43 , AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



and two handsome porches below. These are approached by flights of steps, and the 

 building gains greatly in elevation accordingly. At the rear of the edifice, and facing 

 Russell Street, is a lecture-hall, library and class-rooms belonging to the same denomi- 

 nation, erected in the same style, and harmonizing with the church itself. 



The Scots' Church, at the opposite corner of Collins Street on the north side, also 

 superseded one of the earliest places of worship in Melbourne, and was erected in the 

 year 1875. It is built of New Zealand and Barrabool stone, and the style adopted is 

 the Early English ; its southern fagade, with its handsome four-light window filled with 

 tracery ; its open arcade following the rake of the roof ; its octagonal turret at the 

 western angle ; and its graceful tower and spire, rising to a height of two hundred and 

 eleven feet, together challenge the admiration of the passer-by. The church is cruciform 

 in plan, with a nave and two side-aisles, and the interior of the building sustains the 

 favourable impression produced by the elevation which has just been described. 



That portion of Collins Street East which lies between Russell and Spring Streets 

 is popularly known as " Doctors' Commons," for with about half a dozen exceptions 

 every house in it is occupied by a physician, surgeon, dentist, apothecary or surgical 

 instrument maker ; and some of the medical practitioners have overflowed into Spring 

 Street. Its chief architectural features are the severely simple but solid and impressive 

 facade of the Melbourne Club ; the Masonic Club with its two pavilion towers, its five 

 bays of arched balconies, and its Ionic, Doric and Corinthian columns of pilasters, 

 superimposed in chronological order and the handsome town residence of an operative 

 surgeon at the south-east corner of Russell Street. 



Turning to the westward, and descending the hill, the visitor passes the classic 

 portico of the Baptist Church and the Palladian front of the Melbourne Athenaeum ; 

 immediately adjoining which is the fagade of the Coffee Palace, a four-storey building, 

 originally erected in the style of the French Renaissance for a club-house. On the other 

 side of the street are the offices of the Argits the oldest morning newspaper in Mel- 

 bourne, from which are also issued the weekly Australasian and the 'monthly illustrated 

 Sketcher and those of the Daily Telegraph and Weekly Times. The south-east angle of 

 Collins Street, at its intersection with Swanston Street, is occupied by the extensive 

 block of buildings which compose the Town Hall. The municipal organization of 

 Melbourne dates from the year 1842, when it was placed under the government of a 

 Corporation elected by the rate-payers, and a Mayor who is chosen by the Aldermen 

 and Councillors. At present there are seven of the former and twenty-one of the latter, 

 and the city is divided into seven wards, each of which returns one Alderman and three 

 Councillors. Originally the area over which the rule of the Corporation extended was 

 a very comprehensive one ; but as the various suburbs grew in population and importance, 

 a necessity arose for local self-government, and on the passing of a really admirable 

 measure, entitled "The Municipal Institutions Act," in the year 1855, Emerald Hill, or 

 South Melbourne as it is now called, was erected into a separate municipality, and Mr. 

 James Service, who afterwards acquired distinction as a statesman, and became the 

 Premier of the colony, was its first chairman. In process of time other districts were 

 detached from Melbourne, and at this moment the city is surrounded by a belt of 

 municipalities, seventeen in number, containing an aggregate population of two hundred 



