Northern Territory Times and Gazette (Darwin, NT : 1873 - 1927), Friday 8 June 1900, page 2


ITevs and Notes.

A few good albums for sale- at the

Times Office.*

Drink Dawson's- WhißkyT the best in themarket. May be, had atjd} fare» "

st, ed xy

Saturday, . Jane' 2,,.- amounted .4o

£328.J * . . .. -í> - .«,

The Ghingtu left Thursday Island on Thursday morning, fch inst., and is due here on Sunday afternoon.

Preliminary work iii connection with the construction of the new jetty is going on apace. Some scattered workshops have been erected along the embankment leading to the old jetty, and the staging from which the work will be carried»on has been started from the stone abutment, But beyond this very littl^videncë of progress is visible to i^^ «ninitiated outsider. But when jpn«e the; work is in full swing, we presjw^ç ojrôer will soon be evolved out of^hajpe^rrt '^t0s^ .

The horses at pre^nt i^i train in Palmerston . numberiJe^yex^/hutr we hear of several trtbers likely tot, put, 1n an appearance frciin different localities, and on totting these np there seems, reasonable ground« fer the: conclusion that the forthcotoiftgc meeting of the P.3X11.C. will eqo«l¿>if^it does not eclipse, any previous meeting held here, both as to the fields and also in the

quality of the horses taking part¿

From data to hand it .seems almost a

certainty, that 20 horses at least will nominate for the various; events, a»d the nominations for the Bracelet jÄo

miseto be particülarlyrnutnerdus. "JJ

In connection; with' the announce^ 1 ment in our telegrams recently, that *

the elections in connection with the

Federal Parliament would probably take place in Septteraber, Or" October next", . the following 'extract rf rom an article on the .^Pi^l^iin^ieFo^Fèderà* tion,' by Sir Samuel GAffithÎB,G.C.M.G, may not be .without7 interest, and

would seemto show that matters are not likely to be so rapidly advanced as to permit of the elections talcing place at so early a date as that mentioned : ' As soon as the Act has been passed, and copies of it have reached Australia, but not sooner, it will be practicable for the Colonial Parliaments to proceed to pass their Federal Electoral Distri-bution Acts. This, it may be pre-sumed, will be done by grouping to-gether as single electorates, for federal purposes, several of. the existing constitutencies ; but the task can hardly be considered a formal one, and may occupy some months, or even a longer period. In any case, the Parliaments can hardly address themselves to this duty before June, 1900.'']' And, in view of the uncertainty that must neces-sarily exist in a case where separate action is to be takerô**by five Parlia-ments, the proceedings of any one of Which may be interrupted by a Minis-terial defeat, followed, perhaps, by a general election, it may be considered unwise to advise the Queen to appoint the day for the establishment of the Commonwealth until this preliminary legssla tion has been passedV The Pro: clamation appointing the day must be [issued in England and promulgated in Australia a reasonable time before the appointed day. It is hardly possible r-that this day can.be earlier than the .year; 1901.*

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Horse owners and trainers should not forget ?Jiafc nominations for the Palmerston Cup, Flying Handicap, Lidies Bracelet, and Breedeis' Stakes are to lw» in the Secretary's hands hy 9 pm. on Saturday ni»ht, June 16. The Inndicaps will be declired five d iys later.

Tenders are bein« called in our ad-

vertising columns for the purchase of a gold mining lease in the assigned estite of H. Morris, situ ited at Wandi, and known is 'The Boulder' claim. When first discovered this claim was con-

sidered something phenomenal, and some rich crushings were obtained from

the surface stone.

Adelaide Quiz of March 29 contains a laughable caricature of our junior member, V. L Solomon, Esq., under the heading of ' What might have

been-Solomon as General Booth.' The face is the face of * V. L.' with

the exception of the pronouncedly Hebraic proboscis of the famous 'General/ anti the effect of the un-natural combination ni decidedly

ludicrous.

A captain in the Royal Navy writes recently to London Times: 'As an , instance of the extent te which Ger

' man animosity to us is carried,. I beg

to call your attention to au incident arising out of the recent visit of the battleship Deutschland to Portsmouth. The men were granted the usual leave, ctar r*naV on leaving the shore to. rejoin their

ship, in their own boats and under the eyes, of their own officers,, three cheers for "the Boer Republics were lustily given. No similar case of had taste and insolence has ever come to my &f [ knowledge.

A rather fetching tableau was- on view at the E. S. and A. Bank, Palmerston,, on Monday- morning, in the shape of eight bars of solid gold, the result of the cleaning up at the Howley Gold Minesr Ltd. No infor-mation was forthcoming as to the number of tons of stone crushed to

produce the result on view, nor as to the exact weight a-nd value ófthe gold exhibited ; a tally was being -kept of the various guesses made by ^sight-seers in the latter direction, and the wide divergence of opinion was rathe* amusing -the different estimates rang-ing from about 900 ounces to 17 or 18,000 ounces.

A Wyndham correspondent writes ; ' The corming race meeting is about the only topic of conversation here just now. For this fixture there are over a score of horses in work. Arrow, the Alice Springs horse, is a good sort and is looking well ; he will about win the big money. Bald Eagle is looking far

better than when he raced at Palmers-

ton : he is fully ar cwt. bigger^ and stands a big chance of pulling off a race or two at the meeting. Cyclone met with an accident, and has been thrown out of work ; he was shaping very well previous to the mishap. Quite a number of horses have broken down since training operations started. Two or three of the*horses at present here will journey to P.D. and compete at the August meeting.'

A Brock's Creek correspondent sends »iqr^iy foiifngjrn» under date June nth : ' On Tuesday evening a rew ot the leading residente of Brock's Creek gave Mr. R. Walker a complimentary dinner at the Federation Hotel, on the occasion of his leaving the district. Mr. A. J. Giles was in 'the chair, and in proposiu¿ the toast of the evening, remarked how much the community regretted the departure of Mr. R. Walker, who during his past eighteen months residence amongst them, had secured the friendship of everyone, and

he trusted that wherever he went success would attend him. Several others expressed their good wishes in suitable terms, and in the course of the evening some capital songs and recita-tions were rendered by various mem-bers of the company the good old song " Auld Lang Syne " bringing the even-ing to a close/

A strangely powerful article from the pen of Rudyard Kipling appears in London Times of March 23, under the singular title ' The Sin ,£f Witchcraft.' The interpretation of the mysterious heading is to be found in the fifteenth chapter ^S3rd verse) of First Book of Samuel, where it is written ' For rebel-lion is as the sift of witchcraft.' The article is a scathing denunciation of the spirit of rebellion rampant throughout Cape Colony long previous to and ever since the outbreak of the present war,

nd particularly among those persons joying positions of distinction and

ument, who have traitorously made use of those positions to covertly and openly encourage the enemies of the Government whose bread they were eating. It rests with the British pub-

lic to see that these traitors are punished-' When you near, as you will hear, a bowl go up from this side of South Africa, demanding that cer-tain men be put on trial for certain definite offences, do not, I beseech you, shut your ears. There is no need to be vindictive. There is a great need for justice-such justice as is dealt coldly and deliberately, months or years after his crime, to the murderer or the manslayer. They will pray you to let bygones be bygones. They will beguile you and buy men to beguile you with lies of the danger, of increasing race hatred ; they will appeal tearfully to your magnanimity; behind the victories of your men they will shelter them-selves. They will coax, threaten, and bribe, and in the last resort they may turn Queen's evidence. But when that time comes listen at least to the ca e for the prosecution ; take the trouble to read through the affidavits, and see that some of these hoary heads come to the trial. Our own folly and wilful blindness has already given us enough to answer for. We have condoned that for which we are now piying with good lives, but there is no sane need

why we should, at the end, endorse b' dirty little felonies, . . . The men *' who have befouled the colony are J h known. They go abroad ; no man 1 tys a hand upon them ; they h ive become careless in speech and-this is import-ant-in. deed. .. At the proper time

these men can be made the means r f si

saving the reputation of the colony/ Ie

Attention is exiled to the fact that a c1 ince socnl is advertised to tike

place at the 'Town Hall on Mond ly evening next, under the auspices of the P. D. M. and A. Society.

A rather smart shock of earthquake was experienced in Palmerston about 8.30 a.m on Friday morning last, tra- velling apparently from N.W. to S.E. It was sufficiently severe to set doors and windows rattling, but lasted only

a short time.

Corporal Freemm, of Wyndham, was a ptssenger for this port l»y the ss Koonookarra, on Siturday last, his object, we believe, being to take over, on behalf of the West Australian police,

the man William Wheeler and the lubra Maiie, arrested at Wandi re centîy, at the instance of the W. A. authorities, on a charge of hiving

murdered n hilf caste child in the adjacent colony.

Judging from some private advice received from. Wave Hill Station, "Vic-toria River, dated April, the outlook in that locality during the coming dry season was anything but a cheerful one, but as rain is reported to have fallen since then, the prospects may possibly have improved. The total rainfall for the se ison at date had not exceeded two inches, and on many parts of the run not a drop of rain had fallen, and very few of the creeks had run.

Latest reports from» Messrs. Sayle, Keenan, and Jolly's I.X.L. copper mine, near Mount Gardiner, continue to justify the sanguine expectations formed concerning the value of this property when first opened up. The

shaft has now been sunk: in the lode

formation to a depth of 00 feet, the same good class of ore obtaining throughout. At this depth the shaft is making about three buckets of water per day, and a drive is now being put

in on either side the shaft to ascertain the full width of the lode formation. Tenders, due on the 21st inst., are being called for carting 100 ton3 of ore from the mine to Union Town, which looks like satisfactory business.

Iii a private letter from Wave Hill Station, dated April 3rd, the following reference is made to the supposed murder at Campbell's Springs, leported here some weeks ago : ' The natives killed a man about 50 years of age on this run, about 110 miles west of this, about the 2¿rd of March. I camped close alongside him on my way in to Hall's Creek on March 21st., and I ciutioned him and told him to keep* his eye open for the4 natives, as they were not to "be trusted along that way." They must have killed him the day or the day after 1 left him. His horses were poor and he was spelling them on a bit of "good feed. He was- 'working in the Palmerston railway j ard about thrse years ago.' We believe M.-C. O'Kçefe is now making enquiries re spectiug this brutal and apparently unprovoked murder-*-with what result

remains to be seen. "

The N.T.R.C. committee meeting at Tattersall^ on Saturday ¿evening re-sulted in a very good attendance, and a fair amount pf detail business was transacted." The Secretary announced naving receuuu uy . wiim' t» Jm Wyndham nominations of three horses, viz, Arrow, Bald Eagle, and Pickpocket, for several of the events at the forth-coming Palmerston meeting. A pro-position was carried exempting jockeys riding at picnic meetings from disquali-fication ; a renewal of jockey's licence for current year was granted to C. Freer; and Messrs.-Marsh and Hendrie having signified their disinclination to act as handicappers a proposition was unanimously carried that Messrs. McKay and Kirkland be asked to act in conjunction with Mr. E. V. Brown in carrying out this much criticised duty. Another meeting of the com-mittee is fixed to take place to-morrow (Saturday) evening. - - '

News of a rather sensational find of gold in the East Kimberley district has just reached here per private letter. The discovery was made in April last, on the Ruby Plains station, held by

Messrs. T. Cahill and R. Button. The writer says : * As Button was coming home to the station one day, he picked up a speck of gold in a gully about six miles from the house. A few days later he went out to try the gully, and the first thing be dropped across was a nugget weighing 23ozs. 4dwts. He fossicked around for an hour or two, and obtained altogether about £100 worth of gold. Not too had for Kim-berley. The nugget is a grand speci-men of gold, in shape resembling almost exactly the map of Australia.

The likeness is most remarkable, and' all pure gold-no stone.' The writer does not say whether any further work was done in the locality, and tne find is probably only one of those isolated rich *s dabs' for which the Kimberley

district is noted.

The petition praying for the release of Rodney Claud Spencer was/duly despatched by the ss Tsinan last week, and should therefore reach Adelaide in ample time for presentation on the 21st inst. The total of signatures obtained in Palmerston and country districts was 243, and it seems pro-bable that the appeal will be further strengthened by the addition of a num-ber of Adelaide signatures. As respects the local signatures, at any rate, there are good grounds for the assertion "that the great majority of persons signing did so in the full knowledge of what they were asking for, and taking the number of signatures obtained as a criterion, the fact is amply demon-strated that there is a very general feeling throughout the Territory.in favour of Spencer^ release, As the crime for which Spencer has now suffered ten years imprisonment was committed in the Territory, under cir-

cumstances the true Value of which can

only be understood \y those « ho have lived under bice conditions, the fact that the above feeling is shown to exist locally in favor of his release should he given due consideration by the Execu-tive, and not tossed aside on the mis-taken assumption recently advocated by the Beffister, that all petitions, should be regarded as practically worth-

less, s

it j With reference to the complaint

made last week in our colu>nns con-cerning what is termed tlie 'bucket nuisance ' we are giv^ii to understand that under the new contract fur .the removal of ni<rhrsoil this nuisance will

be considerably »hated, if not altogether

abolished.

The sa Airlie left Hongkong on Sunday, with some 525 tons of cargo for this port. The bulk of this large consignment-ahout 4*00 tons-is said! to lie machinery for the Brock's Gold' fields, Ltd, and we believe in addition to this there is also a complete 25'

head battery on board for the N.T* -Goldfields, Ltd., for erection at Yam Creek. If the influx of machinery: iff > to be regarded as any criterion of our

future prospecta, the gold yield of- the " Territory shouhjLshow abnormal de'

velopnients- in tb£.giear future, - -?

The Wyndhffttfcirace meeting 'fe fixed ?* ;.£ to take place on Saturday,. June 23rd, 7 i and* Monday, June 25th ; the settling,

up will take place on the night not the ; * 26th, and the whole affair will wind up*,

with a race ball on the night of the \ .J 27th. Wyndhamites evidently believe in making the very most of their oppor-

tunities when they come along, and : ~* judging from the way things «re spread -out the annuaf race meeting* should mean a week's general holiday at least. The date frved should «oit -'Any ' of the W.A horses nominated-fbt» the Palm»

erston meeting, a*tb*ywiMihave about. > six week« in wtych^toxig«t- over ' the effects of the se» voyage, ,

Wê hear by a side wind that a pro .

position has been made toTthe* Govern-* | ment in the direction of securing' somer > assistance in the formation of a pro-

specting party te examine the conntry -in the vicinity of Blue Mod Bay." We\- -believe the gist of tits proposed ar-

rangement is that the Government ' should supply the necessary rations for four or six men for four or six montis and the prospectors themselves #ill find horses and all other_ necessary equipment. As this offer comes from a well-known man, and would entail

only "a trifling outlay, on; the part:io^ / *. the Government, we should"im«giñfr<- -there' is every reasonable prospect of ita tieing accepted. The importanceof offering every encourageaient to> genuine prospectors, in a country like this, cannot J>e over estimated. At the present moment we can recall only one previous prospecting expedition to this part of the Territory^-many years ago-and that ended disastrously in the spearing of one or two of the partylby the blacks ; but if any re-liance is to be placed on the reports'of those who have been in the vicinity

there are most pit>mising"*indications\ " of the -existence of gold and other minerals; and that being so, a fair and'; square offer of. the above .character, .» where all that is asked '¿or Ja trifling assistance in the shape J of; rations,^ should not be refused without some

very good reason. /.-'. .''<. -; ;:'*

; Many a man originates good ideas»'-;hut is unable te carry them into prac-- r tical effèct,eftherfrom want of teçhni<V\ eal knowledge, or the lack of thatèver> / needfol essential in -the mosOiumble^: of enterprjuos^capital. J A hñ'f&qg¿

^a^^flíKdLdealof attention was jiirec^ . ted to the breedingoFAngora goats .f|¿"

offering a promising field for the estafé. " ~" lishraent of a profitable iridusfrjTiif the '"" .N.T., and one individual iii particular '" advocated the scheme with so much [ earnestness and pertinacity as to earn [ for himself a preß*'which has stuck |

ever since. One result of that discus, r

sion was that a certain sjiecúUtfyél: fav ." ; dividual .did .actually^Jmpprt; from

Queensland four pure.bred Angora -; goats, which were-subsequently pur- { chased by Mr. G. M'Keddio and placed \ on that gentleman's property, at .Shoal \ Bay. Small beginnings "sometíate* " lead to great results, and the gentle- .' man^w|th ¿he prefix - may yet be able

to congratulate-nimself, on hia-iore- \ sight. We learn now that tlie éxperi- \ ment at Shoal Bay hW'been at feast \ so far successful as to* prove" that" the" ' Angora will thrive here on the indi-genous herbage quite-as well,«* the common variety of goat, and* number

of animals bred fixp^thecommóñ goat -by the originally imported Angora sire^ are now running at Shoal^Bay, and the fine silky coats on some of these crossbreds is said to bV nearly,3' if not qaite, equal to that of the pure-bred, animal« We understand that Mr. M'Keddie ia so far satisfied with the net results, of.

his experiment to - date, that .. he has < now made arrangements for the- iiu>

portation of,* five; pure-bred ¿ Angora. - . ' Billys " from a well-known breeding "establishment in Victoria, and,' with ' ordinary luck, the advent of this fresh blood should result in a few years in firmly establishing this valuable breed , of goat in the Territory.

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- "? ^Messrs. A. E. Jolly and Co. have

been appointed SOLE AGENTS for the" Northern Territory for A. VAN HOBO-KEN and Co.'a celebrated A.V.H. Gin*

We are indebted to the courtesy of Mr, Jno. Hendrie for the fact that a special mail for the Victoria River district will leave Pine Creek on the 15th inst.

. It is probable that Corporal Freeman will conclude arrangements with Messrs A. E. Jolly and Co for the conveyance of himself and two prisoners to Wynd-ham in one of the pearling luggers belonging to that firm. An attempt "* was made to secure the services of

the ss Koonookarra for this purpose, but the price asked was, we believe, considered prohibitive. Failing a boat the prisoners will have to be escorted ?. overland-a not too pleasant task for

one .man to undertake.

S -r r * *

.'--' 'The annual general meeting of the

Palmerston ' Institute on Wednesday evening resulted in a record attendance , of members, over twenty persons being

present. Dr. Goldsmith was voted to to the chair. The annual report and balance, sheet was read and adopted,

- an amendment that the latter be re-

turned to the committee for audit ber ing defeated on a show of hands. The

election of officers for the ensuing year was.then proceeded with, and resulted as follows: Mr. Justice Dashwood, president; .Mr. C. J. Kirkland, vicepresident and chairman of committees; " Mr. Peake, hon. sec. and treas.; Mr. H. H. Adcock, librarian ; Committee, Messrs. N. Waters, W. C. P. Bell, H. Pinder, G. M'Keddie, H. Clark, and Dr.,. Goldsmith; book committee, " Messrs. ' Bell, Clark, .and. Dr. Gold' smith ; auditors, Messrs. J. Shanahan and H. Pinder. The annual report showed that close on 300 new volumes havQ.been added to the institute .during the past year, and the balance sheet that' there was a satisfactory credit balance of £36, 4s Sd with which to start the new year.' Inquiries revealed the fact that although .the Institute ;has been in existence for more than 20 years, no auditors had ever previously been formally appointed to examine thesaccounts, and the revelation resul-ted ^in/ the unanimous adoption of a proposition in the direction of amend-ing this slipshod method of conducting "business for the future. Two nomina-tions were, forthcoming for the posi-tion of' secretary, viz., Messrs.' Peake cul A A. Lewis, and a billot resulted in the election of the first-named by a majority »of two votes. For librarian three names were presented, viz., 'Messrs/ Adcock, J. A. V. Brown, and E. Foster, resulting in the -election of Mr.-"Adcock .by an overwhelming majority. Some discussion arising as to whether the rules contained any provision authorising the appointment of auditors, a proposition was carried that the rules be returned to the com-mittee for examination and revision

(if found necessary) before final adop-tion at a special general. meeting. Towards the close of the proceedings a very-hearty vote of. thanks to .the retiring, Ho% Seo. (Mr. A A Lewis) was carried with such "" vigorous accla-

mation as must have satisfied that

gentleman that hisT ten years of con-

tinuous and zealous service in the in-

terests-of the Institutewas fully ap-preciated by the members. ' The 'pro-ceedings dosed with the usual vote of

thanks to the chair.