Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser (Vic. : 1842 - 1876)(about) |
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Monday 23 September 1867
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As .ExpERT BIRD-C.AToasB - Mrs. Simpson of Bridgewater has now in her possession, a cat remarkable for the number of birds she has captured. On Saturday we inspected a dead land rail, a beautiful bird which is the last that has fallen a'. prey to this expert huntress. With the instinctive patience for which cats are so remarkable, this one will watch for days together for a bird, and when she gets the chance pounces on it with almost unerring certainty. What is rather remarkable in the animal she rarely kills the bird captured, but carries it in her mouth, the way a trained dog would do, and lays it in triumph at the feet of her mistress, as a rule without a feather ruffled. We cannot speak with any degree of certainty as to the exact number of birds miss pussy has captured, but believe they might be counted by dozens. VOLUNTEER CONCERT.-Tlhe Volunteer concert on Thursday, 29th ult., in Mac's Assembly Room, was a decided success; the room was crowded, and if we may judge from the plaudits with which the amateurs were received, the Ipleasure derived by the audience was even in advance of the anticipations. 'The open ing chorus " Comrades to Arms," in which Messrs. M Cann, Crouch, Keeping, Jarrett, Jones, Badnall, and Goldstein appeared, the first as bones and the last as tambourine, was well received. This was followed by "Come Home Father," "I'll throw m) self away," "The Moon behind the Hill," " May of the Valley," "Bonnie Ladye Moon," and the "Camp-. ing at Sunbury. This last was a sort of I doggrel recitative, giving a humourous narrative of the Portland Volunteers' trip 1 to Sunbury, the doings there and return. The second part consisted of a comic scena, introducing things "magical, acci dental and tragical," in which Bones and Tambourine alone took part, and for the best part of an hour kept the audience in a roar. The third part included a seleo tion of glees, songs, and solos, in which the different amateurs showed to great advantage. "The Arab's song to his steed," by Mr. Jarrett, was encored, as also "Oh I come to the West," beautifully rendered by Mr. Jones. Mr. Clay's solo on the violin was much admired. Mr. , Keeping sung Maofarres' rousing ditty of " Our rifles are ready," and nothing I could have been more appropriate to the occasion. The cornet solo of Mr. Jarrett was a masterpiece of execution, and the " Three Ages of Love," by Mr. Badnall, was well received. The performance concluded with a political stump speech, I somewhat curtailed, from Mr. M'Cann, the humour and versatility of which, combined with the local allusions,, was highly appreciated by the audience. At half-past eleven o'clock, the wind up .of the National Anthem closed the per formance.. We have not heard the sum I total of the proceeds, but to judge from I the crowded state of the house, it is prob able that between £30 and £40 was realised. ACCIDENT ON THE FrTZaOY RIVx.R- Rumor was rife on Monday, 2nd inst., that the Rev. T. F. Neville, of this town, and I his niece had been capsised in the Fitzroy River, at the crossing on the line of road leading to Belfast, and that the horse and buggy had been lost if not the passengers. A telegram received here on Tuesday morning intimates that Mr. Neville and t his niece had arrived safely at Belfast, but c that his horse " Pilot" had been drowned, I and the buggy lost. It has long been pre. t dieted that lives would be lost on the Fitzroy, before the Government and the local bodies would combine to do anything to insure the public safety, and in the end 1 the prediction is like to be verified. Judge Chapman and some of our leading lawyers I had a narrow escape from drowning some years ago crossing this river, and no season has :passed since, in which one or more victims have not suffered.' After a great deal of demur the Government has at last consented to pay two thirds of the cost of a bridge provided the Portlandshire Council will raise the remainder.' The Shire Council receives but small rates from the locality, and it is a question with members how far :the Council would be justified in spending £500 or £600 on a abridge that only tends to promote the traffic between the Borough towns of Portland and Belfast. The Portlandshire Council is now in cor respondence with the Borough Council on the subject, but the correspondence is more for the purpose of delay than any other. " The Municipalities' Act" it is argued, gives the Borough Council no authority to spend rates raised in the borough on works beyond the boundary. If this be so, then between the Government, the shire and borough councils, the bridge must come to nothing. Something should be done, but what the collective wisdom may determine at the present stage it would be difficul to say. Ta LATEr FLOODS In NEW SOUTH WALEs.-Some idea of the fearful amount of destruction committed by the late lood in the Hun River district, New South Wales, may be formed from the following facts :-The number of farmers residing within this electorate who have received relief in the shape of seed up to the present time is upwards of 250; and their losses in crops alone are estimated at not less than £21,000, being an average of about £80 each. IThis is far'from representing the total amount of damage done in the district, since there arie numbers of farmers who have never applied at all; others have applied, but have not yet received anything from the committee, and the losses of these aro not tlrken into this account at all. The amount of relief afforded to the 250 farmers mentioned above has been 90
s. tons potatoes, 4300 lb lucerne seed, and ir 1190 bushels oats; which, reckoned at ie the same rate as that used in estimating n the losses, namely, potatoes, £5 per ton; 1, lucerne seed, is 3d per lb; and oats, 3s is per bushel, would amount to less than s. £900 towards replacing the L21,000 lost. h It should be mentioned that 22 tons of II flour have also been issued to these d farmers which, at the rate of L12 per t ton, would add L264 to the amount of a relief received by them. A POLITICAL CaNIAMae.-Among those who took out his vote last week from Mr. Matthews, the registrar for the district of East Geelong, was a Chinaman. This the Adrertiser believes is the first Celestial of politic:al tutu of mind that has ever regis tered in this district. HonwowAr Rossaav.-The Adge says: A highway robbery, with voilence, was committed in the Fitzroy Gardens, near midnight, on Saturday, Mr Andrew t Dalgleish was returning to his residence in Hoddle-street, Richmond, when he was suddenly attacked from behind by two men, on of whom struck him on the head with a bludgeon. The blow render ed him insensible for a time, and when he recovered his assailants had escaped, taking with them a gold watch numbered 20,095, and a few shillings he had in his pockets. Mr Dalgleish has furnished a description of the men to the police, so that their arrest is almost a matter of certainty. East Melbourne seems to be a favorite haunt of those ruffians, and those who require to traverse it late at night ought to be so self-protected as to be able to make a memorable example of one as a caution to the rest. Meantime, the police ought to take note of this necessity for additional vigilance. BorLtoI Dowt.--For some time past, tilhe consideration of what we are to do with our surllus stock has been a Latter of serious thought for our settlers and arrsngernents have already. been made, it appears, for boil ing down sheep on an extensive scale. In the primitive days ol these colonies, when the question of t supply' of tmeilt for the markets of IEurope. had not :become a momentous one, and when the most desirable known forms of pr.,serving it had not been determined on by our saves, and the force of public recognition, there may have been some sort of excuse for, the enormous waste of meat which then went on in tlios estab lishme it where sheep were boiled down for their tallow alone, whilst that part which in vigorates and strengthens the hIumsn systrel more than any other substance eaten by mans was thrown heedlessly on the dunarill, or used for tattening pigs. No doubt ith' squat tere considered that they had done a goodi thing when they found that by the iere ex traction and saving of the tallow they had raised the value ot sheep from 1I, 6.1. per I fiend to 6s. But they cannot stop at that point now. There is no doubt nor uncer- t tainty as to the modes of preserving thou taeat or as to the finding of a ready market for it when Ireserved. South America is now ai long way ahead of u in" this matter; she I has already started within her bordlrs four companies, in active operation, having three methods, each one having proved itrlt more or less successf ,i. The processes ,, o"t ap proved of are " Liehig's," " Meorgmn'o." and " Messrs. Paris and Sloper's." Liebig's Ex- I tract of Meat Company corn Ionced the pre- I paration of their extract at Frey-Benitos, on the Uruguay, and tihad shipped to their cor respondents, up to 31st December, 1866, 55,0001b. weight of the extrac t; sland they stated that they believed the produc tion during the- present year would I amount to 500,0001b. weight. Meanwhile, I the manager of their Antwerp depot gave t them "the most assuring account of the in creasing demand for their meat, not only in Europe, but elsewhere." They enlarged their establishment at Frey-Bentos, and erected a second one in the Argentine pro vince of Entre Rias, and it appears by the laut mail that they had the sum of £18,437 I to the credit of the company, out of which they intended declaring a dividend of six per cent., besides giving their shareholders a bonus of 3s per share. The next is Morgan's Meat Preserving Company, whose works are established at Pasunda, also on the Uruguay, in the Oriental Republic. It is a Liverpool company, which purchased Professor Mor gan's patent. They were earrying on oper ations successfully, having shipped, in six teen months, 600,000 lbs. weight ot meat. The third is the establishment of Messrs. Sloper and Paris, who prepare meat for arrival at home in pretty much the state as when it is fresh killed. We find that they had shipped during a short period from 10,000 to 12,000 weight of meat, samples of which had been tried, and were much ap proved of. Liebig's process, we are informed is successfully . carried on in the adjacent colonies. Surely, with all these results be fore them, our squatters will not be content to follow the old method of destroying the sheep for its tallow only. On this subject, the Brisbane Courier of the 20th inst says: "The curing of beef under Dr. &Morgan's patent, which has been suspended for some time past, is now resumed, and considerable shipments are being made by the owners of the patent right. The low prices ruling for fat cattle are favourable to the industry.