Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne and VictoriaWestgarth, William
History
Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne and Victoria
Westgarth, William
Victoria -- Description and travel
Another stirring sight next greeted our eyes ere we quitted the "Evening
News" office, namely, the crowd of eager little newsboys waiting for
their trade stock. Pressing to the small open window, where their tiny
sums were paid to the cashier, they received their check, and forthwith
proceeded to the fountains which were dropping out their supplies at the
rate of four copies per second, all ready for delivery. They received
twelve of the penny papers for ninepence. These poor little fellows
would begin, perhaps, with ninepence as all their capital. They get
their dozen papers, and, if smart, sell them possibly in not many more
minutes. Then they are back with their increased capital, and so by
quick degrees they get to be quite large dealers. We saw one little
fellow, already a great capitalist in his way, with a load of papers
which one would have thought he could hardly carry, but which,
nevertheless, he managed with well-practised adroitness.
COMPARISON OF THE TWO CAPITALS.
If comparisons are proverbially odious, they must be specially so if
drawn out upon insufficient data. I must not, therefore, on such a
flying inspection, go very deeply into my comparative analysis. And yet,
under all the circumstances, the subject is one for which I feel not
altogether incompetent. To begin with, I had not, perhaps, sufficient
time in failing to note any material difference of physique due to the
difference of latitude, Melbourne having the cooler temperature by 4 to
5 degrees of Fahrenheit. Tasmania and Southern New Zealand give notably
the ruddy plumpness of the English face. Conversing with a young friend,
who was interested in football, he remarked that latitude is important
in a game which was mainly one of muscular strength. Thus, speaking
generally, Hobart will beat Melbourne, Melbourne Sydney, and Sydney
Brisbane. "But what as to New Zealand?" I said. "New Zealand," he
replied, "will square with England, and the Southern Island may beat
her."
The tide of general business in either city seemed to me equal, but the
streets and the public and business buildings of Sydney were scarcely
equal, either in number or style, to those of Melbourne, at least if the
great edifices and other works of the latter, either just being finished
or in progress of erection, be considered. The Melbourne Harbour is
conspicuously one of these, and will surpass alike that of Sydney and
those of most of the rest of the world. On the other hand, however, the
grand natural harbourage of Port Jackson, not to dwell upon its
surpassing scenic beauty, gives to Sydney a most decided economic
advantage for all time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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