56 AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



think of a fire at night. But the three hundred delightful days of the year, 

 when existence is a pleasure, are- to be remembered, and not the odd sixty- 

 five when ills have to be endured. A favourable impression is usually made 

 upon visitors by the city with its charm of suburbs, its wealth and reserves, 

 its crowds of well-dressed people, always busy about either their pleasure 

 or their business, always obliging, the poorest showing no signs of poverty, nor 

 yet the lowest of the influence of drink. And if a visitor had ideas of his 

 own he would withhold any adverse dictum until he was away, and would 

 not seek to wound the feelings of his hospitable hosts. With them, at any 

 rate, it is a cardinal principle of faith that their much-loved home is entitled 

 to the proud appellation of the ' Queen City of the South.' 



An ' unearned increment,' such as would satisfy the most glowing 

 dreams of the most ardent speculator, has occurred in the capital. One 

 instance may be given. One of the few original half-acre blocks now in 

 possession undisturbed — not cut up — of the family of the original purchaser 

 is situated in a good part of Collins Street. The colonist whose executors 

 are now holding the property gave £20 for it in 1837. To-day the sixty- 

 six feet frontage to Collins Street is worth ^1,150 per foot; the Flinders 

 Lane frontage is worth ^350 per foot. A little ciphering brings out a sum 

 total of ^99,000 as the present value of the original ^"20 investment. 

 And for decades the income derived from the block has been counted by 

 many thousands per annum. The ^20 has by this time earned at least 

 ,£200,000 in all. In many country places a £5 lot will bring ^500 when 

 a decade has passed. But then the place may not become a centre, and your 

 ' unearned increment ' will be no more substantial than the evening cloud. 

 There is a reverse to this shield, as to all others. 



From Melbourne it is easy to journey to the two great gold-fields of 

 Victoria — Ballarat and Sandhurst. The latter is due north, and is reached 

 by a double-track railway, built in the early days at a cost of ,£40,000 per 

 mile. Single-track railways, costing ,£4,000 per mile, are now the order of 

 the day. Sandhurst is the Bendigo of old days. It has had many ups and 

 downs ; has been deserted, and has been ruined ; but the result is the fine 

 city of to-day, with its broad, tree-lined streets, its splendid buildings, and 

 high degree of commercial activity. As a recent writer puts it : ' What 

 vicissitudes has not the place undergone ! From enormous wealth to the 

 verge of bankruptcy, from the pinnacle of prosperity to the direst adversity ; 

 from financial soundness to commercial rottenness ; and yet, with that 

 wonderful elasticity and buoyancy which characterises our gold-fields, the 

 falling ball has rebounded, the sunken cork has again come to the surface, 

 and Sandhurst, after all her reverses, is perhaps now richer and on a safer 

 basis than ever — a city whose wide, well-watered streets are perfect avenues 

 of trees, bordered by handsome buildings and well-stocked shops, brilliantly 

 lighted by gas ; whose hotel accommodation is proverbially good, whose 



