The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-08-19
ABOUT AUSTRALIA.
BY r. |. MONKS.

r. u nDOlNF>0s
The sparrow, the rabbit, and the thistle
are the three great plaques in Australia.
The government has already spent mil
lions of dollars In vain attempts to sup
press them, but has only succeeded in
checking their spread. A few years ago
the New South Wales government offered
a prize of a half million dollars to any
one who would provide a successful REM
edy for the rabbit pest, and almost every
crank In the world rushed in with a
proposal.
In one part of the country there were
some thousands of cats turned loose to
kill the rabbits, but the result was a
hybrld--a cat-rabblt. A scientist proposed
the use of powerful electric currents. and
an old lady claimed the prize for her
suggestion that the whole infested dis
trict be planted in parsley, which the
rabbits would eat until they burst. A
Frenchman proposed incubation with
some sort of germ of disease, which
killed the rabbit sure enough. but the
birds eat the dead rabbit, contracted the
disease and died; then the insects upon
which the birds fed became menace,
~ the FTtuCHiIleiIl ItHltuy was iC5cAihCo
as worse than the rabbits and immedi-
ately stopped. The only remedy en-
ployed so far has been to fence in the rab-
bit-infested districts and confine the pest,
II possible. In like manner has the gov
eminent of South Australia been wrest-
ling with the sparrow pest, and large
sections of Queensland have been aban-
doned to the thistle None of these things
are Indigenous to Australia, but were in
troduced simply to make the country
more homelike by the settlers in that
distant land.
The Australian aborigine is very in
teresting specimen of the human race He
is physically and mentally about the low
est step in the scale. and yet he is the
inventor and user of the boomerang, one
of the most extraordinary weapons en-
ployed by man. The Australian aborig-
ines are the only people In the world
to whom the bow and arrow is unknown,
and by whom the boomerang Is used. The
word boomerang is employed figura-
lively today to express the idea of per-
sons words or acts. directed against 9TH
ers, recoiling on themselves, but that is
not literally true of the boomerang as
used by the Myall 1t does not recoil upon
the man throwing It, but strikes his enc
my in the back. Like the American In
dams, the Australian aborigines are d.
vided into tribes, all of them nomadic,
and when they meet they fight. Spears
and nulla-nullas are used in frontal at
tacks, these weapons being thrown from
n distance of hundred yards or more
by means of 'womerah" Just as boys
throw potatoes from the end of rod.
The boomerang is a crescent-shaped In
strument about twelve or fifteen inches
long with sharp points and inside blade.
&c ra brnx
air over the heads of and behind the
enemy, and being constructed on some
scientific principle. they whrl and gyrate,
eventually plunging downward like the
swoop OF hawk, and either decapitate
or seriously wound. The boomerang al
WAYS strikes the enemy in the back, and
it's apparently erratic flight. which is real
Iy a we'll directed aim. makes both the
instrument and it's inventor worthy Of
consideration
At certain seasons Of the year the alb
origines hold their "corrobpories, as we
would say, reunions. Dancing, feasting
and bowling is the order of the day, es-
pecially the latter. in which respect 1t
Is almost equal to national conven-
ton in Chicago or St. Louis.
A great misunderstanding exists as to
what constitutes the Australian bushman.
and he is often COMPOUNDED with the abo-
rhymes. The bushman is simply a man
who lives in the Australian forest. They
are the pioneers. the explorers, the pros
pectors; the men who prefer a country
to city life. The "open" forest. that Is.
where the trees are sufficiently far apart
to admit of passage between them, Is
known as the bush" whilst the close.
impenetrable forest Is called the scrub"
These open forests cover thousands Of