Another stirring sight next greeted our eyes ere we quitted the “Evening News” office, namely, the crowd of eager little newsboys waiting for their trade stock.  Pressing to the small open window, where their tiny sums were paid to the cashier, they received their check, and forthwith proceeded to the fountains which were dropping out their supplies at the rate of four copies per second, all ready for delivery.  They received twelve of the penny papers for ninepence.  These poor little fellows would begin, perhaps, with ninepence as all their capital.  They get their dozen papers, and, if smart, sell them possibly in not many more minutes.  Then they are back with their increased capital, and so by quick degrees they get to be quite large dealers.  We saw one little fellow, already a great capitalist in his way, with a load of papers which one would have thought he could hardly carry, but which, nevertheless, he managed with well-practised adroitness.

Comparison of the two capitals.

If comparisons are proverbially odious, they must be specially so if drawn out upon insufficient data.  I must not, therefore, on such a flying inspection, go very deeply into my comparative analysis.  And yet, under all the circumstances, the subject is one for which I feel not altogether incompetent.  To begin with, I had not, perhaps, sufficient time in failing to note any material difference of physique due to the difference of latitude, Melbourne having the cooler temperature by 4 to 5 degrees of Fahrenheit.  Tasmania and Southern New Zealand give notably the ruddy plumpness of the English face.  Conversing with a young friend, who was interested in football, he remarked that latitude is important in a game which was mainly one of muscular strength.  Thus, speaking generally, Hobart will beat Melbourne, Melbourne Sydney, and Sydney Brisbane.  “But what as to New Zealand?” I said.  “New Zealand,” he replied, “will square with England, and the Southern Island may beat her.”

The tide of general business in either city seemed to me equal, but the streets and the public and business buildings of Sydney were scarcely equal, either in number or style, to those of Melbourne, at least if the great edifices and other works of the latter, either just being finished or in progress of erection, be considered.  The Melbourne Harbour is conspicuously one of these, and will surpass alike that of Sydney and those of most of the rest of the world.  On the other hand, however, the grand natural harbourage of Port Jackson, not to dwell upon its surpassing scenic beauty, gives to Sydney a most decided economic advantage for all time.