Six Letters From the ColoniesSeaton, R. C. (Robert Cooper)
History
Six Letters From the Colonies
Seaton, R. C. (Robert Cooper)
Australia -- Description and travel
The Church of England flourishes in Sydney. There is the Cathedral
of St. Andrew, and many other churches. The Bishop (who is the
Metropolitan of Australia), Dr. Barry, the late well-known principal
of King's College, has done much by his broadness of view and
liberality of sentiment to lessen local religious differences. The
Roman Catholics have been building an enormous Cathedral, not yet
finished. They, too, are a numerous body. The memory of the late
Archbishop Vaughan, who died here in harness, is perfectly idolized
by them. The University of Sydney has an imposing building, on a
site overlooking the City, with a large hall and spacious lecture
rooms. The late Professor of Classics was Dr. Badham, the renowned
Greek scholar. The affiliated colleges are denominational, St.
Paul's, Church of England; St. John's, Roman Catholic; and St.
Andrew's, Presbyterian. There is, of course, a public library in
Sydney, but it cannot for a moment compete with that of Melbourne,
and, from a casual inspection, it did not appear to me that the
books were well selected. There is also a public lending library. In
Sydney there are a good many Chinese. Some of them are doctors. One
Chinese doctor professes to make a diagnosis of any disease by mere
inspection, and will then prescribe medicine to effect a cure in a
week, a month, or a year, according to the patient's wish, the less
the time the higher the price of the specific. I have heard that in
China people pay their doctors as long as they are in good health,
but when ill require their services for nothing. This appears a plan
worth trying elsewhere. Unfortunately I did not have an opportunity
of seeing more of New South Wales than Sydney and its immediate
neighbourhood. One of the favourite excursions from Sydney, is to go
by rail to Mount Victoria, about 80 miles, to pass over the
celebrated "Zig-zag," a specimen of engineering skill, where the
train climbs the mountain side, and at one point is so many hundred
feet exactly above a point it passed some time before. To judge by a
photograph it must resemble the line over the Brenner Pass in the
Tyrol, where, near the station of Gossensass, there is a similar
zig-zag.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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