West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Tuesday 13 May 1884, page 3


OCCASIONAL NOTES.

MAILS for the northern ports for transmission by the Otway will be made up at the General Post Office on Monday next, the 19th. instant, at 1 p.m.

The half-yearly general meeting of ratepayers was held in the Town Hall last night, the Mayor presiding. A report of the proceedings shall appear in our next.

"The choral service in connection with the opening of the new organ at St. John's Church, Fremantle, will take place next Thursday, in

stead of Friday as originally intended.

THE R.M.S Rome, with the fortnightly mails, ¿arrived at Albany from the Eastern Colonies at 8 o'clock yesterday morning. She brought the gvfollowing passengers for this colony : Mr. and. ,CMn. Franklin, Mrs. Ashwell. Mrs. Stephens k tata, three > children, Messrs. Hutchins, Adam, F Boss, Harvey, Williams, and Symon.

* A» accident happened on Sunday to a workman , in Mr. Hardey's employ, at Grove Farm, wherel by the man sustained a fracture of the Arm and ¿other injuries, caused by falling to the ground t\ from the top of a haystack. The sufferer was ^conveyed to the Colonial Hospital where hu \ arm was set and his other injuries attended to.

I ^Dcbino the last expedition in search of Osman

' Dinna, among the mountain fastnesses of the

Soudan, some splendid shooting is recorded. ' Lieut. Dakin shot a man on a camel at a thou-

sand yardi range, and the condition of theboultiTders behind which the enemy had fired showed llrery sufficient reason for their prompt retreat.

^Ononeof these boulders twenty-eight bullet marks wore eounted, and on another sixteenahe distance from which these shots were fired Ming over six hundred yards.

Ia sad accident occurred yesterday to a little W named Thomas, who fell off the North Fre-emantle bridge and sustaiued sovere injuries, "n The child, it appears, was climbing on the railAnii of the bridge at about its highest part, and, losiiie hi«» hold, was precipitated into shallow water. We are glad to hear that an accident Which might hai o been expected to result in L immediate death was attended by nothing worse

tuan a brokeu leg and a smashed face, and that -lhere is a chance of the poor boy's recovery. 'Dr Barnett was luckily passing over the bridge :at the very time the accident occurred, and set

the little sufferer's leg and otherwise attended to his injuries before he was removed to the

hospital.

I *Wb trust the attention of the Government may

be drawn to the complaints now so frequent of ? the want of an adequate police force in the du-li trwts over which Mr Foss magisterially preTaide-». At the time when this magistracy was first eitablnhed we pointed out that Uhe police force sent up was not large 1 énongh to meet the requirements of the

' exte»>¡\e Ira»* of country in which Mr i^iFossKtxpeirted to administer perambulatory

.?justice, and the result has s>hown that we were ^rizht That the Gascoyne should be left with?"'out protection when the Murchison is visited, is '^iehly improper and calculated to perpetuate ¿-those ' dtsturbed ' circumstances which the action [taken by the Government was designed to re-medy Representations upon the subject have I already been made to the Uolonial Secretary and

the Superintendent of Police by settlers m the '¿districts affected, and it is to be hoped such Wion may be taken m the matter as will lead to greater security and will prevent the oc-casional positive encouragement now held out i to the natives to renew then: former misdeeds.

Oubiously at variance are certain published ^editorial criticisms of the Governor's report of lins impressions of the southern portions of the

I eolonv, one provincial newspaper considering rthat the publication and wide circulation of the bocameht in queUion " caunot be otherwise than 'beneficial" to the country, while another laments that such a " very heavy blow" ehould have been dealt it. A«» a nutter of fact His Excellency's report-confessedly the mere result of obserrations hastilv made during a rapid journey, thou"h tempered with much information locally. received-gives a very fairly accurate picture of those portions of the colony whieh the Governor traversed, without exaggeration either on one 'side or on the other. Farther experience might

xjs serw^Tto modify some few details, but, 'dngHtíc' report as a whole, no complaint can riybq wide against it¿ and it certainly shows

f a far more correct knowledge of. the subject

dealt with than that exhibited by one of His Excellency's critics who makes a comparison between South-Western Australia and Yiotoria, which is .simply ridiculous, and-if it.had any effect at all-Avould, from its gross inaccuracy, be calculated, indirectly, to do the colony ser-

ious harm.

"Excerpts from Professor Hugo Schulz's treat-ise on Eucalyptus Oil, translated and supple-mented by Baron Sir Ferdinand v. Mueller, K.C. M.C.," is the title of a little work of much scientific importance, published by Brack of Castlereagh Street, Sydney, 1833. The hygienic value of eucalypt oils has long been known, but has not b een appreciated by the medical pro-

fession as, apparently, it deserves to be. The j work above quoted gives details of much scientific j value which, it may be hoped, will greatly extend the medicinal ase of various préparatiens of eucalypt products. In ooncludingjhia treatise upon the subject Baron v. Mueller says :-" The writer, in bringing this work be-fore the Australian profession entertains a hope

that not only thereby the still largely prevail- |

ing discredence in the extraordinary medicinal value of eucalypts will wear away, but that also medical men in this part of the globe, and more particularly those commanding hospital facilities,

will aid, by independent local researches, to de- j termine the exact value of each of the various! eucalypts, numbering about 120 well marked species, in medicine and surgery, for which pur-pose the facilities in the native lands of the eucalyptus must necessarily be greater than elsewhere."

Wa understand that the telegraph construction party engaged in the erection of the line from Northampton to Roebourne encountered consid-erable hardships in connection with 'their work on the first section, terminating at Hame-lin Pool (Sharks Bay). It was anticipated that the construction of this part of the line would be the heaviest portion of the whole undertaking, and this anticipation was more than realised, the work proving difficult beyond expectation. The whole route nearly-a distance of 150 miles -is through thick forest country, in many places presenting a rocky surface, and, north of the Murchison, without any permanent water. The heat of the weather also severely tried both the camel transport and the horse service, but the whole party, we believe, endured these drawbacks cheerfully. Two of the camels, however, succumbed. The Afghans in charge of the camel transport are spoken of very highly ; they are said to be well up to their work, and thoroughly reliable. The material used for the construction of the line is reported to be of ex-cellent quality, and the posts being of iron will be proof against atmospheric and other disturb-ances to which wooden supports are liable. The station at Sharks Bay (Hamelin Pool) is now officered, and open to the public, and the construction party are about half way over the second section, working in the direction of the Gascoyne, where the next station will be. The building for the Gascoyne office is now being erected, and the materials distributed, and it is expected that the line will be opened that far about the beginning of July,

Under date ?day 7th, a correspondent writes

from Carnarvon :-'the river came down on the 8th April almost bank high, flowing out with great force for several days. It came down again on the 25th in almost equal volume and is still flowing strongly. Teams have been delayed over a fortnight, unable to cross, and settlers have, in many cases, been obliged to take their rations over in boats. Heavy rain has been general up country, but none to speak of has fallen within 40 miles of the port. The natives have suffered very severely from the measles up the river, several having died from the disease. They have all left the port on ac-count of it. A sad death from the same cause occurred here on the 9th of last month, when a young teamster succumbed to the effects of measles after a severe delirium lasting for more than a week, during which time it sometimes re-quired three or four men to hold him down. This was the second death of a white man oc-curring within a very short time, and shows the great necessity for a medical man in the district. H.M.S. Meda called here on the 21st ult. on her way to Cossack, and the Otway on the 28th bringing Mr. J. C. Fleming en route for Flint Cliff, where he is expected to open the new telegraph station. I have just heard of very heavy floods on the Upper Murchison, the flood-ed ground in some places stretching for as much as six miles. "The house at Moorarie station is

said to have been washed away and about 3,000

ewes and lambs to have been lost. At Beerin-

garra, also, there is said to have been loss of sheep. Lambing, here, is progressing satisfac-torily.

That unfortunate mistake in a recent telegram respecting the Franklin's passengers from South Australia had a vexatious little conse-quence at Albany. It appears that on a previ-ous occasion a gang of navvies travelling round from the other colonies had landed at Albany, partaken of refreshment and created a disturb-ance. And the authorities^ that orderly little town, hearing that 118 steerage passengers, presumably navvies again, were to arrive by the Franklin on a Sunday, considered it prudent to address a verbal ' round robiu ' per medium of the police to the licensed victuallers of the place, instrocting them to close their hotels to these objectionable anticipated arrivals, and decline to regard them in the light of bona fide travellers. So at least it is alleged. But in-stead of 118 rowdy navvies, eight highly res-pectable gentlemen, unimpeachable ia their propriety of conduct, disembarked from the steamer, and, strolling up the terrace, stopped at an hotel and requested admittance. The host, mistaking, apparently, the tenour of the instructions received, declined to comply with this reasonable demand, alleging as an excuse the order issued for protection against the vagaries of navvies. The gentlemen were naturally incensed, a parley ensued, and, ulti-mately, the house was opened 'for their accom-modation. But this inhospitable greeting on first stepping on the shores of the colony left a sore-ness behind which found vent in a letter ad-dressed to the Albany Mail, in which tli9 vic-tims of the unfortunate contretemps made their complaint and enquired whether it was the custom in Western Australia to treat strangers with these marks of unflattering susEicion. All's well that ends well, and no great

arm was actually done. But it is a pity that visitors to our shores should form unplea-sant first impressions. And, besides, we question whether the publicans could legally have refused entertainment even to the much dreaded nav-vies -had they actually happened to . present

themselves.

Heb Most Gracious Majesty's Birthday is fast approaching, and officialdom and the male ele-ment in what is known as 'society' are beginning to congratulate themselves-we hope with good reason-that thej will this year be spared the distress and humiliation occasioned by a mid-day appearance in claw-hammer togs preparatory to bobbing through that dreadful and ludicrous ' function ' imitative of the Royal levée. From this terrible ordeal instituted for the pain and punishment of the many and for the glorification of a select few, we Western Australians were happily free until Sir William Robinson unfortu-nately established it. Sir Frederick Weld, ander the inspiration of Sir James Ferguson-a great stickler for form and ceremony-ordain-ed one of these performances soon after his ar-rival. He wisely refrained from trying a second. Sir Harry Ord, who often described levées as the spécial weakness of Governors new to their position, used sturdily to declare that, not being a king, he would not ' play ' at being a king and inflict the torture npou Ids * subjects ' of trotting them out befoiehim at noon in evening ' fig' nor upon himself of going through a serio-comic pump-handle business with a couple of hundred men half of whom he had met the day before and the other half he should meet the next. Sir William Robinson thought otherwise, and during his régime great was the lamentation of that portion of the civil service which, unin-spired by the snobbery that alone can make such fuuetions endurable, was afraid not to put in au appearance for fear of encountering * vice-regal' displeasure. Did Governors represent the Sovereign, as viceroys and ambassadors re-present her, there would be some meaning in their requiring the performance of these cere-monies. Bat it is, of course, well known that they do not-that they do notrepresent the Queen personally, but are, as a matter of fact, simply officers admiuistr.iting her Government, that is to say officers to whom is deputed the exer -ise »f certain powers of the Crown, and nothing more. The holding of levees by these officials, distinguished though they be, is, therefore, an 'assumption only redeemed by custom from

ositive vulgarity, and we are glad to think that ^practice in this, little solpny is likely to be

^ÊaÊ^B&è^É^U^Êsaai

discontinued. There may be some reason for it in those much larger communities where the position of a Governor is little else if not cere-monious. But in our own colony there is no rea-

son for it whatever, and, were it only for the . sake of the unfortunate clerks and Government I

officials one of whose rare yearly holidays is com- | jletely spoilt by this levée business, the silly per- . 'ormance should certainly be abandoned. I