00. With regard to the architecture of these buildings, there is
ample room for difference of opinion, but everyone will agree to admire
the classic simplicity of the Public Library, erected some twenty years
ago, which is planned with a view to the subsequent erection of a
National Gallery and Museum, to complete a really noble pile of
buildings. And it is well worth while to go inside. The Library is
absolutely free to everybody, contains over 110,000 volumes, and has
accommodation for 600 readers. An interesting feature is the large
newspaper-room, where scores of working-men can be seen reading papers
and magazines from all parts of the world. At the back of the same
building are the painting and sculpture galleries, with which is
connected a school of art and design. Behind these again is a museum. In
the galleries there are a few good modern paintings, and a large number
of mediocre ones. The statuary consists mainly of well-executed casts and
four marble statues by the late Mr. Summers. The museum is only likely to
be of interest to entomologists and mineralogists, the collection in both
these departments being considered very good. The foundation and the
success of the whole of this institution are almost entirely due to the
late Sir Redmond Barry, who did almost as much for the University, which
has also been exceedingly useful and successful from every point of view.
As a building it is not equal to the Sydney University, although it
possesses a splendid Gothic Hall, the gift of Sir Samuel Wilson, who now
lives at Hughenden. In connection with the University is an excellent
Zoological Museum, which is interesting to more than specialists.

Other fine buildings are the Government Offices, the Town Hall with its
enormous organ, the Post Office, the International Exhibition--all built
on a truly metropolitan scale, which is even exceeded by the palatial
hugeness of the Government House, the ugliness of which is proverbial
throughout Australia. But, perhaps, the class of buildings, which must in
every Australian city most excite the surprise of the visitor, are the
hospitals and asylums. There are no less than ten splendid structures in
Melbourne devoted to charitable purposes. The Roman Catholics have built
a fine cathedral, but it is not yet finished. The Church of England is
collecting money for a similar purpose. Meanwhile the prettiest church
belongs to the Presbyterians. None of the other churches are in any w