In the first place I must protest against the
meagre view given some years ago in the "Illustrated London News", from
a sketch by Mossman, an early colonist of my acquaintance, and copied
into the lively and pleasant volume of my esteemed friend, Miss Isabella
Bird (now Mrs. Bishop). It may be true as far as it goes, but it is only
the Western Market square, which had hardly one-thirtieth part of that
year's Melbourne. At the close of 1840 there were between three and four
thousand of population, although perhaps one-fourth of these, who had
been recently shot out of emigrant ships, were merely waiting for
employment or settlement. The whole District had about nine thousand.
Curiously enough, Melbourne (including suburbs) has always had about
one-third of the total colonial population, while Sydney and Adelaide
respectively have been much the same. But this naturally comes of a vast
interior behind, which has practically only the one outlet. In New
Zealand, on the other hand, the long strip of land, with the sea near to
every part, calls into being a number of small capitals. The latter are
the immediate facilities; but, in the other case, the ultimate creation
of a surpassingly great city, with all its powerful concentration of
resource, seems on the whole the more promising for a country's advance
in all the interests of human life.
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