SYDNEY AND THEREABOUTS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 101, 30 April 1908, Page 2

SYDNEY AND THEREABOUTS.

By " Marlburian."

Part VI. AN EXCELLENT POINT

about excursion-making up here in i the Blue Mountains is the ease with which most of the principal attractions can be visited. There are a fair number cf trains passing from one end to the other across the principal scenic region,, and partly by Government money and partly by expenditure on the part of .tno residents at the various centres good wide tracks have been cut in all directions. If there be a fault, it is that in the numerous guide-books and descriptive pamphlets too many "attractions"—some very -inferior— are mentioned. The way in which the whole countryside has been placarded with. , ' notice-boards " somo- . times becomes amusing. Paltry little ; waterfalls, which one would not '. trouble to cross a road to look at, were they in New Zealand, are here . dignified by high-sounding names. In a word, all the Blue Mountain geese ; are swans, if one" believes the Lrred ■■ literary " barriers " of the N.S \\:. ; Tourist Department. The best way is to rely upon the personal experience of other visitors, and either at Medlow Bath, or at a capital hotel at Katoomba (the Carrington). ye a . <■ can always drep across some goodnatured, communicative soul, whp will be only too happy; to give you some useful wrinkles as to what to see and what-not to bother about. My. Singapore friend first took irie to Blackheath, a station about three miles below Medlow, whence it is an easy walk to govot's leap, i . The road is good, and if one makes - an early start the heat is not oppressive, although I advise an umbrella for gentlemen and sunstiaded i (big ones, not playthings) for ladies when walking about in^the^jqg.oantains, for at midday, at this time of the year, the *ieat is very4 trying to a New Zealander Gcvett's Leap was not a disappointment. The place is almost weirdly beautiful, tor at; ohe head of what the" Yanks woukV call a wide canyon a fine body .of water falls over an almost directly perpendicular wall of rock cliff, of a splendid purplish brown tint, as are so many of the rocks in the mountains, right on to a mass of boulders, .nearly 600, feet below There was riot so ; much water as I should have liked. If you are lucky to find the stream in full force you can, I was toldv at full sun elevation, see a splendid rainbow effect from the bottpM of ' the fails, the sun acting onLthe misty: clouds at the heal of the waters. Govetv the yarn goes, was an escaped convict who, hard-pressed by some aoldiers, leaped over f totil* the top of this dizzy height. Another yarn Has it that the poor devil was a bushr an ger. There are other show places \round Blackheath, where we had lunch at a very good hotel—but paid the stiff price of three shillings for. it---but we wanted to go on to MOUNT VICTORIA, and were satisfied with the Leap*. Mount Victoria is, only four miles further on,; and is quite an important centre for tourists, being* the favourite starting-point for the famous Jeriolari Caves, which, however, lack or time prevents me from visiting. The distance from Katoomba td the Caves is shorter; .but I am .: told the route is by Mount Victoria. It is 36 miles to ihe Caves, and you .want,..really to devote three days to the tnp to do tho thingi properly. yMy tip to a New Zealand^ visitor is , to, get a through, ticket (including tail, coach and hotel charges) at Sydney/either at any of the principal hotels, or at the Tourist Bureau; Go; up to Mount Victoria, do the Caves, and then take in the Katoomba heights on the way back. At Motfeit Victoria the " summer girl," as the American says, was much in evidence, playing tennis and golf in neatly attractive costumes, and looking remarkably wholesome and pretty, \ much nicer, without the excessive " making up " which so many of the 5 Sydney lassies arid matrons go,in for so (too) extensively. There's a splen^ did view . "to be obtained from the summit of Mount Piddington (close to A here), it was too hot, and we "take it as read." We duly "do," however, some very pretty " glens" and "bowers," and have ( a very"good time." On a rock path, bordered by low scrub, about two miles from the hotel, I make a first acquaintance with Brer Snake; Snakes are said to be very scarce in this district, bui; this one had heard no doubt that a New Zealander was about, and wanted to show off. Anyhow, there he was, a big, fairly thick dark-brownish fellow, about '4£' feet long, Wing right across the path. He must have heard us comihg, for he raised his; head in the traditional snake-like attitude and I—-well, I wasn't out on a snake hunt, so I just retreated up a few steps. My Singapore friend, however, who is used to such things, pulled up his walking-stick, took aim, and -neatly caught;.; his snakeship about a foot below his very ugly "chivvy." Mr Snake dropped like a J log, and commenc-. Ed a' wriggling' performance which suggests a Japanese ju-jit-su performer attacked by "d.t's." A short wait, fewer wriggles and then my friend picks up the stick, belts man's enemy twice across the back, and there is an end. We sit and smoke a while, and then my friend calmly saws off the head with a pocket-knife, wraps the snake up in . a piece of newspaper and calmly pockets him as a: trophy to convince an unbelieving hotel-keeper that there are snakes in the Mountains. (P.S.— Later on, at Katoomba, an hotel porter examines the trophy with suspicion and then exclaims : "Ha,-must have brought that up with you-^no snakes here sir.") Time passes apace, where so much is fresh and interesting, and towards six o'clock, finding ourselves a_ good five miles away from the township, we set our best legs forward, as although notice boards are here, there . and everywhere, I would not like to be caught up by complete darkness, instances are by no means rare of tourists being bushed, indeed, a couple of. years or so ago two Eng- • lish visitors were lost for close on three days. We take an evening — train, a train that has come from " goodness knows how many miles in

the far back country, and are soon snug in our comfortable hotel at KATOOMBA. 'Katoomba was for some years the Ultima Thule of the Blue Mountains visitors. It has grown nowadays into quite a decent sized town, with a main street and banks and public buildings. Here you can get accommodation at all prices in boardinghouses from 25s to hotels at 10s to 12s a day. I found the Carrington a very comfortable house, but if I went to Katoomba' again I should, I think patronise the big boardinghouse just at the entrance of the hotel gardens, for I heard it well spoken of everywhere I went. Unfortunately the proprietor's name I forget. The rate here is, I think 35s a week. At Katoomba the visitor is catered for very thoroughly, indeed the touts for various coaches and other vehicles become rather anuisance. After an early breakfast we saunter about a mile along the main road,—-Ho, so dusty; until you've sampled Australian red earth pulver- i ised you don't know what dust means | - —and- are,, soon at the entrance to j what I may call the "show region." Here, a few yards take us to a great platform, as it were, of rocks overlooking an immense valley, or rather two immense valleys. It is a magnificent sight, arid well worth going many miles to see. One can walk j along this platform^ or summit of the great rocky range overlooking, the valley, ;,f<ir some distance, and every n6w ati^j^hen rest at some point (seats provided; and the inevitable name board erected) whence once can vary, the' view a little. For upwards of forty ■ miles"'there is the same superb spectacle of a sea ; , as it were, of forest covered valley, with frowning cliffs at the sxdes-4-but no rivers, to be seen! That's the great omission, and that's where New Zealand will always beat the Blue Mountains, they lack the ever present creeks and streams that break up the monotony of our forest scenery: This lack of water accounts too for the comparative poverty of. the ferns. , True the guide book (good old guide books—surely Ananias was a.guide book compiler) gush about this or that fern tree gully, but very few ferns' that I, saw in 'the. Mountains w^re worth looking, at.' Leaving the platform we make for THE KATOOMBA FALLS at least the place where the "Falls" were supposed to be. The approach !is very pretty, down steps cut in the | rock and. through a very picturesque little gully there the guide book bids you look out for "The Witch's Leap," a dancing streamlet, keeping verdant the clinging mosses and lichen upon the sandstone rock. The spot wasundoubtedly very picturesque, but alas for the "dancing streamlet"—it was like the Wellington water supply^ too often is "off," at least there was a miserable little trickle—Only that and nothing more. However, the vietv below £he Falls was exceedingly fine, and although there was but a poor flow of water coming :over, it wasiasy to see how superb the sight must be after a few good downpours o£ rain. I will not weary your.with a detailed account of our l<>ng round trip to Leura, itself only | a snort distance from Katoomba, but suffice it to say tijat we traverse vhat is called the Federal' Pass, and thus make a long journey of it. The trip well repays the fatigue, for, mind, it is certainly fatiguing to go up and down these mountain paths. Take some sandwiches and a flask, and don't forget your pipe, and when shanks are weary have a quarter of an hour's "smokeho." Near Leura are some more fine falls, and at Leura itself, without much, fatigue, one can enjoy a perfect surfeit of scenery. Not far from the Federal Pass x I ought to Have mentioned just now, is said to be located the original,: of that famous rockbound valley into which "Captain Starlight" and his brother cattlestealers in, Rolf' Boldrewood's ""Robbery Under Arms" had their meeting place and secreted their spoil. It must be noted, however/that another theory places the little valley more towards the Victorian border, but all the Federal Pass, and indeed through-1 out the Mountains I could not help remarking with what I expect, was, to my friend wearisome > frequency "wha ( t a ripping good "place" this would be for the* bushrangers.'£ AE Leura there'is a capital hotel, and the early morning's train lands me in Sydney well in time for lunch. Back in town I find Sydney highly excited over

THE WHARF LABOURERS' ;-. STRIKE, which, by the wayj.is the cause of my stopping a few days longer than I had intended^; for' even, the Union Company is-.affected.- Of all the curious strikes I have heard of, this is surely the most peculiar—l nearly wrote the maddest. Some 250 men are employed as regular hands by the two steamship companies trading to the northern rivers. These1 are non-unionists, and wion't join the "Wharf Labourers' Union. The Union has no quarrel with the big deep-sea companies, but orders out its men in the hope that these big "companies, not "being able to get away their steamers, wHi put pressure on the two small offending companies to sack the non-unionists. Hence 3000 men on strike. Newspapers and politicians highly excited, all over-sea traffic stuck up, and generally the very devil to pay and no pitch hot. Big talk there is of another far reaching maritime strike like that which wrought so much evil some years ago, but I am not back a few, days in New Zealand when the .trouble is over—the Union by no means beaten, although tne big and small companies both save their face. Curious it is to find the oversea companies' men, paid, by the way 2d an hour more, than the last award of the Arbitration Court gives them, and admitting they have no quarrel with their employers, coming out on strike, but they do, and do so, so they say, on principle. Whether the non-unionists have now been permitted to join the Union I don't know, but to me it does seem a great .capitulation on the part of the employers, for these nonunionists were the men who stuck to their work when the previous big strike was on, and if any one deserved good treatment in return for . their loyalty these men do, and yet I am very much afraid they have been sacrificed. If they have, then it is a disgraceful thing, and one cannot blame these men if, in future, they become the most pronounced devotees of trades unionism. One thing to be said to the credit of the strikers, they behaved very well. The newspapers, it is.true, gave a very sensational description of alleged " Ruffianly Conduct of the Strikers," from which one would imagine that tons of goods T^w 16? off dray? into the streets, ana mat the non-unionist carters and otner employees were most brutally ill-used. As a matter of fact, I personally; witnessed the scene thus des™iTu Ther? were » minutes of rougn horse-play, some rotten bananas I were thrown by some larrikins (not wharf labourers at all), and two or tliree candle boxes were knocked off

the end of a dray. That was all, and yet the two morning papers went nearly off their weak editorial heads with excitement, and howled for " energetic action by the Government for law and order." ' Without being a tradesrunion sympathiser or supporter, I .cannot wonder at the Sydney working class holding the Herald and Telegraph in such contempt, and do not wonder either, that at election times these journals exercise so little, influence. A pleasant evening spent listening to t^e COMMONWEALTH PRIME MINISTER, Mr Deakin, pleading for an earnest consideration of his defence proposals; an evening with " The Dairy Maids," the latest and most inane of musical comedies ; a third ( a Sunday) evening spent midst suffocating muggy heat, and here is Monday, and the New Zealand boat and an end to my holiday.

"A FEW MEMS"

in conclusion. You can do a three weeks' trip very cheaply and see all that I saw, and very much more for comparatively a very trifling sum. If an hotel man, try Petty's or The Wentworth, both 10s a day, or take a room at a smaller hotel and meal out. If you don't care about too much city noise, watch the auvt. columns of the morning, papers, spend a day in exploring, and you can get comfortable board at a place down the harbour for 30s to 35s a week—even less if you know your way about. Don't imagine that you can buy things in Sydney much cheaper than in New Zealand. You could onee —before the Federal tariff came into force—you catft now. Don't eat too much fruit, don't touch shell fish unless at one or two speciul restaurants which any well-informed Sydneyite will point out. Don't drink Sydney beer—it's fatal. Patronise the light lager and abjure whisky, save at a friend's house. The ordinary table wines, "given in free " at so many restaurants, are too " rough" by themselves. Mix with water, half and half, and they are both: palatable and wholesome. ~ Also, lastly and not least, book your cabin berth for uric return trip on the.same day that you arrive 2 otherwise you may have to put up with a smoking-room berth—or worse still, be refused a passage. With jwhich parting injunction I will now say good-bye,'trusting that when you do cross to 'Hhe other side " you will find as much to interest and amuse you as the writer did in " Sydney and Thereabouts,"^