Reminiscences of Queensland Part 11

When returning from the Court House with my 20 deposit after the nomination, I was way-laid by Sergeant Murray, of the police, who in oily sentences of congratulation suggested that I should give half of the money towards the erection of a Roman Catholic church, then about to be built. I succ.u.mbed to his flattery, although my own clergyman was daily expected, and my name was coupled with Father Plormel, the resident priest, on a piece of paper, and inserted in a hole in one of the blocks underneath the building. The church has been enlarged since, and I heard that the paper with our names, and those of the members of the committee, was found in a good state of preservation. This Sergeant Murray was a man of great dry humour and shrewdness.

One day I was speaking to him, when one of two partners in a racehorse came up, and told us he and his partner had a dispute; the latter had the horse in his possession, in Lynett's stable, the door of which was secured with a padlock and trace chain. Murray asked him, "Why don't ye lock him up?"

"Hang it all, the horse is locked up already; what is the good of my locking him up?"

"Well, as your partner has the horse locked up you can't get him out, and if you lock the horse up, then your partner can't get him out."

"Oh, I see," said the owner, and immediately bought the lock and chain.

This advice was so novel to us that we all visited the stables and were amused to see two locks and trace chains to prevent the removal of the horse by either partner. It proved a common sense way of settling the dispute in a few hours, and the partners became better friends afterwards.

On reaching Brisbane to attend the House, I interviewed Sir Thomas McIlwraith, who, after congratulating me on my return, said:--"I intend to put down an artesian bore at Winton." I asked if I might make use of this. He replied, "Well, it rests on me and my party being returned to office."

I felt certain that this would follow, so I wired to Winton that I had been promised an artesian bore. The town was painted red on the news.

At the opening of Parliament, Sir Samuel Griffith, seeing 45 members to his 27, resigned the Premiership, and Sir Thomas McIlwraith was sent for by Sir Anthony Musgrave. On the House meeting again within a few days, Mr. Albert Norton was unanimously elected speaker, and Sir Thomas McIlwraith asked for two months to construct his ministry. This was granted.

I returned to Winton, and on arrival was accorded a typical western reception for obtaining the promise of an artesian bore for the town. At this stage it was only a promise, but the residents had such faith in McIlwraith that they accepted it as a fact. Parliament a.s.sembled in July with Sir Thomas McIlwraith as Premier.

In the early part of the year a bush fire broke out on the road to Ayrshire Downs, and parties were organised to extinguish it. The police preceded us, and noticing fires springing up further on, decided to push ahead to ascertain the cause. They saw a man near the lighted gra.s.s with a box of matches in his hand, and arrested him on suspicion. When brought before the Police Magistrate, the man was charged under the English Act against arson.

Through correspondence with the Attorney-General, it was learnt that the English Act applied to artificial, and not to natural, gra.s.ses. The offender was discharged with a caution, as the evidence was really only circ.u.mstantial.

Shortly afterwards he was caught red-handed firing the gra.s.s on Warenda Station, on his way to Boulia. He was brought before the Boulia justices, who sentenced him to three months' imprisonment under the "Careless Use of Fire Act." This was the maximum penalty that could be inflicted. On completion of his term the gra.s.s-burner was liberated, and vowed he would burn the whole of the d----d squatters out.

The pastoralists hearing of it, put men to watch him through their respective runs.

I returned to Brisbane with the intention of defeating his designs. On interviewing McIlwraith, he advised me to see Mr. Thynne (who was then Solicitor-General), and explain matters to him, adding:--"Thynne will draft a clause for you in the 'Injuries to Property Act.' You can bring in the Bill for the Amendment yourself." I did so, and found I was saddled with an amendment of an Act of Parliament without any previous knowledge of procedure. However, through the kindness of Mr. Bernays (the clerk of Parliament), I was instructed in this, and successfully carried through the second reading of the amendment to the Act.

Under this a man found burning natural gra.s.s may be prosecuted under the "English Act against Arson," which meant a maximum of 14 years'

imprisonment.

In committee, Sir Samuel Griffith suggested I should insert a clause whereby it could be tried at a District Court, and so prevent witnesses having to attend a Supreme Court, held on the coast. The Bill, with this addition, went through committee. I was informed by Mr. Archer, M.L.A.

for Rockhampton, that this was the first occasion in Queensland for a member to navigate a Bill through the House in his first Parliamentary year.

I thought I had completed my work with the Bill, but was surprised when Mr. Bernays asked me whom I had selected to take it through the Council.

I asked the Hon. William Aplin to pilot it through, and the amendment to the "Injuries to Property Act" was a.s.sented to on the 23rd of October, 1888.

On the second evening after my arrival I sauntered in the Botanic Gardens to kill the time to dinner at 7 p.m. Being a stranger, I was ignorant that the Gardens were closed at 6 p.m. I noticed that the few people I had seen on entering had entirely disappeared. As the dinner hour approached, I went to the gate and found it locked, as were the other gates I tried to pa.s.s through. Continuing my walk, I found an opening in the hawthorne hedge, which separated the Gardens from the Domain, in which Government House was then situated. I crawled through, and when I reached the lodge gates, I was asked by a policeman stationed there, if I had been to Government House?

I said, "No."

"Then where did you come from, my friend?"

"From the Gardens."

"And how did you get here?"

I then explained the circ.u.mstances.

"Where do you belong?"

"Winton."

"What's your name?"

"Corfield."

"Yes, is that so? What are you?"

"I am one of the new members of Parliament." Then the blarney came out.

"Pa.s.s on, Mr. Corfield, your face would carry you anywhere, sir."

And so ended the incident.

In 1888, 50,000 was put on the Estimates for sinking artesian wells, and a contract entered into with a Canadian company to sink 7,500 feet at certain specified places. Wellshot Station was selected as one, to encourage private enterprise, to try for water at great depths.

When at Winton, early in 1889, I was handed a telegram from Mr.

Henderson, the Hydraulic Engineer, advising me that the sinking of the well at Wellshot had to be abandoned, and as carriers were not procurable at Barcaldine to take the plant to Winton, it had been decided to send it to Kensington Downs.

I immediately called a public meeting, and laid the matter before it.

The meeting decided that I should go to Barcaldine the following morning. Owing to accidents to the coach, and want of sobriety at several of the coach stages, we were very much behind time in arrival. I found that I could obtain carriers to take the plant to Winton at a reasonable price, and wired the Engineer, but, although I remained a week in Barcaldine, I did not get even an unsatisfactory reply from that officer.

I now received a hint that there were influences at work to prevent the plant going to Winton, and to send telegrams through another place. I arranged a long explanatory wire to Sir Thomas McIlwraith, to be sent from ... . the operator at that place cutting off Barcaldine while the message was being sent, and the following day I was authorised by the engineer to arrange with carriers for the transport of the plant to Winton.

It was very pleasant to witness the chagrin of the local people when they learnt how their engineering was defeated.

I learnt now that some Brisbane ladies did not possess politeness, as one of them sat on my hat when it was on my head, and did not apologise.

It happened in this way. In those days the Brisbane trams were drawn by horses. I wished to go to Ascot. When near the Custom House I saw a two-decker car just leaving. A lady was mounting the steps to gain a seat on the top. I ran and caught the car, following the lady up the steps. At the turn of the road the driver gave the horses the whip, they jumped forward, the sudden jerk caused the lady to lose her balance and her grip of the hand-rail. She sat on the hat on my head. The article, a hard felt, was pressed down with her weight. The sides opened up, and the rim fell down and became fast over my nose. I saw stars, but not the lady's face. The conductor a.s.sisted to dislodge the hat from my nose, and I left the car to purchase a new hat. Probably, I saved the lady's life, but she continued her way to the top, apparently treating the accident as an every-day occurrence. I was unable to make a claim for damages to my hat or self respect.

Mr. Tozer (the then Home Secretary), was a lover of deep-sea fishing, and I frequently accompanied him in his excursions. One Friday, when the House was not sitting, I accepted an invitation to join him in a trip to a new fishing ground. I joined the "Otter" at the Queen's Wharf at 2 p.m. Our party comprised Captains Pennefather and Grier, John Watson, M.L.A., and Messrs. W. H. Ryder, A. A. McDiarmid, Primrose and myself, besides the officers and crew. We cruised along Moreton Island and caught sufficient fish for our tea, after which we retired to our bunks, and the steamer made for the Tweed Heads. About 3 a.m., we were awakened by the cry of "Fish Oh!" On reaching the deck we found the officers and crew hauling in schnapper as fast as they could bait their hooks. We were all soon engaged in the same sport. Each line had four hooks on, and the fish were so plentiful that often when a line was pulled up with, as one thought, one big fish on it, there would be three or four, some hooked through the eye, others by the tail. We fished until 8 a.m., and found on counting we had 1,100 fish aboard. Tozer had caught the highest single catch of 155, whilst mine, the smallest number, was 79.

The sailors cleaned as many as they could on our return. When opposite the South Pa.s.sage we sent a boat to the Lighthouse to wire Brisbane for any person wanting fish to meet the boat at the wharf, and to bring bags with them. Many did so, but all could not be taken away, and a quant.i.ty was dumped into the river. This was the record catch of the season, and I have never heard of it being beaten.

At this time, and for a few years afterwards, I had as partner in a small pastoral property, a Mr. Wm. Booth. He was said to have been mixed up with some troubles connected with Irish affairs, and that the name he went under was a.s.sumed. Whether this was so or not, I found him to be a fine, straight-forward man, and was greatly affected when in 1894 his charred remains were found on the run. The mystery of his death remains undiscovered. On his death I wound up the pastoral partnership, and placed the value of Booth's interest in the hands of the Curator of Intestate Estates. Every effort was made to discover his relatives, but so far, I believe, his estate remains unclaimed.

To those interested in const.i.tutional law, the Kitt's case, which occurred in 1888, may prove interesting. This incident happened in connection with a pair of boots, but from it was obtained the decision that the Governor should follow the advice of his ministers on matters not affecting the authority of the Crown. It was laid down that they were responsible for giving the advice, not he for accepting it. The incident was a small matter to define a very important point.

I think it was about this time that the police were called upon to act in opposition to the Naval Forces of the State, under the following circ.u.mstances. The Naval Commandant of the time had a disagreement with the Minister administering the Navy, and ordered the two war vessels, the "Paluma" and "Gayundah" to put to sea, contending he was under the control of the Admiral in charge of the station, and defied the Minister. Steam was up on the vessels, when a rather large body of police, fully armed, was marched down to the Botanic Gardens, and lined the river banks ready to fire on the ships if they were moved.

Meanwhile, the wires were at work. The Admiral disclaimed control over the vessels, as it was a time of peace, and the Commandant retreated from the stand he had taken. The matter quietened down, but the Commandant shortly afterwards retired from the service of the State.

Mr. W. Little, more popularly known on northern goldfields as Billy Little, represented the electorate of Woothakata in the a.s.sembly. When speaking on the railway which it had been decided should start from Cairns to Herberton, he argued, "S'help me G----, Mr. Speaker, they are building a railway at Cairns over a mountain, down which a crow couldn't fly without putting breeching on." The simile convulsed the House, but did not affect its decision.

During this session I could not but admire the patience and courtesy with which Sir Samuel Griffith treated all, even his opponents, after he once expressed himself on a measure. Time and again he would point out defects, which his legal mind detected in the wording of Bills, but which were not perceptible to the ordinary lay mind.

In 1889, when the Estimates were being formed, Sir Thomas McIlwraith insisted that 40,000 should be put on for building a Central Railway Station in Ann Street, Brisbane. His colleagues dissented, holding the view that the then existing station would serve for a generation, or longer. McIlwraith resigned the premiership, but retained the office of Vice-President of the Executive Council.

Mr. B. D. Morehead succeeded him as Premier, but there were no other changes in the personnel of the Cabinet.