THE LAND OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7404, 12 August 1885, Page 6

THE LAND OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE.

BY GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA.

ASPECTS OF SYDNEY.

The beginnings of George-street, and of Sydney itself, were of the most modest and simplest kinds. And, may I ask, is there anything more delightful to the patient student of civilisation than to trace the origin of a great and prosperous centre of population? This may be broadly divided into those which have slowly grown, and those which, with almost magical rapidity, have been created. The modern capital of Russia was, from a mundane point of view, absolutely and literally the oreation of Peter the Great. When he was determined to build in the morass hard by the Lake of Ladoga a window which, as he phrased it, should look out into Europe, he took up his abode in his little log cabin on the bank of the Neva, and decreed the erection of a City of Palaces as arbitrarily as Kubla Khan, in Coleridge's magnificent fragment of verse, decreed the stately pleasure dome at Xanadu. There were tens of thousands of Peter's slaves to lay wooden piles in the marsh for a foundation ; there were thousands more slaves to build the palaces, the churches, the barracks, and the prisons. Autocracy rubbed its bands with glee, and Petropolis was created. Odessa was in degree a creation of the Duke of Richelieu; George the Fourth, when Prince of Wales, found Brighton a humble little fishing village, and left it an aristocratic and splendid city. The Second Empire in France virtually created Trouville and Biarritz ; and the late M. Blanc, disgusted with the meanness of little Monaco, created Monte Carlo. Lord Brougham, driven from Nice, where cholera was rife, went away, and was the making of Cannes; and half-a-dozen pretty and smiling townships sprang up with gourd-like suddenness round Norwood and Sydenham almost so soon as the Crystal Palace had reared its glittering head. Trieste, again, was virtually a created city.deugned by a crafty malevolent Austrian statesman to ruin the maritime trade of Venice; while Leghorn was equally the creation of an enlightened Florentine Grand Duke, who was resolved that in his do minions there should be at least one city of religious toleration. But who shall trace the beginnings of London unless we go back to the fables of Brate and the siege of Troy ? Before the actual Paris there was Lutetia; but what was there before Lutetia ? Before Constantinople there was Byzantium, but what before ? TUB BIRTH OF BYDNIY. The beginnings of Sydney are, however, very plainly discernible, and were, as I have already hinted, of the simplest possible kind. On a bright lammer morning—the 10th of January, 1788—Governor Phillip, with a little squadron of warships and transports, cast anchor in Botany Bay. Governor Phillip did not think much of the resources of Botany. Ho " prospected around " for a more propitious plaee of settlement : he breasted the entrance to Port Jackson, ann passed the Heads, which command the entrance to the enchanting haven called by him Sydney Cove, in honour of Thomas Townshend, Viscount Sydney. The head of the cove is now the magnificent wharf called the Circular Quay, where the hugeit ooeau steamers afloat find safe moorings close to the busiest streets of the city, thus mora than realising Thackeray's enthusiastic description of " Limerick prodigious" standing "with quays" and bridges, and bringing "muslin from the Indies," with "ships up to the windies," on the Shannon shore. Literally do the biggest of ships come "up to the windies," or windows, at Sydney. On the Boomyes at Rotterdam, you will remember, you can sit at your open window and watch the gigantic East Indiamen, bound to or from Batavia, taking in or discharging their immense cargoes. You can do the like at the Circular Quay, Sydney. Sou can ride down in a hansom right down to—almost on board—the P. and 0. which is to take you heme. Brindisi is only over the way—for who thinks anything of the Red Sea and the Suez Canal now a days ?—while the Straits of Gibraltar, the B»y of Biscay, and Plymouth, Devonshire, England, are only just round the corner. To my thinking, to bo able to board your ship by means of a hansom when you go away, and to spring from your ship into a hansom when you reach your destination, robs departure of half its bitterneis, and doubles the joy of coming home. How often have I held in hatred the tender in the Mersey—the tender which has taken me to the off-lying Cunard steamerhated it not for its outward, but for its returning trip ; for did it not carry away with her to shore, that unfeeling little tender, all that was dear to you in the world ? PAST AND PRESENT. Governor Phillip experienced the hardest of hard times before he could make anything like a town at Sydney. It was not very encouraging in the first instance to be met at every point by yells of defiance from the aborigines and cries of " Warra Warra," —Go away. The earliest Government House at Sydney was made of canvas, a mere tent, which was pitche i on the bank of a rivulet close to where Pitt and Spring Streets now intersect. Afterwards His Excellency removed to a little cottage built on ground near the present office of the Illustrated Sydney News, and thence to a somewhat more imposing mansion between Bridge and Bent Streets. Small beginnings indeed, when it is borne in mind that the existing Government House is a vast and stately pile in the Tudor Gothio style, the internal fittings of which are all of Australian cedar, while the chimney pieces are all of colonial marble. The Great Hall is hung with a continuous series of full-length life-size portraits in oil of all the Governors of New South Wales, from Captain Arthur Phillip, downward. That energecic proconsul had in the first instance hard work to keep the 600 male and the 250 female convicts, and the 200 soldiers and marines, besides a few free women and children, fsom starving. In 1790 the infant settlement was horribly distressed for food, and expected supplies from the Cape failing to make their appearanoe, the Governor was fain to reduce the daily rations to almost infinitesimal proportions. Captain Phillip threw his own scanty supply of provisions into the general stock ; and it is said that when His Excellency gave an official dinner at Government House the guests were expeoted to bring their own eatables with them. Not unadvisedly do I thus cite a story which to Australian ears must be very stale and old indeed. But I have quoted it in order that English people may know that in the Australia of the present day animal food is absolutely superabundant, and is ridiculously cheap—ridiculously so, at least, to the observer from home. Prices, of course, may vary according to markets and seasons, but I have heard of mutton at from twopence to fourpence a-pound, of beef at from threepence to sixpence a-pound. Veal I have seen quoted at fivepence-halfpenny, and fresh pork at sixpence. There are excellent markets in Sydney—in Georgestreet and the Belmore market—well stocked, according to the season, with fruit and vegetables. The cauliflowers, among the market garden produce, are almost as fine as those grown at Valencia, in Spain, and at Salt Lake City, in Utah, and if the New South Welshmen would only adopt the careful system of irrigation adopted by the Valencians and the Mormons, they, in this luxuriant land of sunshine and rich soil, might grow all the fruits of the earth in almost illimitable profusion. True it is that in the Sydney market, even in midwinter, you can obtain large supplies, in addition to cauliflowers and potatoes, of other kinds of greenstuff. Pumpkins, too, are abundant, and are much more extensively eaten than at home. The fruit is magnificent, the apples being in particular superb in appearance and delicious in flavour. Oranges grown in this colony, and as near to Sydney as Parramatta (only 14 miles away), abound ; and there is a teeming wealth of pineapples and bananas from Queensland and Fiji. With all this, I doubt whether New South Wales-grown vegetables are as cheap in Sydney as they should be. I have heard of cauliflowers imported from Melbourne and potatoes from New Zealand. Moreover.

it is notorious that Sydney is mainly dependent for a regular supply of vegetables on the colony of Chinese market gardeners at Botany. Throughout the colony, indeed, the condemned but useful Celestial is habitually the only provider of vegetables. Repeatedly I have asked at sn up-country hotel what vegetables we could have for dinner, and the reply has been delayed because '' the Chinaman hadn't come jet." Beshrew the Chinaman ! Why cannot the colonists grow their own vegetables and eat more of them! Don't talk to me about this being a "young country " so far as the growing of greenstuff is concerned. Adam and Eve lived in a very young country indeed. Advance Australia, and do no; arrive at tha disastrous conclusion that the summum bonum of material enjoymen; has been attained when the labouring maa, as he does in this country, can eat meat thiee times a-day. I most earnestly wish that he would eat less. Not for his stomach's sake—l have nothing to do with his digestion, but ior the sake of the culinary art. Too much solid food—too much meat — means invariably inferior cookery. lam not a vegctamu, but were I ten years younger I declare that I would make a lecturing tour throughout the length and breadth of these magnificent colonies, persistently preaching the doctrines of vegetarianism, always in the interests of an improved school of colonial cookery. Of course I can guess at the cause of the excessive consumption of animal fool in Australia. Is not this not only the jand of the Golden Fleece, but of gold-prodicing beeves as well ? The original settlers, th) pioneer squattersall honour to themlivid on the produce of their runs. They grewnothing but beef and mutton, and they ant their work-people ate beef and mutton, nuttou and beef, all the year round. They gat enough flour from Sydney to make thei' " dampers " of, and enough tea to boil in their " billies," and with this simple provind and the solace of an occasional " fig " of tobacco, these primitive shepherd kings wer« satisfied. There is on* kindly product of mother earth which is really cultivated with eiergy and success in New South Wales, The vineyards are splendid. Grapes in the season are exquisite in flavour and wonderfully cheap— from a penny to threepence a pound. 'I he manufacture of wine is iteadily progressing, and when the Austulian vigmrons cmi afford to keep their vntages long enough for the purpose of acqiiring "character" *nd maturity, Australia should become one of the greatest wine-poducing countries in the world. As it is, tie wines grown and made near Albury, in £ew South Wales, on the Vietorian border, it the vineyards of Mr. Fallon, who has immense cellars in Albury itself—one of tnem not storing less than 350,000 gallons h casks, the dimensions of which almost remind you of the Great Tun of Hcidelba-g— and who has an entrepot for the sale of ais wines at Sydney, ire extensively consumed throughout the colony, and are beginning to acquire renown in England. At the jretty and flourishing cownßhip of Inverell, in a flit bordering on he Macintyre River, learly 400 miles from Sydney, there are also numerous and important vineyards in a spleidid soil ; and at the "Ouse of Mr. Mather, a well-known vinegrower of Inverell, I saw a whole easeful of ,'old and silver medils awarded to that enterprising geotlemai at different international exhibitions. Oi the whole, I would sooner drink Australian wine, which, after ill, are the pure juioe of the grape, than potato sherry from the river Elbe,

Sydney hat three distinct aspects—a harbour and shipping aspect, an urbau aspect, -»nd a suburban one. Detailed notice of *qaatic and maritime Sydney I must defer until time is propitious for the description of * grand " Chowder Contention " at which I svaa a guest some few weeks ago at a charming spot called Vauclusc of urban Sydney, It would be desperately vearisome to Euglisn readers to describe the great city of Sydney *nd its many and noble public buildings in guide book. Those reiders would derive but little profit from tlo information that, in addition to Georg«-street, Pitt street, Market-street, Hunter-itreet are all handsome and busy thoroughfares full of well•tocked shops and warehouses. At distance of so many thousands of miles away, why should I become tiresome by dwelling on the architectural magniioence of the new Genoral Post Office, of ..he new Town Hall, of the new Treasury Biildings, the Houses of Parliament, and the Courts of Law, on the sylvan beauty of the Domain—one of the most beautiful pleasaunces in the world—a great recreation ground overlooking the harbour, the Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals, of a multitude of other places of worship, and of a great host of banks and insurameoffices. Of the splendid Gothic hall of theSrJney University I shall have to speak at soae length when I come to describe a University " Commencement," with the granting of degrees, the delivery of gubernatorial cancdlarial, and professional addresses, and so forth. Club life in the different colonies I also reserve as a theme for special treatment; and 1 hope to be able to say something shortly about the beautiful arcades which, both at Sydney and Melbourne, lend such pieture*que cheerfulness to the every-day life of the great Australian citieF. Finally th» theatres, opera houses, and concert halls will at a future time claim attention ; nor shall I fail to say a word concerning what I may term " Madame Tnssaud in Australia " —I moan the highly amusing and characteristic wax-work shows. These exhibitions present to the observer from home a very ourious and original interest indeed. They shoiv him what the convict of the remote past, and the bushranger of more recent times, were physically like. For the image both normal and material of the dark days of convictism long since departed Irom this now happy and pro»perous land, you must study the pages of the late Marcus Clarke's wonderful romance " For the Term of his Natural Life," In other respects urban Sydney is not unlike urban Boston in Massachusetts; but it does not—in my humble opiuiou at least—bear the slightest resemblance to any city I have seen in the United States. With a very few exceptions, which 1 shall presently point out, Sydney is thoroughly and entirely English in its actual aspeot and suggestiveneas. Now you may fancy that you are wandering in Churchstreet, Liverpool, or in Dale street, or in Market-street, Manchester. Anon you might, so you think, be in Birmingham or in Leeds. Pitt-street has asavour ofourStrand; Hunterstreet might be a part of our Holborn. The stock-in-trade of the shops—the windows of whiob are admirably "dressed," in pleasing contradistinction to the dressing of American shop-windows, which is, as a rule, very ugly, careless, and tasteless differs in no important particular from the commodities which are retailed for sale at home. The chemists' shops are very handsome, and you can obtain there all and every description of article in which druggists deal at home from pepsine wine to blue pills, from Btramonim to oannabis indioa, from Keating's cough lozenges to Powell's balsam of aniseed. The drugs retailed are much dearer than they should be in a free-tnde colony. A shilling pot of cold cream is only the size of a sixpenny pot in England. Perfumery of every description is wonderfully abundant and good, and as cheap as it is at our Parkins and Gotto's or Partridge and Cooper's. The butchers' shops are simply splendid. Most of the large butchers are also makers of sausages, and even of the historical " polony 1" The sausage-meat is admirable in quality, but they are not sufficiently unctuous ; and Australian sausages, so far as I have found them, are somewhat hard and dry. The grocers are, in the way of tea, coffee, and cocoa, pickles, preserves, canned meat, and so forth, in all respects equal to our own ; but in the rural districts the grocery expands into a general store, or "everything shop," whsre almost anything that a mortal of modest aspirations can desire is obtainablefrom a spade to a box of night lights, from a perambulator to a packet of lollies," or sugar-plums, from a scrubbing brush to a sewing machine. The Australians are, as a race, great smokers of tobaoco. There are a few-a very fewtobacconists in Sydney where you can obtain a tolerably good cigar; but if you want a choice Havana you had best find favour in the eyes of the manager of a wholesale house, you may haply import a few chests of genuine Havana* every year for their customers among the wealthy squatters. The safest cigar to buy is the Manilla. In the interior the cigars sold are ordinarily of German manufacture, and are as a rule detestable, Hence vast numbers of devotees of nicotine content themselves with the peaceful pipe. The youth of the country are, to a partial extent, partial to cigarette smoking; but that baneful practice in Australia strikes me as falling very short of the almost monstrous —the maniacal proportions which the habit of cigarette smoking has attained in England and in the States. The drapers' shops are comely, well stocked, and well appointed. Almost everything sold seems to be imported from home. Gloves are gloves—that is to say kid gloves of the very best quality are about

twenty per cent, dearer than they are in London. On the other hand, there are plenty of cheap gloves of inferior quality. Ladies' " fal-lals" differ little in their prices from the rates which rule at home. Fresh flowers—the loveliest I have ever seen out of Nice or Florenceabound at a quarter of the price which would be charged for them in the central avenue of Covent Garden Market. You can get a splendid "buttonhole" for threepence. Think of that, ye " Mashers" of Regent-street, ye "Johnnies" of Piccadilly, ye " Chappies" of Pall Mall 1 Colonial-made boots are as moderate in price as boots are in England; but the colonial-made article leaves much to be desired in the way of durability. There is, however, one "native" bootmaker in Sydney who sold me a pair of patent leather shoes of really superior quality. To be sure he charged me thirtytwo shillings for them, ready made, and for ready money. COLONIAL CHARACTERISTICS. The instances in which the aspect of Sydney differs from that of a populous, prosperous, cheerful, and enlightened English city are, as I have already said, few and far between ; still they are distinctive, and peculiar to Australia. I set little store by the fact that in many of the jewellers' shop windows you see the indigenous emu egg prettily set in silver, to serve—now as a, cigar-kolder, now as an inkstand, now as a casket for the table in a lady's boudoir ; that some of the goldsmiths exhibit " nugget" watch-chains and breast-pins of gold-bearing quartz ; that models in gold and silver of the exquisitely graceful lyre bird are occasionally to be met with ; and that at the taxidermist's you may see opossum, kangaroo, and wallaby skins, and the skins of a multitude of birds of brilliant plumage—more beautiful than any that I have ever seen out of Mexico. In London, the cosmopolitan, may you not, if you keep a sharp look-out around yon, see all these things around you ? Would it so much astonish you to find emu eggs set in gold or silver at a jeweller's in Bond-street, or 'possum and kangaroo and wallaby skins at a furrier's in Regent street, or birds of strange form and rainbow plumage at a taxidermist's in Piccadilly ? Sydney, the first Australian city that I beheld, sfcruek me as differing from an English town only in the following respects : —I found myself in what I may term " Verandah Land." Nearly all the shops, as well as the houses, have large varandahs on the first floor, and the arcades—or " squaricades," if I may so call them, in contradistinction to the Australian arcades proper, which combine the features of the Parisian passages and our Burlington and Lowther —afford a cool and shady promenade in hot weather and a very convenient shelter on wet days. In this marvellous climate, where the sun shines brilliantly, I shoald say, at least 300 days a-year, the verandah and the arcade are absolute necessities. They lend as much picturesque variety to the streets of Sydney as our Quadrant — Nash's masterpiece, one of the few examples of street architecture of which Londoners could reasonably be proud, and the wanton destruction of which should ever be regretted —imparted pictureaqueness to Regent street. There are, it is true, two watering places in England, one on the sea, the other one an inland one. two of the thoroughfares in which will give English people a faint idea of the aspect—the delightful aspect — of Verandah Land in Australia. The Marina, at St. Leonards •by - Hastings, is one of the streets to which I allude, another will be found in the dear old Pantiles at Tunbridge Wells. So strongly sometimes has the " block " in George street, Sydney, with its pretty shops under cover, reminded me of the Pantiles, that I have tried to conjure up the well-remembered strains of the famous Pantiles band of music. For alfresco music, however, at Sydney yon must wait till evening, Wynyard-square, close to Georgestreet and the Post Office, and where is situated Mr. L. Uhde's Grand Hotel, a very clean and comfortable hoste'ry, becomes after nightfall full of instrumental music. A German band— is it a native one ?— renders melodies from the " Traviata " and the " Trovatore " in Wynyard-square every evening ; and late in the night season I have even heard the enlivening drone of the Scottish bagpipe. Of street acrobats and street nigger minstrels I have not yet seen any in Sydney, and Punch's shows and fantoccini are also conspicuous by their absence. I have not as yet beeo importuned, or even accosted, by a beggar in any one Australian city, town, or village in which I have sojourned, or through which I have passed, although in Sydney a very few cripples and blind folk are permitted by the authorities to stand in quiet places, where they cannot obstruct the thoroughfares, and sell matches, or some such small wares. Good people at home, please bear in mind that this is a country where there are no poor-rates, and where is no income tax. There is a Benevolent Asylum, supported by donations, legacies, and grants of land, for the relief of poor, aged, and distressed persons in the colony. Homeless and deserted children are taken care of until they can be removed to other asylums ; but a great army of paupers, such aa London, for her sins, has in her midst, and always with her, is in this country absolutely non existent. Nobody need be poor in Australia who is able and willing to work, and the nearest approach in Australia to the English destitute is the incorrigible loafer, and the incurable drunkard.