DEPARTURE FROM MELBOURNE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 911, 21 January 1868, Page 3

DEPARTURE FROM MELBOURNE.

The Duke of Edinburgh left Hobson's Bay for Hobart Town, Tasmania, in his steam frigate the Galatea, on Saturday afternoon, 4th January. The colony has beeni occupied just six weeks with the brilliiant series of festivities given in honour of His Royal Highness, and it has played the part of the host to its first Royal visitor- very handsomely. With tho exception of the unhappy accident to the model, ship at Sandhurst, which resulted in the death of three little boys, we have not much to reproach ourselves with in connection with the rejoicings. Anxious that the Prince should see as much of Victoria as possible during his short stay, the Reception Commission at- • tempted the old juggling feat of getting a quart into a pint bottle, and any little failures that did occur arose from aiming ; at too much. The Prince has been feted in the city, and in the chief provincial towns, with illiinainations, torchlight processions, balls, banquets, and theatrical entertainments ; levees have been held wherever the Royal guest stayed a day, and addresses have been presented from almost eveiy corporate body in the colony, besides.- one signed by over 600 colonists of twenty -five years' standing. His .-.- .Royal, Highness has knocked over acclimatised^ rabbits at Barwon Park, shot kangaroojin the Western District, driven seyeral 'hundred miles through the great •pasfcoral^region of the colony in the broil- '-. ing heafpi^an. Australian summer's sun, d^^ijfc|;iyorking diggers' dress into the -;&deDestfp^ chief ' : : centres of tiW^g^ on the

golden treasures taken from their depths, and made himself acquainted with tho best' methods in use for extracting the precious metal from its matrix. He has also handled the pick to some purpose among the quartz leaders, and has carried away substantial remembrancers of his, visits to some of the mines. In addition to this, His Royal Highness has laid innumerable foundation-stones, received children's greetings from hosts of juveniles, has approved the sport at race meetings both in Melbourne and Ballarat, and has taken the ad eundem degree of LL.D. at the Melbourne University. Whereever the Prince has been, a boisterously loyal reception has been accorded him, and the aggregate of the rejoicings in the country has even exceeded the metropolitan demonstration on the grand day of the Royal entry into Melbourne-, .when the streets, housetops, and balconies were thronged with such a concourse of people as had never before assembled within its bounds. The J Duke has seen " the Queen city of the South " in its holiday mood, and the pro- | vinces also in their festive garb. Ifc is not improbable that His Royal Highness lias had a few prejudices in regard to the colony and the colonists somewhat rudely shaken by his experience among us, and it is not likely that he will carry away unfavorable impressions of Australian life and character. He has seen a community hasting to be rich, it is true, but after a more pleasant fashion, and with more open-handed-ness, than in older countries. He cannot have seen any people more given to rational holiday enjoyments, or more disposed to treat their cares lightly, and the almost entire absence of evidences of the squalor and poverty which are a reproach to some portions of the richest countries in the world, could not fail to leave an impression on his mind. It was arranged, appropriately enough, that the last public act of the Duke of Edinburgh in this colony should be the laying of the foundation-stone of the Williamstown graving dock, for the work is one of interest to the naval profession, and will also be of lasting importance.