70 ARRIVE AT PORT PHILLIP— MELBOURNE. 



appeared to be completely at a stand-stiU, as a 

 small strag-g-ling- villag-e of 200 inhabitants^ chiefly 

 dependent upon the shipping- for support. Far 

 different was it with Melbourne, the capital of the 

 district. On our way in a steamer up the Yarra- 

 Yarra, several large and recently constructed boil- 

 ing-- down establishments in fall work indicated the 

 extensive operation of the tallow-manufacturing' pro- 

 cess. The town (or city as it may, I believe, be 

 termed) appeared to have wonderfully increased of 

 late, and a quiet business-like air prevailed. Every- 

 where we met buEock-teams and drays recently 

 arrived with wool, or on their return to the sheep 

 stations with suppKes, but there were few loungeiB" 

 like ourselves in the streets, nearly every one seem- 

 ing' to have his time fully occupied. 



It appeared to be the general and loudly 

 expressed opinion, so far as we could judg"e, that 

 the separation of the Port Phillip district from New 

 South Wales, and its formation into an independent 

 colony, would materially advance the iuterests and 

 conduce to the prosperity of the former ; and that 

 the large surplus revenue which is annually trans- 

 mitted to Sydney ought to be spent among the 

 people who have raised it.* 



One day some of us made up a party to visit 



* These and other claims of the colonists have, I need scarcely 

 add, heen fully admitted by the recent separation from New 

 South Wales of the Port Phillip district, now the colony of 

 Victoria 



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