"Pleasure and action make the hours seem short."--Othello.
I had long looked forward to one more visit to Victoria, perhaps the
last I should expect to make, and the opportunity of the opening of the
great Centenary Exhibition at Melbourne on 1st August of this year was
too good to be lost. Accordingly, having been able to arrange business
matters for so long a holiday, I took passage, with my wife and
daughter, by the good steamship "Coptic" of the "Shaw, Savill New
Zealand Line," as it is curtly put. She was to land us at Hobart about
27th July, in good time, we hoped, to get across by the Launceston boat
for the Exhibition opening, and she bids fair, at this moment, to keep
her engagement. We would have taken the directer route, with its greater
number and variety of objects, via Suez and Colombo, but we feared the
sun-blaze of the ill-omened Red Sea in summer. We purpose, however, to
return that way towards the coming winter.
More than thirty-one years have elapsed since I left Melbourne, after a
residence there of seventeen years, broken, however, by two intermediate
visits "Home." I think with wondering enjoyment of what I am to see in
the colony and its capital after such an interval. Previously, when I
returned after only a year or two's absence, I was wont to mark with
astonishment all that had been done in that comparatively brief time. I
am thankful to Mr. Froude, whose delightful work, "Oceana," I could read
to all full enjoyment during the leisure and quiet of the voyage, for
somewhat preparing me for what I have to see, for I must infer from his
graphic accounts, especially of interior progress--while already three
more years have since elapsed--that even my most sanguine anticipations
will be exceeded. Our great Scottish poet and novelist has finely
said:--
"Lives there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said--
This is my own, my native land?"
But is there not a formidable rival to the force of this sentiment in
that with which one clings to the land where so many of the most
vigorous years of life have been actively spent? And a land, besides, of
surpassing sunny beauty and of rare romance. Business calls are usually
held to be imperative, even if they send us, willing or unwilling, to
"Ultima Thule or the Pole." Accordingly, my later lot has been to return
to the older, and not to continue in the newer, part of the common
empire. But, at any rate, that rather enhances the enjoyment of this
re-visit.
According to the usual custom, I now write my introduction last of all.
I have most pleasantly occupied several hours of the complete leisure of
each day in writing these "Recollections," and now, as we get within
almost hours of our destination, I am putting this last hand to my
labours. I cannot hope that their light sketchiness can go for much,
save with those who, familiar with the great Melbourne and Victoria of
to-day, may enjoy the comparison of the small things of a retrospect
extending to almost half a century, and all but to the birth of the
colony.
The voyage has been extremely pleasant, with a good and well-found
vessel, fairly fast as the briskly competitive speed of these days goes,
and above all with a head in Captain Burton who has proved first-class
in every requirement. He has just complimented us by saying that we are
the best behaved lot of passengers he ever took. That was due very
greatly to himself; and I think that all of us are well able to
reciprocate his compliment by regarding him as the best of captains.
Officers and crew also have been, to our view at least, faultless; but
then, again, all that so much depends upon the captain.
Touching the important matter of speed, let me say a little. All
important it is, indeed, in this age of fast progress. When I first
sailed for Australia, in 1840, we were, I think, 141 days on the way.
Nor was that a very inordinate passage then. This time I expect, within
that interval, to go and return, besides having nearly two and a half
months to spare--a space of time which now, with rails and fast steamers
everywhere, will enable me to visit all South-Eastern Australasia,
including even New Zealand. Of course, that means hardly more than "to
see," but still that is better than not to see at all, those wonderful
parts of our empire.
But yet again, on this point of speed, our "Coptic's" daily run averaged
rather under 300 nautical miles. In justice to the good ship, we should
credit her with rather more, for during the latter half of the voyage
she was meeting or anticipating the sun by six or seven degrees of
longitude daily, and thus clipping about half an hour off each day. But
turn now to the latest like exploit between Liverpool and New York--the
case, I think, of the s.s. "Umbria", whose unprecedented record is of
455 to 503 miles daily. Granting this to be subject to abatement for
running this time away from the sun, and thus prolonging the day, there
is enough of difference to give us, at this speed, the hope of a three
weeks' Australian service by the straightest available line. It has
already been effected to Adelaide in 29 days. We Australians must hope
that ere long Melbourne and Sydney, together with all about them, will
weigh, with ourselves at least, as heavily as New York. The coal
question is, of course, an awful difficulty for three weeks instead of
five to six days, but not, we hope, insuperable. Our "Coptic" burns but
fifty tons a day, but the New York liners require three hundred.
When a man has passed seventy-three, as I have done, he may be excused
in doubting his chance of yet another Australian visit. But while he has
been waiting these many years, he has seen such vast improvement in
inter-communication facilities of every kind, as to establish, he might
say, a complete counterbalance to the increasing infirmities of years.
Imagine, therefore, the Australian liner of the next few years to be a
great and comfortable hotel, as though one went for three weeks' fresh
sea air to Brighton or Bournemouth, with the additional charm that, on
quitting your pleasant marine apartments, you stepped out upon
Australia.
This brings up yet another subject. When attending, four years ago, the
very successful and most interesting meeting of the British Association
at Montreal, I was very curious as to the possible prospect, now that
this body had made so good a first outside step, of a like meeting in
Australia. But, not very long after, an invitation to the Association
was actually sent from Melbourne. The year asked for had been
pre-engaged for Home. My distinguished friend, Mr. Service, told me,
when on his late Home visit, that no doubt the invitation would go
again. I may usefully mention here that the Association is usually
engaged, or as good as engaged, two clear years in advance, so that the
third year, at least, in advance should be dealt with for Melbourne.
This besides would afford sufficient notice for the busy men of all
classes and all vocations at Home to arrange conveniently for the
necessarily long absence. I do not doubt of complete success. Indeed, it
is such a further chance as that which might tempt even the oldest of us
into visiting the far-off but bright and sunny South.