Having just seen Sydney as well as Melbourne, I feel bound to give my
impressions of both, which will, I think, be best and most briefly done
in the form of a comparative sketch. I must premise with the remark that
the great extent of both cities, the great and solid basis of trade on
which they appear to rest, and above all the quick and ready step with
which they apply to practical purposes the progress, mechanical or
scientific, of our age, are beyond anything I had expected to meet with,
well prepared as I had previously been upon the subject. Thus the
electric light, electric bells, and other electric uses, the telephone,
and the lift system, all seem to me in more general use than in London
and our larger Home cities. The lift, for instance, is, as the rule, in
every bank or other large institution for the use of the staff or
customers or visitors. It is certainly as yet the rare exception in such
cases in London.