Pioneering in Queensland.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVIII, Issue XXI, 24 May 1902, Page 1046

Pioneering in Queensland.

“Solitude and serpents, torrid beat and work galore. Await the folks who love them on Queensland's sunny shore." So wrote a young man who, with a light heart, a heavy purse, and a grand constitution, came out from England to make a fortune, but instead returned to the land of his birth a year later with a light purse, a heavy heart, and debilitated liver. This young man’s experiences were like those of hundreds of others, but his method of expressing them different. We city - bred colonials who resolve to try our fortunes on the land do not generally fare better than people used to the invigorating breezes of green, temperate Old England. Certainly Mrs F. Summers did not. This lady, who now resides at No. 1. Quay Street, Ultimo, N.S.W., is a native of Sydney, and the mother of five fine children. Her pioneering record in Queensland, and particularly the effect upon her health of the hardships she endured, is very interesting. Wiiting on November 12, 1901, Mrs Summers says: — "In 1897 my husband determined to try his luck upon the land. He took a selection near Beenleigh, Queensland. With our three little lads, our goods, and a month's provisions, my husband and I arrived there at sunset. I shall never forget my dismay at first sight of out new home—a log shanty roofed with bark, doorless, windowless, with big gohannas and jew-lizards crawling on the floor. No other habitation was In sight—nothing but giant trees and scrubby undergrowth. The selection swarmed with snakes, adders, ’possums, &c. One day on turning down the blankets we discovered a brown snake, four feet long, in the bed. But my w’orst fright was caused by a ’possum running over my face in the night. I shrieked, and so did ths children, while my good man endeavoured to find the matches, which of course, were mislaid. The terrified ’possum, in its efforts to escape,

knocked our crockery off the shelves. At length a light was obtained, and the disturber hunted down.’’

To live for five months in such a spot as this, with a thermometer veg’ tering 112 degrees Fahr. In the shade, subsisting meanwhile on corned beef, damper, and black tea, all of which had to be prepared in an old kerosene can, is surely disheartening enough experience for any; woman. To one born and brought up in a great city like Sydney such a life must have been pimply unendurable, and so Mrs Summers found it. She continues: “My health began to fail. I suffered continuously from nervous headaches, and a disordered condition of the bowels. The latter performed their functions in a very irregular manner, and a period of constipation would be followed by diarrhoea. An eruption appeared upon my face, and I was frequently tortured by neuralgia. My health becoming steadily worse, my husband decided to return to Sydney, where shortly afterwards I underwent an operation for the removal of an internal trouble peculiar to motherhood, which left me in a very feeble (condition. The indigestion which I had contracted in Queensland became so severe that I positively dreaded food. The physicians at the Sydney Hospital were powerless to relieve me, -and it was thought I had not long to live, when a neighbour recommended Mother Seigel’s Curative Syrup. I took her advice, but for the first few days derived no benefit. Soon afterwards, however, I noticed a change for the better, so continued its use, though I cannot remember how many bottles I took, but this I can say: that within six months Mother Sseg«ers Curative Syrup restored me to a thoroughly healthy condition.” Grander testimony than this it would be hard to find. Mrs Summer's experiences in Queensland are such as fall to the lot of few women, but countless women have suffered the same tortures as she was called upon to endure—which arise from an infinite variety of causes, many of them traceable and others not. Thousands have found relief in tha way that Mrs Summers found it; and that, too, when all other means had failed.