, 1888-02-25

The theatres are good, aud OF concert nallS
there is an extraordinary number. Mel
bourne swarms with hotels, although of the
gigantic palaces with which the great cities
of the United States are abundantly suppli-
ed there are, perhaps, no examples. In
Australia every little inn and tavern is
digniied with the proud title of an hotel,
and the faStidiOus traveller will look III
vain for the comfort aud privacy with which
the Old World guest houses have made
him familiar. Yet the meals served at
Australian restaurants are good and
moderate in price, as the extraordinary
cheapneSs of meat is a compensation for the
cOstllneSs of other articles of food. A well
grilled steak with vegetables and bread
and butter costs no more than q shilling,
and fees for walters, who are generally
girls, there are none. There is little in
COlIins-street. Melbourne, George-steet,
Sydney, and King William. street, Adelaide,
to remind the newcomer that he is not in
European city, unless it be the verAndahS
with which every decent house is surround
ed.
To look at Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide,
Brisbane, and Perth as they are now. and
TO eli 'eavOur to form some conception Of
what they will be fifty years hence, would
demand u wider stretch of imagination
than any living man or woman is probably
capably Of indulging in. Suffice il for the
moment 10 say that i'll 30 portion of her
MajrSty'S dOminiOns is the cold country
remembered with more affection and in
tereSt than in the Australian colonies.
The author OF that sensational Melbourne
novel, "The Mystery of a Hanson Cab
tells us that to English ears a burning hot
Christmas Day must appear a strange
anomaly. lie adds, however, that " Aus
tralia is the realm of tOpsyturveydcm,
where everything goes by cOntraries. At
home the Scotch mail train bears the travel
Ter in December and January to snowy
mountains and icy blasts, while in Aus
tralia the further north he goes at the same
time of year the hotter it gets, until
Queensland is reached, where the thermO.
meter registers 1870 degrees in the midday
sun" Yet the English race is the same
at the AntipOleS AS in Regents Park
PiCcadilIy, and Bedford square. On each
successive recu renee of Christmas Day,
Australian families sit down to the roast
beef and plum pudding Of Old England,
which they eat contentedly as the orthodox
thilg. 1t is enough to say Of any article
Of dress, style Of furniture, and caprice Of
fashion that it is in vogue in the old COul.
try, for Australians to adopt it unhesitat-
ingly. Upon one subject we have a few
words to say in conclusion. Let no young
man Of good family 60 forth to Melbourne,
sydney, or any O'hrrAustralian city armed
with a few letters to preSOns of Z Od
position in the expectation that it is easier
to get on in the New than in the Old World
Australians OF wealth and consequences are
apt to look with jealous and suspicious
eyes at unknown guests consigned to them
from the other side of he world. Letters
Of introduction are generally as useless in
a business rs they are in Il social point Of
view. There iS already a large crop of
young Australians born in one or other of
the Colonies who have greater rights to
consideration than immigrants from Europe.
Nor lei it he imagined that it is easier for
Young English ladies', of fairly good birth
and attractive appearance, but with little
money, to find husbands in Melbourne or
Sydney than at home. Australian gentle
men of substance, who are in want Of
wives, either come to England to seek
them, or pay % visit to Tasmania, where
beautiful girls abound. THE materiM
prosperity Of Tasmania" writes Mr.
Howard WilIoughby, sis less than that Of
the other Australian Colonies, and her
young men are lured in great numbers to
the mainland. So great, indeed, is the
emigration Of young TaSmanian males that
it would fare i'll with the dimSelS Of the
S~lN~G E-A VHNA