Northern Territory Times and Gazette (Darwin, NT : 1873 - 1927), Friday 26 April 1895, page 2


Notos of the; Woek.

It was reported in Adelaide that

the Resident was offered the Crown Prosecutorship, which also carries with it the Crown Solicitorship, the two worth about £2000 a year. This has

been denied.

Good travelling: Mr. Watt left London on the 14th March and arrived at Port Darwin on the 23rd April.

Parliament re-assembles on the 6th

June, according to information sup-plied to Mr. Griffiths by the Premier, JFroin the same source the junior mem-ber learnt that the Royal Commission leaves for Queensland this week ; also that the report of the Resident not returning is, so far as the Premier knows, only a wild guess, the alleged offer of the Crown Prosecutorship being also a fairy tale.

Arrivals during the week : Mr. and Mrs. Jolly and children, Mrs. J. C Hendry, Messrs W. Griffiths, Hugh Watt, and J. C. Hillson.

Geologist Browne, in a report under another heading, speaks well of someauriferous country he has come across in the centre of the Territory. Years ago Adam Johns and Phil. Saunders bad a notion of trying that country, but its inaccessibility was against it.

The Rev. Mr. Milikan and Mrs.

Milikan and family departed in the Menmuir. There was no service in consequence on Sunday, and the church

will be closed until the arrival of his successor. We have been asked to call attention to the fact that thedeficit in the Wesleyan Church ac-count was cleared off prior* to Mr. Milikan's departure, due to the energy of a few goodnatured individuals. Mr. Harvey started the list and in a few hours the required amount (about £31)

was raised. The new minister there-fore will start his terni with a clean sheet.

Racing men may -be.,thankful for the reminder that nominations for the principal handicaps at the Katherine are due with the secretary on or before Monday next.

Mr. Griffiths leaves for the country districts next Tuesday. Mr. Watt may possibly leave for the Howley to-day.

It was not the race mare Miss Sayle that was found dead near Strong, as reported last week.

The adjourned meeting of the Liter-ary and Debating Society takes place this (Friday) evening.

8porting gossip from the Katherine under date April 22nd :--" Four N.T. Stakes candidates are now training on the old course, whilst Rubie, the lastyear winner, is doing work at Spring-vale. She is still very fat, and as pretty as paint, and has developed into a very strong little mare ; she should take a lot of beating, but I am afraid! she will not have such an easy victory as last year, as both Greta and Dusk are looking well and doing good work, to say nothing of the big gun, Young Village Lad, who has not made his appearance here yet. Memento is doing well, but I'm afraid the son of Alcaldi is too young to do much good this year amongst such warm company. Se irle is going through a quiet prepar-ation and is looking a little better than when he arrived here, but he will take a lot of careful nursing to get him well in time. Mr. R. Smith is somewhere on this'side of Powell's Creek with horses. He bas been, running horses for many years in the Alice Springs district, and it is on the cards that he will have one or two good ones with him. The racecourse will be cleared in a few days and the outside track thrown open for working.

Railway Revenue-Earning for week ended April 20th, =£277.

Cricketers not already informed might like to know that the new green string matting and nets, and stumps and bails, arrived ex Tsinan, and are a vast improvement on the material now in use. The cricket pitch having been repaired, the new matting, &c, will be used for the first time on Saturday.

Tt has been decided to repeat " The Magistrate " on the night of Saturday, the 25th May, admission rates to be

reduced to 3s. and Is.

The first Dramatic Club social of the new series is dated for Monday next, the 29th April, and it has also been decided to hold a fancy dress ball during the latter part of July.

It is poor comfort to know that the jetty works may " probably " be com-menced within six months. Surely six months is a long enough range to wipe out all improbability. But then South Australia always was uncomfort-ably vague and uncertain about doing anything for the Territory. She may yet have to submit the jetty plans to a royal commission. To us the delay seems absolutely ridiculous, as it is now some months since the expenditure waa agreed to, and what on earth they want to take six months more to deliberate upon is beyond our compre-

hension.

In connection with the repairs to the Pine Creek to Katherine road, Mr. Griffiths has been advised by the Jlfinister for the Territory that a sum of about £200 is available for the work, which is to be commence! at

once.

The death was announced a few days ago of Mr. Samuel Brown, one of the identities of olden times in the Territory. Deceased will be best re-membered by those who had much to do with Southport when that now ex-tinct village was the hub of trade here. He wooed fortune there as a baker, an hotelkeeper, and as the proprietor of a large blacksmith and wheelwrighting establishment, but those were bad days for keeping money, and though he had first-class opportunities for making a rich competence out of his trading ventures, he overlooked the chances. Eventually, when the railway cut Southport out of existence, he retired no better off than when he first opened there. His death should recall to many a one memories of the good old days when the teamsters held the sway and made Southport a place of perpetual entertainment. After the abandonment of the "city of sandflies" Mr. Brown established the Coffee Palace in Palmerston, which he carried on until there was no object in carry-ing on any longer, and he then went south, where he died. He was the father of Mr. S. T. Brown, Mrs. J. Cleland, Mrs. J. Keenan, Mrs. N. Byrne, and Mrs. Marchant and one unmarried daughter : and grandfather to nearly a score of youngsters.

The ss Menmuir arrived from the East on Saturday, and left for south on Sunday morning. The Tsinan and Darwin arrived from Sydney and Singapore, respectively, within an hour of each other on Tuesday.

A mild plague scare has been created in the East by a curious offer made by the authorities in Hongkong. Late papers from that quarter state that the Government has offered a reward of 50 dolías to any of its subordinate officers who may detect and report bona fide cases of bubonic plague. This probably gave sise to the report that another outbreak of plague had taken place, although the Government is said to have had only the object of keeping its employees on the qui vive for a recurrence of the pest. The danger of a fresh outbreak is admitted, as the hot weather is fast setting in, and the filthy portions of the city, which proved the hot-bed of the disease last year, have never been destroyed by fire as was advocated and intended. We were informed some days ago that the ss Changsha would not come along-side the wharf on her arrival here, and it was thought£|jJiat decision was due *° ner C0&ÊÊÈÊÊk an infected port.

Mr. W.^Griffiths, M.P., returned from the East on Tuesday in the ss Darwin. His trip, included two visits to Hongkong, a run to Shanghai, a few days in Japan, and ditto in Singa-pore and Java. He had a pleasant time throughout his excursion, the most unusual experience in which was when the Menmuir, carrying a cargo of lead (contraband of war), was hailed in the Formosa Channel by a Japanese cruiser, but escaped in a fog. At Hongkong Mr. Griffiths was the guest of the Governor, Sir William F. Robinson, to whom he carried letters of introduction from Lord Kintore. He picked up a good deal of inform ation about one thing and another en route, but saw no .particularly good openings for Territory trade. The ss Darwin made a special trip to Batavia in order that Mr. Griffiths might have a glance around that interesting port. Signs of the war were apparent in the parts of Japan visited, but nothing

afforded more entertainment- than the cock-sure attitude of the little Japs, who strutted about with swords nearly as big as themselves and looked as if they owned the whole earth. One im-pression formed by Mr. Griffiths was that the English were hated by the Japanese. Another was that the Japanese are casting envious eyes on Australia and mean to attempt a seizure when the right monvent arrive.s. Formosa.,,, The. Phillipines, and Austra-lia is their plan of conquest ; the first they have already secured. Unless someone has been "pulling the leg" of our energetic member, this revel-ation about Japan's designs should be rather a startler to the southern par liaments. Mr. Griffiths, at all events, appears to be satisfied that he has good warranty ..for believing that it is no idle boast that tim Mikado wishes to rule over Australia. The junior mem-ber- will remain here for two or three weeks and then tal» steamer to Adel-aide, where he hopes to' arrive in time to be'in his. place :at the opening of Parliament. ..»...-.

Chinese tributors on the Pine Creek Prospecting and Mining Company's ground have, just put through 10 tons of stone from the. Sultana claim for an

average of upwards of G^ ounces to the ton, the total of gold forwarded to the bank being 66oz. A crushing of 50 tons from another part of the Sultana will be going through in about a fort-night. A good many Chinese are prospecting on the Company's Monarch and Newcastle leases. ^

Oscar Wilde epigrams from his play " Lady Windermere's Fan ":-" I can resist everything-except temptation. . . Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality. . There are only two tragedies in life-not getting what you want and getting it; the last is the worst. . I am the only person in the world I should like to know thorough-ly." The criminal court will be a great help to him in this last respect.

We have been requested to publish the following financial return in con-nection with the production of "The Magistrate ":-Receipts-Sale of re-served seats, £22 16s ; back seats, £3 7s; total, £26 3s. ExpenditureRent of Hall and lighting, &c., £2 14s 6d : printing, £2 j cartage, £2 10s j souvenirs, £16 Is 6d : incidental ex-penses, £2 18s; total £26 3s. The revenue and expenditure just meet. We understand the souvenirs arrived by the Tsinan mail and are quite up to expectations. They are to be presen-ted to the Misses Byrne at the repe-tition of " The Magistrate."

An "alphabetical" cricket match starts at 2 p.m. sharp, on Saturday, the teams picked being:-A to L: Airey, P. Bryant, H. Bryant, Becker, Barnes, Green, George, James, Leggat, Cleland, Kilian. M to Z: Price, Sabine, Sims, Tracey, Williamson, Weedou, Wright, Raymond, Shana-han, Mayhew, McFeat.

Ford, one of Stoddart's eleven, was a through passenger per ss Tsinan. Unfortunately the ship did not stay in port long enough to give him an opportunity of displaying his batting

talent.

The necessary application forms for women wishing to have their names placed on the Electoral Roll nere cir-culated by the Postal authorities dur-ing the week.

A reference contained in our last issue to a new hemp plant has been slightly corrected and added to by Mr. N. Holtze, the curator of our state nursery. Its botanical name is Flourcroya gigantea, and it does not " grow for ever," as previously stated, but only like any other flourcroyàs, i.e., until the flower spike is produced, after which the plant dies. The age at which the plant flowers varies; the one in our Gardens did so when about

seven years old. In poor sandy soil it produced leaves 6 feet in length. It flowered in the beginning of this year, and as a consequence there will be several thousand young plants avail-able for distribution next wet season, should our planters think of going in for its cultivation. A company has already been formed in Queensland to cultivate the plant.