MB. LATROBE AS SUPERINTENDENT 243 



Bourke Street". From this indicator down to Elizabeth Street 

 there was a score of shabby dwellings, and the nucleus of a sale 

 yard for horses and live stock generally. For the rest, there was a 

 number of private dwellings and places of business in the western 

 end of Flinders Lane and Little Collins Street, and outside these 

 boundaries, here and there a hut or two, and a tent or two were 

 dotted on the landscape, where utility had infringed upon the prime- 

 val beauty of nature. 



The only suburbs at this date were " Newtown," a name after- 

 wards changed to " Colling wood," and " Emerald Hill," now known 

 as South Melbourne. The latter was rather a temporary camping- 

 place than a promising village, for it had not yet been surveyed for 

 a township, and access to Melbourne by punt was tedious and ex- 

 pensive. But a large part of the district now embraced within the 

 boundaries of the cities of Fitzroy and Collingwood had been sold 

 in February, 1838, at an average price of 7 per acre, mostly to 

 Sydney speculators. They had promptly cut up their sections into 

 many small allotments, for which they had a ready sale at an enor- 

 mous profit. Their method of subdivision, each vendor seeking to 

 make the most out of his own block, sadly interfered with the proper 

 alignment of the streets when, eventually, the control passed into 

 the hands of a local corporation. 



Eighteen public-houses, calling themselves hotels, catered for 

 the physical needs of the population, too often supplying its crav- 

 ings without regard to consequences. The best at this time was 

 undoubtedly Fawkner's, at the corner of Collins and Market Streets, 

 with which was associated the nebulous beginnings of the Mel- 

 bourne Club. 



There were but two places of worship in use, though (the 

 foundation-stone of the first Congregational Church in Collins 

 Street East had been laid ; the Presbyterians were gathering in 

 the funds which the Government required as a guarantee of their 

 bona fides before conveying to them that site in Collins Street 

 which is still occupied by the Scots Church. The Eoman Catholics 

 were also negotiating with the Sydney Government for the site in 

 Elizabeth Street on which St. Francis' Church stands, and had 

 commenced a temporary wooden structure on it in anticipation. 



16* 



