Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1875), Thursday 9 February 1860, page 8


BUSH SPORTS IN AUSTRALIA.

It seems that there has lately been some rare sport in the squatting districts. According to a southern paper,

the district of Warnambool has been the scene of a bar-barous attack upon about a thousand jackeroos, wh0

were driven in from the wilds by mobs of radicals on horseback; and having been bailed up between two spurs of a lofty range, were attacked right and left by the radi-

cals, who left hundreds of them dead upon the field. The feats of the jaokeroos are described aB most sur-prising, and would entitle many of them to take a high rank amongst the vaultera and acrobats at present per-forming at the Frlnoe of Wales Theatre. One of them was observed to jump clean over a horse and bis rider ; another leaped a seven-foot fence; and soores darted through the wire fencing like greased lightning,- and were off to nowhere before anybody missed them. The best of the fun is that the Warrnambool joke was too subtle to be understood by our usually wide-awake contemporaries the sporting journals, both of whom swallowed the bait

held out, took the hunted land-grabbers to be veritable kangaroos, and favoured their readers with indignant

denunciations of this barbarous battue, flavoured with a strong expression of desire to "walk into" the cruel huntsmen. For our part, we smoked the pipe of

serenity with the most exquisite enj03 ment while read"lng of the entrapment of those ookorne old men kan.

garoos who eat double the quantity of grass that they -.-ought to do, and only two considerations interfered with - our gratification-one being that the news WSB too good

to be true, and the other, that we were not thereto see the sport if it had happened. How we should have delighted in giving a " topper" to that heavy six-fsoter who carried his lumberingtail at a flying leap over seven ? feet of timberi' And wouldn't that aorobatio genius

have found himself astonished if be bad tried to jump over us on horseback I Tben, how interesting it must bave '. been to have seen the lawyers presiding at the wire netting

* through which they drew the more limber jaokeroos--.-'the''poor, one-hundred-tbousand-aore gentry-like a : hlaok-feliow pulling a snake out of its jeoket. Talk of

the cruelly of tbe thing I Why it must have been gio. -riouB I Tko tears of our sporting friends have been

abed in vain ; and we fear that they have, in profea. atonal sporting parlance, been regularly "sold," by the

wioked wags of Warrnambool.

But the bunt at Warrnambool was nothing compared . with the late eleoloral mest on tba squatting

landa of.- New England. This sporting event

was brought under notice of tho Assembly by Hoskins,, on Tuesday. A heavy bet seems to have been mada as to who should get the greatest number of votes for the -illustrious Rusden, whose trumpet tones have, alas ,- owing. to the " fluke" of successful medioerity, ceased

foe a time to shaka the walls of the Assembly and the sides of ita members. The first step was to get Forster to appoint a number of boxas all over the country, ..-into . which the straggling voters might be

driven, as nobody knew whioh way they would head when they were onoe - ?tarted. Forster, with the genuine inatinots of an old

pastoral sportsman, at onoe entered into the plan. . .Every shepherd's but, watohman'a box, and sheep yard,

on all .the squatting atationa throughout the distriat, was -appointed a polling booth, to be converted, into a poll

axing booth, if the ela-atiwrefused to poll without axing. Eight or ten housara-aaajaaaT squatters had their kitohens appointed polling placet,.aud half-a-dozen obtained a - similar distinotion for their pantries, whare rounds of

beef, bottles of pickles and of: rum, and other pastoral delioaoies were supplied in great profusion. One influ-ential jookeroo, who ht-uag omlai.Uie " Squatters' Arms," had a polling plaoa in tri*. kra44t-aassv while the landlord managed to get one a41powarf.isr ajta.bar.

All things being ready-, tjte- kt*»t» of the sportsmen ' beat high with expectation aa.the polling doy drew nigh.

A brilliant cavalcade assembled early in tb« morning on Saliabury Plain (fox tlure ia a Salisbury Plain in Neu - England, aa wall aa itt. Uva old one.) The variety of the

dresses, atad th*BmfUf.ot the equipments, gave additional interest la Ut«.teeta». The man with theViotor Emmanuel mouBtaohes wa« «tt!r.a <.> «" megaut

loose hunting shirt of real red serge, with . highly --picturesque hole in the bsok, and carried an armament of

.twa bottlnn nt n-..«' porter, suspended from bis saddle 'bow. Several sportsmen had oorksorews depending from . .thole necks, aa badges of distinotion, and nearly all wero r arzaadiwith pocket pistols, obarged to tbo muzzle with

inflammatory liquid, from the manufactory of M. Martel!. The'Ieader of the hunt engrossed particular attention»and every eye at onoe marked him out as the head of the band.. From the dingy cabbage-tree on bis head, down, ¡.. to the grotesque attire of his feet,-one of wbioh sported

-a tbeless jack-boot, while the other was invested with« sheepskin slipper-all was in perfect keeping. His eyes, - -one of wbioh glistened with the « morning dew " of the - nearest" public," while the other was darkened from the

effeota of a reeent encounter with the radicals, were ' turned with something of molanoholy to the diminished

. contenta of bis pockot-pistol, wbioh he had haifa mind - to return to its depository, but evidently didn't like to. . At last, with a sigh for his own weakness, ha elevated ' the muzzle, and, reokless of consequences, dischsrgod

the oontents into his mouth I But, instead of falling dead . from the saddle-a proceeding evidently unsuited to bis . taste, he flung the pistol from bim with . roar, elevated . 'himself in the stirrups with a shriok, and .then, striking - his ons rustry spur into the side of his shaggy steed, - started off with a yell, the whole troop clattering at " .his heels, like so many dogs with tin kettles at their

?? tails.

The first gamo started consisted of a soore of diggers on their way to Armidale, on "the popular tioket," These they rushed at onoe, and tried to bead, np to the sheep runs j but the diggers dodged them oleverlyi applying their thumbs to their noses, and grinningly asking them questions as to the oonsoiousness of their i mothers respeoting their abaoncefrom home. Finding - these fellows rather too many for them, the sportsmen

made off to tba westward, and. were not long before they - "found." At about . quarter of a mile distant a peace-

ful shepherd was tending his flock. Giving the view - holloa the loader dashed at him, and tba shep,

"herd took to-his heels. In a few minutes he

- .waa joined by a stockman, three hut, -keepers, and four .other shepherds, and the

excitement now eommenoed in earnest.' Gathering - numbers as the abase proceeded, " the ' hunted electors

soon amounted' to about half a hund red. The horsemen ' rounded them up, and headed thom on to, the polling.

booths in gallant style, every now and then picking out >three or four, and running thom into the nearest pens, ' huts, or sheepyards. By those moanB, after a flue run

Of twp hours, the whole of the game waa disposed of, -and the huntera bad time to refresh themselves, whioh

they prooeedod to do with groat spirit and enorgy.

It now bocarae necessary to finish tho vlotory. In eaoh of the sheep pens and other polling-booths there was a - small box with two curtains. Into these the voters wore

driven one by one, eaoh independent eleotor drawing - one ourlain dose behind him, to congeal his proceedings, - while bis employer poked his hoad through a bole in tho

other ourtaln, in order to see that tho proper, names- wero struok out of the voting papers. . 'The result was a perfect triumph for tho ba'lot, and

tho proceedings of tho day oonoludod with a most hosp!, 'table distribution of beef and damper, with as muab liquid accompaniment as the thirsty huntsmen could

conveniently spare.

Novor before was suoh a glorious day's sport witnosaod in all New England. It 1B to bo repeated at every future elootipn ; and Forstor, the dlaooverer and patron of the system, intonds not only to extond it to othor pastoral distriots, but to try it on in the metropolis. The Chief Clerk's room in eaoh Government, offloo is to be immodeatoly doolarod a polling-booth, and tho publia pound at tbs market is to bo tho oentral polling placo for tho oliy-tho mounted polioo being employed to run in tho doctors. We congratulate tho country on this proof of the Premier'.) impartiality, and look forward with plea, aurablo anxiety to a realisation in Sydnoy, of tho exciting sports of Now England, to whioh Iloakius'haa ?0 oonslderatoly drawn our attention,