IN THE OUTBACK

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3286, 4 March 1926, Page 13

IN THE OUTBACK

CLERGYMAN'S EXPERIENCE. Writing in “The Real Australian” of a 250-milc motor journey across the sandhills from Cedua to Bucla. in the Great Australian Bight country, Rev. Neville Haviland, of the Bush Church Aid Society, says “Alt midday rve stopped for lunch at one of the Government tanhs on the road. There was not much water in it, and in what was there wo found one sleepy lizard, two rabbits and a hawk They had been dead some time. We lit a fire, but when the hilly was boiling wc couudn't face, it.” Referring to. the tediousness of travelling on the west coast reminds Mr. Haviland of the story of a wellknown gentleman of those parts, who was ono day out wijth his wife. They were travelling along the road in their car when suddenly it shot off. and began making a new track through thescrub, finally coming to rest against a malice. The lady, who rvas of rather nervous disposition, asked in a trembling voice, "Is any. thing broken, dear?” "Only the monotony,” her husband replied. Mr. Counsel, the chief citizen of Eucla, is described as “telegraphic \ supervisor, postmaster, registrar of births, deaths and marriages, funeral diector and Lord Mayor.” The service which Mr. Haviland travelled 250 miles to conduct was the first that had been held in Eucla for 15 years.