ism on Australian soil was happily frustrated, and the second Mr. Atkinson was induced to part with the property for a good round sum to three gentlemen who possessed large interests in Belfast. These gentlemen, by selling the land in small allotments, which brought remarkably high prices, gave the leaseholders under Mr. Atkinson's sway the opportunity of converting themselves into independent freeholders, and this long-wished-for opportunity was embraced with general joy and eagerness. In this manner Belfast has been placed on an equal footing with other Victorian towns, and is no longer drained of several thousands of pounds annually to support an absentee owner in idleness. The money is retained where it has been raised, and circulates for the benefit of its producers. The good results of the abolition of the old insecure tenure, one of the greatest disabilities with which Belfast had to contend in its days of private ownership, are now seen in a vastly increased stability and self-confidence, and in the variety of improvements that would never have been undertaken but for the fortunate change from foreign to local proprietorship. The Victorian Government, too, is now making amends for past neglect by providing all necessary harbour facilities, and improving the navigation of the River Moyne, so that vessels may come up, discharge, and reload in the town itself.
Whether regarded as a maritime, a manufacturing, or an agricultural centre, Belfast has now a most promising future before it, but it may be hoped that in the era of its coming prosperity, it will not lose that Celtic atmosphere and those Hibernian attributes with which the eminent scientist, Dr. J. E. Taylor, was so particularly struck. In the record of his tour through "Our Island Continent," he says that the suburbs of Belfast reminded him wonderfully of a well-to-do
