54 AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



city to the north, and communicate by smaller reserves, such as Lincoln 

 Square, to the 1,000 acre Royal Park, in which, among other attractions, are 

 the well-stocked gardens of the Zoological Society, open to the public on 

 certain days, in consideration of a Government subsidy, free of cost. 



The Yarra Park, lying between Melbourne and Richmond, contains the 

 principal cricket grounds of the city. Here the Melbourne Cricket Club has 

 its headquarters, and much its sward and its grand stand and its pavilion 

 are praised by our cricketing friends from the Old World. In the season the 

 big matches, All England v. Australia, or New South Wales v. Victoria, 

 will draw their tens of thousands of spectators, and on other occasions the 

 area is utilised for moonlight concerts, for flower-shows, and for pyrotechnics. 



A jealous eye is kept upon these reserves. Once or twice a minister, 

 eager to increase the land revenue, has made a dash at a city park, and has 

 essayed to sell a slice, but so great has been the uproar that no Government 

 is likely to indulge in the effort again. Indeed, in almost all cases, the alien- 

 ation has now been rendered impossible except by means of an Act of 

 Parliament, which could never be obtained. The belt of reserves — 5,000 

 acres in all — is secure, and it must grow in beauty yearly, continually adding 

 to the attractions of the town. As it is within a stone's throw of city life, 

 you can wander into cool glens and sequestered shades, and hear the thrush 

 sing, or study the beauties of a fern gully. To the pedestrian the walk to 

 business in the morning or from it in the evening is thus rendered delightful ; 

 but if the ordinary Australian can possibly avoid it he never does walk. 

 You meet curious traces in these reserves of that former time when the 

 eucalypts sheltered not the inevitable perambulator and nursemaid at noon, 

 nor the equally inevitable 'young people' at the 'billing and cooing' stage 

 in the evening, but rather the kangaroo and the black fellow. In the Yarra 

 Park an inscription on a green tree calls attention to the fact that a bark 

 canoe has been taken from the trunk. The canoe shape being evident in the 

 stripped portion, and the marks of the stone hatchet being still visible on the 

 stem. The blacks would find their way to the river impeded now by a 

 treble-track railway that runs close to their old camp, carrying passengers to 

 a station which three hundred trains enter and leave daily. 



Melbourne has a river. One knows this mostly by crossing the bridges, 

 as otherwise the Yarra plays but a small part in the social arrangements of 

 the community. The lower portion of the stream is being greatly improved. 

 It is to be straightened and deepened, so that the largest liners are to come 

 up to the city, as already do 2000-ton intercolonial steamers. The works, 

 which will cost millions, are now (1886) about half-way through. Near 

 Melbourne the stream is muddy and nasty. Sluicers use the water for gold- 

 washing purposes twenty miles away, and factories were allowed years back 

 to be started upon its banks, and though new tanneries and new fellmongeries 

 are forbidden, the old evil-smelling establishments remain. Few who look upon 



