NORTH AUSTRALIAN HABITS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17844, 27 July 1921, Page 8

NORTH AUSTRALIAN HABITS

ARCHDEACON'S DISCOVERIES. [l'hom orm own cokhesfondext.] SYDNEY, July i 9. They do scmo>extraordinary things in Northern Queensland, according to a statement made by Archdeacon Oakes, a Bathurst man. who has been touring away up beyond Charters Towers. " I era told," says tho archdoacon. " that one section of 'the church hero has a rule that if a clergyman is not available a man mid woman may marry themselves, on tin strict understanding that the usual ceremony is to be observed as soon as opportunity presents itwlf. I have heard of a clergyman who was summoned to go into the Northern Territory, to a station s;uio 300 miles beyond Cloncurry, to celeinite a marriage which had been waiting throe months for official sanction. He mi.de two attempts to roach his destination, but on each occasion his car was hopoUfisly bogged, and he had to return." Tho archdeacon said that he found the mining industry in a condition of decline. A factor that militated against the, success of the industry was the appalling account of swindling and dishonesty that prevailed. English capitalists had been robbed to such an extern; by unscruplous speculators that they aro now chary about investing their money a tho mines, and without largo snms tho various works cannot be restarted. There is very little Sabbath observance anywhere in the far North, reports tho traveller. " Last Sunday, in a town I was in, there v/ere three footbsll matches, and one 01 tbei teams came 400 miles to take part in ilho affair, It is a land of far distances. Some of the hospital patients have been carried as far as 300 miles. I have just heard of one poor woman who travelled for days in a buggy, going toward the hospital, and died when 50 miles from the hospital town. " One of tho most remarkable persons I have met is an old lady who keeps the principal hotel in Charters Towers. She has been 36 yiars in tho business, has never tasted liquor, has novcr served a customer in the bar, and the wholo of her large family are total abstainers."