AUSTRALIAN SOCIAL NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8248, 22 February 1905, Page 1

AUSTRALIAN SOCIAL NOTES.

A UDY'S LETTER FROM MELBOURNE. February 10. As these youthful countries begin to grow out of their downy babyhood and to reach the toddling stage, as it were, it must occur to many minds what a pity it is that the early recollections and experiences of the brave bands of men and women who bore the burden and heat of the first days of colonisation hare not been systematically collected and written down. When his- ; tory comes to be written no amountof careful investigation or literary faculty . will make the story of pioneer life one half so interesting and vivid, or even ! complete, as the simplest record given . by the actors themselves, and yet time slips away, and very soon the last of ; the early settlers will be gone, and the rery possibility of the life they led and the perils they underwent will seem to , have passed away like a dream. Such 1 a personal record is one possessed by j the friends of a venerable lady, Mrs i Stephen He'nty, the first white woman > to land and live in Victoria, and al--3 though the lictle book is not intended [ for the public yet its main facts are so i well-known and its simply-told story r contains such a picture of quiet courr age that some allusions to it can hard--1 ly be out of place. b , This lady tells how her father, a rel tired naval ofiicer, resolved in the early 3 part of the 1830 decadp to go out. to l Western Australia, the Governor there f being a friend of his; how he liiced the 3 place, made a home and sent word of s nis intention to return and take out • his wife and young daughters ; how her - intrepid mother resolved to save him 3 the journey, and set sail with her chilt dren for the unknown land; and how, s after various perils, they arrived in - safety, to her father's delight and I astonishment at u^eir unexpected ap--3 pearance. A year or two later Mrs 5 Henty was married, and set sail with - Pier young husband for Portland Bay, t in Victoria, then a land utterly uninj habited, save by blacks. She tells how r the captain of their littls vessel was i accidentally drowned, and how her hust band, who "had a slighl knowledge of '>■ navigation," undertook the charge of ' the ship, but mistook his bearings, and I brought up at Port Phillip. Later they ' determined to pay a visit to Mr Hent ty's father, who, surrounded by ) ms family and with the sheep I and cattle brought from his - Sussex home, had settled in • Tasmania. Then, after a pleasant visit ' of some months, and in spite of being f pressed to remain behind for a' "time, '- she again, set out lor Portland, with, her ) husband, .arrived safely, and dwelt in > tho little homestead, which the Henty 5 brothers had built, aided by their time- ■ expired prisonei servant from Tas- ', mania. Her eldest son was born there - a lew months afterwards, she being the • one white woman in that vast lonely ' new land. Hor husband, full of the I spirit of adventure, would go away ex- :,. pl.Qri,iTg J frT)<| nntfing t^a^.ka,,.i,tilfliirl Jpr, 5 weeks at a time, and she would pa- ' tiently and bravely await his return. : Such courage is almost incomprehen- ? sible to us. It seems as if generations ' must have passed k away since such • things occurred, and yet it was only 3 yesterday. I It is a little pathetic to look at the > small town which now stands where 5 these brave people first set their feet. f Portland, in those days, and for some • time afterwards, was evidently expect--1 ted to be what Melbourne has become, > a great city, and the capital of Vie- • toria. Its streets are broad, and Avell I laid out, though so sparsely filled. The 1 pretty dreamy place has an old-world 5 look. Most of its principal houses are ' solidly built of blue stone, fronting the ! street, without verandahs, and having > their gardens decorously hidd6n behind 5 them, after tho fashion of English ' country towns. There is not a single f red-roofed villa in Portland — not one. '' A fleet of white-sailed fishing-boats 1 comes in and out of the blue light-house 5 guarded bay, and now and then a fussy ' little steamer arrives from Melbourne, > quite conscious that she is the centre 5 of the town's attention. J * Old i-esidents will 'tell you that, in '. the fifties, almost before Melbourne bes;an to exist, Portland was the gayest of the gay. Carriages dashed about ! the streets, dances and picnics were J afoot, and the deserted racecourse, 5 with its large grandstand rising 1 amongst the dull shrubs in the dis--1 tance, was, doubtless, the scene of any 1 amount of fun and jollity in those by--1 gone times. So, eveu these young = States have already a past, and most of the little human touches which give it interest are likely to slip away, unregarded, into oblivion. OLIVIA.