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 observe the difference between the two capitals in respect of their press. Although the Argus has a respectable past, and Victoria is governed, in a sense, by Mr Syme and the Age yet the Sydney Bulletin is the only Australian paper with anything of a national outlook, and with an inter-colonial circulation. It is the only paper, moreover, which tolerates original work; for the Melbourne press, though often vulgar, is consistently philistine, and never has a deeper respect for the conventionalities than when it is outraging them. Now the Australian artist, in his original work, has a tendency to become very strong meat. And the Bulletin is in thorough sympathy on this point, and on others, with the Australian artist. Hence, though a blatently [sic] disloyal rag, of blasphemous tendencies and American antecedents (and a prey, moreover, to many absurdly incompatible radical fads), the Bulletin, which produced, by the way, Phil May and Louis Becke, is read and passed on in the remotest camps of the Bush; gives a perceptible tinge to the mind of the average Australian; and has had a great deal to do, through its influence in New South Wales, with the success of Federation.

Architecturally, the city of Sydney has not many striking features; though it is well equipped with business buildings and offices. In its public buildings it falls considerably behind Melbourne. Its Houses of Parliament are a block of ruins, and until the site of the federal capital is definitely fixed it is unlikely that they will be rebuilt. For years there has been an agitation for new buildings, and a too ambitious scheme for the expenditure of half a million. An alternative, and later, scheme, to spend half that sum, has also been rejected by the Committee of Public Works, the authority of which has to be secured before any expenditure can