RIVAL CITIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 101, 19 June 1911, Page 4

RIVAL CITIES.

The rivalry hot ween Wellington and Auckland is paralleled, of course on a far larger scale, hy the feeling between Sydney and Melbourne. Roughly speaking Melbourne jumped ahead with the gold discoveries, as far back as 1851. When the land boom burst in 1898 the city dropped back, and since then Sydney has grown more rapidly. Ordinarily the size of a city i ; dependent, upon the wealth and population of the Slate, of which it is the locus, hut m the ease of the two great Australian towns there are other causes to ho considered. Victoria built up manufacturing industries hy a tariff at a time when ■New South Wales was a free trade colony, and as most of tho factories wore in the chief city its population grow beyond proportion. Further, Melbourne drew men and money from the. southern part of New ' South Wales as well as from its own State. The census figures make interesting reading, for they show the rate by ton ye.jirs stages. In 1861 Melbourne had 180,910 inhabitants, as against Sydney’s 95,789. A decade later tho figures were 200,780 and 187,770 respectively. Another census showed that both had cone ahead

tremendously, but Melbourne | lipid its load. Another ten years, mid the difference had sunk to a paltry diltcrcuce of 11,000 or 12,000. So Melbourne led until the boom burst; thou Sydney had its opportunity and went on "rowing more rapidly, until at the time of the census taken a lew months ago it was shown to ho the homo of 10,000 more people thau '.ls rival. its lesson lies in the incident of the Itooiii that burst. From about IS 10 right up to that time Victoria had ten borrowing heavily. The, mouev that; (rime there naturally inhaled everything; the lion-owing State’s centre went ahead too fast, band brought fabulous prices.. The hop-,ii broke, and in 180-5 one could | rent a bouse in Melbourne for AM a i week idiat would have fetched So in I Sydney. Xew South M ales did not \ feel the crash nearly so heavily; sin' | had not been driven ahead so muiat- | urally fast.