In the Herald: April 26, 1855 Marvels of the age ""To be sold: Dissolving lanterns, reflect as large as life, with five dozen views complete, with snow machine. Apply at Russell's China Warehouse, Lower George Street. Mr de Lissa has received from London a large, powerful achromatic microscope, the best in the colony. For sale, a small high-pressure portable steam-engine, ¾horsepower, handsomely finished. Chippendale."" The magnetic telegraph ""We hope,"" wrote the Herald, ""the time is very near when Sydney and Melbourne will be brought within a few minutes of each other."" It was estimated construction of a telegraph line between the two colonies would cost about £100 a mile, and take about a year to complete. Messrs A. and W. Sprigg, the agents of the telegraph company, had arrived in Sydney and were exhibiting the apparatus. Populate or perish The high cost of food in the colonies, ""arising, in most instances, from their scarcity"," prompted an editorial: ""Now the question of food is becoming urgent. The Australian stores are becoming mere vendors to foreign provision merchants, and the cost of subsistence will soon leave nothing for the comforts of life. Here is a country to colonise, people ready to occupy, a return to be got.""