repay the whole outlay with substantial interest. The building is entered by a tunnel, Jflfrich leads to the centre, thence up a circular IWfht of steps to a kind of balcony 32 feet in diameter, situated in the centre of the cyclorama. The view which then bursts upon the eye is said to be magnificent beyond description. The idea of being inside a building is entirety dissipated, an immense landscape, pourtraying the stirring events of the war, spreading out in every direction in which the beholder looks. The illusion, in short, is almost like the view which is presented on emerging suddenly from a deep cave to the top of a high mountain. The line of sight upward from the balcony is intercepted by a canvas canopy which hides the roof, and downwards by an outrigger platform. The foreground is filled with models of men, horses, cannon and equipments used in war. These are also represented, of course in the painting and thence to the dim outlying perspective. So well managed is this feature that it is exceedingly difficult to discover even with the aid of a telescope, where the wooden models end and the paint begins. The erection of such a queer looking structure causes no end of discussion among the endless stream of foot passengers, and generally speaking there is quite a not of spectators on the railway bridge eagerly debating the vexed Question of its final destination. The opinions which are hazarded, as might be expected, are more diversified then accurate. At first the general opinion was that it was intended for a gasholder 1 This belief, however, is now discredited in favor of the idea that it will eventually blossom out into a circus. Mr Selfe once asked a self-constituted authority who was laying the law down with much vehemence, what it was intended for. “ Why, it’s a nice house, of course,” was the confident reply, “ but this fool says it’s for a panorama.’’ Which goes to show that assurance is no sufficient criterion of truth. Another of these cycloramas is being ■noted in Melbourne by the same gentleman, and will, I understand, exhibit the Battle of Waterloo. These structures are commonly built of uniform size, so as to admit of an exchange of pictures before they become stale. MATTERS POLITICAL. The politics of the week have been diversified by a mo:>n of censure, moved by Mr Dibbs, the leader of the Opposi: ion, who coolly asked the House to send the statement of ways and means bfck to the Treasurer for correction and amendment. The Government made light of the attack, refusing for some time to consent to the customary adjournment. Nothing new was evoked by the debate. It is now pretty generally conceded that the Treasurer’s surplus is one of figures rather than of fact. The Opposition deserve their meed of praise for helping to make this abundantly clear. But it hardly con stitutes a valid claim to the possession of the Treasury Benches. The motion was negatived by 42 votes to 18, a result that could have been arrived at with much less loss of time by counting noses before the discussion. The Premier has very wisely abandoned the idea of sending Mr Goodchap, the late Railway Commissioner, on a continental trip for two years at the public expense. The notion will take its place with “ Australia,” the State House, and the other fiascoes with which he has marked his present term of office. THE DROUGHT—IS PRAYER EFFICACIOUS ? Welcome rain fell on Saturday in the metropolis and coast districts. It also extended to the interior, but hardly to the extent that is desired. It is, however, thankfully hailed as a break-up of the drought, and as giving reasonable hope that there is more to follow. It was, indeed, badly needed, the drought being so severely felt in the interior that forage was rapidly mounting to famine

prices. One feature of the drought has been an earnest discussion as to the efficacy or otherwise of prayer for rain. I need hardly say that the two parties make very little progress agreement. Each persists in looking He ’* on its own side of the shield, and each, postulates assumptions which the Other side regard as inadmissible. As a matter of fact, it would be impossible, by any train of reasoning, to prevent anyone from praying who had experienced the blessings

of which prayer is the channel. You might as well undertake to prove to him that the ■un does not shine, as attempt to show that facta which come within the range of hia own observation have no existence. It is as though the mineral rr the vegetable kingdom in solemn conclave assembled should d' clare that no higher form of life than the mineral or vegetable was possible, because any higher form would transcend the limits of their own experience. The complacency with which materialists undertake to abolish the sublime realities of religious experience is not one whit less absurd. At the same time it must be remembered that no conceivable amount of discussion or argument can impress a vital sense of these realities on those who are unwilling to be impressed. Hence the fruitlessness of snch discussions as that which I has been taking up much space in the columns of the Herald. When a man re- |

cognises his dependence and his need he will prey. He won’t stop to argue. Certainly nothing seems better calculated to secure such a recognition than calamity which cannot be foreseen or guarded against, whether it be drought or anything else. Then when it is once conceded that prayer is the natural < xpression of a feeling that is Common to the whole of human kind, the question as to what shall be prayed for ie simply a question as to where the worshipper shall draw the line in his confidences towards the Being whose assistance he invokes. As a general thing I fancy the more common fault is that we do not pray sufficiently rather than that we should pray too much. A “don't-care” liberalism. Coming down to more mundane nutters it is to be noted that the first municipal election in the city of Sydney with the amended rolls came off last week. Formerly Only property owners were allowed a vote. Now, however, the privilege has been extended to householders and the rolls have been . swelled by the addition of the names of several thousand new electors. The result has been disappointing, the number of votes recorded being not very largely in excess of those polled under a much more limited franchise. Landlords who, if permitted, would have voted in respect of their properties, but whose tenants have neglected to do so, loudly complain that they are virtually disfranchised. Still the step was one that was evidently needed, as it was absurd to allow the whcle of the municipal representation of the city to be monopolised by a comparative handful of owners, who in many cases had little or no practical sympathy with the bulk of the people. On all grounds it is however to be hoped that there will be a general awakening to the value of ths privilege conferred and a determination Io exercise it. It is a sign of tbs tendency H tbs times that the majority in every ward

was against any increase in the number of public houses and also against any removals of the present licenses. Here again, however, the number of those who voted was a very small fraction of the number who were qualified to do so. It is easy to understand the general abstention from voting at Parliamentary or municipal elections. Rightly or wrongly people run away with the idea that it is of no consequence to them who is returned. To large numbers life presents itself as a dull wearisome grind, and past experience teaches them that no such trivial event as the issue of an election will alter it. Of course such a conception is entirely erroneous and helps to intensify the evil from which it springs. If evils are not removed as quickly as we could wish by energetic effort they certainly will not be removed at all by dull despairing apathy. But the issue presented by the local option vote is so plain and simple that one would imagine every one would make a point of voting on one side or the other. Between two candidates it is often difficult to choose, on account of the lurking suspicion that will intrude that despite professions, one is at heart no better than the other. But in the case of the local option vote it is no longer a question of persons but of principles—a principle that presents itself to one side as an unjustifiable interference with individual liberty, to the other as a restriction absolutely required by the public good. The only explanation to be found for the most universal abstention from voting is I think that we are not yet sufficiently advanced to attach due weight to any consideration but those which are most personal and concrete. The rights of publicans to sell liquor, the right of the public to be protected from the evils resulting from that state, are too abstract to move popular sympathy. The prospect of electing some Tom, or Dick or Harry does not draw as many voters as we would like to see. But it draws far more than the prospect of setting at rest a question of much graver importance.