4 66 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



the ballot, and they hold their seats for three years. Both Houses generally meet in June 

 and continue their sittings until the approach of the Christmas holidays. The total cost 

 of the Parliament to the country is upwards of fifty thousand pounds sterling per annum. 



Quitting the Parliament Houses and proceeding along Gipps Street in an easterly 

 direction, the visitor passes the Government Printing House, which has been partially 

 destroyed by fire; on the right are the old Scotch Church and Manse, and on the left 

 the substantial and roomy buildings which constitute the Scotch College, one of the 

 most important and popular of the higher educational institutions of the colony. Then, 

 crossing Lansdowne Street, the Fitzroy Gardens are reached ; these comprise an area of 

 sixty-four acres. Five-and-twenty years ago the place was an unenclosed and dreary waste, 

 destitute of herbage, and sparsely sprinkled with aged gum-trees. A deep gully, dan- 

 gerous to cross after dusk, ran down the centre of this desolate-looking reserve, which 

 between sunset and sunrise was usually shunned by wayfarers whom business or pleasure 

 might lead in that direction. Since then it has been completely transformed, mainly 

 owing to the efforts of Mr. Clement Hodgkinson, a gentleman who at that time occupied 

 a responsible position in the Public Lands Office, and who had paid great attention to 

 landscape gardening. The natural sterility of the soil was overcome by artificial means ; 

 and with an ample supply of water, what would have been the work of a century in countries 

 possessing a less genial climate, was accomplished in one-fourth of the time, so that a 

 stranger from Europe finds considerable difficulty in believing that the lofty and umbrageous 

 trees of exotic origin which now adorn the Gardens are little more than twenty years old. 



The unsightly gully, down which are poured the storm-waters and surface-drainage 

 of a portion of the neighbouring city of Fitzroy, has been completely masked by trees 

 and shrubs. Its course, in fact, lies through a thicket, in places almost a jungle, where 

 groves of willows, intermingled with poplars, pines and bunya-bunyas, overshadow a rich 

 undergrowth of tree-ferns, palm-lilies, grass-trees, creepers and tangled under-wood ; and 

 this lofty covert is the haunt and nesting-place of birds innumerable, including, of course, 

 the aggressive, indomitable and irresistible sparrow. From a central bridge crossing this 

 gully, radiate, like the spokes of a wheel from its nave, a number of avenues to nearly 

 all the points of the compass. Some of these are bordered by elms, others by syca- 

 mores, Norfolk Island pines, Moreton Bay fig-trees, Himalaya cedars and pines. Here 

 and there a venerable member of the eucalyptus family remains to attest that the 

 Gardens once formed part of the primitive bush. The lawny interspaces are inlaid with 

 beds of flowers that are one mass of brilliant colour during nine months of the year ; 

 and in the autumn and early summer some of the deciduous trees that have been 

 introduced from North America put on a gorgeous apparel of orange, crimson and old 

 gold, which is rendered all the more striking by contrast with the deeper tints and 

 darker tones of the foliage of the evergreen trees. Numerous casts from the master- 

 pieces of Greek and Roman sculpture are scattered about the Gardens ; while fountains 

 and miniature cascades flowing over rock-work are utilized for the purposes of irrigation. 

 Near the north-east angle of the grounds a Doric temple circular in form and of 

 harmonious proportions, with a domed roof resting on ten columns rises out of a 

 triangular enclosure full of bloom and fragrance. At no great distance is a music 

 pavilion in the midst of a similar environment. 



