546 PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION F. 



It must be remembered that large towns of recent growth 

 are spread out so as to cover a much larger surface in 

 proportion to population than has ever been occupied by the 

 older cities. The cheap and easy means of communication 

 afforded by trams and suburban trains enables workmen and 

 others, whose daily occupation requires their presence in 

 town, to live in the suburbs; and, in consequence, slums, with 

 their depraved and unwholesome concomitants, become 

 proportionately reduced in number and extent. Greater 

 Melbourne, with a population of half a million, is officially 

 considered to extend over an area having a radius of ten 

 miles from the centre of the city. The suburban portions 

 are, of course, scattered, — gardens, grounds, and paddocks, 

 some of large size, being attached to most of the residences — 

 and there is room for much more building, without crowding. 

 Still, extensive suburban villages are springing up outside the 

 metropolitan limits ; and I look forward to the day when the 

 official radius will have to be lengthened. 



There are, moreover, large reserves for recreation and 

 amusement, which add considerably to the extent of breathing 

 space, in most of the Australian cities, of which they have 

 been aptly termed the lungs. Portions of these reserves 

 are set apart for the practice of cricket, football, bowling, 

 bicycling, and other out-door sports and athletic exercises, 

 for the enjoyment of which the very general adoption of the 

 eight hours' system of labour affords ample leisure. The 

 Australian youth are proverbially fond of such exercises ; 

 and the frequent indulgence in them by town residents goes 

 a long way towards rendering them no less robust and 

 vigorous than their country fellow colonists. Efficient sys- 

 tems of sewerage, an abundant supply of pure water, and 

 sanitary measures and regulations have already done much 

 towards improving the healthfulness and diminishing the 

 mortality of even the most crowded parts of towns, both old 

 and new ; and if these are persisted in, and continued efforts 

 are made to stamp out contagious and infectious diseases as 

 they occur, it may be hoped that, in the future, the death- 

 rates of even our largest towns may compare not unfavourably 

 with those of our rural districts. 



