The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-26 00:00:00

LIFE IN THE BUSH.—The following is an ex-

tract from a letter dated 300 miles south-west of
Brisbane, Queensland, in which the writer gives a sketch
of his experience, and a picture of squatter life in the Aus-
tralian bush :-=-" As you have already learned, growing
cabbages or anything else in the bush is a delusion and
a snare ; but in this country, more than at home, one must
buy one's wit; the only question is, whether what is called
`colonial experience' is not dear at any price. It consists
in being a good rider, having the digestion of an ostrich,
an utter disregard for comfort and cleanliness, a brutal
manner, and being a thoroughly accomplished blas-
phemer, cum multis aliis, and similar accomplishments.
The yarns told about this country are lies, and the Go-
vernment emigration agent ought to be hanged. He is sent
to England to get a poor lot of people out by the govern-
ing power here, the squatters, i.e., men who keep stations,'
and rear flocks and herds, and their object is to get men at
low wages. I have lately walked some 400 miles through
the country, and met no end of men seeking employment,
which they could not get in certain seasons. At lamb-
ing' and shearing' men are in great request ; but these
are but a small portion of the year. It is the same with
the land, so much vaunted. A small proportion is good,
and they talk of it to people at home as if this were the
rule, and not the exception. They write accounts of what
a farmer can do, and it looks well on paper ; but oven if he
gets good land, if he is not near a town (and all cannot
be in fact very near), he cannot get a market bpi his crops.
He must get them to market by a dray and ten bullocks,
with some five or six to spare, two or three men, and a
horse or two, and men he will get along 84 the rate of
ten or twelve miles a day. Such are a farmer's prospects.
And to take a station one must have £5,000 or £6,000 at
least, and credit for more. This is the only game which
will ever do here. Putting the above agricultural diffi-
culties on one side, there is another you can never depend
on—the weather. As a rule you aro either flooded out
or dried up. Last year we were nearly drowned at this
time ; this we have not had a shower for weeks and
weeks. I forget when I last wrote to you. I have had
severe trials since I did so. I was breaking stones on
a railway. I had to give up that. I could not make
my salt at it. I then turned 'bum' for a bit, but could
not get my money from the sheriff's officer. I then went
down to Brisbane, and tried to get a berth again.
Then I determined to go up country and seek my
fortune there ; so on I went to a place called Too-
woomba, some ninety miles from Brisbane, and here I got
work on the Government roads, at £1 per week and
rations. When the job was ended, and the gang was
broken up into three or four smaller ones, I got the sack ;
but to show how men are treated here I was discharged,
but got no money, only two bits of paper, showing what
was due to me ; no cash until the cashier came along, and
it might be two or three months ere ho came. I was told
to do as others did, and found one dodge was to get the
butcher who supplied the meat to cash my paper, which
ho did, modestly deducting one-eighth, or 75 per cent. per
annum for the accommodation. This is your Government
employment. I must either have done this or walked 90
miles back again to get my money in person."
Several accidents from lightning occurred three
days back during a storm which passed over Ant-
werp and the neighbourhood. In the town a young lad,
aged 12, was killed, and a man was also struck, and had
his right side paralysed. The electrid fluid entered the
Contich railway station by the electric wires, and set fire
to some papers, but no great damage was done ; but at
Bazel the church was struck and almost entirely burnt
down.
CHINESE SHOPS.—The Chinese shopkeepers are
fat, comfortable-looking fellows, with pleasant
good-humoured. faces. They showed me their curiosities
very willingly, and none the less courteously excl4anged a
smiling "chin-chin" With me, if I left the shop without
purchasing anything. Tea-shops are numberless. They
are piled up with chests such as we see in England, and
with open basket Bof coarse mid inferior tea for the poor. The
cheapest kind is MI& itt thin round cakes or large Wafers,
strung Upon slips of batubon. It partially dissolves in hot
water, and is flavoured with salt by those led dtitik it.
Of this form of brick tea I have never seen any mention in
the books published by travellers. There are poultereri'
shops with fowls roasted and raw, and vegetable sellers'
stalls, and fish in baskets, dead and not over fresh, or alive
in large tubs of Water. They Were all of the carp family,
including rdhoos, mirgals, and kutlas, so familiarly known
in India, also several species of the *siluroids, called vul-
garly " catfish." The fish brought from the sea aro salted
and sun-dried, and, with strong aid from immense festoons
of of sharks' fins, set up a stench that it is not easy to walk
through.—Dickens' " All the fear Round."

Late on Sunday night, or early on Monday
morning, the mansion house of Bower-house, in the vici-
nity of Dunbar, was broken into, and silver plate to the
value of at least £l3O carried off. There is a good deal of
mystery attached to the robbery, inasmuch as there does
not appear as yet to be any clue as to how the entrance
was effected. The thieves, however, had made their exit
by the front door, as it was found upon in the morning,
The robbery is the more remarkable as the family of Mr
Dalmahoy, the proprietor, were living in the house at Uio
time.—Scotsman.