# Advanced Australia/Chapter 5

Chapter V
NEW SOUTH WALES
IT has been said with some point that the tourist should only approach the capital of New South Wales by sea; the entrance, through a narrow gateway, flanked on either side by towering cliffs, on one of which stands the lighthouse, visible at night thirty miles away, being very striking. The inner headlands are crowned with batteries planned in the days when artillery had a less effective range than now; and, as a consequence, the defect in the defences (a defect common to those of several of the New Zealand cities) is that a battleship with heavy guns, lying outside the entrance, could pitch shells into the city without any risk of a return fire. This is not the case with the rival city, Melbourne, whose main defences are many miles distant from the capital.
Sydney harbour opens out in all its beauty as the steamer comes through the "Heads"; and though in other parts of Australia the phrase "our harbour," as applied to Sydney, has become a joke, it is, indeed, a most wonderful sight, with its labyrinth of bays and channels. One might live in Sydney a lifetime, and then not quite know every arm and nook of Port Jackson. Everywhere the red cliffs rise straight from the water, and even in midwinter these headlands are decked with white and red heaths, dwarfed banksias, hakeas, and other shrubs with rich waxen flowers. In steaming up an arm of the harbour in one of the fast excursion launches—which ​look like miniature Mississippi steamers—it often seems I as though one were rushing directly into a cliff, when suddenly a little opening is seen to one side, and another inlet opens out for miles. Each of these inlets is in a way a reproduction of the main harbour; and for boating, or fishing, the waters of Hacking River, George's River, Botany Bay, Narrabeen Lake, Hawkesbury River, and Lake Macquarie, offer further and unlimited facilities. It is easy to see why the professional scullers of New South Wales are ahead of our Britons. A great sculler is a natural product, as it were, of a large expanse of suitable water. Hanlon, the founder of modern sculling, lived in his father's hotel on a small island at Toronto. Beach and Searle never "trudged unwillingly to school." They flashed down the Parramatta in wager-boats.
As the mail steamer glided to the inner anchorage known as Circular Quay, I got a glimpse of a group of men-of-war—the largest of them the Royal Arthur^ the flagship of the Australian station—lying in Farm Cove, with the lovely Botanical Gardens, in the ponds of which bloom the pink and purple water-lilies of the tropics, partly encircling them between two headlands of mown lawns—a crescent of green turf Sydney is the headquarters of our strength in the South Pacific. And besides being the capital of the greatest of the colonies, she is the true metropolis and rendezvous of those pathless seas; the Queen city of that strange half-squalid, half-romantic Empire of the Islands. In her purlieus you may find, beside the lean squatter of the Riverina, the rustic selector from Twofold Bay, or the stunted cockney-looking larrikin of Wooloomooloo, a curious element from the corners and forgotten by-ways of a half-known world;—traders, bêche-de-mer fishers, pearlers, blackbirders, whalers, beachcombers, missionaries, savants, and the heterogeneous rascaldom of ​the Pacific. Viewed in comparison with the other provincial centres, she is at once more rudimentally national and less obtrusively Australian; the inevitable capital, wherever the Federal centre may be, of the continent.
It is a 567 mile run from Melbourne to Sydney by sea, and about the same distance by rail. The boundary of the two colonies, crossed at Albury, is the Murray, which we crossed also on the journey from Adelaide. It is the only river of importance in Australia, and, except in very dry seasons, is navigable for about 1,200 miles of its length. In the busy season the scene on the river is interesting. The wool clip of stations in the far interior has been brought down the Darling, the Murrumbidgee, and other tributaries of the Murray in huge shallow barges. These are towed by steamers up the river to Echuca; a great part of the New South Wales clip thus finding an outlet through the rival city, Melbourne.
The war of hostile railway tariffs between the two colonies has resulted in New South Wales pushing her railways into the far west to divert this traffic; a legitimate move as between rival communities, but one of the developments of inter-colonial competition which must end with the federation of the colonies.
Riverina, the largest province of New South Wales, is geographically part of Victoria; which colony, having failed to include them in her boundaries, apparently finds it the next best thing to repel her profitable neighbours and their trade as much as possible by taxing their cattle at the border.
There is a break of gauge where the railway systems of the two colonies meet at Albury, which not only converts the ordinary traveller into a keen Federationist, by vexing him with a superfluous change of trains in the middle of his journey, but would be a source of trouble and ​dangerous delay in the movement of troops in case of an invasion.
Returning, however, to Sydney; the first view from the sea front shows a city built largely in red and yellow sandstone, upon rolling coastal ridges, with little level ground anywhere. Some of the older buildings almost overhang the sea, as one often notices in some of the Mediterranean towns; though, apart from Sydney, this is not a characteristic of Australian ports. The city itself is something of an old-world jumble, dug out of its own cellars; the streets being narrow and irregular, unlike those of Melbourne, which the pioneer surveyors (who came from Sydney and profited by its mistakes) planned broad, stately, and in chess-board fashion, at the start. Sydney is said to have been laid out on the lines of the cattle-tracks made by the first imported cows, who wandered about the infant settlement. In leading thoroughfares, such as George and Pitt Streets, the crush of hansom cabs and omnibuses is exceptional, for an Australian city. The heart of the city is not cut up with tram lines, however, as in Melbourne; for the steam-motor cars pass along a single route, and almost at the limits of the city branch off to the different suburbs. The tram system, controlled by the Government, is really a railway system in miniature; and though it gives the advantage of fast travelling to the outer suburbs of Sydney, it has nothing else in its favour, being unsightly and dirty. It is soon, I hear, to be superseded in favour of an over-head electric system. For some years after the introduction of the motor trams, the number of accidents in the city streets was alarming; but either the drivers have become more clever or the population more cautious, for of late years accidents have been rare.
In one respect,—in an attempt, at all events, to live ​rationally and to adapt themselves to the climate, the Sydney folk set an example to the rest of Australia, where the conservative tendencies of the Anglo-Saxon race are in many things amusingly manifest. In Melbourne, particularly, men seem to have given up all attempt to follow the abrupt changes of their climate; and top-hats and heavy frock-coats are common in Collins' Street in weather when "whites" and solar topees should be the only wear. But, speaking generally, the majority of Australians follow English customs in dress and methods of living, totally oblivious of the fact that our customs developed, through many ages, in a comparatively cold country. Beef, mutton, bottled beer, and boiled potatoes, with whisky between meals, cannot be the ideal diet for a hot country; and the blazing plum-pudding is as much a Christmas institution in Australia as in England, though very few of their days, at that season, are favoured with a temperature of less than 100 degrees in the shade.
All the conditions tempt to outdoor life, and in Sydney a great many of the residents, especially young men, establish camps round the picturesque bays of the harbour and live there in tents through the summer. This period in Sydney has the moist and clammy peculiarities of the tropics, but is not subject to the same remarkable changes as in Melbourne, where during my visit there was, on one occasion, within less than forty-eight hours a drop in temperature of over 60 degrees. This is why the Melbourne man despairingly adheres to the traditional stove-pipe hat; while in Sydney there is more of an effort to make the habiliments suit the clime.
One cannot look upon Sydney to-day, then, without feeling quite sure that in trade and social importance she has become the capital of Australia, a position once unquestionably held by its great rival, Melbourne. In the earlier ​days the inflow of outside capital for Australian development was mainly through Melbourne, then the headquarters of all the great wool firms and pastoral agencies. But when Victoria built a protective wall about itself, much of its outside capital was diverted to Sydney, which has grown steadily at the expense of the sister city, and become infected with that American bustle which was once the characteristic of Melbourne only.
But even now, in New South Wales, there is something left still of the true colonial simplicity, which you will scarcely find near Melbourne. In Tasmania, for example, when the girls are of a fair age, the mistress of a house will often do without a servant, and, with her daughters, take the household duties on her own shoulders. One may be engaged, again, in manual labour, and yet not cut off from society. It is possible to meet in the morning a man dressed like a navvy, working on his farm or in his orchard, and to see him again in the evening in his dress clothes, and not concerned for his roughened hands. I have seen, in one of the colonies, a lady whose husband occupies the highest position in local politics, and is largely indebted to her tact and popularity for his long lease of power, doing some of the family washing on her back verandah, while her guests of the afternoon drank tea with her, thirsty and unashamed. That was due to a mistake as to her "at-home" day, and the washing was mainly lace and such matters; but she did not put the tub away. The Private Secretary to a Governor, in another colony, has been known to spend his affable summer three miles out of town in a small tent on the banks of the river, riding in to his work on a bicycle. Perhaps it is partly, in some way, a result of her sympathy with this sort of colonial realism, that not only in business, but in art and literature also, Sydney ​has gone completely ahead of her rival: though it is singular that, while the latter city has become the home of budding art and literature in Australia, Melbourne has retained her prominence in music. Thus both Melba and Ada Crossley are Victorian born. And when Miss Amy Castles, the young Victorian soprano, whose singing has created a furore in Australia, sailed for England, in September last, to complete her musical education before appearing regularly in public, her admirers enthusiastically responded to the appeal to provide her with funds for this purpose, and the concerts she gave realized between £3000 and £4000. But Sydney is unquestionably the centre of Australian intellectual life, and during the last few years has enriched the prose and poetry of Australia by a succession of notable volumes, though there is yet, perhaps, a tendency to dwell upon station life and customs as giving the only typical Australian colour, overlooking much that is characteristic, and will yield matter for treatment in the literature of the future. Sydney artists establish camps by the water side, and study all the fleeting impressions of the sunlit harbour; so that it is not surprising to find them, almost to a man, disciples of the French and Impressionist schools in art. Not even a single volume of verse published in Sydney, however, dwells upon the beauties of the harbour beside which the poets live. As an illustration of the difference in the intellectual calibre of the two cities, it is worth noting that while Ethel Turner and Louise Mack—two charming young Sydney writers, who have made child life a special study—are known to every one in their own city, and much honoured, scarcely any one in Melbourne is aware that Ada Cambridge, a lady with an established reputation in fiction, has been for years resident there. And it is most remarkable to ​observe the difference between the two capitals in respect of their press. Although the Argus has a respectable past, and Victoria is governed, in a sense, by Mr Syme and the Age yet the Sydney Bulletin is the only Australian paper with anything of a national outlook, and with an inter-colonial circulation. It is the only paper, moreover, which tolerates original work; for the Melbourne press, though often vulgar, is consistently philistine, and never has a deeper respect for the conventionalities than when it is outraging them. Now the Australian artist, in his original work, has a tendency to become very strong meat. And the Bulletin is in thorough sympathy on this point, and on others, with the Australian artist. Hence, though a blatently disloyal rag, of blasphemous tendencies and American antecedents (and a prey, moreover, to many absurdly incompatible radical fads), the Bulletin, which produced, by the way, Phil May and Louis Becke, is read and passed on in the remotest camps of the Bush; gives a perceptible tinge to the mind of the average Australian; and has had a great deal to do, through its influence in New South Wales, with the success of Federation.
Architecturally, the city of Sydney has not many striking features; though it is well equipped with business buildings and offices. In its public buildings it falls considerably behind Melbourne. Its Houses of Parliament are a block of ruins, and until the site of the federal capital is definitely fixed it is unlikely that they will be rebuilt. For years there has been an agitation for new buildings, and a too ambitious scheme for the expenditure of half a million. An alternative, and later, scheme, to spend half that sum, has also been rejected by the Committee of Public Works, the authority of which has to be secured before any expenditure can ​take place on public works in New South Wales. The truth is that most of the Australian colonies have spent far too much on 'talking-shops' and public buildings generally: a fact which they will begin to appreciate when all their leading statesmen, and the main part of their revenues, have gone to the Federal city—whatever its name is to be.
Government House, where Lord Hampden, son of the late Speaker of the House of Commons, has recently been succeeded by Lord Beauchamp, is a picturesque Elizabethan building, with a magnificent outlook, and beautiful grounds, stretching down to the water side. When, on a summer night, the gardens are lit up for some vice-regal fete, and one sees beneath, on the one hand, the illuminated hulls of the near ships in Farm Cove, and on the other the scores of little passenger launches rushing away from Circular Quay to the marine suburbs, the spectacle is satisfactorily brilliant, and has something of Venetian colour in it. The best of the public buildings in Sydney is the Chief Secretary's office, the exterior of which is decorated with statuary. The Town Hall is not merely the finest in Australia, but one of the largest in the world. It has a magnificent vestibule, and includes amongst its equipments one of the largest organs ever built. The Corporation of Sydney, though fortunate in its home, is not otherwise quite a happy family, and its affairs of late years have become so entangled that there is some talk of an inquiry by a Royal Commission.
The General Post-office is a very fine building, once disfigured by grotesque carvings, which were the laughingstock of Australia. They were an attempt, in the style of Mr Kruger's stone "topper," to apply up-to-date art to the representation of every-day Post-office business. ​But the sculptor overlooked the fact that fashion in dress changes amazingly fast, and the well-dressed people of to-day become caricatures a few years hence. The Walt Whitman of democratic statuary, the would-be revolutionist of brown-stone art, had the mortification of seeing his egregious figures removed. It is perhaps a pity that some old-world statues cannot follow them. Sydney University is a fine building in the Gothic style. In one respect, at least, this is the progressive city of Australia. The National Art Gallery, the Public Library, and the museums are open on Sunday afternoons; and are then largely visited, notably by visitors from other parts of Australia, who may have their working days fully occupied with business.
The pastoral interest is the support of New South Wales to a greater extent even than of the other colonies. But the drought of the last few years, coming upon the heels of a strike of shearers and other bush- workers, has given the wool-grower a severe shaking. The flocks of the colony have shrunk from 66,000,000 to about 46,000,000, representing a loss of about 20,000,000 sheep. If to this is added the loss of natural increase, the shrinkage amounts to 50,000,000; enough, that is, to equip a considerable colony. In addition there has been a loss of nearly 300,000 horses and 150,000 cattle. That the colony has been able to survive these terrific blows is a striking proof of energy and resource. The entire substance of Job, it will be remembered, amounted to no more than 12,000 beasts, sheep, cattle, camels, and she-asses included; which were increased at his latter end, after his bad times, to 25,000. And yet this man was the greatest of all the sons of the east. Translated into money, the Colony has suffered a loss, due to mere inadequate rainfall, of from £12,000,000 to £20,000,000 sterling. ​One of the results of these four years of drought was that Mr Reid, the late Premier, who had for several years past claimed a surplus, admitted, in November last, a deficiency in the revenue of £248,000. In the face of the heavy losses by drought, the colony can claim to have done very little in water conservation or irrigation as compared with Victoria, where, however, the money devoted to irrigation projects has, in many cases, been shamefully squandered.
In the western, and more arid, portion of New South Wales the stock carrying capacity of the country has, in many districts, been increased by the fine flow of water from artesian bores, which, as in Queensland, have changed the whole face of nature, and literally caused the wilderness to blossom as the rose; but, owing to the fact that in summer time even the largest rivers of the interior are nothing more than a chain of water holes, it is probably impossible to carry out large irrigation schemes in New South Wales, as the cost of storage would be too great; and, moreover, the loss by evaporation from Australian tanks sometimes amounts to more than six feet a year.
Following upon a period of falsely inflated land-values in Australia, we notice everywhere a tendency to promote legitimate land settlement. In New South Wales this is being effected by throwing open for settlement land formerly held under lease by squatters. In the southern districts there has been a great rush for this land, and in a few years settlement will, in consequence, have become much denser throughout the province of the Riverina. This movement, which is strictly parallel to and co-incident with the settlement of the Darling Downs in Queensland, and the operation of the Land for Settlement Act in New Zealand, may be compared also with the settlement of the mallee in Victoria. It has ​not led, so far, to any perceptible immigration from Great Britain.
Another interesting development in land cultivation, which is perhaps more common on the Riverina than in Victoria, is the growing of wheat and other produce on the shares principle—the squatter providing the land and seed and the agriculturalist the plant and labour. This approximation to the metayer system has very great possibilities, being capable of extensive application in many parts of Australia, from the rich potato and onion soils of Colac to the sugar lands of tropical Queensland.
The system of co-operation is to be carried still further in the shipping of wheat to London. These developments, together with the increase of the export trade in frozen meat and other products, are giving the variety which the farmer requires, and he no longer has all his eggs in the one basket. The best will never be got from the frozen meat trade, however, until a higher standard is sought for in the quality. It is estimated that during the year 1897, for example, quite forty-five per cent, of the bulk shipped was defective in quality. Irregularity of supply is another source of weakness, and several efforts to secure united action, and so found a better system of supply, have failed. A few figures as to the pastoral and agricultural industries of New South Wales may be of interest. The area of land under wheat is extending rapidly; for whereas in 1895-6 there were 596,684 acres under wheat, this year there are 1,000,000 acres, though the crops, owing to dry weather, will be lighter than usual. As the land policy—under leasehold—is exceptionally liberal to the State tenants, the area of land under occupation should increase largely year by year. The latest agricultural returns for the colony show that 1,820,209 acres were under crop in 1898, giving the remarkable increase (on the 798,966 ​acres of 1889) of over a million acres in nine years; while nearly 1 00,000 people are engaged in farm work, and over 30,000 in pastoral pursuits. The last wheat harvest in New South Wales yielded ten and a half million bushels, averaging ten and a half bushels to the acre; and before the expiry of many years the colony will be a large exporter of wheat. Along the rich flats of the northern rivers maize is largely grown, about 2 1 2,000 acres of the best land of the colony being devoted to it. Although the wines of New South Wales had a reputation many years ago, they have failed to keep progress with those of Victoria. In New South Wales a larger area of land is given up to oranges than to vines, and the orange groves of the Parramatta are, in the season, one of the interesting sights to a visitor. About 40,000 acres are under orchards; but here, too, recent developments in New South Wales have not at all equalled those of Victoria and South Australia. Sugar growing is one of the great industries of Northern New South Wales, where there are over 30,000 acres under cane, beet being at present only an experimental crop. The sugar growers have of late figured largely in the politics of New South Wales, and have even had their influence upon Federation. It was necessary to their existence that a duty should be placed upon imported sugar; but when, in furtherance of his Free-trade policy, Mr Reid, the Premier, swept away duties to the extent of £1,000,000, the sugar growers of Richmond, Tweed, and Clarence Rivers seemed likely to suffer, in common with other producers. Mr Reid, however, yielding to judiciously applied pressure, decided to retain the duty at £3 per ton; and he received his reward. For when, some time subsequently, his position was endangered by a vote of censure moved by the Federal party under Mr Barton, the sugar members. ​to a man, voted with, and for the moment saved, the Ministry. A few years back the sugar growers of New South Wales declared that, unlike their Queensland competitors in the business, they could make the industry a success without the help of coloured labour; but that principle is being slowly abandoned, and black labour is largely employed. It is a question, however, by no means settled in the minds of the planters themselves whether, with expensive machinery to maintain, white labour is not in the long run the cheaper. Under the Commonwealth it is very probable that, both in New South Wales and in Queensland, they will either have to settle the question in the affirmative or—abandon the industry.
New South Wales is the colony of wide acres; the total area of land alienated up to the end of 1896 being nearly 46,000,000 acres, while 126,000,000 acres are under lease, and about 25,000,000 remain in possession of the State; the total area of the colony being nearly 200,000,000 acres. The returns as to live stock grazing on New South Wales pastures are interesting—viz., 490,000 horses, 2,050,000 cattle, and about 50,000,000 sheep; though the recent drought, as we have seen, has affected these figures to an extent which it is hard to estimate with exactness. The total wool clip of 1896, the latest for which official figures are obtainable, was 255,000,000 lbs.—an increase of about 16,000,000 lbs. on the previous year. Amongst wool-growers there has for some time past been a keen controversy as to the merits of the Vermont or American types of sheep, crossed with the Australian merino, as against the old Australian type; and the flock owners of New South Wales have taken the lead in advocacy of the American cross. The co-operative methods of dairying which proved so successful in Victoria have been largely ​adopted also in New South Wales, especially in those districts where the rainfall is sufficient to give heavy crops of lucerne and maize as green fodder.
The first discoveries of gold in Australia were made by Hargreaves in New South Wales. But Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia, each in their turn, have left her behind in the development of gold mining, and the golden fleece is still the colony's best friend. Of late, however, many Southern miners have found their way into New South Wales fields. In 1898 the total yield of gold was 341,700 ounces, valued at £1,250,000. The August gold returns for 1899 show that the output of New South Wales for the month amounted to 46,300 ounces, being an increase of 30,700 ounces as compared with August 1898. The output during the preceding eight months amounted to 295,700 ounces, being an increase of 98,200 ounces as compared with the corresponding period of last year. The silver output was worth about £1,800,000. The famous Broken Hill silver mines contribute the bulk of this, but, though territorially they belong to New South Wales, the whole of their business is done with Adelaide and Melbourne. About 7000 square miles of New South Wales give indications of copper, the biggest yield being from the Great Cobar Mine, viz., 2650 tons, valued at over £100,000. The copper output for the colony showed an increase in 1896 of about £60,000 worth as compared with the previous year, and still more recently great progress has accompanied the rise in the price of the metal. The great coal mines of Australia are those of the Newcastle, Wollongong, and Bulli coastal districts, within easy reach of Sydney. They supply not only the whole of Australia, but, to some extent, California and Eastern Asia. During the year 1 896 the coal output was 3,909,517 tons, valued at £1,125,280. An important ​coal seam was struck in boring under Sydney Harbour, and a project (not yet brought to completion) is to drive beneath the harbour; when the ships could be loaded, it is contended, from the dump. There have also been important discoveries of. diamonds and opals, the former being chiefly found on the concession of a lucky British company, which has so far shown no desire to come into collision with the De Beers ring; while the latter, like the Queensland opals, though mined in great quantities, and sometimes surpassing in fire and colour the opals of Hungary itself, do not appear to find much favour with the trade. The case of Australian sapphires and emeralds is much the same. But it is whispered that some consignments of antipodean stones, otherwise unsaleable, have been shipped home by astute dealers viâ Rangoon or elsewhere; and have then been accepted in Bond Street without question, on their supposed Asiatic merits.
To close finally with figures, the population of New South Wales at the last census of 1891 was 1,132,234. But it has gained largely since then, its manhood not having been drained to the same extent as that of the other two colonies by the gold discoveries in West Australia. Its population is now estimated to be 1,323,460.
The colony has a large and ever increasing system of State-owned railways. About 2700 miles are in existence, the total capital cost of which is 40 millions. The railways are under the management of Commissioners, who are able to pay working expenses and interest and show a small profit; which is the ideal condition for State-owned railways. A system of cheap pioneer lines, communicating with the remote pastoral districts of the colony, has been commenced, but it has yet to be ascertained whether these light lines will not eventually ​swallow up more in repairs than it would have cost to construct a substantial road in the first instance.
The politics of New South Wales are at present slightly confused, owing to the introduction of the Federal question, which has obliterated the line (formerly clearly drawn) between the Free-trade and the Protectionist camps. During the Federal fight the Free-trade party suffered slightly; and the Labour party are now generally masters of the situation, holding the balance of power. Formerly, Mr Reid, as leader of the Free-traders, had little difficulty in carrying the Labour party with him; but for some little time before his recent fall from power they not infrequently carried him with them. They have practically determined that the fiscal policy of the colony for the time being shall neither be one of absolute Protection nor one of Free-trade; but that revenue shall be drawn to the utmost extent possible from property, leaving the working classes free from taxation, except on such items as tobacco and alcohol.
With all its advantages of area, varied climate, and extensive resources, there can be little doubt but that New South Wales has a future second to that of no other colony of the Australian group; and the position her public men have been able to take in connection with Federation is simply an assertion of the fact that she knows and feels her future greatness. In addition to her vast grazing areas, the productiveness of which in wool and meat is being yearly increased by the establishment of artificial pastures and the improvement in water supplies, she has on her southern coast the same rich pastures and temperate climate which have done so much for the dairying industries in Victoria. In her northern provinces, in addition to magnificent forests of both hard and soft woods, there are tropical conditions of climate ​and soil which give further variety to the vegetable products of the colony, and allow free play, under the most favourable conditions, to the various new cultures which are every year being introduced with success.
While avoiding the unprofitable extremes of climate, therefore. New South Wales has all the intermediate zones—and in them all those conditions which are the elements of future greatness. No other colony of the group has, to my mind, so fine an outlook.