MELBOURNE 



125 



Francis Ormond, to whom Melbourne is indebted 

 also for its working-men's college, which is doin" 

 noMe work in technical education, and its endowed 

 chair of music in the university. The Wilson 

 Hall, the gift of Sir Samuel Wilson, M. P. , is also 

 a noteworthy adjunct of the university. The 

 Exhibition building in the Carl ton Gardens and the 

 General Post-office are two of the most conspicuous 

 and ornamental of Melbourne's public buildings. 

 The Houses of Parliament, completed in 1891, 

 have cost nearly a million of money. They form 

 a magnificent pile of buildings, the western facade 

 being particularly striking and effective. The 

 Trades Hall, a quadrangular structure founded in 

 1837, stands on the northern boundary of the city 

 proper. Mell>ourne possesses an excellent and 

 well-appointed public library of about 200,000 vols. , 

 and associated with it on the same reserve are a 

 national art gallery and a technological museum. 

 The three institutions are governed by a Ixxlv of 

 trustees, and are supported by a large state endow- 

 ment. The town-hall has an immense assembly- 

 room, largely used for concerts and public meet- 

 ings, and also an organ of fine tone ami colossal 

 size. Crowning the summit of the western hill of 

 Melbourne are the new law-courts, forming an 

 extensive square, and top]>ed by a lofty and grace- 

 ful dome. Close by is the Melbourne branch of 

 the Royal Mint, established in 1872. Other not- 

 able public institutions are the Melbourne and 

 Alfred hospitals, the Benevolent Asylum, the 

 Immigrants Home, the Orphan Asylums, the 

 Custom house, the Treasury, and the Public 

 otlices, the last-named being a vast ami labyrin- 

 thine pile in which must of IM government depart- 

 ments are housed. St Patrick's Roman Catholic 

 cathedral, close to the Houses of Parliament, is a 

 towering Gothic structure and the moot conspicu- 

 ous ecclesiastical edifice in Melbourne. The 

 Anglican cathedral of St Paul suffers in appear- 

 ance by its depressed site and by the fact that it 

 is hemmed in by clustering wan-houses. The 

 Scots Church is the architectural gem of Collins 

 Street. Its soaring spire, of more than 200 feet, is 

 peculiarly graceful and harmonious in design. 



.Mellxnirne -supports three morning and two 

 evening journals, besides a host of weeklies ami 

 monthlies. Railways have tieen pushed on with 

 energy in Victoria ( whose railway system connects 

 with those of South Australia, ?iew South Wales, 

 and Queensland ), and, as Melbourne is the converg- 

 ing |Miint of all the systems, the western end of the 

 city, where the railway department is quartered 

 and the central station has been built, is a scene 

 of incessant activity. Melbourne has grown with 

 remarkable rapidity. In 1841 its population was 

 11,000 ; in 18.")!, the year of the gOM discoveries, it 

 was less than 96,00$) in 18til, I!) I, (WO; in 1871, 

 with suburbs, 206,780; in 1881, 282,907 (of whom 

 65,800 were in 'the city'); at the census of 

 1891, 490,986 (of whom 73,361 were in the city 

 proper). This estimate includes all the suburbs with- 

 in a radius of 10 miles from the General Post-office. 

 During the commercial crisis of 1894-95 the city 

 suffered severely, and its population was reduced 

 by 60,000 or more. Protection to native industry 

 is the fiscal policy of the colony, and Melbourne 

 has developed into a considerable centre of manu- 

 facturing enterprise. Foundries, Hour-mills, boot 

 and clothing factories. &c. are numerous in the 

 siilmrlw. The Royal Park, the Carlton, Fitzroy, 

 Botanical, and Flagstaff Gardens are the principal 

 popular recreation reserves. The water-supply of 

 Melbourne, which is abundant, conies from the 

 Yan-Yean reservoir in the Plenty Valley, and had 

 cost np till 1876 aliout H million sterling. The 

 sanitary condition of Melbourne is not so good 

 M might liave been expected from the general 



mildness of its climate and the high average of 

 prosperity of the inhabitants. Typhoid fever 

 notauly has been excessively prevalent, and of late 

 years there has been increase rather than the steady 

 diminution which has been the rule in the cities 

 and towns of Europe and America. It is recognised 

 that this is mainly due to defective drainage, and 

 an unsatisfactory method of night soil disposal. 

 An eminent London engineer reported in 1890 on 

 the subject, suggesting a scheme for a complete 

 system of underground drainage at a cost of over 

 5,000,000. 



Port Phillip Bay, the maritime approach to 

 Melbourne, is a spacious land-locked inlet of the 

 South Pacific covering 800 sq. in., and mostly 

 available for anchorage. The entrance, known as 

 'The Heads,' is very narrow, and strong fortifi- 

 cations were begun by the Victorian government 

 in 1875. A well-equipped pilot station is main- 

 tained here. 



Melbourne was first occupied by white men in 

 1835, and the infant settlement was originally 

 known as Doutta-Galla, that being the name of 

 the trilie of blacks who inhabited the neighbour- 

 hood. In 1837 it was christened after the reigning 

 premier, Lord Melbourne, in 1842 it was incor- 

 porated, and in 1851 it was advanced to the dignity 

 of a capital when the Port Phillip province was 

 separate*! from New South Wales and erected into 

 the autonomous colony of Victoria. Simultane- 

 ously with this latter event the Victorian goldlields 

 were opened up, and the history of Melbourne 

 has since mainly teen one of marvellous strides in 

 material progress and prosperity. On the centenary 

 of the colonisation of Australia, an International 

 Exhibition was held in Melbourne in 1888. It 

 cost the colony a quarter of a million. A great 

 conflict between labour and capital took place in 

 1890, and a strike by the labour-unionists took 

 place on a very extensive scale both in Victoria 

 and New South Wales. In 1892-93 Melbourne 

 suffered severely from commercial depression, 

 financial crises, and banking disasters. Wool 

 and gold bulk most largely amongst the exports. 

 See Victoria and its Metropolis, Past and Present 

 (Melbourne, 2 vols. 1889). 



Melbourne, WILLIAM LAMB, VISCOUNT, 

 statesman, was second son of Penistone Lamb, 

 first Viscount Melbourne, anil was born in 

 London, 15th March 1779. His education he 

 received at Eton, at Trinity College, Cambridge, 

 and at Glasgow. He entered the House of Com- 

 mons for Leominster in 1805 as a Whig, a follower 

 of Charles James Fox. But, having become a 

 convert to Canning's views, lie accepted in 182; 

 the chief-secretaryship of Ireland in his govern- 

 ment, and continued to hold the post under Lord 

 Goderich and the Duke of Wellington. In 1828 

 the death of his father transferred him to the 

 Upper House. Returning to his allegiance to the 

 \Vhigs, in 1830 he took the seals of the Homo 

 Office in the government of Earl Grey, and in 

 July 1834 succeeded his chief as prime-minister, 

 but only remained at the head of affairs until the 

 following November. Peel, however, gave way to 

 Melbourne again in 1835 ; and lie continued in 

 office when Victoria ascended the throne (1837). 

 He succeeded by his uncommon tact in introduc- 

 ing her pleasantly to the various duties of a 

 constitutional monarch. In 1841 he once more 

 passed the seals of office to Sir Robert Peel, and 

 thenceforward took little part in public affairs. 

 He was ineffective as a speaker, but displayed 

 aptitude for affairs and common sense in the order- 

 ing of them. His easy cheerful temper and cordial 

 frankness of manner gained him many friends. 

 Sydney Smith, in his second letter to Archdeacon 

 Singleton, has described his character with an 



