Fitzroy Ward. North Melbourne was supposed to be included in Bourke and Gipps Wards, and as the city spread out, the "Northern territory" was cut up and brought under the Government auctioneer's hammer. But ere long the new streets were built upon, and the district at length became so populous that a cry arose for new Wards, and those of Smith and Hotham were created. There was a precious row in the City Council over the nomination of Smith Ward, and many a post-Council adjournment took place to the "Rainbow," the "Royal Oak," and other dram shops contiguous to the Council Chamber, where the monotonous question of the naming of the New Ward was repeatedly discussed, with a heat and froth equalled only by the hot toddy and effervescing "spiders" consumed in the efforts to settle the vexed question. Mr. John Thomas Smith, a seventh-time Mayor, was then quite a power in the civic world, and he was well backed up by the "publicans and sinners," who, under the combined influence of purse and impudence, got elected as the representatives of the citizens. The question was, whether, as all the other Wards had been called after Governors or Vice-Governors, it would be right to confer a similar honour upon a mere Mayor, for Mr. Smith was then nothing more. The anti-Smithites averred that it would be anything but the correct thing; whilst the pro-Smithites asseverated that it was only the right and proper thing to do. The Smithites finally worked up a majority, the matter was settled as they wished, and Smith Ward became an accomplished fact. There was no debate about "Hotham" after Sir C. Hotham, who succeeded Mr. Latrobe as Governor, in 1854. Since then two additional Wards have been added—Victoria and Albert—and when Sir A. Clarke (Surveyor-General) passed his Municipal Institutions Act, Melbourne was gradually shorn of some of its most flourishing suburban proportions—which germinated into as many independent municipalities.
The First Land Sales.
In the sketches I am writing, figures and statistics, unless in a "figurative" sense, ought to be tabooed as much as possible; yet there are some figures connected with the early land sales, which, when contrasted with those that would take their places, were the same allotments to be brought to the hammer to-day, reveal such an extraordinary increase in amount, as renders a brief glance at them far from uninteresting. The town was named, and subdivided into streets and lanes, and the next thing to be done was to submit the land in lots to public competition, and sell to the highest bidder. If the land auctions were to be held in Sydney a great hardship would be inflicted on the local residents through loss of time and expense in attending the place of sale; and as a special favour Sir Richard Bourke met the public wish by authorising the holding of land sales at Melbourne. The first came off accordingly on the 1st June and the second on the first November, 1837, Mr. Hoddle, the principal officer of survey, acting as government auctioneer. As a rule, few men of means lived on their stations in the country, and were more concerned about increasing their lambs and their calves than speculating in land-buying. Batman, Fawkner, Gardiner, Rucker, Hodgson, and a few others were exceptions, and the consequence was there was not much competition, and moderate prices ruled. The Melbourne streets, as before observed, were each 99 feet in breadth, and the lots were half-acre ones, less about four perches sliced off for the right-of-way behind. A curious condition of sale was introduced, by which every buyer covenanted to erect a substantial building worth £20 on his purchased land within two years. Lots at Melbourne and Williamstown were sold at the first sale; but only Melbourne ones at the second. The average prices at the former were Melbourne lots £35, and Williamstown £46; and at the latter (or second), Melbourne averaged £42. At the June sale 106 lots were sold, and 83 in November. All the Melbourne land so bought was in Flinders, Collins William King, Bourke, Elizabeth, Swanston, and Queen Streets; and the more westward the situation, the more valuable was it considered. An inspection of an old plan of Melbourne with which I have been favoured by Mr. C. J. Ham (the Mayor of Melbourne), taken in connection with other information obtained, elicits some incidents that make one wonder, whilst pondering over the prices and fixing the identity of some of the lots which are now the prime business places in the city. Fawkner, usually the first in everything bought lot 1 for £32—the south-eastern corner of King and Flinders Streets—and Batman the south-west corner of Collins and William Streets for £60. The north-eastern corner of Collins and Queen Streets lately purchased by the English, Scottish and Australian Chartered Bank for £60,000, was knocked down to Mr.
