Project Gutenberg's Town Life in Australia, by R. E. N. (Richard) Twopeny

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Title: Town Life in Australia
1883

Author: R. E. N. (Richard) Twopeny

Release Date: September 6, 2005 [EBook #16664]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOWN LIFE IN AUSTRALIA ***

Produced by Col Choat

TOWN LIFE IN AUSTRALIA.

BY

R. E. N. TWOPENY,

OFFICER D'ACADEMIE DE FRANCE, AND LATE SECRETARY TO THE ROYAL COMMISSION
FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA AT THE PARIS, SYDNEY, AND MELBOURNE EXHIBITIONS.

LONDON:
ELLIOT STOCK,
62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.

1883.

INTRODUCTION.

The following work was originally written as a series of letters; but the
epistolary form has only been partially retained. As it has necessarily
been carried through the press without communication with the writer, who
is now in New Zealand, errors may possibly have been committed, for which
the editor rather than the writer is responsible; it is hoped, however,
that these will not be found numerous.

CONTENTS.

A WALK ROUND MELBOURNE
SYDNEY
ADELAIDE
HOUSES
FURNITURE
SERVANTS
FOOD
DRESS
YOUNG AUSTRALIA
SOCIAL RELATIONS
RELIGION AND MORALS
EDUCATION
POLITICS
BUSINESS
SHOPS
AMUSEMENTS
NEWSPAPERS
LITERATURE, LANGUAGE, AND ART

A WALK ROUND MELBOURNE.

Although most educated people know that Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide
are populous towns, I should doubt whether one Englishman, who has not
been to Australia, out of a hundred _realizes_ that fact. I well remember
that, although I had taken some trouble to read up information about
Melbourne, I was never more thoroughly surprised than during the first
few hours after my arrival there. And I hear almost everyone who comes
out from England say that his experience has been the same as my own. In
one sense the visitor is disappointed with his first day in an Australian
city. The novelties and the differences from the Old Country do not
strike him nearly so much as the resemblances. It is only as he gets to
know the place better that he begins to to notice the differences. The
first prevailing impression is that a slice of Liverpool has been bodily
transplanted to