Australian Town and Country Journal at KellyGang 8/6/1872 (3)
We next visited the Echuca Common School. It is a plain building, though the local board are spending a sum of money in improving the interior. The teacher is Mr C Hartshorn, and he has one or two assistants. There were 138 children on the roll and about eighty in attendance. Judging by this school, I cannot say much for the Common School system of Victoria. Comparing almost any of the Public schools of New South Wales with those of Victoria, the comparison was by no means favourable to the latter. In this instance system was set at defiance, confusion reigned, and in the Babel the master was not Die least noisy of the lot. To my mind the method of imparting instruction was imperfect in the extreme.
The municipal council chambers and court-house are under the same roof. The building is a very good one of the Doric order of architecture, and the interior is well arranged. Pine lining and ceiling of beautiful grains add greatly to its appearance. The halls are so arranged that by throwing open folding doors the principal court and town-hall can be formed into a grand assembly room for public meetings, dinners or concerts. Mr George Landlord is police magistrate, Mr Henry Luth is mayor, and Mr C E Pascoe is the energetic town clerk and surveyor.
There are nine councillors with similar powers to our aldermen. The revenue of the municipality is about £2400 per annum. As in Deniliquin the council found great difficulty in putting their streets in order. No stone was available for miles, so the only resources were bricks and block. The roadway of the latter material is a great success. The blocks are of red gum, eight inches in the ground, and laid upon an inch plank of red gum. The interstices are filled in with loom, and the road thus complete costs about £35 per chain. A roadway so formed was pointed out which had been down for four years, six weeks of which time it was under water. Still it was in good order.
At the back of the council chambers we made our way toward monumental looking tower. It is the Echuca reservoir or tank. The tower is of brick forty feet high, and the immense tank is on top. This tank is capable of holding10,000 gallons, and the water is pumped up to it from the Murray by engines. "The Echuca White Elephant" it was called, for it was said that after being built at great expense the corporation found that they could not legally enforce rates or people to take it. It is not compulsory now, though mains are laid on to the principal streets; but the inhabitants pay for what they actually use.
Opposite a number of large warehouses, amongst which were M'Culloch's and Mr Shackles, also the custom's offices, and the Echuca wharf, and the railway. stores. The stores, of galvanized iron, are 300 f long and 30 feet wide. The wharf is 600 feet long and 40 feet higher than the summer level of the river. The Echuca ferry, formerly known as "Hopwood's," is just below the wharf. Mr Henry Leonard is lessee; is the property of the widow of Mr Hopwood, and also the one at Moama which he leases from the Government, so that he has secured a kind of monopoly.
In hotel accommodation my experience was not very satisfactory. In coaching, persons are at the mercy of coach-drivers and publicans. The unfortunate "fares” seem to be regarded as the legal property of these people, and in charges and accommodation are completely at their mercy. I do not mean to say that there is any actual combination between the proprietor of the Bridge inn, Echuca, and the coaching authorities, but complaints loud and deep were muttered at the treatment received. With some other gentlemen I was ushered into a back hole called a bed room. Dinner the general table (where Tom, Dick, and Harry, also s set down coatless), war, badly cooked, and for the meal we were charged 3s 6d each. There was no opportunity for grumbling, for Melbourne passengers had only time to catch the train by taking a cab at the door. The cab or car, holding six or eight "fares," is a Melbourne arrangement, and for the trip to the station cabby charged 2s all round, which further exorbitant charge did not improve the temper of New South Welshmen on finding out "what may happen to a man in Vittoria."
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