The Chronicles of Early Melbourne/Volume 2/Conclusion
CONCLUSION.
And now I must shorten sail, for the chronological limit to which I am restricted, renders it necessary for me, though reluctantly, to bring this sketch to a close. I have started with Early Melbourne as an egg which a man wise for his generation, declared to have been hatched two years before its proper maturity; and I have accompanied the chicken from the shell through all its trials and tribulations, until I can leave it a thoroughly developed bird, long past its state of pupilage, and strong and lusty enough to hold up its head, flap its wings, and strike out as a brave bird ought to do, through the "dim religious light" of an uncertain future. That it has done so with account is indisputably proved by a comparison of the small town of 1842 with the magnificent city of 1888, when the once puny half-starved chicken now appears in all the gorgeous variegated plumage of some monster bird of fable, with the rapidly flowing blood of cities, towns, and boroughs coursing through the once unpopulated suburbs.
The early incorporated boundaries of Melbourne, included Hotham, Collingwood, parts of Richmond, Prahran, St. Kilda, Emerald Hill, and Sandridge. Its first year's civic income was £2388 2s. 9d. What it is now, and also that of the surrounding municipalities, the following figures will shew:—
| 1881. | 1887-8. | Increase | |
| £ | £ | £ | |
| Melbourne | 126,000 | 178,406 | 52,406 |
| Emerald Hill—(South Melbourne) | 28,009 | 59,531 | 31,522 |
| Fitzroy | 20,778 | 39,433 | 18,655 |
| St. Kilda | 10,985 | 27,251 | 16,266 |
| Richmond | 25,107 | 37,000 | 14,893 |
| Collingwood | 18,658 | 33,360 | 14,702 |
| Prahran | 19,550 | 34,000 | 14,450 |
| Hotham—(North Melbourne) | 12,758 | 15,969 | 3,211 |
| Sandridge—(Port Melbourne) | 8,361 | 11,929 | 3,568 |
Or, in round figures, a total of £436,879. Amply therefore, has the Metropolitan Civic motto been verified:—
"Vires Acquirit Eundo."