204 



. / 1 ;v TRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



amusement of the citizens of the early days. It was dedicated by Governor Macquarie, 

 and cleared as a course by the officers of the regiment then on service in the colony, but 

 when the noble sport moved further afield the ground was retained as a pleasure-reserve. 

 It is now vested in the hands of trustees, who have done much by judicious planting 

 and careful gardening to make it a very delightful resort. Hyde Park is the finest 

 boulevard and promenade that the city possesses. At the intersection of Park Street, and 

 facing the corner of College Street, is the magnificent bronze statue of Captain Cook. 

 the work of Woolner, the sculptor. At the opposite corner is a rotunda where on certain 

 afternoons and evenings a military or naval band performs. Throughout its area the 





ST. MARY S (1ATE, OUTER DOMAIN. 



Park is ornamented with fountains and parterres of flowers, and its splendid broad boule- 

 vards are planted with heavily-foliaged Moreton Bay fig-trees, which make on fervent 

 summer days a cool and umbrageous retreat. 



The citizens of Sydney owe Moore Park to the action of a few of their predeces- 

 sors, who in the early days secured from the Government a grant of the land. But 

 it was not for themselves, or .for their children, or for their children's children, that 

 they asked for this area ; it was for their cows. There was no commonage attached to 

 the young settlement ; the petitioners asked for one, and so the Governor apportioned 

 off a large space of what was then a waste of wind-driven sand-hills. It is fortunate 

 that the land was poor, or some influential person would have got it as a grant ; but 

 because it was poor it was little used, and the citizens themselves in time forgot all 

 about it. The officials in the Lands Office had no better memory, and in spite of the 

 dedication it was treated as Crown land. The new Barracks were built upon it, and bit 

 by bit the land was sold. But in a happy moment some one rummaging among old 

 papers discovered the forgotten grant. The Corporation immediately laid claim to the 

 land ; the Government, having poached on the domain, was at first inclined to treat the 

 grant as having lapsed, but at last conceded the title so far as the unsold portion was 



