474 



A US TRA LA SI A ILL US TRA TED. 



three-quarters of a million sterling. In Hotham also the Co-operative Vegetable and 

 Fruit-growing Company carries on its business, and formerly found a valuable market in 

 Sydney, to which city it was accustomed to dispatch thousands of dozens of cabbages 



and thousands of bags of 

 potatoes per annum. Tan- 

 neries and glass and other 

 factories contribute to the 

 welfare of the town, and the 

 aggregate amount' of money 

 distributed in wages every 

 week is sufficiently ample to 

 maintain a large and lucra- 

 tive retail trade. Errol Street 

 is one of the busiest and 

 most popular of the leading 

 thoroughfares of Hotham, 

 and corresponds with the 

 High Street of an English 

 county town. The Town 

 Hall occupies a commanding 

 position at the corner of 

 Errol and Oueensberry 

 Streets. It was erected in 

 the Italian style in 1875. A 

 tower, five storeys in height, surmounted by a mansard roof, occupies one angle of 

 the building, which is admirably arranged within, comprising a spacious and ornate main 

 hall, an excellent library, one of the largest schools of art in the colonies, post and 

 telegraph offices, a council chamber, court-house, and all the necessary offices for the 

 administration of the municipal government. 



An extensive area of marsh-land and lagoon, now in process of reclamation by 

 drainage canals, separates Hotham from a group of rapidly-expanding suburban town- 

 ships ; namely, Elemington, Kensington, Essendon, Newmarket, Ascot Yale and Moonee 

 Ponds. The first two have been united to form a municipality, and the third is also 

 locally governed. Newmarket is not, as its name would seem to indicate, one of the 

 racing centres of the colony, but a great sheep and cattle market, through which 

 between three and four hundred thousand of the former and from fifty to sixty thousand 

 head of the latter pass every year for consumption by the three hundred thousand 

 inhabitants of the metropolis and its suburbs. Its highest point overlooks a natural 

 amphitheatre, the level arena of which comprehends an. area of upwards of three hundred 

 acres, forming what is generally acknowledged to be one of the finest race-courses in 

 the world. Behind" two grand-stands, providing accommodation for many thousands of 

 persons, rises a natural hill, from which fifty thousand can command a view of the 

 whole course, and of every race from start to finish ; while an equal number of 

 spectators usually congregate on "The Flat" when the Melbourne Cup is run for, an event 



_ 



THE RICHMOND TOWN HALL. 



