South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), Wednesday 13 January 1847, page 2


TO THE EDITORS OF THE 'SOUTH AUSTRALIAN REGISTER.'

Gentlemen—' D.H.F.,' of the Gazette, must be a ' psychological curiosity.' I imagine he has cultivated his whiskers rather more than logic, and 'adjusted a stray curl.' rather tan his language. He tells us

popinjay fashion, that no person .'known to the Editor of the Register was at the Governor's Ball.' Lack-a-daisey! Let us, after recovering from our consterna-tion under this awful calamity, close our books and shut up shop! Here we are irretrievably 'dished and diddled.' Let us clothe ourselves in sackcloth, and sit in ashes, at the melancholy announcement that 'D.H.F.' is the exclusive depository of all the talent, respectabi-lity, and real worth in the colony. But from the posi-tive manner in which 'D.H.F.' speaks, it would seem that the Registers friends are also known to the scented exquisite himself. Some persons, therefore, known to 'D.H.F.' were not at the Ball. Really those same persons have a right to demand an explanation. Powder and ball need not deter them from making so reasonable a request. Toys are at present plentiful, and popguns arc cheap. Whether the band played ' God Save the Queen,' or 'Jim Crow,' I know not ; but one thing I assert, that among persons accustomed to gentlemanly feelings and the courtesies of good society, considerations for the 'unceasing attention' of the Governor would be a suffi-cient 'warning' not 'gratuitously and offensively' to 'prolong the festivities' beyond 'broad daylight.' I may hint, to 'D.H.F.' that the extolled ' unceasing at-tentions' should, perhaps, have prompted him to be one of the first and not last 'to leave a most happy party.' If the Gazette's postcript to 'D.H.F.' means any thing, it libels the guests, and pays a poor compliment to their good sense and notions of propriety. Your re-port, Gentlemen, did not impugn the Governor's hospi-tality. No unprejudiced person could imgine that any 'mean insinuation' was couched in that report; nor, pro-bably, is there any one doubts the Governor's hospi-tality. Could the visitors have ' separated in high good humour'— had they been conscious either of 'bundling' or of inhospitality ? To speak of a sensible, joyous, good humoured hint that 'the solemn duties of life must be attended to, as well as pleasure, 'in the same breath with 'unceremonious bundling out of the house,' is to imagine that his Excellency was entertain-ing a set of boon companions, men on the town, or Beau Brummels. and not a respectable company of sober,

industrious, and intelligent colonists, their wives and daughters. Verily 'D.H.F.' and the Gazette must be 'hard up' for a subject when they descend to such frivolities, and occupy any space of a public newspaper with such ina-nities. I am, Gentlemen, Yours respectfully, Tim Bobbin. Mondny last was the tenth anniversary of the first sheet of printing being struck off in the colony. To commemorate the event the proprietor of this paper, with the types of which the feat, for a feat it may be called at that time, was per-formed, entertained every one connected with the literary, commercial, and mechanical departments of his establishment to a dinner at the ' Auction Mart Tavern,' and partook with them the plea-sures of a very happy evening. The company comprised twenty-six, including one gentleman who was in the office when the first sheet was printed, and several who have been connected with it for a large part of the ten years. Among the healths drunk was the very appropriate one of the original proprietors of the South Australian Register, for which Mr W. K. Thomas, son of the head partner in the old firm, returned thanks. Nor was the health of the late proprietor, Mr James Allen forgotten. Meetings of this kind tend very much to promote and preserve good feeling between the employer and employed. It is some months since a similar meeting took place connected with this Office, ' the father ' of all in the colony, and it was gratifying to notice that though increased business had introduced four or five fresh faces, not an old one was missing except from accidental detention. It is but justice to compliment Mr Payne on the goodness of the dinner and atten-dance.

There is now growing, and in full blossom, in the garden of Mr John Bowman, of the Great North Road, a beautiful, and to us quite a new variety of flower, as novel as it is interesting. It was raised from seed brought from the Australian desert by Captain Sturt's party. The flower stalks are three in number, shooting up to about a foot in length, from a low, creeping plant, the leaves of which are similar to those of the Bladder Senna — a shrub well known in most of the Adelaide gardens. On each stalk there are six flowers, of a rich scarlet colour, with a large spot of jet black in the centre. Each flower is about one and a-half to two inches in length, and as unlike Australian flowers in colour and form, as it exceeds them all in beauty and splendour. On the afternoon of Thursday week the 'bosky dells' and "dry creeks" in and about Gawler Town, were converted into lagoons and rivers by torrents of rain, accompanied by such continuous gusts of wind, thunder, and lightning, as had never before occurred within the memory of that oblivious and fugitive per-sonage, 'the oldest inhabitant.' After flooding most of the pine huts and houses to the depth of eighteen inches, the accumulated waters made a river of Mur-ray-street, turned the long siege of Mr Calton's kitchen into a blockade, as some of the besiegers expressed it ; and at length became a potent tributary to the 'right' river, carrying with it a large portion of a town allot-ment, without giving time for any discussion about the current price.