Australian Town & Country- Bourke reports

BOURKE. Monday.

Five valuable draught horses, the property of persons in this town, have been stolen. The police are in search of the thieves.
The measles are attacking both old and young in this district.
No rain.   –January 15, 1876.

BOURKE.    January 5     

We have been blessed with weather which would make a blackfellow (if he knew) curse the fate which led him hither ward. Yesterday the glass Indicated 112 deg, today (Wednesday) it is about 115, and blowing from the usual persecuting quarter, the south. There is no sign of rain, and in a week or two the road from here to the Cobar will be a water-hole waste. Even now there are 83 miles to go without seeing water. How John Collins, the contractor for the mails, manages to carry on is a mystery. Now, a great deal of this privation ought to have been prevented. At the Yellow Water Holes a huge water-tank, and the best of them all, distant about 55 miles, about 12,000 sheep have been allowed to camp for months; in fact they budged not until fear of dying on the spot caused them to be shifted. Then they went on their way to the Bogan, visited the other tanks, and drained the road dry. Many people are in from Cobar, and one of them, C. Warren, offered 1s a bucket for water for his horses, and then did not get it. The state of this road is simply disgraceful, and those whose province it is to watch over the interests of the district, have taken no more notice of the grass infringement of the people's rights than they would of a cloud flitting across the moon during their sleep. Thu mail cannot run much longer, and then perhaps, their pockets being touched, they may see the error of silence.
On Boxing night the Bourke Dramatic Club gave an entertainment, the proceeds of which went towards keeping the cattle pads from the graves of our friends by the erection of a fence.
-January 15, 1876.

BOURKE.  Saturday.
One of the Cannonbar Bank robbers has been apprehended by Sub-Inspector Keegan and Constable Naughton. £654 was found on him.
Burfield, the lost mailman, was found dead two miles from Ford's Bridge.
The weather is dreadfully hot. Cattle are dying in all directions, and there are no signs of rain.
In regard to the first item of the above we publish the following communication :-" Commercial Bank, Sydney, 21st January, 1870. We have just received the following telegram. There is no doubt the notes referred to are part of those stolen. Man apprehended at Bourke on suspicion of Cannonbar robbery. Found on him £654 odd notes and silver. Numbers of notes correspond with those robbed."
Thursday.
The chief of the Cannonbar Bank robbers has been committed to take his trial. His name is Henry Cunninghame.
The weather has changed, and rain is expected.
-January 29, 1876.

BOURKE: Monday.

The Redbank Hotel, (John Lloyd, landlord) has been burned to ashes ; nothing saved.
-February 12, 1876.

BOURKE. Thursday.

A cruet and chalice have been stolen from the Roman Catholic Church, but it is likely the articles will shortly turn up, as the police are on the point of solving the riddle. Rain is threatening. The heat lately has ranged as high as 110 degrees in the shade.
-February 19, 1876.
BOURKE.    February 16.
We are going from bad to worse, from a brisk simmer to mad boil. The shaded mercury has gone up these last three days to 114. Last night, at tea time, 6 p.m., it was 104 and at half-past 10, 94-we are literally roasting-and not a sign of rain, while the country is as dry and brown as a worn-out cricket ball. All household articles of consumption are very high. Bread, 21b loaf, 7d; milk, per quart, 9d; oats, per lb 4d, and everything else equally high, whilst the river holds out no hope of supplies, navigation thereon difficult as it would be on a dromedary's back, while carrying on the roads is nearly at a stand. At Corroweenee (the yellow water holes) there is about ten days' water, and then the whole distance to Cobar from Bourke, 120 miles, will be waterless. If no rain comes, it is serious to anticipate the result.

Mr. John Doyle's tavern at Redbank, on the river, was utterly consumed by fire last week, with more than L150 cash and jewellery. The family had barely time to save their lives. The cause of the ruin was the bursting of a kerosene lamp. Much sympathy is felt for the landlord, and everyone has expressed a wish to help him in his trouble. Mr. Hatton, of Yanda, and Mr. Hood, of Gundabooka, neighbouring station-holders, acted in the affair like true-hearted men.
Another lonely death has occurred near Ford's Bridge, making the second in a few months, and each traced to the monster curse of grog drinking. The first was Burfield, the Hoodville mailman, who wandered away drunk or mad, and was found a week or two ago dead. The next is of similar nature. John Cleary, who had spent 14 or£15 in three or four days, left the same hotel in a similar state, and was found next day likewise dead. The mailman was buried where he fell, no one but a policeman seeing the sad wreck. Cleary was likewise shovelled out of sight, and neither policeman or magistrate looked upon his ashes. He was found by a shepherd lying on his face in a pool of blood. A small bottle, which proved to be strychnine, was close to the body, and water and brandy were also near; the face was much discoloured. Mr. Thompson, J.P., with Trooper Prior, went out, but, as I have said, the body was buried. The evidence of the men who assisted at the sad work was taken. The poison was handed to Dr. C. Grant, who pronounced it such, and a verdict given" that the deceased died from the effects of strychnine taken under the influence of drink." And this is the way men and women die about us, and verdicts like the above returned. How any man, medical or otherwise, can form a true and satisfactory conclusion in cases of sudden or mysterious deaths without seeing the deceased, and sifting thoroughly the circumstances surrounding the case, is more than I can Imagine. I could point to many such verdicts, but at present shall only say that death in the bush is a matter of little interest in Bourke.
   Mr. Becker's vineyard is, considering the season, looking remarkably well, and if any one deserves success, it is the proprietor. He has been at great expense, having everything as complete as it is possible to make things. Irrigation, of course, is constantly attended to, the water being lifted from wells by a pump, and distributed through hundreds of yards of iron piping. The vines and fruit trees, tended by an experienced gardener, look healthy and strong, and in a few years the people of Bourke may now and then be refreshed by fruit and wine, grown on the banks of the Darling. It is not very economical to pay 2s 6d per lb for grapes, especially when you haven’t enough half-crowns to purchase shoes for the little ones at home.
-February 26, 1876.

BOURKE.  February 21.
The weather, which may well be termed a drought of over two years duration, had begun to wear an alarming aspect, when happily it was broken up, a few days ago, by some partial, refreshing, and welcome showers, which set the river Culgoa running for five days ; but it has not added much to the volume of water which passes down the Darling. It has not been sufficiently high to release the steamer Wilcannia from her forced moorings on the rocks above here, near Warriweena station.
The late rains have put have feet of water in the tank at Milroy head station -a very acceptable boon ; but the river Bree has not yet come down past the Milroy big dam. 1 am not aware of any statute law which clearly defines the power given of stopping, and making reservoirs on running creeks and rivers. By what right does one squatter construct a huge embankment which turns the water backward in a river for a stretch of fifteen miles, thereby cutting of the needful supply from the neighbouring stations which are lower down the stream? The disputes which arise in matters of this kind, which people in these parts do not seem to understand, has caused much ill-feeling, and has led, from time to time, to a great deal of expensive litigation. Some person in authority ought to look to it.
I find the Town and Country Journal is taken in at all the stations in this district. It is almost always found lying on the parlour tables or sofas of the squatters, and at many of the out station huts. It is not only a good thing to have supplied a want which has never been fulfilled before, but it is better still to have the minds of the people furnished with the good, sound, wholesome, and useful matter which may always be found in the columns of that journal. Through the medium then of the Town and Country Journal, I desire to draw the attention of the public to an evil which has grown up in these parts, which is a scandal and a disgrace to the whole community, and loudly calls for immediate remedy. Since the squatters runs have been fenced, the establishment of public pounds in many places have become useless, and some of the pound keepers, whose occupations are gone, have been transformed into living nuisances. A pound keeper enters into arrangements with a boundary rider to sweep all the neighbouring horses and cattle they can find, and put them into the paddock round which he daily rides: the animals are then taken to the homestead stockyard, and the complaisant squatter, or manager, gives the pound keeper authority to impound; they are then driven off by the pound keeper to some place thirty or forty miles away, as the case may be, mand sold for a mere song to the people who are little better than a gang of thieves and horse and cattle stealers. The public will be able to see by this report, what an organised system of robbery has sprung up, in a certain sense, under the patronage of the Government.
-March 4, 1876.

BOURKE.   Tuesday.     
The Cobar mail due on Saturday, has not come in. Fears are entertained as to the safety of the mailman, as he has to traverse 102 miles without water.
103 horses belonging to the Common have been impounded from Barton's Station. Great indignation prevails on the subject. The weather is very hot and dry.
-March 4, 1876.

BOURKE:  March 1.

I must send you this week the same dismal wail about the weather. All is hot and dry, and stock are suffering severely. To make matters more uncomfortable, some of our neighbours seem to have followed the virtue of charity. On Monday 103 town horses were impounded from Mr. Russell Burton's station, although the town herdsman had been told notice would be sent him to muster and remove the commons stock. For two nights, so report says, the famished animals were yarded before they were dispatched ten or twelve miles to the pound. If this be true, and the miserable condition of the captives warrant the belief, the heartless author of the suffering deserves the contempt of every lover of a horse. Mr. Burton is in Sydney, or I cannot think such a heartless act could have been performed, for among the herd were those of gentlemen who had permission of the owner of the station to run what number of stock they choose on his ground. Thirty head of Mr. Becker's were impounded, and it is hoped by all in Bourke that as soon as this raid is made known to Mr. Burton he will at once stop such proceedings. The act of impounding was illegally done, and the police court will doubtless be called on to settle more than one case. As a contrast to this "dog in the manger" policy, the generous conduct of the gentlemen in charge of Jandra, the commons western boundary, shines particularly clear. At this very moment there are no fewer than 1800 head of cattle belonging to Mr. Hatton, of Yanda, with perhaps 150 head of horses on Jandra run. Mr. Fletcher knows the terrible state of the country-the almost impossibility of keeping stock within boundary-and has met the difficulty in a noble spirit. The horses and cattle will not be tortured with the pound. Each owner is hospitably invited to the station to muster and remove his property, and next Wednesday the work commences. Mr. Hatton has worked day and night to keep his cattle at home, but his attempts have been futile. Stockmen and stock whips have been useless, such is the terrible absence of feed. Had Mr. Fletcher wanted an excuse for ungenerous conduct he has it ready at hand. A few days ago he found one of his few water- holes fenced in and taken possession of by travellers, who had also emptied some iron tanks. On asking the gentlemen what they were doing he was assailed in polite bush oratory for having the impertinence to question their ownership. Here likewise there was nothing but manly acting with Mr. Fletcher. He quietly lighted the brush fence, which was quickly consumed, and gave the nomadics so long to clear out. The common horses are now tailed, for it would be simply destruction to allow them to go back.
The Cobar mail, due on Saturday, is not yet in (Tuesday night), and grave fears are abroad that the mailman may have perished. There is no water on the road for a hundred and twenty miles, and should an accident have occurred death is the only ending, should it be of serious nature. Last week one of the mail horses caved in, and was left on the road. He was close to the spot as the man returned. A sable groom was sent to bring in the wretched animal; when he was brought to water he had been seven days and six nights without a drink, and the heat intense. There has been rain to the north, for the Culgoa River is stirring up the Darling.
The police, after removing 50,000 bricks, failed to find the plate stolen from the Catholic Church. Too much praise cannot be given the force for the actual labour done to secure the articles. The vicinity was thoroughly searched, and a sliver hunting watch, doubtless plunder, was found in a well on the premises.
Our races, so it is said, are to be postponed on account of the absence of everything whereby horses are made fit to race.
Mr. Davidson's men, who had gone out to the Yellow Waterholes to fence in the tanks, have been again driven in, the water having failed. One man was left with a couple of horses to remain a few days after the natives left, but the native dogs, he states, actually hunted him from the place. Heaven send it may rain soon, for all things look very gloomy.
Another dead man has been found near Tooralie. Commissioner Thompson, in capacity of coroner, with a trooper has gone to the body. The other trooper is confined in bed, so we are without police protection. .
To-day there are to be special prayers in the different places of worship for rain.
-March 11, 1876.

BOURKE.  Saturday.

For the last ten days the weather has been very hot ; for three days the maximum of the thermometer in the shade was 114,108, and 110 degrees. The shy is cloudless, and there is no sign of a break; it is two years since the last heavy rains.
-March 18, 1876.

BOURKE.   Monday.
Very heavy rain fell on Saturday; the fall was 1.17in. Southward of the Cobar road there is nothing but a sheet of water. All the tanks are full. The weather is now fine.
-April 1, 1876.

On last Saturday, which was pay-day at the mine, a smelter named Reece was stabbed by a labourer named Johnson. The latter is at large, fearing no molestation, as there are no police within 120 miles from here.-  April 22, 1876.

BOURKE.   Monday. 

The sessions opened today before Mr. District Court Judge Josephson. There is a heavy criminal list. Mr. Coutts prosecuting for the Crown.
240 tons fine copper await removal at the Great Cobar Mine, which, with the coarse copper and regulus on hand, represents in value £20,000.
Tuesday.    The Quarter Sessions opened here on Monday before Judge Josephson. The calendar is a heavy one. Mr. Coutts is acting as Crown Prosecutor.
-May 13, 1876.

BOURKE.   June 6.
The drought is positively ended. Rain has fallen in great quantities and grass is growing finely. There has been much said relative to losses of stock on this river, but a much louder complaint has been made than the actual truth demanded. We have suffered of course, but not to nearly the extent some have proclaimed. These untruthful reports do much harm: for instance, a station-holder whose stock is stated to be dying wholesale, hears this in Melbourne, of course he is alarmed, and probably put to much annoyance, and perhaps positive loss ; and not only this, should the property be in the market its value is decreased, no one can say to what extent, should we ever be subjected to drought again. It is to be hoped the fairest side of the picture will be held up for display.
A most brutal murder was committed last week by a black fellow named Paddy, his victim being one of his own countrymen, whose head was battered in by a heavy nulla nulla. The poor wretch was asleep when his summons came.

Yesterday (Monday)I accompanied Inspector Keegan to the west end of the town, where it was said a poor old man was  slowly starving to death. On arriving at the home of the poor fellow-simply a few upright slabs, without roof, doors, or windows-we found the object of our search huddled up under a few boards, so intermingled with filthy rags that it was almost impossible to distinguish what was human of the heap. The earthen floor was strewn with filth of every horrible form, and, to quote the inspector's words, the scene was the foulest he had ever seen. “I saw the Irish famine of ’46, have seen the squalor and misery of London and other large towns and cities, but nothing so bad as this.” Mr Adolph, in a truly benevolent manner, made the police acquainted with the circumstance. The poor sufferer had been heard calling on the passers-by for a mouthful of bread; and this in Bourke, where open-handed charity is the chief characteristic of the people. It need scarcely be said that the afflicted one was nourished, clothed and removed to the hospital.

As the coach from Cobar was on its last journey one of its passengers died ere he reached town. An inquest was held after a post-mortem by Dr Charles Grant, the Government medical officer, and the cause of death declared to be congestion of the lungs.
The river is rising, and it is the heartfelt prayer of all poor men and women that it may so continue until the steamers reach us, for everything is terribly expensive. Of course when our store-keepers have to pay £30 or £40 per ton carriage it must needs pinch the consumer. The last flood brought up twenty-seven steamers, besides their barges- some of them three of these-and yet we are getting or are already short of the common supplies of household consumption. This fact will give you some idea, of what is done by way of trade here.
Our races will take place as soon as oats and hay arrive, and they will be richer in horses and money than any we have had. We have some of the true sport-loving fellows among us.
A little six years old boy was brought to me the other day with the marks of a brutal beating upon his tender back. I do not intend to enter fully into the shameful affair; but should such a scene again be enacted, the flogger shall be held up to public loathing. The punishment he has already received, shown in the condemnation of all in Bourke, may be sufficient to arrest another such display. It is to be hoped, for his own sake, that it may.
14,000 sheep belonging to Mr. Davison are passing Cobar at the Yellow-water holes, 50 miles south of Bourke. The tanks, which cost £2000, are full, and the country looking splendid. Mr. Flanagan, dairyman, brought from the Culgoa 30 cows on Saturday ; they are a fine lot.
The contract for the public school, £2600, I think has been given to E. Hesler, and he will soon be at work. There is betting on the chance of the school being up before the court house, though the latter has had ten months start, and the school is the favourite.
-June 17, 1876.

BOURKE.  Tuesday.
The river has risen 12 feet, and is rising one inch. Raining since Friday. Weather fine. Great complaints in all circles relative to inaction of telegraph contractors on line from Bourke to Wentworth and the Queensland Border. No start made, and no sign of starting.
-July 22, 1876.

BOURKE.  Wednesday.

Two inches of rain has fallen since the 3^rd instant. The river has risen 32 feet, and is still rising fast.The weather is fine. No sign as yet of telegraph contractors starting with the river and border lines.
-August 12, 1876.

BOURKE.   August 16.

The dullness of our town has been relieved by the arrival of seven steamers, all fully laden with stores, of which we had been in great need for a long time, so much so that flour has been sold at £8 per bag, and kerosene was at £2 10d per case. At the last flood 27 steamers visited us, and we imagined our supplies could not run short; but they did, as every poor man knows to his sorrow. Now, that "Corn is again In Egypt," another source of trouble assails us-the river is becoming alarmingly high, and rising rapidly, as much as I2 in per 21 hours; should it thus continue for a week we shall be living in trenches.- The rain guage for the last week showed ___, so as to grass for summer we are pretty certain. It is not so, however, 200 miles to the west and should the late rain not have extended thither, they are badly off indeed.
All manner of trade is active; buildings in wood and brick are going up, and property seems everywhere in the ascendant. The extension of the telegraph to Wentworth and the Queensland boundary is still to be commenced, although the tenders have for a long time been accepted. This is causing much ill feeling and annoyance, and the Government should move in the matter; it is a mere farce giving men contracts and allowing them to act just as they please. It is the same with the Courthouse, although the tender for its erection has been held for nearly 12 months, not a brick is laid. So it is with the bridge: money was voted, and to all practical purpose the affair might as well never have been placed before the House. At the fishing village things are done in a far better manner, and when the importance of each place is weighed the success of the one community and the non-success of the other is a mystery. Some of our people attribute it to the number of persons residing there whose names are embelished with J.P. If this is the talismanic sign we must at once resort to it: but surely Mr. Lord must know that a thousand pounds revenue coming from half a dozen simple Mr. Smiths is more conclusive than a hundred pounds from Russell McLoftus, Esq. I fancy it is our simplicity and want of importunity which keeps us in the cold, but cold we are, and miserable in our lack of perpetually pleading for that which is ours by justice.
We shall soon, I expect, issue a racing programme, for horse feed is now abundant, and more than £1000 subscribed.
Shearing is rapidly taking place in some places, Tooralie having 70 shearers at work, but at Beemery and other sheds floods have put a stop to work ; this will occasion delay and loss to Mr. T. Topham, who has had a very large body of men employed since the beginning of the month.
The free selector is settling among us. Mr. Taylor has taken possession of 680 acres on Janara run, and others are doing the same on Beemery.
The health of the town is generally good, and the weather simply delicious. The frosts, which were more severe this winter and of far longer continuance than usual, seem to have gone, and the days are warm and bright dawn continually upon us. A draught of fine waggon horses came to us from Maitland, and those sold here brought L25 each, unbroken; this class of stock was needed, and always commands a liberal price. There is no stock able to travel from Queensland now, though 30,000 sheep passed us lately on their way to Melbourne.
-August 26, 1876.

BOURKE,  Saturday.
At Cobar on Thursday last, the mail contractor, John Colliss, was thrown from the coach and killed on the spot. The river is falling unusually fast.
-September 16, 1876.

 BOURKE.  Saturday.

The largest and most influential meeting ever held here took place last night, at the court-house, the Police Magistrate in the chair. The object of the assemblage was to draw the attention of the Government to the neglect of local requirements. Petitions were adopted for presentation to the ministers. The proceedings, which were enthusiastic, ended with a vote of thanks to Mr. Lord the member for the district.
-October 7, 1876.

BOURKE.   October 14

An inquest was held in the Bourke police gaol on Thursday last, before Mr. Alex. O. Grant, P.M., coroner, touching the death of Martin Costello, aged about 40, unmarried, labourer, native of Ireland. Deceased had been sentenced by the Bench at Breewarrina, on 2nd instant, to one month's imprisonment, in Bourke gaol, he having been found guilty of having no lawful visible means of subsistence, the Bench recommending him to speedy medical treatment. The resident doctor at Breewarrina was at Dubbo, attending Quarter Sessions. Deceased was conveyed partly in a buggy and partly by mail coach to Bourke gaol, at which place he arrived in a “very weak and thoroughly exhausted condition, with a sore leg ; full of maggots, the apparent result of a burn”. Dr. V. Brown was sedulous in his attention to the sufferer; he had every medical comfort that might have conduced to his recovery, and was nursed night and day by two of his fellow-prisoners. He died on Thursday morning from exhaustion, and was decently interred in the cemetery a short time afterwards.
The brickwork of our now Court-house is now up to the wall-plates. It is much to be regretted that our promised post and telegraph office is not in the hands of the same contractor. The money has been voted, but no tenders invited as yet.
-October 28, 1876.

BOURKE.
The Goolwa, river steamer, arrived yesterday, with more provisions, and as the river continues to rise we may soon have other arrivals to greet. It is a matter of much concern to the people of this town and district is the arrival of river; steamers, when it is borne in mind that at a certain period in 1868 we couldn't get in Bourke one pound of flour for a five pound note.
There is a man here now who is destined soon to be one of the bright and shining lights of Sydney and the world. He has already amused and amazed by turns, hundreds of people between Menindie and Bourke. He is impelled by a superior unseen power to denounce the prevailing wickedness of the world in general, and the folks on the Darling in particular. Vice, ignorance, folly, humbug and shams of every species are his targets. In short, he is the founder of a new sect, which he calls, "The New Evangelical, Un-Rechabitish, Nonconformable, Protestant-Catholic Religion." His Bible is Nature, his God the "Great Unseen. Wise, and Merciful. " He is voluble, logical, and earnest; is blind of one eye, Samuel by name, and a saddler by trade, That you will soon find him on Hyde Park, I have no doubt, and because of this, and because he has proved himself an identity in these parts,  I thought it my duty to apprise you of the “coming man”.
    Two peculiar police cases, which I thought would have been concluded in time for last post, but are still sub judice, and which I may say were the only items of interest, led me to forego sending you a brief letter, and to turn my thoughts to "The Land." On this subject many minds obviously differ, still, it is of use to the practical statesman, and of interest to the public, that as much information as possible should be derived from every source, no matter how insignificant. We know in these parts that if this dry, sultry, burning weather continues five or six weeks longer there will be a general travelling of stock, not for water only but for grass. The back blocks will be scorched up as scores of them are now; but it is "the land" I wish to speak about. The modern squatter is not in all cases the passive creature of circumstances which existed years ago. The system of dummy leasing now in vogue in these districts, and the evils resulting from it, are not generally known, neither is it known  generally that these jobbing quasi-lessees have tolerably thick skins, are not easily abashed, will hold on by hook or by crook to the " golden goose," i. e., the chance of making all they can out of the public estate, till such time comes when a just and vigorous administrator of the Lands Occupation Act puts a stop to their disgraceful practices.
     The same state of things obtained in Queensland till the result was that all runs in that colony had to be stocked within a short period under penalty of forfeiture. And further, unless so stocked, open to be occupied by any person having a license to occupy and the flock with him to put on the ground. The Queensland regulation, of which I am speaking, was put in operation about 1863, and was strictly enforced in that colony. It originated from the same malpractices which have been so prevalent in this quarter, and which have operated as an incubas on it -prostrating its development as one of the first and best pastoral regions of New South Wales. In fact, that such a state of things should have been allowed to go on for years past, as they have, gives some weight to the opinion so freely expressed in the sister colonies-that the New South Wales Governmental Administrative Departments are a generation behind them in their ideas of what is required for the advancement of our great colony; that all the outlying parts of this colony are only considered by them in the light of so many oranges to be sucked by the metropolitans. Further, I have often heard the remark made in those parts, as well as others, that New South Wales advanced by private enterprise alone, in spite of its legislative enactments, as administered, which as a rule have been a drag on it instead of assisting in its progress. Is there any other colony in Australasia in which a large tract of country abutting on a fine, navigable river like this Darling, on which vessels have been plying regularly for the past fourteen years, would be allowed to be wasted and idle to suit the speculative propensities of a few gamblers or jobbers, who seem to look upon the State property as legitimate game on which to raise the wind ?  Would this be tolerated in any other colony for a day? I have had now several long and melancholy years of bush life, and was always of an inquisitive disposition, wishing to understand the reasons for things which I saw in general ; but the whole result of my cogitations has been that, so far, all legislation in New South Wales has been for the benefit of cliques, and where the object has been attemptedly hid, the cloak has been very, very transparent. In my own mind I often long to see some true Patriot with a soul above this grovelling class legislation, to whom the well-being of all the community was the desideratum. We badly want, I have often thought, some of John Bright's stamp among us, to scatter our pigmy politicians to the winds! I have seen a few changes during the past twenty years, and whoever lives to see the next will no doubt see greater.
It looks, for the fiftieth time, like rain as I close this letter.
-November 11, 1876.

 

BOURKE.   Saturday.

Two and a half inches of rain has fallen over a wide area, and all fears of drought have subsided.

 – 2 December, 1876.