Mutual Provident Society and of the stores of Messrs. D.L.  Brown and Co., Messrs. Stewart and Hemmant, and Messrs. Scott, Dawson and Stewart, seemed to me quite equal to anything of the kind, respectively, which I had met with since my arrival.  Indeed, I am prepared to congratulate my friend, Mr. Drury, at the head of the former of these banks, upon an edifice which, in graces of structure, as well as in mere dimensions, seems to me to surpass all rivalry.

The Bank of England—­the highly conservative “old lady of Threadneedle-street”—­on the recent occasion of negotiating yet one more large Queensland loan, broadly hinted to her go-ahead client that her borrowing must, for a time at least, be more restricted.  I do not deny the wisdom of this advice, for truly all Australasian borrowing has been utterly outside of all principle and precedent.  But while the Home public is preoccupied with these colonies’ great debts, my visit here has diverted the leading idea rather to the solid and expansive basis of trade and prosperity which I see around me.  I have not yet seen South Australia or New Zealand, but, from what already reaches my ears, I have no reason to expect that my account of either colony is to differ materially, if at all, from that of the others.  The ready facility to incur debt on behalf of colonial progress is due, as it seems to me, rather to consciousness of strength than to indifference about financial obligation.  Each colony will “pay” with equal certainty and promptitude, although a New South Wales or a Victoria may do so with less strain than their sisters.