7 HUTCHINSON'S AUSTRALASIAN ENCYCLOPÆDIA. The following abbreviations are used throughout:-N.S.W., New South Wales; N.Z., New Zealand; Qd., Queensland; S.A., South Australia; Tas., Tasmania; Vict., Victoria; W.A., Western Australia. Abbott Bay, Qd. A small bay in the Pacific, near Bowen. Aberdeen, N.S.W. A township in a pastoral and agricultural district on the Hunter river, between Muswellbrook and Scone, and on the Great Northern Railway, of which it is a station. Population 200. Aberdeen, S.A. See REDRUTH. [Abo the centre of Australia, and all appear to have come together on the south coast, somewhere between Port Lincoln, S.A., and Gippsland, Vict. The language of the various tribes differs very much, but all the dialects bear traces of a common origin. The words have regular declensions, there is a dual number, and the language is much richer than might have Aberfeldy, Vict. A mining and agri, been expected. The migrations of the cultural town in co. Tanjil, 20 miles from Wood's Point and 121 miles E. from Melbourne. Population, inclusive of neighbourhood, 200. Aboriginal Cricketers. A team composed of aborigines from the western districts of Victoria, was organised in 1866 by the celebrated cricketer Wills, and attained considerable skill at the game, which they played in the various colonies and in Great Britain. Mullagh, the best all-round player of the team, made a very good show in a match against the gentlemen of Sussex played at Brighton; and made the top score at Melbourne in the second innings of the Victorian eleven against an English team taken to Australia by Lord Harris. Aborigines. The aborigines of Australia are believed to be Papuans or Austral negroes, and belong to the lowest family of the human race. Many ethnologists consider, from the similarity of manners and language, that the Australians and Tasmanians, the inhabitants of New Guinea, and the negroes, have a common origin: the Australians seem to have come originally from the north, and to have landed near Cambridge Gulf, W.A. One stream of immigrants followed the west coast, another the east, and yet another Australians from the north or from the islands appear to have been before historic times. The Australian aborigines had no knowledge of a Supreme Being, or of a future state; they knew nothing of agriculture, or the use of metals, and there was no government amongst them, except that the old men of each tribe exercised some authority. Every tribe was at war with its neighbour, and any trespass on the part of a male into the country of his enemies was punished with death. Attacks by one tribe on another, in order to abduct women or revenge isolated murders, were common. No death was believed to occur from natural causes, and the disease of any member of a tribe was believed to proceed from sorcery, and was always followed by an attempt on the part of the friends of the dead man to avenge what they considered to be his murder on some hostile tribe. The women were the slaves of their husbands, and elaborate precautions were taken to prevent the intermarriage of near relations. The number of the aborigines at the time Captain Cook landed at Botany Bay is variously estimated at from 4,000,000 to 150,000, but probably 1,000,000 would be about the mark. Their number was diminished at the end of the eighteenth century by epidemics of small pox and measles. The aborigines had no fixed habitation, but lived in the open air during the summer, and in huts made of boughs and bark in the winter. They lived upon animals, birds and fishes, insects, roots and wild fruits. Their rights to the soil over which they hunted were never recognised by the British Governments, and they were treated with very little consideration by the colonists, and with none by the convicts, who formed the servants of the original settlers. No organised attempts were made by the aborigines to repel the European invaders, but there were many isolated attacks by the natives upon the colonists, and many settlers were from time to time murdered. These outrages provoked reprisals, in which scores of aborigines were shot down, sometimes by soldiers, sometimes by armed constables, but most frequently by colonists. Occasion ally black men were hanged for murdering whites; and sometimes white men were executed for murdering blacks. Upon one occasion, in 1838, seven white men were hanged for the murder of a tribe of twenty-eight aborigines at Myall Creek, N.S. W., on a station belonging to Henry Dangar. Intermittent efforts were made to civilise and Christianise the aborigines, but these were rarely successful until the number of the unfortunate creatures had been reduced to a mere remnant, and until the full-blooded blacks had been succeeded by a race in which there was a certain admixture of white blood. The skir mishes commenced at Rushcutters' Bay, Sydney, in 1788, when the soldiers and convicts ill-treated the native women: the blacks in return killed six convicts and two soldiers; the Government retaliated by shooting a large number of blacks. And the fight was continued all over Australia until the present day. Mr. Edward Curr in his book upon the Australian race writes as follows: "The meeting of the white and black races in Australia, considered generally, results in war. Nor is it to be wondered at. The white man looks on the possession of the land by the blacks as no proper occupation, and practically and avowedly declines to allow them the common rights of human beings. On the other hand, the tribe which has held its land from time immemorial, and always maintained, according to native policy, the unauthorised digging up of one root in its soil to be a casus belli, suddenly finds not only that strangers of another race have located themselves permanently upon their lands, but that they have brought with them a multitude of animals, which devour wholesale the roots and vegetables which constitute their principal food, and drive off the game they formerly hunted. Besides this the tribe finds itself warned by the more merciful settler, that as cattle will not remain upon a run about which blacks seek their daily food in the usual way, as they are alarmed at their very smell, they must give up that practice, or be shot down whenever met; the tribe being threatened with war by the white stranger if it attempts to get food in its own country, and with the same consequences if it intrudes on the lands of a neighbouring tribe, finds itself reduced to make choice of certain death from starvation, or probable death from the rifle, and naturally chooses the latter. A considerable portion of the males of a tribe having been shot down, the black learns the uselessness of his resistance, and sues for peace. When the white man is of opinion that the tribe has been so weakened and subdued that his small party has nothing to fear if moderate precautions are taken, peace is granted. From this epoch a few of the men of the tribe receive occasional employment on the station, for which they are paid in food; the refuse of animals slaughtered for station use is also given over to the tribe; food is also received by the blacks from some of the men for the prostitution of their wives and daughters. The consequences which follow are that the venereal diseases are invariably introduced and disseminated through the tribe, and that many die from them. Another outcome of this chronic debauchery is that infanticide, from being exceptional, becomes the rule. Besides this, experience has shown that, of the few children allowed to live, the majority die between the ages of fifteen and twenty of consumption, the result probably of venereal disease in their parents. When this stage has been reached, the Colonial Government have stepped in in several cases, collected the remnants of some or all of the tribes, and located them on what in Victoria are called Aboriginal Reserves, and the children learn reading, writing, and arithmetic more easily than white children." Speaking of the treatment of the aborigines, Mr. Curr writes: "Since 1850, the areas of squattages, more especially in Queensland, have enormously increased, and populations being correspondingly small, an increase of mounted troopers has been found necessary. To save expense, white troopers have been discarded in favour of corps composed entirely of blacks, each led by an officer called an Inspector or SubInspector of Native Mounted Police. In this service the practice is to enlist a score of young savages in a district in which the tribes have become somewhat civilised, and send them to another in which there is some disturbance, perhaps two or three hundred miles from their own. When cattle are speared, or have taken alarm at the sight or smell of the blacks, and moved off, the aggrieved squatter sends for the nearest Inspector, attention of the Supreme Court, no white man except the officer in charge accompanies the troopers, save in rare instances, when he allows an owner or overseer on whose prudence he can thoroughly rely to be present. The evidence of a black is not admissible in our courts. Were there several whites present on these ever-recurring expeditions, it would be impossible for the present system to be maintained. Its enormities have been brought before the Queensland Parliament and exposed in the papers. Its advocates maintain that it is both effective and cheap. After a massacre has taken place the officer who supervised and assisted at it reports that he has dispersed' a tribe, which had been troublesome in his district; and there the matter ends. As regards the blacks, I should sum up the outcome of their contact with ourselves in this way. The only success which our treatment of them has had is in the culti . .. who proceeds to the spot, and, accom-vation of their intellects; and if their panied by a portion of his men, commences a search for blacks. Any blacks will do. Into such enterprises his troopers enter with fiendish energy and ingenuity, and on the first blacks encountered this English official looses his thirsty warhounds. Keeping at a safe distance from spears, as many males as possible are then shot down with the rifle, whether they have been offenders or not; none, if possible, are allowed to escape; the trooper gives himself up to his enjoyment of blood, the Superintendent of Police often proving himself the crack shot of the party. The massacre concluded, the English officer gives over the womenwho, to save their lives, do not attempt to fly to satisfy the lust of his 'boys,' as he calls the troopers. Indeed, his life would not be safe were he to do otherwise. So much do the bloodthirsty proclivities of the savage increase by this sort of work, carried on from week to week, that their officers are afraid, as a rule, to ride before the men on the march, lest any whim might lead to their being shot down. Should two of the troopers differ about the possession of a girl after a fight, probably one of them shoots her down in a fit of jealousy. An orgy ensues, and not unfrequently some of the troopers carry off captive girls to supplement their harems at headquarters. To prevent such proceedings attracting the | education is persevered in for several generations, I see no reason to prevent their being brought in this particular to a level with ourselves. In bodily health: they have conspicuously receded. Their state of dependence on us has undermined their former self-reliance, and left them without character. Religion and civilisation our blacks have not attained. The white race seems destined not to absorb, but to exterminate the blacks of Australia." The census of 1881 showed that the number of aborigines had dwindled to 31,700, of which the greater proportion resided in the unsettled districts of Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia. The aborigines of Tasmania, who in 1803 numbered at least 5000, were extinct, and there were only 780 in Victoria, of whom a large proportion were half-castes. The relations between the settlers and the colonists form a series of chapters in Australian history of which the Europeans have no reason to be proud. Acclimatisation Society of Victoria was founded in 1857 by Edward Wilson, part proprietor and editor of the Melbourne Argus, and received a grant of land in the Royal Park, Melbourne, which was devoted by them to acclimatisation and zoology, and was the commencement of the present Melbourne Zoological Gardens. The Society introduced a large number of British singing and game-birds, hares, deer, trout, and other fresh-water fish, and made several partially successful efforts to introduce and acclimatise the Angora goat, the ostrich, the alpaca, and the salmon. Similar societies have been formed in New South Wales, Queensland, and Tasmania. Acheron, Vict. A town 75 miles N.E. of Melbourne, in co. Anglesey, situated on the left bank of the Acheron, a tributary of the Goulburn. Actors. The principal actors who appeared in Australia prior to 1857 were Gustavus Vaughan Brooke, born at Dublin in 1818, who occupied a high position on the English stage. In 1855 he went to Melbourne under engagement with Mr. Coppin, and appeared at all the principal cities of Australia. He returned to England in 1864, and while on his voyage back to Australia was drowned in the Bay of Biscay, on Jan. 10th, 1866, in the foundering of the London. - George Coppin, born at Steyning, Sussex, in 1819, went on the stage at the age of seventeen, and in 1843 arrived at Sydney. Opened the Queen's Theatre, Melbourne, in 1845, and in 1845 went to Adelaide, where he played at the Theatre Royal; built a theatre at the Port, and speculated heavily in copper mines. When gold was discovered he transferred his allegiance to Victoria, played in Melbourne, and then became lessee of the Geelong Theatre, where he was very successful. In 1854 he paid a visit to England, played in London, and returned the following year to Melbourne with an excellent company, including G. V. Brooke, Richard Young, Robert Heir and Miss Fanny Cathcart. He was very successful; opened public gardens at Cremorne, Richmond, where he built a theatre, and eventually in conjunction with Brooke took the Theatre Royal, Melbourne. Ruined by his different speculations he accepted the offer of Mr. and Mrs. Kean to accompany them in a tour through paid a second visit to England.-John Gordon Griffiths, born in Shropshire in August 1810, went on the stage shortly after leaving school, was a member of the McKay Company, and played regularly at Glasgow and London. Went to Sydney in 1842, and appeared at the Victoria Theatre as Hamlet, Coriolanus, Iago, Falstaff, and other Shakesperean characters, in which he displayed great ability; was manager in turn of the Victoria and Prince of Wales's Theatres, and died at Manly Beach, near Sydney, March 4th, 1857.--Mark Last King, known professionally as Morton King, was brought up as an actor, but when he arrived in Australia in 1846, he adopted the occираtion of auctioneer, and only appeared on the stage at intervals, and "starred" at Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney in the principal leading characters of the legitimate drama. Mr. King was a robust but very excellent actor of the old school. He acquired a considerable fortune, entered the Legislature, and died about 1870 in a good social position and easy circumstances. Francis Nesbitt McCron, known professionally as Francis Nesbitt, was born at Manchester in 1809, was educated for the medical profession, but went on the stage, and played important parts at the Glasgow Theatre. Left the stage in 1840; but having married a young lady against the will of his and her family, he emigrated to Sydney in 1841. Finding it impossible to obtain any suitable employment he returned to the stage, and made his first appearance in Australia as Pizarro. In 1843 he made a tour through the colonies, after which he returned to Sydney. Up to 1849, when he sailed for California on a professional visit, he was the leading actor in Australia. In San Francisco he was very successful; returned to Australia in 1852, and while playing the part of William Tell at Geelong was seized with a severe illness, from which he never recovered. Died in 1863 at Australia, California and the United Geelong, and was buried in the local States, during which he made enough cemetery, where a monument, erected money to pay off all his debts and to by G. V. Brooke, marks his last restingagain become manager of the Theatre place.-G. H. Rogers, the best actor of Royal. Since that date he has been extremely prosperous, has been returned to the Legislature, and been a director of banks and several public companies. In 1886, the Colonial and Indian year, he old men's parts on the Australian stage up to the day of his death, was originally a private soldier, and came to Hobart with his regiment; retired in 1842 with the rank of sergeant, and after obtaining civil employment in the convict department, went on the stage, where he was very popular, and played at all the principal theatres. For many years he was the principal old man at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne. - Charles Horace Frisbee Young, born at Doncaster in 1819, was the son of an actor and actress, and made bis first appearance at London in the character of Little Pickle in the Spoiled Child. Subsequently he went to sea, and in 1843 arrived at Australia as second officer of a merchantman. Left the sea and went on the stage, his first Australian character being Michael in William Tell. Played low and eccentric comedy in all the Australian cities, and in 1851 became lessee of the Queen's Theatre, Melbourne. Returned to England in 1857, and performed leading characters at the Strand, Sadler's Wells, the Lyceum, and St. James's Theatres. In 1861 he revisited Australia, and was principal low and eccentric comedian at Melbourne and Sydney until his death at the latter city in 1874. Julia Matthews made her début at the Victoria Theatre, Sydney, in 1855, played leading characters in opera, opera bouffe and burlesque all over Australia and New Zealand; visited England in 1871; obtained a high position as prima donna in light and comic opera, and died at St. Louis, U.S.A., in 1876. Ada Vale, Qd. A township in a pastoral locality in the Warrego district, on the Blackwater creek, near its junction with the Bulloo river, 130 miles W. of Charleville, which lies 483 W. of Brisbane, with which it is connected by railway. Population of township and district 175. Adam Bay, S.A., on the N.W. coast, 70 miles S.W. of Port Essington, receives the waters of the Adelaide river, the deepest in Australia. The bay runs inland for 6 miles, is 10 miles wide at the entrance, and has 9 fathoms of water. Escape Cliff, at the mouth of Adelaide river, was chosen as the site of the capital for the Northern Territory, but was afterwards abandoned in favour of Port Darwin. Adaminaby, N.S.W. Sometimes called Seymour, a mountain township surrounded by good land in the Monaro district, 20 miles from Kiandra and 330 S.W. of Sydney. The township lies 3000 feet above the level of the sea, and has a population in the district of 1100. Nearest railway station Cooma. Adamstown, N.S.W. A colliery town near Newcastle, 80 miles N. of Sydney. Population of district about 1000. Addison's Flat, N.Z. A mining township, between Westport and Charleston, 8 miles from Westport. Population 100. Adelaide, S.A., is pleasantly situated on the banks of the Torrens, a small stream which divides North from South Adelaide, near the foot of the Mount Lofty range, and about 6 miles from the shores of St. Vincent Gulf. South Adelaide is on a level plain, about 150 feet above the sea. North Adelaide is slightly undulating, and lies a mile away. Between them are the Park Lands, which surround the city on all sides, the Botanical, and other public gardens. The city was laid out by the first Surveyor-General, Colonel Light, with wide streets all at right angles with the other, and they are now planted with trees, which give an agreeable shade. South Adelaide has five squares: Victoria, in the centre of the city, and Light, Hindmarsh, Whitmore, and Hurtle. The proximity of the sea on the one side and the hills on the other, allows the inhabitants to vary their climate during the heats of summer, and the city is surrounded by agreeable villas and gardens. Adelaide derives its water supply from the river Torrens, which for that purpose is dammed some miles above the city, and its sewage finds its way to Islington, about four miles north of the city, where there is a large sewage farm. Adelaide is the best-drained city in Australasia. The area of the city proper is 1042 acres; the annual value is £580,000; the length of streets is 80 miles, and the number of houses 9700. Population of city and suburbs 133,079. The city is lighted by gas and electricity, is well paved, has a good service of tramways, and contains a large number of handsome public buildings, including Government House, the public offices, Parliament Houses, the Town Hall, the cathedrals, churches, banks, hotels, clubs, and theatres. Adelaide is the capital and centre of government of South Australia, is the first port of arrival and last of departure for the mails from and to Europe, is the principal port of South Australia, and is the centre of the South Australian rail. |