EARLY DAYS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 9 April 1926, Page 12

EARLY DAYS.

IN VICTORIA AND NEW SOUTH WALES.

SOME AUSTRALIAN REMINISCENCES.

(By Wm. Evans).

J u the early days of the Victoria 11 .Sf Ltlementj tiiu majority ol the popu- ' latiou at that time eainc from ureal ' iiritaiu in emigrant ships, and were lroo - men and women, with no stain on their characters.- Victoria was a 'tree settlement; a number of the still earlier settlers were composed of people from New South Wales and Van jnemau’s Land (as 'Tasmania was then ealied), a mixed community of- free in™ and reformed prisoners, who, having served their prison .sentences, were considered , ireo men and women, and many of whdlh in after years proved themselves good colonists. Some of these old hands were very ' rough characters, and-had no- liking, for tnc new, chums, whom they designated ■•gemigrants,” whilst the new chums retaliated by calling these released prisoners .“old lags.” \ The early emigrants in Victoria were a lair sample of the best class of working people from different parts of tile three kingdoms—England, Ireland and Scotland—with a- very few of what wo then ealied foreigners, from other , parts of Europe, such as Germans, ' .Italians, Russians, etc. These-early colonists lived good clean lives, ancl when living in Melbourne regularly attended tno several places of divine worship they wore in the habit- of going to in the Old Land; in fact, aiiy ! family or people not attending some j - place of divine worship in those days were marked characters by their i neighbours. A few of the old hands ) and hush rouseahouts came into town j j occasionally from their employment jn the country on far-hack sheep and | ■j cattle stations, and got “on the spree,” I while their money lasff-d,' and then i ] made their way hack again to earn j similar cheques to he again knocked down in some public house. On the whole, they Melbourne people t were a sober and iairly religious com- j miiuily. and ilie inhabitants of houses | seldom" thought of locking doors, or ! takiim clothes off the lines at night, until about 1817 or 1818, w;hen a shipment of young men from Reiitonxilie prison, in England, was imported into free Victoria, which caused a. violent commotion in and throughout Melbourne- and the Mirrounding districts. These young men from I’entoiiA-ille had not been long landed in Victoria before extensive robberies from private and public premises took ! place. Am- clothes left out on tho i lines at night wore stolen, members of I cur community when making their way | home- a.t night were stuck up .mil j •robbed, and in some eases murdered. 'This was the result of the first shipload of these jokers ; another .shipment- was to follow. Tlie whole town rose up . in arms, public meetings took place, resolutions were passed, and lorwarc.od to the British Government protesting against anv further shipments Irom j ; Pentonville prison being' landed m : Victoria. AVlien the -second shipment appeared at the Heads of the V icioriau harbour, a- number -of- Melbourne s

landing public moil went out in a steamer, met the. c:ipt:>iu, ami refused to admit the .ship inside the heads, so thee had to find some other penal settlement to admit the second epuItingent; but for years afterwards, the ■‘first shipment' left its mark. All I houses were locked; tip, no elothes * were seen on the lines at night, and the police courts ■were kept busily engaged passing sentences on • the j’entonvilles for a long time after they landed and settled' down. Some lew of them later on settled down, ami tiied to lead honest lives, hut such men were heavily handicapped, owing J to their former companions , misdemeanours. When 1 was about lime or ten years old 1 quite well remember my lathed engaging a young man to drive a Jioiso | and carl; in connection with our business. He gave his name as John (J. forget tiio other name), hut as he 'vm*

in' undersized young man, he went by the name of ‘’little John” by the o ner men employed. He only remained m .service for a .short time, I think. Ho was discharged for some reason—at all events, nis services were not iurthoi rcouired. One Sunday night, a short time alter he left our employ, when my father and family had gone to. church, mv elder brother, who was then about twelve or thirteen years of age, was left in charge of the house, vhen two men came to the door (alter the churches had been in for about an hour, and there was no one about) and knocked. My brother opened the cioor, and they looked inside and asked if little John lived here, and my brother told them lie lmd loft. One cf them caught the hoy by the throat, threw him down, and placed his knee on the boy’s chest, whilst the other man went to a chest of drawers in an adjoining room and took what money was there. JJe evidently knew where the money was. The other man then released the hov, and they both left. When my brother was able to get up, he tried to follow them, and shouted as well as lie could. Shortly after, the’family came home from church, and informed the police. Some time alter little John was taken up under the vagrant Act for having no lawful visible means of support. He referred the Court to mv father as to his character. My father attended the Court, and mentionel what had transpired, when it became disclosed that little John was one of the l’entonville emigrants, and indirectly the cause of the robbery at our house, as be from Teuton villc prison. He was the money in the drawer before referred Ui. The result of the trial was three months’ imprisonment with

About that time there was another vomit; man in my lather’s employ, named. Dunneev, who also proved to lie from Pcntonvillo Prison. Ho was a. powerful well-set-up young man about nineteen or twenty years of age, and a willing worker for the short time he was employed. In those days the principal and almost only holiday, outside Christmas Hay and Good Friday, was one week's holiday, about the month of March, when almost all

kind of business was suspended ,'n town i nfid country to attend the races at Fleming!,on! 1 muy mention that nil ! jnees Jield were weigh t lor age; there j rvero no handieaps. .1 lie Town Flate, j ihe liighest prize, race, was for I 111) 1 sovereigns, considered ,'t big lunount m j those dnvs, and as the fastest home won, 1 lie result was that one horse (won the race for several years running. All Australian boys were torn! of '’visiting racecourses and races in ‘ those bv-gone days. To resume my .storv about the I’entonvillcs All the men in,my father’s employ usually were allowed a. certain stipulated time, as part of the yearly holiday, to visit races. All up-country squatters and their employees, who could be spared from working runs, would be present at evci.x da.\ s lacing, but as most country pebple laid in their year’s supplies after that tveek, it was ! tho merchants’ aiid trades-peoplcs’ harvest, and workmen’s holidays were I limited ’ : In Duiincey’s case, lie ! exceeded liis leave, and. when he was prepared to return to work, Jus services were not required. He therefore had to remain idle for’want- of employment. The result was that Dunncey became short of money, when ho happened to conic- across a shipmate lVntonvdle named Matthew ' Luck, who had ifeciveil a letter, from a- brother m Tasmania, who enclosed some money to Matthew to pay his passage to \an Diemau’s Land. J lieso two lads seemed to be good pals, and it appears Dunncey suggested to his lueud xo walk overland to Williamstown to catch the boat, instead of from what was i then known as Lairdi’s beaen (now 1 Wnndridte), so that they could have a chat mi tho wav, and save money an expenses, as it appears the snip he aas to go lay was at Williamstown at tho tinae. i think ficm memory, it "as on Good Friday, 1847, they started to walk, as it was a holiday and one oi my father’s tradesmen took my brother and 1 for a day’s fishing in the Vai-ra a-ver 1 remember we had io avail leiig- for a bite, and caught very., lew : fish, which s i disguested me tnat i I never spent ,a day waiting lor tisli to Into since then—nearly eighty years 1 iv.ro When we got back to .Melbourne: that night, wo heard that a man bad been murdered that day on the road between tho Salt Water river punt, near the Flemington racecourse, and Williamstown. . Jt appeared, from the evidence of the piintnum that two men, afterwards proved to be Dunncey and Luck, crossed the river on the punt that morning. Very lew people were travelling that day in the locality, and the punt-man .well remembered theincident. Late in the atternoon, Dunncey returned by himsell. The f untman asked him where be had left bis mate, and Dunncey replied: ‘'On the wav to Williamstown.” Later on Luck was found on the side of the read, dead. He had evidentally been murdered. When the news reached Melbourne, tho police lost lio time in investigating the case. They iound the bouse at which Dunncey had been boarding in Flinders Lam;, and inquired for him. They were told that lie was not there, but it afterwards appeared that when Dunncey came back to the house that night he told the proprietor and boarders that if any one inquired for him thnt night they were to say ho was not there, and lie would stand Sam for all bauds in the morning. The police inspector of that day, whose'name was Sugden (afterwards landlord of the Itoyai Mail. Hotel, at ihe corner of Great llourko apd

8 trails lon Streets) came' .to .our. alter midnight, with xiolice and it big mob ol people, and impured 1 roni my father it lie knew where Dunneey, was likely to be found. iNly ia.tlier miomied him that he lutd been staying at Stanway’.s . boarding-house in blinders l.ane, where they iiad fust come from. Sugden and ids men returned ;to Suuiway’s, went through the house . again, and found Dunneey concealed under a. bed, and arrested him. A trial took place, and all evidence :that could be produced was brought forward, with the final result that Dunneey was sentenced to be hung on circumstantial evidence. He pleaded innocence of the crime to the last, but the evidence against him seemed very clear. It was supposed that he expected a partial reprieve of sentence owing to his being under age. 1 think, from memory, nis age was about nineteen years. tie looked older, as he was a well-grown line looking youbg man. i was present outsido the gaol when he spoke to the crowd outside the old gaol wall. He warned the young men of that generation to keep, clear of bad companions, as it was through keeping bad company that all his present trouble arose. die said his lather and mother were respectable people, keeping a, public house in Dondon, and had ho taken their good advice, lie would not be in his present awful position that day. die spoke in a firm, loud voice, and insisted to the end that ho was innocent of tho crime imputed to him.

All men executed in those clays were exposed to tho public view on a platform, erected on tho top of the. gaol’s high wall. They (the victims) could bo seen with a rope around their necks before the sentence was carried out, and after they were executed they dropped inside tho wall. I had previously seen two native blacks executed for tho murder of Captain Beverage, on the Murrumbidgco station. All tho aboriginal blacks in Victoria were represented outside the gaol walls. The Government desired to show them the result of tho wicked action of their two countrymen in murdering Captain Beverage. There. seemed to be at least a thousand native blacks squatting on tho ground, and standing chattering to each other about what was taking place. They did not seem to ynderstaml what was going on, but their paid white men, black protectors or missionaries, were also present endeavouring to explain to them why their two countrymen should be executed. The fearful example, had a good elfect on tho aboriginal mind, as no further murders of white men by blacks were reported for years.

This murder of Captain Beverage was not verv surprising at that time, although in Beverage's case it was well known lie was unusually friendly with and kind to the blacks on his station, but there was much hostility between the whites and the blacks. The blacks resented the early settlers squatting down on their ancient preserves, and were inclined to steal sheep, and make themselves objectionable. Some of the squatters resented their presence on the

runs, and treated them rather harshly. I. can remember reading in ail _ early Victorian paper of a case where all the settlers for many miles around decided to meet at an out-station hut with the object of having revenge on the blacks for their sheep stealing. They (the squnttors) became aware that tho blacks intended, to nieet at a certain station one. particular night, and, as before mentioned; iasscinbled in a hut. After a long wait,' the blacks camo .into the place where the sheep were yarded (owing to native dogs and blacks, all sheep were yarded in hurdles at night in the early days). One of Hie. blacks came stealthily along over the hurdles, and got in tho centre of tho sheep, and attracted them by patting a small roll of opossum or sheep skin. Then, whilst tho sheep all turned around and stared at him, his tribe friends stepped in and seemed the sheep one after another by their legs, and got them over their shoulders and on their backs, and went on their way. Tho men in the hut quietly watched the manoeuvres until they thought it time to make the ■ blacks unload. Then they camo out, followed and shot down the poor blacks. There was no escape, all were killed. Next day the bodies of the men (and women too, j’ presume) were placed amongst a few logs of wood and burnt. I have not heard that any action was taken to convict those white men of eithcU murder or cruelty. Such was the state of things expected to be carried out in an early settler’s life when living in the far-hack stations in Vietoria’and New South Vales in tho ‘lo’s of the last century.