Australia and Homeward; OR, MELBOURNE TO LONDON. FIRST LETTER. N the evening of the 14th of December, 1887, a gathering of near 2,000 of the Melbourne temperance people was held in the City Hall to give us a farewell, and to celebrate a Local Option victory, which the friends of temperance had just secured in the Victorian Legislature. The Hon. James Munro, the President of the Victorian Alliance, presided. The Hon. J. B. Patterson and the Hon. J. Balfour, C. J. Ham, M.P., J. Russell, M.P., as also several ministers of various denominations, took part, among them that giant preacher and temperance worker, the Rev. A. R. Edgar (Wesleyan), whom everybody, except the publican, loves. The chairman, in his opening address, was kind enough to refer to my work as having given satisfaction to the Alliance. Mr. J. W. Hunt, whom I met in London in 1886, and who afterwards called to see me in Montreal in regard to my coming to Australia, presented me with an address in the name of the Alliance. The newspaper reporter says of it: "The address, expressive of the high esteem in which he and Mrs. Lucas are held, and of the good wishes for their future welfare, is richly illuminated and handsomely bound in morocco, forming a work of art of which the recipient might well be proud." If I may be proud of the artistic get-up of the address, I should have a strange heart indeed if I were not very much more proud, or at any rate thankful, for what it contains. Never, in all my life, have I been more conscious of the Divine favor; never more fully convinced that I was working for God and humanity. Counting sermons and other talks on the Sabbath, I have spoken, on the average, eight times a week for the past six months. Sometimes I have spoken eleven times a week. During the whole campaign not one appointment was missed. All thanks be to God. A copy of the Address will be found on the opposite page. ADDRESS TO THE REV. D. V. LUCAS, M.A., OF CANADA. Dear Sir, The Committee of the Victorian Alliance, together with the members and friends of this and kindred associations, upon the occasion of your departure from their midst, at the close of your mission in Victoria in furtherance of the cause of Local Option, desire to assure you of their gratification at your visit, to testify to the good accomplished thereby, and to express their sincere wishes for your future welfare. In the course of your work throughout the colony you have won the esteem and admiration of those with whom you have been brought in contact, and numerous testimonies have been received as to the good accomplished by your labors in helping to bring the Local Option question to a successful issue. It is desired to include in this tribute of respect and admiration your partner in life, who has ably seconded your efforts by her work for Temperance amongst the women of Victoria. Should you be enabled to return to this colony, you may rest assured that you would receive a hearty welcome from those amongst whom you have labored during your present visit. In bidding you farewell, the hope is cherished that you and your dear wife may long be spared to fight the good fight for Temperance, and, under the Divine blessing, with ever-increasing success. JAMES MUNRO, President, V. A. J. W. MEADEN, Hon. Secy, 11 We left Melbourne early Thursday morning, Dec. 15th. We reached Ararat about 2 p.m.; wife went on to Stawell, while I took a branch line for Hamilton, where I was to deliver a farewell lecture, having been advertised so to do in the Hamilton Spectator. Returned next day to Ararat, which has a lofty and beautiful mountain near by, at the foot of which rests an ark of refuge, in the form of a capacious and handsomely built benevolent asylum. The region round about Ararat is among the pretty portions of the colony of Victoria. Having lectured at Stawell, we left by the midnight express for Adelaide, which is distant from Melbourne five hundred miles west by rail. Sydney is about the same distance from Melbourne, but in the oppo site direction. We spent a very pleasant fortnight at Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. We visited the Industrial Exhibition, which may be regarded as very creditable for a colony founded just fifty years ago. Adelaide is much more beautiful than Melbourne as regards natural scenery. The city is almost completely surrounded by lovely and picturesque hills. We were there on Christmas, and had, at a Christmas family dinner to which we were kindly invited, ripe figs, strawberries, apricots, cherries and plums, all just fresh from the garden. Christmas with the thermometer at 95° in the shade was quite a new experience. Although anything may seem all right when we get used to it, yet it seems to me nothing could ever reconcile me to 95° above zero at Christmas times. To crown all, I saw in the windows of the shops here old Santa Claus clad in his sheepskin, long-woolled coat. Such contradictions as there are in this world any way! The old chap did not appear to look anything like so happy as we have seen him in the pictures, with his reindeer and his sledge and robes, down in the street, while he is on the roof in the light of the moon fighting with the cats for the right of way down the chimney. Shortly after reaching Adelaide I received a note from a gentleman whom I met in Montreal four years ago, T. O. |