Austral English Part 87

1870. S. Lemaitre, `Songs of Goldfields,' p. 14:

"He ran from the flat with an awful shout Without waiting to fossick the coffin lid out."

1890. `The Argus,' Aug. 2, p. 4, col. 3:

"Half the time was spent in fossicking for sticks."

1891. `The Argus,' Dec. 19, p. 4, col. 2:

"I was ... a boy fossicking for birds' nests in the gullies."

1893. `The Australasian,' Jan. 14:

"The dog was fossicking about."

Fossicker, n. one who fossicks, sc. works among the tailings of old gold-mines for what may be left.

1853. C. Rudston Read, `What I heard, saw, and did at the Australian Gold Fields,' p. 150:

"The man was what they called a night fossicker, who slept, or did nothing during the day, and then went round at night to where he knew the claims to be rich, and stole the stuff by candle-light."

1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 87:

"I can at once recognize the experienced `fossickers,' who know well how to go to work with every chance in their favour."

1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' pt. ii. p. 32:

"Steady old fossickers often get more Than the first who open'd the ground."

1869. R. Brough Smyth, `Goldfields of Victoria,' p. 612:

"A fossicker is to the miner as is the gleaner to the reaper; he picks the crevices and pockets of the rocks."

1891. `The Australasian,' Nov. 21, p. 1015:

"We had heard that, on this same field, years after its total abandonment, a two hundred ounce nugget had been found by a solitary fossicker in a pillar left in an old claim."

1891. `The Argus,' Dec. 19, p. 4, col. 2:

"The fossickers sluiced and cradled with wonderful cradles of their own building."

Four-o'clock, n. another name for the Friar-bird (q.v.).

Free-select, v. to take up land under the Land Laws. See Free-selector. This composite verb, derived from the noun, is very unusual. The word generally used is to select.

1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xix. p. 134:

"Everything which he could have needed had he proceeded to free-select an uninhabited island."

Free-selection, n. (1) The process of selecting or choosing land under the Land Laws, or the right to choose.

Abbreviated often into Selection. See Free-selector.

1865. `Ararat Advertiser' [exact date lost]:

"He was told that the areas open for selection were not on the Geelong side, and one of the obliging officials placed a plan before him, showing the lands on which he was free to choose a future home. The selector looked vacantly at the map, but at length became attracted by a bright green allotment, which at once won his capricious fancy, indicating as it did such luxurious herbage; but, much to his disgust, he found that `the green lot' had already been selected. At length he fixed on a yellow section, and declared his intention of resting satisfied with the choice. The description and area of land chosen were called out, and he was requested t0 move further over and pay his money. `Pay?' queried the fuddled but startled bona fide, `I got no money (hic), old `un, thought it was free selection, you know.'"

1870. T. H. Braim, `New Homes,' ii. 87:

"A man can now go and make his free selection before survey of any quant.i.ty of land not less than 40 nor more than 320 acres, at twenty shillings an acre."

1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 743:

"You may go to nine stations out of ten now without hearing any talk but `bullock and free-selection.'"

1880. G. Sutherland, `Tales of Goldfields,' p. 82:

"His intention ... was to take up a small piece of land under the system of `free-selection.'"

1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. xx. p. 162:

"This was years before the free-selection discovery."

(2) Used for the land itself, but generally in the abbreviated form, Selection.

1887. R. M. Praed, `Longleat of Kooralbyn,' vol. vi, p. 56:

"I've only seen three females on my selection since I took it up four years last November."

Free-selector, n. (abbreviated often to Selector), one who takes up a block of Crown land under the Land Laws and by annual payments acquires the freehold.

[320 acres to Victoria, 640 in New South Wales.]

1864. J. Rogers, `New Rush,' pt. i. p. 21:

"Free selectors we shall be When our journey's end we see."

1866. `Sydney Morning Herald,' Aug. 9:

"The very law which the free selector puts in force against the squatter, the squatter puts in force against him; he selected upon the squatter's run, and the squatter selects upon his grazing right."

1873. Ibid. p. 33:

"Men who select small portions of the Crown lands by means of land orders or by gradual purchase, and who become freeholders and then permanently wedded to the colony."

1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' vol. i. p. 33:

"The condition of the free-selector--that of ownership of a piece of land to be tilled by the owner--is the one which the best cla.s.s of immigrants desire."

1875. `Melbourne Spectator,' June 12, p. 70, col. 2: