As for musical performances apart from opera, there are plenty of them.  Twice a week there is an organ recital in the Melbourne Town Hall.  Hardly a night passes without a concert of some kind is going on.  As in theatrical matters, Melbourne takes the lead in all things musical.  Last Christmas-week it was actually so ambitious as to get up a Musical Festival.  The Town Hall organ is excellent.  A good concert will always draw well.  Ketten—­who was not a marvel—­had crowded houses night after night, with no other attraction but his pianoforte.  Wilheling, who really deserved all the praise he got, found ample success in Melbourne, and a fair measure of it in Sydney and Adelaide.  Arabella Goddard was, I believe, well satisfied with her Australian tour, though it was made when the population was not two-thirds of what it is now, and much less cultured.  The colonists are genuinely fond of music, bushmen and townsmen alike.  They may not know very much about it, but they are anxious to learn all they can.  They will even pay to hear something above their appreciation, if the Australasian tells them that it will improve their musical taste.  The orchestra in the Melbourne Town Hall will accommodate 500 performers, and the hall itself can seat 4,000 people.  The Sydney and Adelaide Town Halls are little smaller, and yet it is no uncommon sight to see them filled whenever a good concert is provided.  Besides their town halls, each city has a smaller hall, devoted to musical entertainments.

The most remunerative spectacular representation is what the most celebrated colonial impresario, Mr. R S. Smythe, calls a ‘one-man show.’  Mr. Archibald Forbes and Mr. R. A. Proctor both made fabulous sums out of their trip to the colonies; and if Arthur Sketchley failed, it was purely for want of a good agent.  In Adelaide, which, as a Puritan community, looks somewhat askance at opera and drama, the popularity of good lectures is beyond belief.

In a horse-loving country circuses are of course popular.  Perhaps in no other part of the world can a circus obtain so critical and appreciative an attendance.  Christy Minstrels and conjurors apparently do well, considering how very poor some of the miscellaneous entertainments which visit Australia are, it is most remarkable that they should contrive to get so good audiences.

Household amusements are much the same as at home, although more frequently indulged in.  The more frank relations between the sexes make dancing a favourite pastime.  In this less pretentious social atmosphere a dance can be given without all the costly paraphernalia customary in England, and a far larger class of people are able to afford to give parties and balls.  ‘Assemblies’ are held every season in all the towns, the season being, of course, in the winter months.  Even the servants are accustomed to go to balls, and a mistress would only make herself ridiculous who looked upon their going to one as anything but