ABETTER FROM ABROAD.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 110, 24 April 1911, Page 11

ABETTER FROM ABROAD.

No. 3.

T. Landaay Buick.)

SYDNEY. If I were asked to epitomise my impressions of Sydney, 1 could only describe it as * the city beautiful.'’ I am aware there are parts of Sydney which are neither handsome nor wholesome, and I am equally conscious that it is generally unwise to express dogmatic opinions about any colonial community on short acquaintance, but brief as my stay has iieen, 1 am confident I hare seen sufficient of the New South Wales capital to amply justify the descriptive adjective which 1 have just used to crystallise my judgment upon it. We in New Zealand are apt to regard Auckland as the queen of cities, enthroned as she is on tile dr >i »•> of the Wailemata, but Sydney is surely a glorified Auckland. Geographically, her position is equally picturesque. Perhaps most people would be inclimd to agree that it‘is more so, for on a sunny day the islands and inlets of her harbor present a panorama or quiet beauty whtch needs the artist's brush to adequately descrilie it. Like Auckland, too. the topography of Sydney is undulating, which ever enhances the k prospect of scenic effect, and it must W lie recorded to their credit that the authorities and citizen.-* have left behind them abundant evidence that they have endeavored to make the most of this groat natural advantage. Both the public and private grounds have been laid out with the evident desire to secure what artistic effect position could give them, and wherever a gully, a hill, or a terrace have lent themselves to beautification, the art of the landscape gardener has been called in to supply the deficiencies of inature. But in this respect, art is Obviously only regarded as the supplement* of nature, for I was pleased to see that where a clump of native scrub—the natural vegetation round

about Sydney can scarcely be dignified by the name of bush—could possibly be conserved, it was roost carefully protected and utilised in the scheme of plantation. In this respect it was gratifying to note the fact that the knr hills forming the approach to the harbor had not been denuded of the small trees which form such an agree- . able background, and I wondered, as I saw them, how long such shrubs would hare remained immune from the bushman’s axe had they been growing in a similar position in New Zeeland? Whether this regard for the robea of nature is due to sentiment, or to pure indifference, 1 cannot pretend to say, but there is much in and about Sydney to support the assumption that sentiment has played no small part in thus preserving the natural beauties of the place. When we come to consider the enormous commercial influences whicn have been operating to build up this great city, and when we remember new the sordkluess of commercial life is apt to despise everything that dues not mean a direct return in £ s d, it says much for tlie forethought of the early administrators of Sydney’s affairs that they succeeded in withholding such splendid reserves as the Botanical Gardens, rhe Domain, Hyde Park, Wynyard Square, and several other equally valuable open spaces, from the speculators, who, 1 have no doubt, would long ago have laid hungry hands upon them for the sake of th® handsome increment they would have returned. Stimulated by the policy of thir predecessors, succeeding city ’councils hpve given their best; endeavors not only to improve tiwir rich inheritance in open spaces, but here and there they have sought to add to it bv planting many waste pieces of land, and even in the centre of a busy thoroughfare like Bridgestreet, they have laid down beds of flowers and shrubs, a concession to the aesthetic which commerce gracefully allows. These spgees are undoubtedly a great asset to the city in the sense that they are at once invalu- | able “lungs” and a source of pleasure ! which leaves a lasting impression on I all who, seeing them, are capable of > appreciating the practical, combined vnth the beautiful. The Botanical! Gardens overlooking a portion of the harbor would be, 1 should think, diffi- ;

cult to surpass south of the line, but ; it is impossible to faithfully describe them. There are some things which heegar description, and some which : are beggared by description. The Sydney gardens might well do both. I j hare often lieard their beauties proclaimed, and Battering as those accounts nave been, the only comment ( upon them which I.can proffer as the result of a somewhat hurried visit, is I that which the Queen of Sheba passed ! upon the regal splendor of Solomon’s kingdom “Not half the truth has [ been told/’ Another direction in which the love ■ of the artistic, as displayed by the Sydney people, pleased me greatly, is the freedom with which they hare besprinkled their public places with ' statuary. Ami when I say statuary. 1 don’t mean merely the ideal works I of ancient masters, but more particu- j larly the monuments of her own fam- : ous men. Apart from their ornament- • al value, which is certainly considerable, and the honorable tribute thus I paid to men who actively associated! themselves with the public life of the I city and the State, it -seems to me that such monuments must always have a highly educative and inspir- | ing influence upon futurity. I notic- ■ ed that the men whose memories are t thus being perpetuated in bronze and; marble are in many cases described as “patriots” as well ss statesmen — | surely the highest compliment any people can pay to a pubbc servant— | and whether it was so intended I can- > wra. say, but this mode of expressing it impressed me not merely as a well- I deserved acknowledgment of honest. public work, but as a standing invitation to all young Australians to go and do likewise. ‘ Not only has Sidney patronised the I arts as applied to sculpture, but ■; pointing, too, has received more than i generous encouragement. To all lor-' ers of good pictures the National Art : Gallery is a veritable storehouse of ' pleasure and education. I had no op-: > portunity of ascertaining how it is I: maintained, but since it is called a!1 “Nations? gallery,” it may he more, ' than a city institrtian. Be that as it i

mar. it is beautifully housed, admirably arranged, anil the pictures are evidently purchased with the greatest «are and no small degree of enterprise. It is well known that the management picked the eyes out of the collection sent to the Christchurch Exhibition, and I recogni-cd several of my old favorites <>n the walls. I also saw pictures there which for the credit of English art should never have been allowed to leave England, but. contrawise, it is much to the credit of Sydney that she has been able to secure them. A pleasing feature of this institution is the gallery set apart for work done by Australian artists, and except, perhaps, in the matter of portraits, the examples compare favorably with the work of British and foreign painters, and demonstrates the fact that in this branch of art Australia has already reached a high plane in skill and culture. Of the natural sciences, a record of tlie past is being kept in a well-classified museum, and the student of the present can follow his research work in the modest beginning of an aviary of birds, and the incubus of a "zoo. ’ Literature has not been forgotten, and although 1 thought the Public Library cramped and stuffy, I was charmed with the arrangement of tli® Mitchell collection of books and pictures, which deals almost exclusively with Australia, New Zealand and Polynesia. This priceless library? the result of many years of patient collection and careful seli'ction, was donated to the city by its owner, and tlie city lias shown its appreciation of tlie magnificent gift bv the care it is evidently taking of it. * Naturally, it was to the institutions to which I have referred that I gave the greater part of my attention during my brief stay in Sydney, but in-

I cidentally I saw something of the city I itself- ! To those whose lives have been cast ! more or less in small places, the capiS tai at first assumes the form of a vast ■ labyrinth of streets and buildings, to u Inch there appears to be neither beginning nor end. The intricacies of ! the net seem to be interminable, and confusion is rendered worse ©onfound- ■ ed by the hurrying crowds of people, ! the roar of the traffic, and the eternal I swish of the cars. The streets which i have been laid down in the valleys ‘ between the hills are painfully narrow for the traffic they have to carry, ‘ and one marvels why fatal accidents ! are not of hourly occurrence. At first the stranger stands trembling on the sidewalk, waiting for a clear opening before he dares to cross. To him that opening never comes, although the Sydneyite slips over the street without any apparent fear or difficulty. At length, in sheer desperation, you wade into the sea of moving life, and having survived, you begin to realise I that a quick eye and a nimble foot t are all that are needed to help you j through. Before many days are past i you are able to calculate your chances I and judge your distance so nicely that ! the cowcatcher of the car just taps your boot as you step safely across the rails. In the same way the geography of i the city soon becomes as simple to read as a book. By degrees you bc- * gin to pick up certain cardinal points i which serve as a guide to all your ' movements. The principal business ; thoroughfares run parallel with each other, and provided you know the street, and the number of the place ! you are looking for, it is surprising ! how easily your business can be done. ; The tram service is an admirable one, * and is an immense aid to transit. The

rates are exceedingly reasonable, the ( conductors very courteous, and so long as you are careful not to let the cars run ail over }<>u, they are invaluable to anyone desirous of seeing the sights, the rural journeys being simply delightful. In the vicinity of the wharves, the large warehouses are a conspicuous leature, but tiie retail trade is done in much smaller shops than I had anticipated. liiero are, ot course, huge retail establishments and arcades, but the average shop is no better than will !>e found m any of our New Zealand cities. And this leads me to sneak of the architecture of Sydney as being also disappointing. As the city stands at present, it appears to be hall old and half new. m the neighborhood or < hurch Hill, 1 saw .vjiue quaint cut buddings which mu.->t have stood the stress of many years. They were or the type winch was fashionable in England “when George was King, and no doubt were palatial enough when hi st erected. To-day they b. ar the mark ui the slum, and if the city grows as it is growing, their days are numbered. and tlie call of doom is upon them, iho more modern structures are of quite a different tjpe, manv oi them running up on sky-scrap-ing lines, and most or them m<ne massite than beautiful. The spirit oi stability rather than the spirit of ornament seems tn pervade the heavier : architecture, with the result that a heavy beetle-browed class of building is conspicuous in every quarter. Iho Town Hall, the two Cathedrals, and the Victoria Arcado arc exceptions to this rule, for which the building material at hand is no doubt largely re- . sponsible, as the grey sandstone which

is everywhere in evidence does not lend itself to ornamentation except at considerable cost. In the people of Sydney I was pleasantly disappointed, for instead ot a listless, sallow-looking populace, A found a bright vivacious people. Here and tliere were evidences of poverty, in children selling matches in the ( streets, but Sydney’s poverty was not i obtrusive. The people in the streets, 1 theatres ami places of public congrega- ■ tion were all well dressed, and appar- | ently prosperous, but this may have been accounted for to some extent by the fact that tin; crowds were beginning to flock in from the country and from the other States for the Easter carnival, the annual occasion on which fashion emerges from its bandbox with just a trifle more feather and a good deal more flutter than usual. The Sydney ladies, I thought, dressed with considerable taste, and white was easilv the prevailing color. In’the matter of street formation, Sydney is distinctly behind the times, and far from what a city of like importance ought to be. The pavements are abnormally rough, and most New Zealand towns of any pretensions would easily eclipse it in these respects. . But it is when we come to deal in postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communication that we discover how far New Zealand is in advance of Australia. The penny post is now so much a matter of course with us that we perhaps do not appreciate it quite as we should, but when you are asked to pav a shilling in Sydney for a letter which could bo sent for two pence in New Zealand, the fact comes home to us that our little Dominion is not the worst place in the world in which to live. Australia promises to adopt the penny post next month, but

even then it is only proposed t-o give the right to send one ounce for that sum. as against our four ounces, so that we may still smite our chests and say, “By the grace of a Liberal Government, New' Zealand leads the van.”

Though we were busy all the time, and saw much while we were there, it is idle to conceal the fact that it requires as many weeks as we had davs to do the city and its suburbs justice. But the inexorable hand of time had been moving all the while, and on Saturday morning the fiat went forth that we must prepare for our departure to Melbourne. Accordingly we wended our way to Circular Quay, where the Grosser Kurfurst was lying. .With our luggage safely in the cabin, we took our station on the upper deck, and witnessed one of the prettiest scenes, and one of the most com mendable customs it is possible t<> imagine. There must have been fully 2000 people assembled on the wharf to farewell their friends, and these in their various colored hats and dresses, were alone a picture worth going far to sec. But tlie scene took on an infinitely more beautiful effect when the stewards distributed amongst the passengers little rolls of narrow, colored paper, and these being unwound were thrown to the people standing below. In tho course of a few minutes, there was a continuous stream of color stretching in rainbow hues from one end of the vessel to the other. The band struck up a lively air, the propellers began to churn up the sea, and one by one the tinted ribbons began to snap as we moved off to the cheers of the crowd whom we left behind on the wharf. We took our departure from Sydney

with genuine regret. The city had much to interest us, and much to please us. At the same time we could not but look some distance ahead, and the question which came uppermost in our minds as we steamed down the harbor was: “If this be Sydney, what must London be?”