INTERCOLONIAL EXTRACTS.

Southland Times, Issue 1262, 7 June 1870, Page 3

INTERCOLONIAL EXTRACTS.

♦ A correspondent of the Sydney Herald writes: — The people of the Western Creek district have just emerged from a starvation crisis more severe than anything of the kind ever before experienced in this part of the country, and from which, being hemmed in by flooded rivera and a partially submerged country, there was no escape. It was impossible to travel with cattle, or to pack, so that for some three or four weeks there was neither flour nor beef on the ground, and the diggers were compelled to improvise the most extraordinary expedients to support existence. For the first few days war a V oittrance was made on the crows, and some thousands were shot ; then came the turn of every foal that could be found; then working bullocks and aged. horses. This sort of diet was occasionally diversified by a "feed" of split peas and vinegar, or a parrot or two. There was neither tea nor sugar in the empty stores, and as those who had a little could spare none to their dearest friend, the main body had to wash down the piece of old horse or crow, as the case might be, with Adam's beverage, of which there was no stint. The crows became so scared, and so scarce, at last, that it was difficult to bring one down, and a digger tells me the story how that he and two others, armed with shot guns, dogged the flight of one old carrion from tree to tree for fully three miles, in the course of which distance they had eleven shots at him, the last of which brought him down. However, this state of things no longer exists, as, although there is not yet any flour on the Western but what is packed from here, and which is retailed there at Is 9d per lb., there is plenty of excellent beef at4dperlb. In the course of another month or two, there will no doubt be plenty of everything pouring in from Cleveland Bay and the Norman, it is to be hoped. ' A rather extraordinary explosion (says ;fche Ballarat Star) took place on the 16th at Paterson's boiling-down and slaughtering establishment, on the Creswick road. There were five men on the premises at the time, all under the same roof. Four of them were at work in the slaughteringhouse, which is partially separated from the vat-room by a thin partition ; while John Dunlop, the man in charge, was standing near the boiler at the time of the explosion, which took place at about twenty minutes to 3 o'clock in the afternoon. At this time Dunlop heard a terrific noise, and in an instant fully half the galvanised iron roof was blown off the house, which was filled with steam, while a perfect deluge of hot fat fell in all directions. He saw that the large vat, containing about a ton of melted fat, had burst; and with great presence of mind he seized a spanner, and almost groping his way through the vapour which filled the place) turned off the steam. When the steam cleared away, he and the other man were able to see what damage had been done. The iron vat that had burst was a very large one, of boiler-plate three-eighths of an inch in thickness. It was Becured by a strong iron bar running down the centre, and the breaking of this bar through the pressure of the steam' had so weakened the vat that a whole section, with the top and false bottom, had been blown through the roof, which had been torn and thrown in all directions. The top of the vat had been hurled a distance of about thirty yards into the pig yard, where it had been forced about 2ft. into the soft earth. The false bottom of the vat was found about seventy yards off, while the whole of the yard was strewn with small pieces of the debris. Fortunately, none of the men received any injury. The fat is all melted by steam, and the vat had often stood a pressure of 501b to the square inch, while at the time of the explosion Dunlop says the gauge only showed a pressure of nearly 411b. The walls and floors, and in fact everything in the interior of the building, was covered with a thin coating of fat. The explosion could be plainly seen and heard from some parts of Soldiers' hill, and it caused some little alarm for the safety of the men on the premises. ■