AUSTRALIAN ROMANCES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1736, 10 January 1888, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN ROMANCES

In his reminiscences of Victoria, Dr Oameron Lets says :—'• Though the country Itself la by no means romantio, the lives of many of its inhabitants have been so. I have listened with wonder — not, £ confess, sometimes oninixed with doubt— to the most extraord'nary s'ories of the fortnues and misfortanes of men, of millionaires who have made lucky speculations m mines, and squatters whcae flocks and herds are coantletß. The oareers of some of those oae meiti have been stranger than anything pourtmyed m fiction. I have heard of a man strolling into & land sale without a peony In bis pocket-, baying reoklesßly, selling next day at au immense profit, and so layin? the foundation of a great fortune ; of a shoeblack m a hotel who invested his savings m silvermine shares when they wera at a low ebb, and who la now a large landholder and silver king. Suoh tales are constantly relate 1 for the regale* ment of the traveller. 1 was pointed on< au o!d gentleman who aa a boy ran nway from his home io Dundee to see King Georue IV. land at Leith Afraid to rerurn to his parents, he took aervioe as a boy on board a ship, came to the colony, subsequently went Home, purchased the very vessel that brought His Majesty to Scotland, and sailed her oat with a freight of poods, from whloh he mtde snob a profit that be was able to bay land, and 1« now a wealthy man Men who have beeo long m the colony are also fond of telling their adventures m the olden time. ' I've swam, sir, th& Murray, holding on to my horse's tail.' ' I've lain flu on a pain m a thunderstorm, sir, and felt my hair all standing on end with th« electricity streaming through it 1 ' • I beard of some la ad on the BUlybongs that was given up because of the blacks. I vent down there with a bullock dray and took up the station, held my own, and here I am.' One go* 8 rather tired at times of thia kind of thiog, also of endless talk about sheep, fonr-tooth rams, store cattle and fata. Vat with all the peuple Are interesting and the bores are few, though the few are very bad "