The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-01-23
An Explorers Ingenuity.

There was a jubilation in Queensland
on the last birthday of the Grand OLD
! Man" of that State. He is the Hon.
Augustus Charles Gregory, SO years old
| and a resident of Australia since he
was 10. He will be remembered as one
| of the greatest explorers of the con-
/ tinent.
! All maps of Australia showing the
routes of the explorers who solved its
mysteries mark the tracks of Gregory
through north Australia, through the
inner part of west Australia and along
the southern edge of the desert He
, brought to light important regions that
were fit for settlement and are now
among the prosperous parts of the
Commonwealth, though it was long
supposed they could not be turned to
good account.
During the many speeches in his
honor on his birthday much was said
about the remarkable inventive genius
which stood him in good stead at
critical periods during his explorations.
Clocks were few and far between when
he went to Australia.
Young Gregory decided that his par
ents needed a clock, and when he was
IA he made one out of such materials
as he could pick up, and it kept good
time for eight years. When he was
Is he built the first flour mill in Queens
land, forging all the ironwork for it
from old bedsteads and exploring the
mountains for millstones, which he
picked out and fashioned with his own
hands from the granite near his home
He was scarcely more than boy
when he designed the apparatus for the
first revolving light on Rotnest Island,
where lighthouse was needed for the
safety of shipping. His continuance
worked without a hitch for thirty-ffve
years, till it was replaced by larger
one.
During his explorations he discovered
a bed of iron ore in western Australia.
fused some of the metal in a black
smiths forge, turned it into steel, made
a penknife blade of it and mounted it
in a handle of kangaroo bone5 Some
officials expressed doubts that it. was
a bona fide production, but Gregory
was able to prove that the steel was
actually the product of western Austria
liam ore.
When his chrononeter got out of
order he was able to repair it in the
desert and continued the observations
in which it played an important part.
Not a few of his astronomical deternai
nations of geographic positions have
stood the test of later observations.
One day when he was travelling in
the vast desert plains he decided that
his provisions We're too heavy for his
party to carry and yet every ounce of
food was needed. He set to work to
reduce the weight while preserving the
nutritive qualities.
He found that he could greatly re-
duce the weight of his salt pork by
melting it. He also discovered by ex-
perimentation that the flour he turned
into biscuits weighed more than the
biscuits.
The bright idea occurred to him of
making meat biscuits. So he mixed
flour with melted pork and timed beef.
The biscuits turned out we'll and weigh |
ed only about one half as much as the |
meat and flour separately.
These are only a few of the many |
ways in which his ingenuity and ready |
contributed to the complete |
success of his enterprises. He was 10" !
many years Surveyor General of /
Queensland; and in his peaceful old !
age all Australia delights to honor him. |