THE CITY OF MELBOURNE. 



433 



and seventy thousand, and administering a yearly revenue of two hundred and thirty 

 thousand pounds sterling. 



Forty-five years ago the streets of Melbourne were bush-tracks, and after a heavy 

 rain a roaring torrent ran down a gully, following the course of what is now Eli*ab-th 

 Street. At this moment there is nothing to differentiate the city from one of the 

 capitals of Europe. Its streets 

 are as well paved, as well chan- 

 nelled, as well lighted and as 

 well watched as those of Lon- 

 don, Paris, or Vienna ; and much 

 of the credit of the remarkable 

 transformation the city has un- 

 dergone in four decades and a 



THE MELBOURNE TOWN HALL. 



half is due to the efficiency and integrity with which the municipal rulers of Melbourne 

 have performed their civic duties. The boast of Augustus Caesar that he found Rome a 

 city of brick and left it a city of marble, described a state of things which has almost 

 been paralleled in the metropolis of Victoria, within the memory of men who were ac- 

 quainted with it before the discovery of the gold-fields. The builder flourished in those 

 early clays, but the architect was almost unknown. Paved footpaths were few and far 

 between ; the water-supply of the inhabitants had to be carted in casks from the already 

 polluted Yarra ; and foot-pads lurked in the waste places which have since become public 

 pleasure grounds surrounded by mansions and terraces. 



The first Town Hall belonged to the period just spoken of, and was an ugly pile 

 of bluestone. In the rear was a square tower containing the fire-bell, and facing 



