The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893)(about) |
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Thursday 8 September 1887
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DISTRICT NEWS.
[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]
DUNGOG.
We had a real sensation here on Friday morning, nothing less than a veritable earthquake, and no sham about i.t About one o'clock on Friday morn- ing thost who were awake were startled, and sleep- ers were roused up, by two sharp reports in quick succession, that made the walls of tenements tremble for an instant, as if about to collapse. The sound was undefinable, it was too quick to be called rumbling, the tremor did not last above two or three seconds. We have not beard any accounts from below, but the shock was felt all over the upper parts of this district. Many people declare they were so aluimed they could not again go to sleep till reassured by daylight.
AKoTnru WONDER-Last Saturday a milk cow, belongil,,' to Mi G Irwin, at Telhgra, gave birth to two bi.tit by inlves, one malo and one female Although not unpiicedtnted, it is of such rare occurrence iii io be worthy of record. Though there mc on usiomlly two at a birth it is rarely that they liol li survive , there is geneially some defect ni tin cleans of either one or both.
The i nu that had been falling for Boroo days cleared oil 1 lit Thm sday morning, since then it has been cleai and diy TIUB (Saturday) afternoon a fierce westeily wind has been blowing, rapidly drying up the giound The roads in the immedi- ate vicinity of the town aie again in fair order, but the suboidiuutc îoada in the district are in a con- dition that hewars ill description. The mail coach is not jet ible to Lt op up to time on the Clarence Town road, winch shows it must be in o very bad state lowei down The road on the east side of the river, between the two bridges of Thalaba and Dungog, upon which a good deal of public money has lately been spent, it is not too much to Bay, is
now ímnassable It is far worse than it was before
ever a pound had boen spent upon it. It is those parts of the road upon which the money has been spent that aro now quite impassable. Were it not that travellers can get off into the bush in some places it would be next to impossible to get along' this route with any kind of wheeled vehicle.
When the deputation waited upon the Minister of Works, anent a railway for this district, he expressed his determination to use every effort to collect information as to the justice of the claim and the feasibility of the project. Now he (the Minister of Works) ran find time to visit Kiama and Wollon- gong, Queanbeyan and Bungendore; and, if he is really sincere in his desire for information concern- ing this district, now is the time to pay it a visit. It is by no means a tedious journey.. He could reach Dungog from Sydney in aboub seventeen hours ; and he need have no misgiving but that he would be treated with the most liberal hospitality. There never was a more opportune time to observe the extreme urgency for a railway of some sort, to place this great district upon something of anequal footing withotherpartsofthecolonythathavebeen provided with railways, and that have not half so much use for them. Wo would be satisfied with a very modeBt, cheap kind of line-anything to supersede the wretched roads that we have so long struggled with, that offer such obstruction to all easy inter- communication. It is fervently to be hoped that this may catch Mr. Sutherland's attention ; but M¡ whether or no, it behoves the leading men of the
district (who have the welfare of the district at heart) to send a pressing invitation to Mr. Suther- land to visit Dungog, and see with his own eyes the cendition of the country. It is a very remark- able thing that we see members of the Government visiting all parts of the colony-north, south, and ?west-places with which they are quite familiar, and which they have before visited over and over again, but never one of them has ever (officially) visited this part of the country. Strange, that none of them has ever been smitten with a desire to see what sort of a place this is. The very allurement of seeing some new thing might induce some of them to pay UB a visit under the guise of enquiring
into the wants of the district.
That was a shining report on the condition of our streets that appeared in a late number of the Mercury. But wo must not trespass further on your space for the present.
The weather is all that can be desired. Dungog, Sept. 3,1887.