The Monmouth inquirer., 1925-08-13

prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety. Washington, D. CO.
T-HE Australian cities visited by
b~luejackets of the United States
fleet cruising in the Pacific re
minded them more strongly Of
home than any other places at which
their vessels stopped in their long voy-
age. This is especially true Of Sydney,
metropolis of Australia. Citizens of
other Australian cities are constantly
accusing Sydney of having become
"Americanized."
Some world travellers become more
specific and compare Sydney to San
Francisco. Reaching the city from the
sea, one first passes through Sydney
Heads, which take the place of the
Golden gate. These are pink sand
stone cliffs, one 24O and the other 27O
feet high, standing about a mile apart.
A short, deep channel soon opens out
into a great, commodious harbor, with
high, wooded banks into which Innu-
merable bays and coves penetrate.
Four miles inside the Heads is the Cir
cular quay, which may be considered
the center of the water front Of sgd
ney. So admirable is the great harbor,
however, that almost every 0 v can
be used by shipping, deep water ex-
tending in practically all of them to
the shore. Nearly fifteen miles of
wharves and Quays in an unbroken
line, backed with ample warehouses,
furnish Sydney's facilities for handling
sea-borne traffic. The citizens of Sgd
ney insist without qualification that
theirs is the best harbor in the world,
and it is certainly one of the best, wor-
thy to rank with Rio de Janeiro, Annoy,
San Francisco and V~ladivostok. Sgd
ney has Teen built up around and be-
tween many of the coves and bays of
the great harbor.
Sydney reminds one Of San Fran
cisco again, because of it's important
suburbs across the harbor, to which
ferrybOats are always busily steaming.
The likeness is even apparent in the
hilly streets, though they are not so
steep and are narrower than those Of
the Golden Gate city.
Sydney was the original settlement by
the British in Australia, the commu-
nifty dating from 1888. With it's 1000
900 inhabitants 1t is not only the me-
tropolis of Australia but is the third
greatest overseas city of the British
empire. It is the capital of the prov
ince of New South Wales and made
such strenuous insistence on becoming
the capital of the Commonwealth of
Australia against its rival, Melbourne,
that neither won. The older buildings
of Sydney are Of British architecture,
but the eve business structures are
of the steel-frame type-in reality
modern American "sk%yscrapers"e of
modest height.
Melbourne Rich and Handsome.
Part of the American feet steamed
around to the south shore of Australia
and put in at Melbourne, capital of the
province of Victoria. Like San Fran
cisco, which was begun about the same
time. Melbourne was born with a gold
spoon in its mouth, and became a city
of wealth almost from the start. Vic
toria, of which province the city is the
capital, was the most rapidly settled
division of Australia and Melbourne.
growing with 1t, soon passed the boom
town stage and came to be referred
to ~pridefully as "Marvelous Mel
bourne"
1t lives up to the cognomen today.
1T is built on generous lines, is slum-
less, is rich in beautiful parks and
broad tree-lined streets and avenues;
and its provincial and federal govern
ment buildings constitute n of the
handsomest collections Of such struc-
lures to be found on any continent.
With its population of $4,000 1t is
midway between st. Louis and Cleve-
land in size, yet numerous old-timers
are alive who remember when the site
Of the great city of today was just
bush" as Australians call their back
country wilderness.
1t has a great, roomy harbor with
the outer portals Of its bay some forty
miles or more from the city's quays-
This harbor ranks high among the
harbors of the world, even though
Nature did not give it quite such a
wealth of natural advantages as were
bestowed on Sydney. Attractive resi-
dental suburbs, connected by paved
b~oulevards, sweep along the edge Of
the bay for fifteen miles from the bust
ness center. while other home districts
cluster about the city in every direc-
tlon. Only twenty-five miles to the
east is a picturesque range Of low