Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Wednesday 23 January 1884, page 6


GLONOUEIiY.

FROM OUR OWN OOIirti:SÇONDBÏ*T.|

January 1.

THE general expectation of a lively Christmaster has not been disappointed. Two' days' racing, (one day's cricketing, and one day's athletic sports enabled all classes to enjoy themselves more or less, and all classes patronised the outdoor entertainments provided for them, notwithstanding extreme boat and an unclouded sky, tempered, though, by strong winds during the days following Christmas and up to the close of the New Year's festival. At the races, J. King's ch.h. Teddington won the principal events and £100 for his owner. Mr. C. W. Rowe took the major portion of the residuum of the £200 of added money for various races. The attendance was limited, owing entirely, I think, to the great heat which prevailed. The height of summer is a most unseasonable time for racing, and the inevitable concomitant of turf sportthe imbibition of extravagant quantities of ardent spirits aggravates the discomfort experienced by a naturally overheated blood. Settling passed off very satisfactorily. A crowd of spielers-the very essence of Sydney larrikinism- obtained a footing on the course, but their Jeremy Diddler tricks did not "fetch" many; in fact, I but mention them with the object of exposing their youthful villainy. The cricket match resulted in the country team making a sorry exhibition of batting, only eight runs being obtained in the first innings and eighteen in the second. The bowl-ing was all round good and the fielding fair, and though the town team gained the victory over their adversaries by nine wickets, probably had the match been played out their total would not require a quarter of a century to record it. The athletic sports were warmly contested, and prize money to the amount of Jl'öO was paid away. Mr. Warden Uhr acted as umpire in the cricket match (with Mr. W. A. Martin for the country) and as judge and director of the sports, and his urbanity, patience, and careful attention to the claims of all the contestants, entailing long hours of exposure to the rays of a roasting sun, entitle him to greater en-comiums than these correspondence columns

give publicity to,

Our leading townsmen have been recently attacked by an epidemic of a type common to the possessors of land, traders, well-to-do miners, say they want to govern themselves. The initiatory step is, of course, to cut the painter from the established Carpentaria Divisional Board, and secondary proceedings for the erection of the flourishing mining, pastoral, and settled districts on the Cloncurry and tributorial waters into an independent division have already progressed so far that the Gazette will soon proclaim the new boundaries. A Progress Committee is also about to be constituted, ostensibly for the purpose of acting as li clothes brush on our member by rubbing him up occasionally. The

terrible distance we are from headquarters is a drawback to the development of the mineral riches of this region. Three teams arrived here from Normanton last week which have absorbed four calendar months in the journey. Certainly this is an exceptionally long trip, but ten weeks is by no means an unusual period for bullock teams to take. If over a district required a railway to the sea-board, and is entitled to it, that district is the Cloncurry. Men who have been in this locality for eighteen years, digging, mining, labouring, loading, and idling by turns, still stick to it in

unassailable confidence of a tidal wave of prosperity rolling over it when the first sod of the Cloncurry and Hughenden, or Normanton Railway, shall be turned.

Mining operations are s' ck in consequence of the drought, and there,' is but little news of interest to chronicle ; In fact, I think the rattling good prospects of the Uncle Tom Com

party is about the on by item deserving of

mention.