HUMORS OF THE BUSH.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11, 11 August 1911, Page 1

HUMORS OF THE BUSH.

A MISSION'AKY'S STORIES. In the course of » lecture delivered in Melbourne last week the Kev„ Edmund J<\ Pelletier, organising secretary of the Home Mission Fund, and rector of St. John's Church, Uippsland, told a number of stories illustrative of the humors of the bush. He hud seen the hard, grey side of the settler's life, wit"n its measure of toil for every day and its hopes of a future that did not draw perceptibly nearer with the day's passing. His lantern slides showed a settler at li'umimi who had taken up a block in almost impenetratable bush, and had I'oiniil it impossible to get materials up to build the simplest house, as there was no road. So he lived for a year in the butt of a great tree with his wife and children. It would take that man years to provide a comfortable home for his family. On | the adjoining block, the lecturer said, there was a still larger tree, in which two families lived. All was harmony for a long time, but at last a difficulty arose. The second family wished to take in lodgers! The incident surely provides the material for a story such as the Lawson ol a dozen years ago might have written. I In the bush beyond Grant there dwelt ' a woman who was regarded as a very rough diamond indeed, and Mr Pel- ■ letier realised that she would require 1 very careful handling. On his first visit jhe left some books. At the second visit he approached the subject of the church. She heard him very suspiciously. At the third visit she said, "Look here, Mr Pelletier, it ain't no use you coming tliat game on me. I ain't a religious woman—l'm a Methodist." 1 The best of his tales, however, was one showing that the Australian aborigine as a native teacher has a certain independence that his brother of the Islands has not, though it was not told with that purpose. Paster AVillie, an aboriginal teacher, was a very good teacher, but he maje his sermons too long, and his congregation murmured. The' white pastor heard of this, and thought that Willie required a hint. He t >id the aborigine that the congregat'on would like shorter sermons, and fiat, as he would be with him in the church that morning, he would tap with his foot upon the floor as a hint t> stop. At the end of twenty-five minutes the minister tapped upon the door, but Willie went on with his argument. At twenty-five and a half minutes the minister tapped harder, but Willie continued expounding. Then i a choir boy, a black lad in a white surj plice, yawned cavernously. Pastor j Willi" was stung by the insult. Turni ing t:i the unfortunate choir boy, he s.:kl, "You tired, eh? You want not j hear me, eh ? By cripes, you do that 1 again, I start all over again."