54 THE SEA. 



barracks rising here and trenches dug there. There was a boom to be placed across the 

 harbour, and a whole world of torpedoes ready to be sunk beneath the water, all of 

 which were prepared and ready for use in an hour or two. It was explained to me that 

 'they' could not possibly get across the trenches, or break the boom, or escape the 

 torpedoes, or live for an hour beneath the blaze of the guns. ' They ' would not have a 

 chance to get at Sydney. There was much martial ardour, and a very general opinion 

 that 'they' would have the worst of it." New South Wales and Victoria have about 

 8,000 volunteers and a training-ship for sailor boys ; while an enormous monitor, the 

 CerberuS) presented by the mother country, forms its war-fleet of one. 



Of Melbourne, Victoria, mention has already been made. There are many cities with 

 larger populations, but few have ever attained so great a size with such rapidity. Though 

 it owes nothing to natural surroundings, " the internal appearance of the city is/' Mr. 

 Trollope assures us, "certainly magnificent." It is built on the Philadelphia!! rectangular 

 plan ; it is the Avidth of the streets which give the city a fine appearance, together with 

 the devotion of large spaces within the limits for public gardens. "One cannot walk 

 about Melbourne without being struck by all that hr.s been done for the welfare of the 

 people generally. There is no squalor to be seen though there are quarters of the town 

 in which the people no doubt are squalid . . . . But he who would see such misery 

 in Melbourne must search for it specially." There are no workhouses; their place is 

 supplied in the colony of Victoria generally by " Benevolent Asylums." In Melbourne 

 about 12,000 poor are relieved yearly, some using the institution there as a temporary, 

 and others as a permanent place of refuge. These places are chiefly, but not entirely, 

 supported by Government aid. " Could a pauper," says Trollope, " be suddenly removed 

 out of an English union workhouse into the Melbourne Benevolent Asylum, he might 

 probably think that he had migrated to Buckingham Palace," so well are the inmates fed 

 and cared for. There are no workhouses proper in any part of Australia, and the charity 

 bestowed on these asylums is not given painfully or sparingly. 



The wideness of the streets, however, and grandeur of general dimensions, have their 

 drawbacks, among which the time consumed in reaching distant parts of the city counts 

 first. Melbourne has a fine and entirely free Public Library and a University, as, indeed, has 

 Sydney. Melbourne is the centre of a system of railways, and the well-to-do people all 

 live out of town ; in the south and east of the city there are miles of villas and mansions. 



Mr. Trollope says : " There is perhaps no town in the world in which an ordinary 

 working man can do better for himself and for his family with his work than he can at 

 Melbourne." The rates of wages for mechanics are slightly greater than at home, and all 

 the necessaries of life are cheaper. With meat at 4d. per pound, butter from Od. 

 upwards, bread, tea, and coffee about the same prices or rather under, coals the same 

 or a trifle higher, potatoes, vegetables, and fruits generally considerably cheaper, all can live 

 well and plentifully. Meat three times a day is common all over Australia, and in 

 some parts the price is as low as lid. or 2d. per pound. Wages for good mechanics and 

 artisans average about 10s. a day; gardeners receive about 50s., and labourers about 30s. 

 per week; men-servants, in the house, 40 to <50 per annum; cooks, -35 to 45 per year; 

 girls, as housemaids, &c., 8s. or 10s. per week. It is usual to hire the last named by this 



