AUSTRALIAN MEMORIES
SIR,—Reading Taming of the North, by Hudson Fysh, a story of pioneering in Queens- land by immigrants from the old country and more especially a story of Alexander Kennedy, the dour Scot, on page 150 one is told of Urquhart (later to be the sincere friend of Kennedy and a man of education and letters): 'Out on patrol seated by the camp fire with nothing but naked savages and the wild lonely bush around, reading the latest poetical work or a recent copy of the Spectator.'
Kennedy's camp, as shown in the map pro- vided in the book, is not very distant from Boulia, though in point of time it is a story of almost a hundred years ago.
I remember, as a schoolboy, seeing the Spectator on the table of the reading room in a small town in India, but I had no idea that it had found its way into the remote bush of Australia by sailing ships so far back! Nor do I think, Sir, that you yourself know this, so I pass this interesting observation to you for record.—Yours faithfully,
Boulia, Queensland, Australia
B. J. BOUCHt
Previous page
