flooded Melbourne from 1851 to 1861 was eminently adventurous and
enterprising; that Melbourne having achieved the premier position, Sydney
has, with all its later advantages, found the truth of the proverbs: 'A
stern chase is a long chase,' and 'To him that hath shall be given.'

Passengers by ocean-going vessels to Melbourne land either at Sandridge
or Williamstown, small shipping towns situated on either side of the
river Yarra, which is only navigable by the smaller craft. A quarter of
an hour in the train brings the visitor into the heart of the city. On
getting out he can hardly fail to be impressed by the size of the
buildings around him, and by the width of the streets, which are laid out
in rectangular blocks, the footpaths being all well paved or asphalted.
In spite of the abundance of large and fine-looking buildings, there is a
rather higgledy-piggledy look about the town--the city you will by this
time own it to be. There are no building laws, and every man has built as
seemed best in his own eyes. The town is constantly outgrowing the
majority of its buildings, and although the wise plan of allowing for the
rapid growth of a young community, and building for the requirements of
the future rather than of the present, is generally observed, there are
still gaps in the line of the streets towards the outskirts, and houses
remaining which were built by unbelievers in the future before the city.
In the main thoroughfares you might fancy yourself in an improved
Edgeware Road. In a few years Collins and Bourke Streets will be very
like Westbourne Grove. The less frequented streets in the city are like
those of London suburbs. There _are_ a few lanes which it is wiser not to
go down after ten o'clock at night. These are known as the back slums.
But nowhere is there any sign of poverty or anything at all resembling
Stepney or the lower parts of an European city, The Chinese quarter is
the nearest approach thereto, but it is quite _sui generis_, and squalor
is altogether absent.