1 68 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



baskets of eggs, sides of bacon, kegs of butter and every description of farm produce are 

 exposed for sale. The locality is practically an open market, and the dealers, acting 

 either as agents for their country consignors, or as speculators anxious to turn over 

 their bargains quickly, are busy all day long selling to shop-keepers and private house- 

 holders. The houses in the neighbourhood have been from the earliest days of the 

 colony occupied by traders of this class, or by sea-faring people, stevedores, wharf- 

 labourers, ships' carpenters and keepers of lodging-houses, with, of course, a due supply of 

 public-houses and retail shops. But a great change is rapidly coming over this part of 

 Sydney. Some of the most primitive and dilapidated tenements have been closed or 

 pulled down by the orders of successive mayors, who periodically promenade the town, 

 and condemn as unfit anything below the present standard of what is suitable for human 

 habitation. Even where there has been no such municipal mandate the mere increase 

 in the value of land has lead to the removal of many of the ancient structures, and 

 the substitution of new and commodious stores. The business part of Sydney practically 

 a peninsula is pinched in, and the rapid increase of commerce has created a demand 

 for mercantile premises. Persons who cannot afford the high prices asked in George 

 Street have sought suitable sites in these back streets. Artisans go out into the 

 suburbs, to which there is now convenient access by boat, tram and railway, and ware- 

 houses now rise where cottages once stood. 



Among the wharves, and nearly behind St. Philip's Church, were erected the first 

 gas-works. The business of the establishment still conducted by a company has out- 

 grown the cramped position which was ample for its first beginnings ; new and larger 

 works have been constructed at Mortlake, on the Parramatta River, six miles from the 

 centre of the city. On the top of the hill, looking down on the- site of the old 

 gas-works, was built in the early days a naval hospital, in the solid heavy style of 

 architecture which seems to have been favoured at that time. Many years ago it was 

 turned into a model school, and is used for that purpose still. Another Government 

 establishment, the Barracks, occupied a large area between George Street and York 

 Street, but when, in course of time, the ground grew to be too valuable for this purpose it 

 was given to the local Government on condition that new and larger barracks were 

 built on the Paddington Road. Barrack Street, which connects George, York and 

 Clarence Streets, is a reminiscence of the purpose to which the land was originally put. 

 Wynyard Square was retained as a reserve when the old barrack-ground was subdivided 

 into allotments, and still remains as one of the pleasant lungs of Sydney. Before it 

 was improved it was a site on which the hustings for the elections for West Sydney 

 were erected, and was the scene of many a fierce display of political oratory. The 

 hustings having been transferred to the Town Hall enclosure, the Square was railed in 

 and planted with trees and flowers. The breaking up of the old Barracks was a con- 

 siderable advantage to the city, because it made the business part of George Street 

 on the west side continuous. 



I he new shops built on the old barrack-ground, though now more than forty years 

 old, were at the time of their erection a great improvement to Sydney, and still 

 contrast favourably with the shops on the opposite side. But farther up the street 

 stands the new Post Office one of the finest buildings in the city. Its main and 



