SYDNEY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3942, 8 March 1884, Page 6 (Supplement)

SYDNEY.

(By 'Gallery,') If the stranger who lands in Sydney is left to his own devices, the first thing that will strike him is tho immense'number of hoardings on the street, |new buildings everywhere in course of erection. If ho hiis a friend with him, it depends on the nationality of that friend very considerably what is dinned into bi3 ears. Walk down the principal streets with a well-to-do ex-Victorian, and he will devote his time and yours to 'cussing ' the climate and all connected with the 'beastly hole' .Go in company with a, New South Welshman and you will have nothing btit harbor dinned into your ears. Now I wanted to see and judge the place for myself, so I took my walks alone. At night I got my tonics supplied with considerable ardor by tho few Victorians I met there ; in tho morning I was astonishod at what I saw ; in the ovoning all I had seen during the day hud to bo discounted at heavy rates. But meeting an old fellow pressman of Melbourne, whom I had not met for ten years, he said the strides the city had made during his (en years' absence from it, were scarcely to bo realised, and wound up a glorious panegyric on Sydney by saying ho would sooner sell oranges in the streets of Sydney than have a position of £500 a year in Melbourne. So that, if I had not used my own eyes and cars to some purpose in seeing the capital of New South Wales, these articles would have leaned very much either to tho one side or the other. I had not spent ten minutes iii Sydney till I was thoroughly assured of its great prosperity. Tho very first man I set eyes on was the gentleman who introduced tho purse trick to the Melbourne— I might say the Australian public, and who, if he had not been too fond of backing ' stiff-uns ' for races to win him piles, must long ago have accumulated a fortune. I, of course, refer to the gentleman, who innocently (?) dropped four or five half-crowns into a purse and then sold it for half-a-crown, and the sharp individual who bought the purse used to feel so sad when ho would discover only two coppers in it, that he would immediately seek a sequestered spot to ruminate on the fleetingness of riches. From the moment I saw that man I guaged the city to be prosperous, and any one taking a turn round the square where the sporting hotels are situated can see the finest collection of vagabonds any colony can produce, attracted there without a doubt by the prosperity of the colony. These gentlemen spin _ not, neither do they toil, and yet Solomon in all his glory, I venture to think, was never arrayed liko one of them. They live on tho best of the land, and when stagnation and dull times come they clear out for new Colds and pastures nsw. But there arc other and better signs of piwpovity f;o be seen ; you see faces you know from each of the colonies—l am presuming you are not a one-colony-man—all there because of that restless spirib which is ever at work in the colonies, just as in tho old days miners invariably left camps whore they were doing well as soon as a new and what promised to be a good rush broke out anywhero else. Another sign—and this time a thoroughly to be relied on one—old shabby buildings were giving place to now and substantial edifices. I was astonished to find in a young colony buildings six stories in height. Sydney, during the last fow years—say five —has undergone great changes, and in nothing is that change more visibly seen than in the character of her buildings. Of course Sydney's detractors iind an answer to that, and that answer was, tho busfness portion of Sydney is comparatively small, the old buildings were not replaced beforo they wcro needed, and Sydney totally lacks any manufacturing suburb?, all of which I found to be true. The Sydney merchant, erects high buildings for the same reason as the Dutchman gave when his architect expostulated with him about adding another storey when he could lengthen his premises—land up there is cheap. All the warehouses, all the indußtrics of Sydney are in a very cramped space, whereas' Melbourne, ifcs : great rival, has many suburbs which are literally manufacturing hires. Uollingwood and Richmond are where the boot factories, clothing factories, and many other of Victoria's industries are carried on, while Foots-cray is where the candles, soap, woollens, and many other factories are situated, with small offices and perhaps warehouses in tho city of Melbourne. Go to any suburb—and it has nearly a score—of the latter city, and you will find magnificent stores and warehouses, in Sydney these arc all concentrated ; Sydney has not yet learned the value of suburbs. Nowhero within easy reach of the city can a nice detached cottage residence be found, with its little bit of garden in front. Instead of that picture you have long rows of terraces —I saw in Sydney three rows of terrace?, which would exceed in number of houses any other ten I have seen anywhere else in the colonies. To me the wonder was, if ii man got slightly ' elevated '—how he could ever make out which was which, unless he knew his wife would be waiting with the broom-handle so as to give him the information in a striking niunner. But, notwithstanding the drawbacks of narrow streets, Sydney possesses some magnificent buildings, which the stranger cannot do full justice to because of the narrowness of the ' streets. Pitt-street would be a splendid street if it only had width. Melbourne streets are all two chains wide — Dunnolly in Victoria, and Invcrcargill in New Zealand have still wider streets—and henco the buildings arc seen to great advantage, just as a picture looked at closely may seem a 'daub,' vrhilo viewed from a distance it may challenge our admiration. Those who have seen Turner's ' Last Judgment,' or Herbert's Moses 'Comingdown from the Mount,' will, I am sure, coincide with me in th&t statement. The promises of Hoffnung and Co., Wright, Heaton and Co., Farmer and Co., and a fow others in Pitt-street would be a credit to any city, but they are ' buried ' |to view through tho narrowness of the thoroughfare. Tho new post office, just about completed, is far and away the finest building of its kind in Australia, though it iiae had more fun poked at it than any building I know of. In an evil hour Sir Jlenry Parkes aspirod to a knowledge of art, and gave instructions to the architect to fill in a numbor.of statues in suitable niches, and it was done to order. There was no idealising ; the statues would paes for capital likenesses of your butcher boy, your grocer, or your station hand, and for a while were a source of amusement to many, even to thoso who knew but littlo of art. True, the 'unco quid' could not quarrel with them, for they were clothed—clothed in a stylo which no Jew in Petticoat Lane could have I rivalled. At longth. a commission wae appointed to see what should bo done in the matter, and the : Blatues have to give place to solid blocks of stone. And so Sir 11. Parkes' great works, which if they had astonished tho unborn millions as much as thoy have the present generation, would not havo been, altogether in vain, are destined to obscurity and oblivion, and thus one generation hae robbed another of much mirth, and only loft the bill to futurity to pay when the N.S.W. loans are wiped off. Among the principal buildings in Sydney may be enumerated,, in addition to thoso I have already namod, the ,Town .Hall (with a high tower and clock), the Lands and Mines Offices (having also a towpr and a .-high dome), the Colonial Secretary's Offices (a huge pile), the Exchange, Alfred Memorial Hospital,. the University, St. Andrew's Anglican Cnth.edral (a perpendicular GBlhic style, with a- magnificent: marble and encaustic tile-workfloor), St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral, (which is in course of erection, and when completed it will. bo. 400 ft. long and about 130 fk in width, the style being late Gothic, tho spires will be 2GO ft. high, and. the site the-finest in the, city),-the Jewish Synagogue (probably the finest building in Sydney,.in.tho Byzantine Btyle,.the internal .fittings being in exquisite:tasto and of great.richness),and the- Museum. ~.All these buildings 1 have named are magnificent structures, and no .ono visiting Sydney should neglect the opportunity of seeing all,,of.them. , ~ Now,'while I have named many buildings

of great beauty and magnificence, I saw some which were a 9 good as a conundrum to mo —in fact I had to give them up then, and have no intention of elucidating them now. The Legislative Assembly, for instance, is simply a room perhaps 50 ft. long and 20 ft. broad, as plain as anything could be. The members sit on plain forms, where they must attend to their business, for if they wisli to write they must needs travel to the table to do it. There is no suitable accom-modation-for the public, in fact a dozen or so lessor more makes a crowd or causes the room to look empty. Tho reporters have fair quarters, but. badly placed for hearing. The Speaker's Gallery is on the floor of the House, just outside a sort of barrier, where a fow chairs can be put, in fact one night it seemed very full, though there were only three there —Earl and Countess of Roseberry and a friend. If tho Assembly is such the offices attached can be guaged by the reader, and I only need add the Parliamentary buildings were originally designed for an hospital. Similarly Government House is but a poor miserable looking building, viewed from a distance, but when looked at closely it appears to greater advantage. Ido not think it is large enough to cause its occupant to send his gas bills to the Government of the day for payment, a3 Sir George Bowen and Ins successor have had to do in 'Victoria. One good feature of the establishment, one of the halls contaius the portraits of all who have filled tho responsible, position of Governors of New .South Wales. It has the advantage of a magnificent viow of the harbor and its surroundings. .