Page:Banking Under Difficulties- Or Life On The Goldfields Of Victoria, New South Wales And New Zealand (1888).pdf/14

Rh filled and overflowing, and many respectable families were under the necessity of living in tents or sleeping in the open air. A large city, named ‘Canvastown,’ sprang into existence on the south side of the Yarra; it commenced on the slope of the hill just past the approach to Prince’s Bridge, and extended nearly to St. Kilda. It was laid off in streets and lanes, but the poor immigrants were not allowed to occupy even the small space necessary to stretch their limbs upon without paying for it, as the Government of the day charged five shillings per week for the accommodation; an unnecessary infliction, we admit, upon the really distressed, but which tended to operate beneficially in preventing speculators from erecting tents and leasing them out, and deriving a profit from the necessities of the immigrants. This might, however, have been prevented in some other manner, and the heavy charge for the poor privilege of occupying a few feet of ground with canvas was prejudicial to the British name, in the eyes of foreigners, and almost unworthy of a British Government.

“Could all the secrets of ‘Canvas Town’ have been collected and published they would have formed quite as romantic and extraordinary a volume as the literature of the world ever produced. Persons of all ranks, of all countries, and of all creeds, were there huddled together in grotesque confusion. The main streets were crowded with boarding-houses and stores—all of canvas—and they were said to afford a harbour for some of the most vicious scoundrels with which the colony abounded.

“The corporation—not behind in cupidity—leased out the two market reserves for similar purposes; and there were therefore two small ‘Canvas Towns’ in the centre of the city. The erections on the market reserves fronted good streets, and had a great value for business purposes. It was positively discreditable to the corporation thus to endanger the health of the citizens, and also the safety of the property around these reserves. The revenue which they wrung out of the poor distressed immigrants was apparently, the only object they had in thus deforming the city.

“The necessities of those extraordinary times also brought into existence a mart for a peculiar kind of traffic. It was held daily on the line of Flinders-street, opposite the Custom House, and was designated the ‘Rag Fair.’ There, immigrants who had not means to start for the diggings, or who had a superabundance of articles of wearing apparel, congregated to expose their property for sale. They spread their wares, or held them in their hands, and offered them to the passengers at prices so low as to entice them to become purchasers. The alarming sacrifices here made, day after day, and all day long, excited astonishment. Every article—from a needle to an anchor—could be purchased on this spot. Some went with a large