LECTURES BY THE TICHBORNE CLAIMANT.

Evening Star, Issue 3271, 14 August 1873, Page 3

LECTURES BY THE TICHBORNE CLAIMANT.

Our (Sydney Morning Herald) London correspondent writes : —The “Claimant” is very quiet at present, but it must not be supposed that be is silent. He has given up his popular addresses in reference to his approaching trial, and taken to delivering lectures descriptive of bis life and adventures in Australia, From the accounts in the provincial papers, the idea seems to have proved a happy one. At Worcester, the Music Hall was crowded, large numbers being unable to obtain seats. In the course of his lecture, the claimant gave what the local paper calls a “singularly interesting” account of his travels in various parts of the world, dwelling especially on his doings in Chili and Peru, and on the manners and customs of the people in those countries. He described his journey across the Cordilleras, and his visits to Cordova, Monte Video, llio Janeiro ; from l!io Janeiro he travelled to New York, and then wont to Australia, lie said he should have great pleasure in telling them how he got to Melbourne, but it was a prohibited subject. At Melbourne, when he had not a shilling in his pocket, he met a squatter, who offered to give him 30s a week and find him in all he required. He thought chat was better than “ knocking about Melbourne,” and therefore entered the man’s service. He went into the interior, and in two years became head stockman, and in three years had charge of a station, “No matter,” he observed “ what anybody may say of a stockman’s life in Australia, 1 have very great pleasure in saying that these were the happiest years in ray life. It is very different to what it is in England. There you can g© and hunt and shoot when you like ; you have no game license to pay. I remained in the Australian Colonies for twelve years, and I feel proud to say I worked twelve years of my life for my living. And I don’t hesitate to say—although probably many of you will say it is very bad taste—but if my time was to come over again I would sooner be a stockman in the Australian Colonies than I would be a gentleman of LIO.OQO a-year in England. There’s no doubt the life of a stockman is a very hard life indeed. I have been four months and twenty-five days in the mountains without seeing a human creature of any description, and for three months I never slept under a roof, travelling with cattle. But still, for all that, I enjoyed the life, and all that I can say is that, if it were not for my children, 1 certainly should never remain in this country fighting in the manner I am, but should soon be off again to Australia.” At the close, of his lecture the claimant said :—“ I do not propose to keep you any longer ; therefore I shall take the opportunity of telling you, my fellow-countrymen, that should any of you feel inclined to emigrate, do not attempt to go td Brazil, Paraguay, or the Argentine Republic, Remember the English Colonies are open to you. You will always find work for those who are Mailing to work, and you will receive every comfort in those Colonies you will receive in Old England. But my advice to you is, if you know when you are woil off, stop where you are. It is tq b,O hoped that the bulwarks qf qlc\ iyiU‘ be prevented from Kqqg knocked down any longer." lectures may not help him to w;n the Tichborue estates, but they certainly will tend to direct working-class attention to the Antipodes, for the claimant—whoever he may be—is evidently sincere on one point—his intense affection for Australia.