22 chapters
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22 chapters
PREFACE
PREFACE
Upon revising the last sheet of this small book for press I could not help feeling that some little explanation was needed of its appearance at all. For assuredly, when I accepted the commission of the Editor of the London Standard to write for him a series of articles giving my impressions of Australasia during my forthcoming lecturing tour, I had no idea or intention of subsequently publishing those articles in this form. The onerous nature of my lecture engagements and the rapidity of my pass
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I THEN AND NOW!
I THEN AND NOW!
Thirty-four years ago, in a fine American ship chartered by Messrs. Anderson Anderson & Co., I paid my first visit to Australia, and the only one I ever made thither direct from the United Kingdom. Those were the palmy days of sailing ships to the Australasian Colonies, and a splendid fleet of regular liners, whose names were household words, made wonderful passages for equally wonderful freights with full cargoes each way for the great firms of Green, Wigram, Devitt & Moore, Geo
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II THE YOUNG GIANT
II THE YOUNG GIANT
Of course the time of year—the middle of March—must be taken into account, otherwise I should ask, in utmost bewilderment, why all this wholesale vituperation of the Red Sea? I am quite prepared to believe also that we have been especially favoured this voyage, as we have never, since leaving London, had an unpleasant day at sea. But when all has been said I am perfectly certain that many other places of my acquaintance, notably the Spanish Main and the East African littoral, are quite equal, if
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III A LAND OF DELIGHT
III A LAND OF DELIGHT
Hotel life, which for some people has a curious fascination, is to me a hateful necessity of travel, and few indeed are the hotels which I have sampled in my journeyings about the world where I have been able to feel even moderately comfortable, much less at home from home. The comfort of the old English inn, so fondly dwelt upon by Dickens, is a thing of the past, and the huge caravanserais of England, America, or the Continent, are places which to me are a positive nightmare. The extortion on
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IV A GOODLY HERITAGE
IV A GOODLY HERITAGE
The soil which grows the grape, the orange, the lemon, the apple and pear and peach in such wonderful profusion, also grows the olive, and would, I feel sure, comparing it with the uplands of Costa Rica, grow a splendid grade of coffee. But who of us at home ever heard of Australian olive oil? We all know into what disrepute the Continental olive oil has fallen owing to its gross adulteration and its exceedingly unpleasant taste—due, I believe, to the methods of its preparation. Well, candidly,
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V SANE SOCIALISM
V SANE SOCIALISM
Adelaide may well be described as a staid city where the religious and intellectual element is exceedingly prominent and there is a noticeable absence of haste and bustle. There are, for the size of the city and its environs, an enormous number of literary and musical societies which keep the younger members of the community together by providing them with centres of interest. I cannot honestly say that this tends to narrowness of mind or outlook either, because so many of the members of these s
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VI MIGHTY MELBOURNE
VI MIGHTY MELBOURNE
From my bedroom window this morning I look down upon the little river Yarra, with the big ships lying snugly alongside of the substantial wharves, and realise what a vast change, in that aspect of Melbourne at any rate, has been wrought since my last visit, when where what is now a splendid area of water accommodation for ships of great size up to a draught of 24 feet, and a most up-to-date congeries of warehouses, wharves, bridges, embankments, and factories, was an apparently hopeless muddle o
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VIII ON THE OLD TRACK
VIII ON THE OLD TRACK
Fortunately for me one of the fine ships of the Orient-Royal Mail Company was available at the time that I wished to leave for Sydney, so that I was able to travel in the pleasantest possible way according to my ideas, long train journeys having no charms for me. The Ortona was due to leave Port Melbourne railway pier at 8 in the evening, but owing to various hindrances of the usual character she did not get away until nearly midnight. But I looked my last upon the brilliant city at the time app
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X SOME FRIENDLY CRITICISM
X SOME FRIENDLY CRITICISM
Sydney is a city that grows upon a visitor immensely. Not merely from its almost ideal situation as the commercial capital of a great and growing country, or from the reminders which greet you on every hand of the fight which its people have waged to make their city worthy of its splendid environment, but from its amazing likeness to our cities at home, and from the general air of homeness , if I may coin a word, which pervades it. This one may say without any suggestion of detriment or derogati
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XI THE KING OF NEW ZEALAND
XI THE KING OF NEW ZEALAND
To-day I have had a veritable treat. By the courtesy of a few friends I was privileged to go and visit the Sobraon , that grand old flyer which, under Captain Elmslie, brought out from England to this Colony so many of her leading citizens. She is in her way almost as classic as the Mayflower or the Argo , although towering mightily above them in beauty, size, and comfort for those who sailed in her. And she has met a far happier fate than have the majority of the celebrated old clippers of the
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XII TOWARDS MAORILAND
XII TOWARDS MAORILAND
As I mentioned in a previous chapter, your Australasian is essentially a wanderer, and the huge distances involved have no terrors for him. Land travel, except where the railways run, is slow, painful, difficult, and often dangerous, although essentially romantic. But where business is concerned romance has little scope, and delay is to be avoided at all costs. Consequently, from the very earliest days of the Colonies there was an attempt made to satisfy the needs of the travelling public by mak
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XIII THE PARADISE OF LABOUR
XIII THE PARADISE OF LABOUR
Upon landing from the steamer, and strolling up the pier towards the well-remembered Queen Street, I was puzzled to account for the fact that the pier seemed shorter than it used to be. But I set it down to my being so much younger then, and to having seen so many big things of late years. I could not, however, help feeling that the rows of big warehouses crowding along the front were much closer to the water's edge than any buildings had been in my time, and I seemed to remember also that the w
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XIV A UNIVERSAL SHOCK
XIV A UNIVERSAL SHOCK
The pious aspiration with which I closed my last chapter has not been quite fulfilled. The earth mother is quiet, thank Heaven, but the minds of the people have been stirred as by some mighty disaster. On Monday, June 11th, the news was suddenly flashed across from Sydney to the whole of New Zealand that the Oswestry Grange had returned to Sydney, whence she had sailed on the preceding day, with R. J. Seddon dead. It is almost impossible to convey to you at home what a sensation this news made.
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XV MUTTON, THE MASTER
XV MUTTON, THE MASTER
Gisborne is, historically speaking, almost the most interesting place in the whole of New Zealand. Close to the site of the present town is where Captain Cook made his first landing in the country, and named it, on the spur of the moment, Poverty Bay—a name which it still holds, because the natives take a delight in the irony of the appellation in contrast to that of the Bay of Plenty, which, though only the next bay northward, has done nothing so far to justify its grand title. This little plac
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XVII THE CAPITAL OF WONDERLAND
XVII THE CAPITAL OF WONDERLAND
At daylight I came on deck to witness the steamer's arrival at Wellington. I have often heard many hard things about the capital of New Zealand. How, for instance, it was so subject to tremors of the unstable earth that no buildings could be erected save of the flimsiest character, how every day was evil, in that gales of wind were the rule and fine weather the rarest exceptions, while rain was almost a permanent feature of the atmospheric conditions. All of which statements were, of course, exa
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XVIII A NATURAL MARVEL
XVIII A NATURAL MARVEL
Many things might doubtless be written about Nelson which would be intensely interesting to people who live there, some indeed who, in spite of the absence of bustle and general air of ease, have managed to make comfortable fortunes there. Of its glorious climate I can unfortunately say nothing, having been favoured during my stay of five days with exceptionally cold and very wet weather, which you are always told in such places is something unknown, even to the oldest inhabitant. But I have no
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XIX NEW ZEALAND SHIPPING
XIX NEW ZEALAND SHIPPING
Wellington has certainly, as far as my experience of it goes, been grossly maligned for its weather. To-day is again as nearly perfect as possible, and that, I remember, in midwinter out here. I have had another pottering day such as I love about the city and its environs, and among my experiences has been a visit to the suburbs viâ a sort of funicular railway, a cable-car running up the side of a steep hill starting from a tunnel, the entrance to which is in a back street only to be found by th
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XX SOME POLITICAL REFLECTIONS
XX SOME POLITICAL REFLECTIONS
Here, as elsewhere in New Zealand, I am astounded at the paucity of the population when looking around upon what has been done. It seems impossible that this beautiful city with its environs has less than 60,000 inhabitants. According to appearance it should have been 200,000; but there are the figures, and no amount of manipulation can alter them. I am told that the bulk of the trade of Wellington is carried on by Dunedin merchants, and certainly, judging by the names I saw over the principal m
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XXI NORTH AGAIN
XXI NORTH AGAIN
I am glad to have seen Gore and met its genial, hospitable citizens, but I am not sorry to get away, since during my stay a blizzard of great virulence has been raging. A tantalising kind of weather indeed. For occasionally there would be a burst of brilliant sunshine and the sky would look serene. Then with amazing celerity a black mass of cloud would arise from behind the ranges, overspread the sky, and burst upon us in a perfect hurricane of biting blast and blinding snow. But upon entering t
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XXII THE HEART OF THE NORTH ISLAND
XXII THE HEART OF THE NORTH ISLAND
And now for a brief spell I have been privileged to go into the interior of the country, although, be it noted, the traveller never gets very far from the sea. I am to-day paying a visit to a town of which I have heard a great deal more than would at first sight seem to be warranted by the official numbers of its population. Palmerston North is on the great central plain, which is, equally with the South Island, a feature of the formation of New Zealand. There are two ways of getting there from
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XXIII THE MAORI
XXIII THE MAORI
Like all other primeval races the Maori does not bear the transition to civilisation at all well. The noble savage in his native state is a picturesque and romantic figure, with of course many customs that we pale children of modern days cannot away with. Now the Maori has unquestionably many noble qualities, but he shares with all other native races an intense and invincible repugnance to settled employment. As long as he can get his few primitive needs supplied he will not work. In his native
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XXIV AUSTRALASIAN JOURNALISM
XXIV AUSTRALASIAN JOURNALISM
In this the final chapter of this series of impressions I feel first of all compelled to regret my inability to visit many Australian towns of great interest, more especially in Queensland and the northern part of New South Wales, several of which I knew well, such as Newcastle, Grafton, Brisbane, Rockhampton, Gladstone, and Maryborough. Also that I had neither time nor opportunity to see many of the inland towns of Australia such as I have had in New Zealand, although in their case it certainly
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