CRAWLALONG.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1095, 24 February 1893, Page 11

CRAWLALONG.

Here is a pen sketch of an Australian up, country township of the ‘ pub and store ’ order : The ‘ township ’ of Crawlalong lies ‘ out back.’ It is so often mentioned in stock reports that city people regard it as being quite an important place. The traveller, on first arriving there will most likely ask the coachdriver how much further it is to Crawlalong, and the driver will answer, with a twinkle in his eye, ‘ This is it 1’ The principal buildings are * The Carrier's Arms,’ the blacksmith V shop, the * Commer* cial Stores,’ nnd a weather board box roofed with galvanised iron, and called a ‘ cottage.’ The main street is that portion of the Government road extending from the blacksmith’s shop to the pub.—about 50 yards. The smithy is a slab shed with a flat, bark roof, and kerosene tin flue. The pub is a low, weatherboard building with a very low verandah round two sides, and a door in the corner. The verandah slouches down over the door and windows like a common, back lane variety of larrikin. The bar is low, dark, dingy, and altogether evil looking. The sinister doors and windows look furtively out from under the verandah, like the eyes of the aforesaid larrikin scowling under his hat brim. The water supply of Crawlalong is invisible. The town’s average temperature is Sheol in the shade. Visible population: Two men going in to have a drink, and a drunkard lying bareheaded in the blazing heat by the dusty roadside. Trade : A bullock team and a hawker's waggonette standing outside the Carriers’ Arms. Politics: Freetrade and Protection. Religion: Liquor and horse-racing. Church: The Carriers’ Arms. Principal imports : Beer, rum, brandy, whisky, gin, flour, tea, and sugar. Exports: Dead drunkards—as far as the cemetery. Products: Jim-jams. Chief industry: ‘ Lambing down. 1 Principal occupation of population wlien not dead drunk : Fighting three luke-warm rounds fearfully, and shaking hands afterwards with great enthusiasm. The town is supported by a few old shearers who come there regularly to be shorn. The government is communistic to a certain extent, and ‘ liberty prevails,’ but the law of the land is represented by two mounted troopers who visit the place about once a year, and borrow, in tho Queen’* name, a horse and dray and pick and shovel from the local blacksmith, and bury the remains of any dead bushjtnan that may ba lying around,—Bulletin.