A DIET OF CHURCH.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 October 1924, Page 13

A DIET OF CHURCH.

CATTLE DEVOUR BUILDING. Many a chuz-ch building has come spaces end in Australia's open scattered +h Cl ° n ® S i tuey aaVe been thSf £ d the winds; in bush hies they have been razed to the groundm floods they have been swept away • they have fallen to the ground wmh their timbers riddled by white antsthey have even been tom asunder as aS P 1n e HiiV he * Year or two th fierce nvalrie s of opposing ngst their Christian adheienfcs; but never before is it re--7 t£ a L S °- ° d i i l t ate has one Of the quaint bush sanctuaries which spot^°nf 6 +I Wd f- Veu in tlle remotest s>pots of tie continent as that which has overtaken the Anglican, church at Thargommdah, m the wilds of Western Queensland. It has been eaten by voracious cattle. Thargoinindah lies m one of those vast areas of Australia m which timber is almost as precious as gold. Consequently the church has been built ot grass. And that was the cause of its downfall. The story as it has reached here is a curious one. It appears that the district has been suffering a severe-drought, and starving, wasted cattle were being moved slowly tiom centre to centre where the water was to be found, in order to get them better country. One night a mob arrived at the little township, and camped tor the night near the church. The poor beasts were too weak to stray far, so it was deemed unnecessary to keep watch, all night on them, ag is usually i? n - e w^en *here is no enclosure. To their amazement, upon coming to the mob early the next morning, the drovers found the church in a state of rum. Two walls had collapsed, and the cattle were trampling madly about amongst the debris devouring the dry grass of which the structure had been composed. The little altar and the humble furnishings which the small building had contained were strewn about in the confusion, and those cattle that were not engaged in consuming the walls that already lay upon the ground were rapidly completing the destruction of those that remained standing. Only a stockman who has been through a- drought knows the hight of ferocity that is attained by starved cattle in the presence of food. As a last, resort in the west, when not a vestage of grass remains to keep the cattle alive, stockmen slimb the high trees and lop down branches that have been beyond the reach of the cattle. At the prospect of the green leaves the cattle surge about under the trees, fear of man or dog being unavailing to keep them off, and it is common for quite a unmber of beasts to be killed bv the falling branches. Undismayed, the others will trample over the fallen bodies wildly gazing, with great bloodshot eyes at the tempting greenery above. With structure, and when' the men arrived it was useless to try to Ss>ve anything, so that the cattle were allowed to eat on. Thus the holy laboiiTd of the willing hands that had huilt the little church were unexnec+edH rewarded hv relieving the sufferings of man’s good frie'nds.