136 AUSTRALIA AND THE AUSTRALIANS. 



corrective to the baneful effect of the number of 

 drinking shops with which the city unfortunately 

 abounds. Coffee palaces, originally, were for the 

 working and laboring classes ; they were to provide 

 these important members of the community with 

 means for recreation, to become popular resorts, but 

 nearly everybody knows how it was that object failed 

 almost from its inception. From small establishments 

 the palaces grew almost instantaneously to something 

 more worthy of their name ; shrewd business men 

 began to see that the new idea would, properly carried 

 out, be productive of large dividends, and the ' boons 

 to workingmen ' became colossal hotels conducted on 

 the temperance principle. In the heart of Melbourne, 

 upon land which had reached a fabulous value, the 

 Victoria Club was transformed into the Victoria 

 Coffee Palace. Then there rose in Bourke Street the 

 Melbourne Coffee Palace, another gigantic edifice of 

 many floors. Then the Grand Hotel, a building worthy 

 of its title, was erected in Spring Street, and though it 

 did not answer all expectations at first, men of business 

 saw in it future fortunes, and it passed into their 

 hands. Then it became the Grand Coffee Palace, and 

 instantaneously prosperity commenced. To meet the 

 growing want the Federal Coffee Palace was projected 

 by James Mirams, M.P. As a coffee palace, it is the 



