MR W. J. BARRY AT BUNINYONG.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 140, 16 July 1872, Page 5

MR W. J. BARRY AT BUNINYONG.

By the mail which arrived last Friday, our townsman, Dr Jas. Corse, received a copy o' the Ihinhvjon'i Ti'lci/mph, of date 2-tth June, wliich he kindly handed to ns for perusal. It contains an account of a kangaroo hunt which came oil’ in the neighbourhood of Bnllarook Forest (about seven miles from Ballarat) on the 1J Ist of the same month. Some twenty horsemen took part in the hunt, and among them was our old acquaintance Mr William Jackson Barry, who appears to have added several hairbreadth escapes to tin; long catalogue of his colonial adventures. “ Soda and a dash,” in describing the various “mounts,” says:—“Mr Barry, from New / ad and, —only three days arrived,—was on Mr Burrough’s Alfred colt, and very badly the colt behaved. Mr Barry rode him with honest pluck and judgment.” In another place the writer says: —-“Down a blind creek, as I breasted the hill, I heard acoo-o, and looking back I saw my friend Barry and the Alfred colt in a very laughable situation : the colt was on his rump in tire creek, and Barry blowing beside him. ‘ I say, Soda, what shall I do with this brute?’ —‘Oh, get him up ; come mi.’— ‘ It’s all very well to say get him up.’ But he did : quick was the word, for we had nearly lost the beauties.” Over stiff log fences and ugly water-jumps the huntsmen followed the music of the hounds until the latter got on the “mutton track,” . when they were whipped off by the master, ! and the hunt terminated. The jump at the Durham creek is described as “a stupid, ugly one, which nearly cost Mr Bam- his

life, and the colt a dive in ten feet of water; and being a stranger, it wasn’t fair to lead him.” After the horsemen had returned from the hunt, they sat down to a dinner improvised at the Crown Hotel for the purpose of making a present ition to Mr Rowlands, the Master of the Hounds. About twenty sat down to dinner ; an' l after the company had drank Mr Rowland. * health in ohampagiu, that gentleman was presented with a purse containing £57 13s. Cd. In the subsequent proceedings of the evening our friend Barry figured prominently. He first “gavea comic song of the Maoris, entitled “My Fair Maid,”’ then a single verse of “Ax my Eye,” and lastly “Nelson’s Tomb.” “The Health of Mr Barry” was proposed by Mr T. Selleck, and in response Mr Barry said “be had been in the colonies fo ty-four years, his principal and first place of business being New South Wales, He had recently returned from New Zealand, and he was happy to say he was now worth £BOOO a year.” Those of Mr Barry’s friends who have faith in his veracity will rejoice to hear of his good fortune, and will confidently await his return to Cromwell with tire golden fruits of hi; u grandmother's legacy.”