Frank Thomas Bullen

“ Looking down from the great height to which the cable-car has carried us, the panorama spread out before our eyes is full of beauty, and without going back one word on what I have said of the glories of Sydney and Auckland Harbours, I gladly admit that Wellington has no reason to be ashamed. She has a harbour that the proudest nation in the world might well envy for its capital. ”

“ For its lovely surroundings old Perth can hardly be surpassed, but it is in itself a "dour auld toon," hard and grim, while new Perth, the capital of the young and strenuous giant, Western Australia, is bright and brisk and gay, humming with activity and yet solid and permanent-looking in its buildings, as if its citizens had faith in its capacity not merely to endure but to go on. ”

“ But when, after an hour's run in a motor-car over superb roads and through perfectly lovely scenery, you reach the upper slopes of Mount Lofty, and are suddenly bidden to turn and look down upon Adelaide, which lies basking in the golden sunshine, edged by the glittering sea, you recognise that you are in the presence of one of the fairest scenes that earth can afford. ”

“ The romantic heights which embosom the city are dotted with pretty homes to which the citizens ascend by means of the cable-cars, and right away down to the verge of the Pacific on the level ground cast up for ages by the sea lie in hundreds the comfortable dwellings of the workers. It gives a patriot a thrill of horror to contemplate the fate of such communities as this in the easily imaginable event of the Motherland being so hardly bestead as to need every warship she possesses for, not merely the defence of her own shores, but the safe convoy of food to Great Britain. ”

“ Once more, before I face the train journey, let me record the absolute perfection of the weather ever since I have been here to a visitor from home. The air has been so pure, so bracing, even keen at times, yet with none of that congealing bite in it which is the terror of weaklings both young and old at home. ”

“ On every hand may be heard tales of the abounding prosperity of the country, and I have ever found that when business men are contented with the way things are going, and say so, the visitor, more especially if he be not one to whom something may be sold in order to get rid of it, may depend upon it that things are even better than they seem. Wages are high, food is plentiful and cheap, and, indeed, all the necessaries of life are cheap in comparison with the standard of wages. Only land seems dear out of all proportion to the prosperity of the country. ”

“ It is, as I have before had reason to say, immensely difficult to realise, looking down upon that splendid series of wharves, with its thronging ships of the largest size, that I am in a city of less than 60,000 inhabitants, the capital of a country whose total population is less than that of three of our London boroughs. It is, of course, only to be accounted for by remembering that here we have a selected population whereof every adult unit is of account. There are neither unemployed nor unemployable paupers or pauperising agencies. ”

“ Nevertheless, I cannot help noticing that on this long stretch of coast between Napier and Wellington, there are only two tiny hamlets, there are scarcely any roads, nothing that could by any stretch of courtesy be called a harbour, and only a few little streams pouring their tribute into the Pacific Ocean. It is here, if anywhere, that the visitor realises the sparsity of the population, and by contrast the amount of energy that must be concentrated somewhere in order to have made New Zealand the much-discussed country that she is. ”

“ It is a beautiful little city, a well-groomed and orderly city fully worthy of its position and is prospering in a very high degree. But to call it the Empire City is to ape the flapdoodle of the United States citizens, who, like the average users of forceful adjectives, see nothing incongruous or ridiculous in calling a collection of shacks a city, and cannot call a magnificent aggregation like New York or Philadelphia anything else. I would not, for a great deal, say anything that could even seem derogatory of Wellington. ”

“ Yet the citizens of Sydney need not fear comparison of their beloved city with any other in the world, except, as I have said, in the matter of the roads and the noise of the trolley-cars. The buildings are truly splendid, the two chief, the Post Office and the Town Hall, being certainly the finest in the whole of Australasia, and worthy to take rank with any similar buildings at home. Indeed, it is nothing short of marvellous how so comparatively small a population can manage to erect and maintain such splendid buildings as these, and many others which greet the eye on every hand. ”

“ Around you, nestling amidst the luxuriant vegetation, may be discerned many a picturesque little township, all alike noticeable for their lack of squalor or any other appearance of poverty which so painfully disfigures the fairest and most romantic of our villages at home. And scattered about between the townships lie the homes of the well-to-do Adelaide folks. I had almost said wealthy folks, but I fear to convey a wrong impression. They may be wealthy, but there is none of that tremendous ostentation and aggressive swagger about them that is so offensive in older countries. ”

“ I make these remarks in no carping spirit, but when I see that there is a general tendency in the Press to grumble at the fishing being in the hands of Italians, and gardening in the grip of the Chinese, while at the same time talking of the wondrous wealth of the country awaiting development, I am filled with wonder at the curious turn of mind that imagines that you can keep a vast continent in the hands of a few people and yet exploit its resources—a process which they know can only be accomplished by much manual labour. ”

“ One splendid result of this close equality of capital with labour is that there is no room for the whining rascal who gets so much utterly undeserved sympathy and the lion's share of pauper-making doles at home, the workshy or unemployable. He could not exist here. I do not quite know what they would do with him, but I am perfectly sure that he could not live here for any length of time. It is a land of workers, not loafers ”

“ This strong, red soil, bearing evidences of abundance of iron on every hand, seems to be the natural home of the grape, and to be free, to an amazing degree, from those insect pests which have made the lot of the French and Italian vignerons such a weary one. Every variety of grape seems to flourish here in such wonderful luxuriance and fecundity, and withal in such healthfulness of foliage and fruit, that the eye wearies of admiring their prolific masses. ”

“ The fine weather still held, and the sun, blazing out of a cloudless sky, illuminated every crag, islet, and beach as we sped up the splendid sound to where grim Rangitoto waits like a stern sentinel over the smiling harbour, whose entrance he guards. I suppose living constantly within sight of a volcano, whether it be active or extinct, as long as its activity is not pronounced, tends to oblivion of its potentialities. ”

“ What must not be omitted is mention of the deep and abiding feeling of the love for and the loyalty to the dear old land manifested by everybody, affection which coexists most comfortably with an almost passionate devotion to the new land which is, indeed, their own. No other passport to their hearts is needed than the fact that the visitor comes from the Homeland and loves it, he only is disliked and discredited who is ready to decry and belittle Britain in all things after the fashion of many curiously-minded folks at home. My best love and best wishes for Australasia. ”

“ It is, as we all know, the curse of our own country; not real sport, but that foul business which, in its gambling outcome, keeps the best of our workers poor, and has raised an immense body of utterly worthless parasites to prey upon the community. This abominable thing flourishes here as ill weeds do, especially in new countries. Its worst form is, as usual, horse-racing, which always attracts the very worst elements of the people, and occasionally results in some such scene as that recently witnessed on the Flemington Racecourse, where one of the harpies was kicked to death. ”

“ Neither in Adelaide or here in Melbourne have I seen any begging except by a couple of blind men, although there are a good many ragged, barefooted urchins running about in the vicinity of the railway stations selling evening newspapers. There is, however, an obvious overcrowding of the folks who ought to be in the country into the towns; and really it is not to be wondered at, seeing how many of those who come out here are entirely unused to and unfitted for a country life, and especially life in a new country. Which, of course, accounts for the lack of development of this amazing continent. ”

“ I am leaving Melbourne much saddened. It is such a beautiful city. It represents so much of human energy and skill, and also such a vast amount of kindliness and courtesy, especially towards that country which the native-born still speaks of regretfully as Home. I was told by a great many people that I should find much of the offensive bumptiousness with which Americans speak of Britain out here. I have not found any of it. The people are, as is quite natural, fiercely resentful of criticism from anybody, and especially from the Mother Country. ”

“ Here let me say with all the emphasis at my command, that my first impressions of hotel life in Australasia given you in my second chapter have been deepened and confirmed by every fresh one that I have stayed in, until I am fully prepared to swear that of all the countries I have ever travelled in Australasia is easily first in the matter of hotels. The food is always excellent, well-cooked, and abundant; the accommodation is invariably comfortable, the attendance all that could be wished, and the prices on an average about one-half of what they are anywhere else. ”

“ Indeed I have great and grave doubts whether it will be possible to avoid it at all; because there is not the slightest use in blinking the fact that an immense area of the extreme north of Australia is not a white man's country. He may own it, but he cannot work it; and of what use is land without labour? It is the whole question of the Transvaal and Rhodesia over again, but in a more acute and decided form. Those regions are of incalculable wealth, but they must have men to work them who can stand the climate. ”

“ The old régime of wooden buildings which I had often been assured were the only ones which would stand Wellington's insecure foundations has vanished, and splendidly ornate edifices of great height and imposing size are in evidence throughout the business district, and are also being rapidly added to. The streets of the city proper are beautifully level, paved like a billiard-table and well kept, while the roads up the hills, with all their winding and steep gradients are wonderfully well made. ”

“ It is, to my mind, a most effectual mark of high civilisation when the roads of a city are well laid and well cleansed, especially when, as in Melbourne, they are such noble thoroughfares. There is an immense traffic both on side-walks and in the roadway in Melbourne, but the condition of both trottoir and road is above reproach, even better than in Paris, which is to those who know, high praise. ”

“ But when I am calmly asked whether we know anything about railway management at home, I find it difficult to keep from making sarcastic remarks, as I do when I am told that agriculture in Britain is still generally conducted on the lines of reaping-hook or sickle and flail.
Ah well, I suppose this curious state of mind will continually be found among those who have been bred or born in a new country, and I do not know that it does much harm. They are so inordinately proud of the progress they see that they cannot imagine anything being more up-to-date or go-ahead. ”

“ Nobody is in a hurry, nobody seems to consider that haste in anything is necessary or desirable. And they are doubtless right; but it is curious that men who have lived in this calm atmosphere for thirty or forty years should be anxious to impress the visitor with what they have grown to believe is the fact—that the city is growing very fast. With all my admiration for New Zealand and her institutions, I must say that as far as growth is concerned she appears to me almost at a standstill, especially when compared with provincial towns at home which might be named by the score. ”

“ All great schemes mean great expenditure, and with a population in the whole of this vast country of less than five millions this is impossible. Moreover, at present we have the grave spectacle of a declining birth-rate and an increasing emigration rate, a state of things which, in a country so full of natural wealth as this, is almost inexplicable. At present almost all politicians are agreed that the future of the country depends entirely upon her getting more population, but I do not see anything being done that will really tempt desirable immigrants who have no capital. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I have not time to notice more than one palatial building—not of the sky-scraper order, but conforming more to the quiet dignity of similar piles at home, the newly finished offices of an Australasian insurance company—when I find myself in the hotel, with my indefatigable reporter still plying me with eager questions, for he represents the only evening newspaper in this city of nearly half a million inhabitants, and wants a story for this afternoon's issue. ”