Through the Land of Gum and Home Again.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5384, 6 February 1929, Page 1

Through the Land of Gum and Home Again.

(By

C. W. Malcolm.)

(The opinions and criticisms expressed here are; not necessarily those of the Editor.) PART VI. Soon the dawn begins to break, and we are beginning to leave the hills and enter a rolling plain of. the interior. The Murrumbidgee, although only a mere streamlet, has a vast

basin, which in flood time is covered by a great sheet of water; hence the tremendously long bridge over, jvhich we rumble for quite a considerable time.

At 4.55 a.m. we enter Wagga Wagga, where sidings are packed with wheat in quantities many folk have never

seen. From the train it is quite an

unassuming place, and you wonder

why there is a stop at “Wagga” till the stationmaster tells the inquisi-

tive tourist that last year he put through 34,435 tons of .wool, wheat, and hay; that 26,888 bags of wheat were desoatched, 95,552 bags were received, 11,429 cattle and 6G.300 sheep were carried inwards and 11,198 cat 4 tie and 105,000 sheep carried outwards.

The train now begins to roll onr warfl and onward 1 , through an enormous wheat plain over which £or ; hundreds of miles, one (Jan see the tracks of the stripping machines. Away inland to the west the plain rolls to the horizon, dotted jvith gum, -trees and stumps, and to the east runs the great dividing range. Albury is reached at 6.45 ajjm., and we stop 50 minutes for, breakfast, changing into the Victorian, train, which travels on a wider gauge. The train op the Victorian side is palatial after the one in which wej have paid to spend the bight. they have many good points, there is not any great weight of eviden.ce that would lead one to place Nejw Zealand trains second to them. They r,un smoothly, and with the same regular clat-a-rat-tat so familiar tP the New Zealand traveller’s ear. The N.S.W. traips dcj not sing “Clat-k-rat-tat.” You must notice the difference'their note is “Clank-clank-a-lump-bump.” You r,ide in them and you’ll appreciate the difference. The Victorian cars have a corridor along the side, and off this, the compartments lie.

I was, struck by, and New Zealand railways might learn, a lesson frpm, the washing facilities provided on these trains. The basins are largq and steady, and have a gojod supply of water, and a button releases you powdered soap. A box near the ceiling contains clean towelettes, and yob lift one off the top, slide it down the nickel rail to which it is attached by its, corner, dry your hands on it, and pass it on dojwn the rail into the box at the bottom labelled “soiled towels.” Everybody thus may have a clean towel.

' Long before Melbourne is reached at 1 p.m. the enormotis rolling plain becomes m© ( n o t o j Q - OUS ’ an d the final stop at Spencer Street station is not unwelcome.

Melbourne is a beautiful c,ity, spoken of 1 as. a model to the mighty worjd. The great wide, clean, treefringed, white streets, with their beautiful buildings and broad footways, have a ciharm that is never forgotten. Apart from the huge electric tr,ams» the traveller is fascinated by the tiny toy-like cable-cars, and he sits oh a front seat jtist above the ground and spends his store of small money gliding happily" through the refreshing atmosphere of this southern city.

There is much to see; The stately pile which was until recently Federal Parliament, the Burke and Wills statue, the parks, St. Kilda Road, said to. bej second only to the most beautiful street in the > world; the Flinders street raiway station —here is a sight that fascinates by the hour. It claims to be the busiest station iu the world,-; and its cleian electric trains dash in and out, disgorging and absorbing passengers at a rate, yet with an ease that bewilders- It. stands right on the banks ’of the Yarra —‘the gift of the gods to Melbourne —with, its spanning and, at night, its fairy-like blaze of scjintillatipg reflection.

The Melbourne central fire station, too, can well claim three tc’! four hours of. the traveller’s time, especially on the ■ afternoon bn which a public demonstration is being given. While a bra\ss band of flr&fighters tenders music of good quality, ojther perform plhysical exercises and/ pyramids and catTs of juggernaut t’/iat would amaze an ordinary eultu’/e class. But. the ; real core of the /establishment is revealed in the rescue and ladder drills on a sevenrstorey tower, and in ■the ticking heart of the watchroom— -that, more than human sanctum in tvhien, mechanically and unerringly, every point of the vast city’s alarm, ssystem is centred.

The return journey to Sidney monotonous beyond! wards, relieve only by the cup of coffee and the sandwich at every possible station—bar Junee Junc.tiott—and it is a dustgrimed and weariqd passenger who walks shakily along the* platfonii a Sydney on o6 again. (To be concluded tin Friday)-