THE KIMBERLEY RUSH.

Pahiatua Star and Eketahuna Advertiser, Volume 1, Issue 7, 2 July 1886, Page 4

THE KIMBERLEY RUSH.

(to the editor.) Sib, —Mo»t of the people about here who f i_v they are going 10 tho Kimberley n . in to think that n nllc u one of their chief requisites, and since I wrote that lut letter to the Woody ill* Examiner, 1 have been the Canterbury Times wliere a writer bays the same, but I think a gnn is the most useful, anil 1 will (file the tea' n: Af'er you got ussd to your revolver (a limit-barrelled one) being always on your belt, you don't mind it in the 1. n t; it in always there without occupying .our hand.' and if properly handh .I will answer all purposes. No doubt when a man is on foot after his In rses. especially by himself, uml bees he would feel happier if ha had a carbine in his hand, but th.it doe* not often happen, anil might not happen at all; but hn wants to eat every day, tberef re it is letter to carry luh gun and shoot ducks, cockatoo**, Italia) i n. - y . native companions, parr ts i.f all colours and sizes, Ac. There are f me littl- bird' up North about tho size of butterflies, that build an umhiellu over their m st. The more you get into a new country tho Myala (Muck*) arc more and nn.re numerous, especially when following up rivers. All food that you can get without a gun gets scarcer and ► ircer. Why. in the half civilised parts, whir.' there are no fences, stockmen often follow up tracks of cattlo that are straying f r davs, but have no trouble in keeping themselves in food with the aid of a tomahawk by getting ponMims, ignannas, sugar bags, .lurks' eggs, (they build in hollow limbs of tries), Ac., but I know only too well that it is afar dilferent tale in a new country that has to support a population if hi uks, they having to hunt all day long theinsi lies as a rule, to keep the |«.t boiling, and anyone going to the Kuuberley shortly, will want to carry a* much flour as hn can without carrying meat, and even if you do you won't always hate it; hut if there are two of yen going !.. stick together, let one have a rifle. My mate and I camped with llume, the explorer, a few days before he and O'Hare perished on the country wn had in t come through, and he told us he had hi en out on a two years' trip on 101 b c*f fl ur, but hn was a grand husnman, as g. .■ <1 as any blackfellow. There were thre n of them. They hud two rifles, a gnn. a hor-i revolver each, and plenty of fishing tackle, also, a spare horse to fetch b.u-k " (Hasson," Leichart'e second-in-charge, who was supposed to 1>« aliye with the Macks aotuew here out Kimberley wav, I think, from what he told üb. The only time that I over had a row with bis, ks at night 1 found my revolver (a k.iir triggiri answer all purposes. I was making for the Flinders and this was a ruob making bark after being down s, ■ aril •• cattle at Cambridge Down* Stal n. Blacks w n't etan l fire, winch they Call " bi.ri lain their nature takes more after the snaki, hut half civilised blacks are far w. ithan Myals, winch is a rec ;i,:sf 1 fu 1 out there, they- are a long Way inferi .r to the Maoris. 1 have had a go,si deal to do with blacks and new c iintries and have been in awkward pi e i but always found my revolver en ugh, and a gun the most Useful. All tribes in the North are cannibals, even where ll ■ v ar. half civilised, when the opi rtunic v occurs, to my certain know Is * a- ( have -en them. They are particularly fond of Chinaman; but like en tk - in the coupling season, that is the time when they are inoet dangerous. I vbmk a new Zealander will find it very hard over there if he goee now, all new country bef .ro it gets stocked is unhealthy. the grass is so long and there is so much vegetable matter on the water that a healthy man, especially a fat one, is very likely to die, as his blood is too rich and thick, therefore he would get the fever bud, but a Queenslander, without au onnee of fat on him and poor blood, it only gives him a severe shake, or perhaps drives him cranky every other day for a few Jay*. I know there were a good few fine healthy looking fellows .tied on the Fulmer, Back country men won't, as a rule, work long down in civilisation, but nearly always go hack again. Human nature, I suppose, don't know when it is wi ll off; no milk.no bull*r,|no v. gristle, no comfort, no woman's hand to tend them when sick, often bad flour that it is impossible to bake ; black kerosene sugar aiul post and rail tea are considered luxuries, in fact you must go prepared to bve on green bulo and grass, nut I have been talk mg of a grazing country. Of I Course where there is gold there is soon a wonderful change. 1 have never been what you could call a digger, but was pilot for some prospectors in IB<VJ. The thunder and lightning is something awful in the tropics, knocking trees about, especially ironbark. and at hums setting the grass on fi.e. Th> ram docs not lake days to c»mv down like it dots here, but ecineliuiee ju«t drupe down flop nearly vpiini ... M. I Use for feed, only for a few days when alicr Uing burnt, bui throws

out a few brown tope which aleck will eat. In ruling anew chum horse through il, especially if thespinifex is old, he goee with a sort of a hop, step and a jump action, and will make its leg* bleed. Australian desert* are not slway-a water1< hut they are so called through being spinilex country. A swag out there genorally con-ists of these things: Half a blue blanket, calico about twice a* big, oil cloth about four feet square, 1 pair of moleskins, 1 flannel shirt, 1 dilly bag (consisting of needle* and ‘.bread, Bail needle sml twine, some copper rivets and a photo of the girl you left behind you, Ac.), a comb, towel and soap, and a basil to roll round outside everything to prevent chafing and act as a damper board. Everything you carry you must have on your belt in pouches as your pockets are of no use to you from the heat. A tomahawk, a knife and revolver, and you need not call the Queen your aunt.

THE EYES. Sandy blight is a very painful thing, your eyes feel full of sanJ and|lhe lids turned almost inside out. You cannot op< n them w hile the sun is shining as the light is like a needle entering your brain. It often lasts for weeks.

The swelling blight only some are subject to. It is generally caused by a fly 'tinging you on the eye which swells up until closed completely; it lasts for al>ont 24 hours, sometimes being on the back of the hand. Ac. If 1 was going I should go to Australia and buy horses, and then if I wanted to go round by boat take a ship. I will give you my reason : If you go to Queensland you will get a chmatized horse—l don't moan a brumby (brumby is a wild horse), —and one used to the baali, a short legged, big barrel horse ; he is the one for a journey, and will carry hi* dinner with him. Re will knock half a dozen New Zealand horses up. I will just state a few facts, as it is a wet day and I eannet do anything. At one timo in Queensland I was running mails, one I had was 4‘JO measured milos on a road. I had to go off in places for a change of horses (it was a weekly mail), or rather every 6J days. One of my places for changing horse* was at a water hole 00 miles across a desert, amt then I had 42 miles more of a desert to count. I have not boon able to find a full change (5 or 6) of horses at this GO miles, and have hail to take some of the horses with their heavy packs straight through the 102 milos in the one day and seldom had one that pave in. Another mail I hail in tha fur North. I used to ride a horse on one btage over 75 miles of virgin country in the one day and no track in dry time. It was a fortnightly mail and the same horse was kept on that stage for two years, being only a one liorse mail; but the other mailman used to go CSU miles straight away and then return once a fortnight. One trip ho lost all his horses : some got speareu, and he rode the one horse, a chestnut, right through in i-ix days. Do you think a New Zealnuil hor.se would do that ? We christened tho horse “ (Sundown" anil I think he well deserved it. Of course there were no hard roads to contend with. GIIEEN HIDE does not seem to he used much here, so pi chaps it would not bo out ot place to tell ttits intended Kimberlyites that in making straps, Ac., they cannot work it too much. I.ay it down on the floor by a lour where it w ill get plenty of tramping mi ami never put it in water; if it is too bird to work bury- it in damp ground, or wrap it up in a damp cloth. Green hide is one of the main stays of the Australian bush. Houses are often built with it instead of nails, door* ore made by stretching a hole on a frame, anil a hundred otlier things down to a little veil find on your bridle for your horse. There are no stores to run to out there for everything you require. A New Zealander will be nearly as bad as a newchain if lie goes to Kimberley while it is in its rough stats. He will find it far different from a civilised country like this, yet I like it iar before this place and I think most old Australians will agree with me. I was very happy there although 1 was used to il, like tha sailor ui a gale of wind said “ he pitied the poor fellows on the shore, they might get a chimney on their heads." I think a good many from here will find the tucker come rather hard. I only once saw a potato in the hush, and that was on the TlAmpson Ilivcr. A hawker from Fort Denison, over 500 miles away, would let his custurners have lib, but not more for 2» |fid, as a novelty. In some of the townships there are Chiuamen gardeners growing sweet potatoes, but a garden is a rare thing in tlie North. If you kill a snake for food afld he is a poisonous one, hit him with a switch where his neck would be and about four iuclies from the tail, if you don't, when he finds he is disabled he will turn and kite himself, and then ho is no good. I was never on the Kiml.erley country but have travelled a good bit in the interior and tho North and havo been three times from the Gulf country down to the Bendigo and Melbourne yards with fat cattle, a distance of about IUOO miles. 1 never had any sickle -s while up North, but after 1 left, well I got it a bit extra I think.

To the North, to tho North, to the land of the black, Where for hundreds of miles you can keep pushing back; For water and tucker you will often run short, While humping your drum far away ia the North. G. B. Bradford. Woodville, June tl*. 1886.