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The Courier (Brisbane, Qld. : 1861-1864) (about)
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Cite: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3168856
13 corrections, most recently by mrbh - Show corrections
NEWS & NOTES
BY A SYDNEY MAN.
CCLXXIX.
Sydney, February 24.
Very little news and as little to note is there to-day, but as the Yarra Yarra goes this afternoon, and will probably arrive at Brisbane some time in the course of this year, I may as well post up the intelligence. The Clarence went away at about half-past five yesterday afternoon, and the Telegraph, which we suppose left Brisbane this morning, is to sail from Sydney again on Monday.
Contrary to general expectation, the Upper House, last night, threw out the Tariff Bill on the third reading, by a majority of 15 to 5. I must say, although this is all right that the members has been most admirably incon- sistent throughout. Take the case of Mr. Deas Thomson, for instance. He rose and opposed Plunkett's proposal for the second reading; then he voted for the second reading, and voted to go into Committee; then he shrank from proposing the amendments, leav- ing that task to Sir W. Manning; but he voted for them, and for the adoption of the report; and finally he spoke and voted against the third reading of the Bill ! The Assembly will this evening have to resume the ques- tions of Ways and Means and supply. They have been voting away money "like Win- kin," without any ways and means. I think I shall try the same plan, being in a similar predicament. You will see what a pretty fix the government is in, by the following con- cluding remarks in a leading artlcle on the subject in this morning's Empire:—
" And now what is the next step ? What course do ministers intend to pursue, and what advice will they deem it their duty to tender to the representative of their Sovereign? The Tariff Bill having been re- jected, we can hardly suppose that they will proceed with the stamp duties, as that is a measure of direct taxation exclusively. The bill to raise the duties on colonial spirits stands on the business paper of the Legisla- tive Council for consideration in committee this day; but this measure proposes to in- crease the duty on spirits distilled from duty paid sugar, from six shillings and fivepence to eight shillings a gallon, and on other home made spirits from seven shillings to ten shil- lings a gallon; and as the rejection of the tariff leaves, the duty on foreign rum at seven shillings as before, the ministry cannot surely persist in imposing an arbitrary duty upon the home made article. The sole item then that has been adopted, out of the whole of Mr. Eagars' grand scheme of general taxation, is the penny postage on newspapers, the bill to impose which charge was read a third time in the Upper House last night. Can it be possible that Mr. Martin intends his adminis- tration to be immortalised by this solitary
measure of taxation? What a tale to
be carried to England ! The colony is startled, and its credit in all probability damaged, by the declaration of an enormous deficit; and the only means provided to meet it consist of the fanciful realisation of ten thousand pounds from a penny charge on newspapers printed in the colony, while news- papers printed elsewhere are to be carried free by post. Here is a pitiful financial policy indeed. It is no secret that in a certain large establishment due notice has been given of an intended decrease in the wages paid to com- positors, in consequence of the increased ex- penditure that will be incurred through the operation of the Newspaper Postage Bill. Thus the tax will fall upon workmen en- gaged in a most laborious avocation; men who have to labor all night in heated rooms, damaging their health and shortening their lives, while the rest of the citizens are soundly asleep, awaiting in that happy state the issue of the broad sheet that is to present them with intelligence from all quarters of the world in the morning. A Ministry that could accept a solitary Act of this kind, and
ask the Governor to assent to it in the name of the Queen, as the sole remnant of a com- prehensive scheme of taxation, and carried in the Assembly by a majority of one only, would be beneath contempt, and would offer an insult to his Excellency and to the Royal Lady whose authority he represents. For the credit of the colony, if from no considera- tions of abstract justice, it is to be hoped that the government will let this bill also, for the present, go with the rest of their financial scheme, and make up their minds to appeal to the country. According to their own showing, the functions of the state cannot be discharged without an augmentation of revenue; and instead of confining their revenue projects to a beggarly tax upon printers, they should see and acknowledge that the time has now arrived for consulta- tion with the people. There never was a clearer case for a dissolution of Parliament,
in the whole history of responsible govern-
ment."
I hasten to correct an error into which I was unwittingly led yesterday. I am now in- formed that the rate of reduction proposed by the proprietors of the Herald on compositors' wages is one penny only, and not one penny halfpenny, as was originally contemplated. Perhaps, after all, the Newspaper Bill may be got rid of, for the reasons set forth above.
The Tamworth paper gives us sad accounts of the damage and loss of life by the late floods. Here is a picture of the appearance of the township on Thursday week :—"Here and there in the main street, several persons are struggling on horse-back to secure some of their property as they see it floating out of their houses, but this at the imminent risk of their lives. Very little, however, is re- covered. A dray belonging to Mr. Coghlan, lent for this purpose, has gone down as far as Mr. Smith's office, but so fierce is the current that drayman, dray, and horse are in danger of being carried away. The horse is unhar- nessed and got out, and the dray is seen turning over and over as it is carried down the stream. The eye is now attracted to a hut used as a workshop by Mr. Fleming, the wheelwright, situate between Mr. Lawrence's inn and the river. On the top of it one of his workmen, named John Williams, who has been unable to get away, is standing with- out the smallest probability of escape. Pre- sently the building gives way, with the man on top, and is swept down the river. He has not since been heard of, but we are informed he was seen clinging to a log as it floated down some half mile from where the house was situated. No sooner has this fearful sight been witnessed, than a report is circu- lated that a man named Joseph Jones and his wife have been in a tree all night at the roar of the post-office, and that fruitless efforts have been made to rescue them. At the present moment there is not the least
prospect of escape, for even were we pos- sessed of a boat, it could not be forced across
the terrific current now running at the rate of ten miles an hour in the main street, so that all hopes of their rescue until the water sub- sides a littlo are abandoned. We see huts and haystacks, casks, carriages, clothes, fowls, pigs, and every description of property floating down, together with immense trees
and logs that break down buildings, fences, and every impediment to their headlong
career."
The same paper says:—"All up the Peel, between Tamworth and Bowling Alley Point, was completely inundated. We are informed by persons who have since come down, that Mr. Byrne and his family had the greatest difficulty in escaping from their house, and would certainly have been drowned had not Messrs. Cruice and Henry come to their as- sistance. As it was, they had to wade to the adjacent mountains up to their armpits in water. Considerable destruction has been done to crops, both growing and in stack, as well as to fencing, most of which has been carried away." At a place called Neminga Flat, " Messrs. Ayre, Twohey, and Steele have sustained the greatest loss in property. Mr. Ayre has lost 400 panels of fencing, seven acres of growing corn, twelve tons of hay in stack, and a crop of lucerne. His loss is about £100. Twohey is however, the greatest sufferer, the life of one of his children having been sacrificed. It appears that him- self, wife, and family, took refuge in an out- building, which they thought more secure than their own house; while in this shed the child fell into the water, and before it could be got out a portion of the building fell upon
it, injuring it so severely that it died next day; the others had a very narrow escape of their lives." From Manilla the accounts are still more deplorable. " A very sad account has reached us from this township, which is situate about thirty miles from Tamworth, on the Manila River. Besides the vast destruction to property, we have to record the drowning of Mr. and Mrs. Fitzgerald and their daughter. These poor creatures were, it seems, taken so suddenly by the rush of water, that they were swept from their beds, and house and all carried away. Some of the bodies have since been recovered. The whole of the inhabitants had a most miraculous escape of their lives. The river here rises very rapidly by the drainage from the New England table land, but on this oc- casion it rose fully at the rate of ten feet an hour. It came down about midnight on Wednesday, and before a single article could be saved every house and building on one side of the river was swept away. Not an atom of Mr. G. Veness's store, public house, or outbuildings now remains, with the excep- tion of a few bricks of one of the fire places. Everything has been wholly lost. The same may be said of Mr. Daniel Veness's place, and the same of Mr. Baldwin's, on the opposite side of the river; scarcely a stick now marks the spot where their dwellings once were. Many others whose names we cannot learn are in a similar position. Mr. Baldwin's loss will be very great, and Mr. G. Veness's could scarcely be replaced by £1500. Several drays,
loaded with property, two of which in charge of Mr. G. Coulton and Mr. John Bailey, were swept away; the drivers has scarcely time to alarm some of the townspeople before they were gone. Mr. Baldwin and his family got into his private boat, but had the greatest difficulty in saving their lives. There could not be a more complete wreck than the town- ship of Manilla." At a place called Carroll, on the road to Gunnedah—"Twenty-five persons took refuge in the church, and having made a scaffold for all on the tie beams, they knocked off the weatherboards to let the water pass through, otherwise, so rapid was the current, that the building must have been carried away. They remained there two days and one night, when the water began to fall, and they removed to Carroll Hut, the only ground that could be seen for miles. Up some of the trees at a further distance were two women and three children and several men, who had to contend for their lives against the approach of snakes up the trees that were getting out of the water. They were kept busy killing them. Large quantities of broken furniture, bags of flour, and other articles are strewed over Carroll Plain and in the bends of the river. No lives have been lost, but whatever property there was has been completely destroyed." Hap- pily, as also in the Hunter, the waters have since subsided, but it will be long before the consequences of the flood cease to be felt.
Your pastoral readers may be interested in the following, from the Lower Murray :— " Notwithstanding the large number of sheep which have come up the river from the Mur- rumbidgee and elsewhere since the 1st ult., the cry is ' still they come'—flock after flock in such regular rotation that the country on the New South Wales side of the Murray be- gins to assume the appearance of a well- planed deal board. Truly I do not envy the men who will have charge of stock by-and- bye for travelling; great will be their dis- may, and high the bones of their semi-starved flocks. As to water, there's plenty of that, and that's one comfort. A subject of much importance has just been brought under my notice; in fact, of so important a charac- ter that I deem it advisable to call the atten- tion of every settler in the district, not only in Victoria, but also in New South Wales, thereto. It appears that the sheep with the wool on have recently been met with crawl- ing about in twos and threes, and sometimes larger numbers, at various points of the river. Mr. M'Callum, of Bum Bang, has a pretty tale to tell of how he has suffered from stray sheep mixing with his flocks; and I shall be very much mistaken if many other similar tales will not be shortly told, unless the greatest vigilance is observed in extermi- nating every stray sheep that can be met with. For this purpose, unity must be the order of the day; and a determination to get rid of these wandering scourges must animate every resident of the district. It would not be a bad system if a man were employed to look after nothing but these roving sheep, each settler supplying horseflesh and the requisite articles of destruction. This plan should also be fol- lowed in New South Wales: for now that stock is being brought on to the frontages, and the river rapidly going down, the odds are a thousand to one that many diseased sheep will swim the river to join such flocks as may be feeding along the banks."
The tedious Riverina debate, by the way, is again adjourned, till next Tuesday. This is very different from your (may I not say our) successful struggle for Separation. The " Salt Bush " squatters merely want to get hold of their runs in fee simple, and make
their own Land Laws.
A correspondent, writing to a Maitland paper from Gloucester, Port Stephens, has the following, with reference to Ward, the bush- ranger :—This worthy, who for several weeks past has been holding the residents of the Upper Williams in awe, has at last managed to effect his escape from that locality. Foiled in his attempts to pass the almost impassable mountains dividing the waters of the Wil- liams and Manning, he must have returned almost to Dungog, following the bush tracks from there unto near Gloucester, where he was first seen, and the authorities in Stroud at once communicated with, and constables Cox and Findlay started in pursuit. In the meantime Ward had proceeded up the Glou-
cester and Barrington Rivers, and was last heard of at the Rawdon Vale station, inquir- ing the way to the adjoining station, and evidently making his way to the Upper Hun- ter, or Hanging Rock. This was late on the evening of the 8th, and on the evening of the 9th Messrs. Cox and Findlay arrived there in hot haste from Stroud, a distance of fifty-two miles, to find that they must be but one short day's ride behind—but behind, nevertheless. Nothing daunted by as heavy a fall of rain as your correspondent has seen for some years, and in the face of rapidly rising rivers, they again started in pursuit, over a road of which it may be said there could hardly be a worse; but, alas, the very elements had taken the miscreant's part, and our two worthy members of the police force, after most praiseworthy efforts, found that they had but crossed one river to be de- tained by the next and for three days had no
option to advance or return. Doubtless by that time Ward was out of reach from this side. When last seen he was tolerably well mounted having two horses, but no saddle, and was accompanied by a half-caste woman and two children, which he generally kept in the back ground when making inquiries.
Weather still wet; and so adieu till Mon- day.