CHAPTER II.
INCREASED VALUE OF TOWN LANDS.
SYNOPSIS:— Future Site of Melbourne. —Earthquake in Melbourne. —Mr. Hoddle and the Width of Streets. —Boundaries of "Old Melbourne." —Street Nomenclature and Division into Wards. —Mr. John Thomas Smith —A Seventh-Time Mayor. —Publicans and Sinners versus Purses and Impudence. —Smithites and Anti-Smithites. —Early Land Sales. —Comparative Values of Land.
OF all the popular errors prevailing in the colony there is none, perhaps, so general as the one into which very many people have fallen in supposing that "Yarra Yarra," the "flowing-flowing," or "running-running," was the native name of the once romantic stream on whose banks Melbourne is built. Yet it is not so. Its aboriginal designation was the "Birrarrung" — Yarra Yarra being a generic term in the "Black" vernacular, and applied to rapids or waterfalls generally. Mr. Wedge, a surveyor, who came from Van Diemen's land as an attaché of the Batman Association, first called the river "the Yarra." Under the circumstances thus described by himself, he wrote, "I gave the river the name of 'Yarra Yarra' from the following circumstances. On arriving in sight of the river, the two natives who were with me, pointing to it, called out, 'Yarra Yarra,' which, at that time, I took to be its name; but I afterwards learned that the words were what they used to designate a waterfall, as they afterwards gave the same designation to a small fall in the river Werribee, as we crossed it on our way back to Indented Head." It was decided to establish three townships on the existing sites of Melbourne, Williamstown, and Geelong; and for some time, indecision was shown as to where the future capital should be. Melbourne had fresh water at certain periods of the day, but it was miles from the bay. Williamstown was near the bay but away from the fresh water, whilst Geelong was "barred" by the dangerous reef in its beautiful harbour and its distance from the Barwon. Geelong was a splendid site, but perhaps, as things have turned out, the better choice was made, and Melbourne won. If credence is to be given to the statements of some of the early annalists, the destiny of Melbourne was very nearly changed by a sharp shock of an earthquake a couple of days after Governor Bourke's arrival, which so alarmed him that Melbourne trembled in the balance, and the site of the future city was all but abandoned. After considerable hesitation it was, however, decided that the township should take its chance, and it was "chanced" accordingly. I am afraid that, like some other sensational items of our ancient history, this spicy dramatic incident will not stand the analysis of enquiry. The version of one of the chroniclers is thus precise, viz.:—"One morning shortly after their (the Governor and his party's) arrival and whilst they were in camp, the shock of an earthquake was felt. Sir Richard Bourke expressed to Captain King his apprehension that it would be unsafe to build a town on this spot, as it would be exposed to risks like those which then made New Zealand so unpopular a country for settlement. No repetition of the shock occurred, however, and the town of Melbourne was laid out by Mr. Hoddle." This is circumstantial enough, but let me state the per contra. The Captain King indicated was a naval officer who accompanied Sir Richard Bourke on his visit, and, according to a diary of the trip kept by him the Governor landed in the future Melbourne on the 4th March, 1837, and, in the course of the day "mounting his horse he rode round the township, and marked the boundaries, which embraced about a mile of the river frontage." Though minutely noting various occurrences, the journal does not make the slightest allusion to so extraordinary an event as an earthquake. Next there is Mr. Hoddle, the surveyor who, also, came with the Governor, the officer by whom the town was actually laid out. I have been favoured with the perusal of an unpublished journal kept by Mr. Hoddle, at this time, and it preserves a total silence about an earthquake; furthermore, I have the authority of Mr. Hoddle to declare that he had
