Old news from Armidale and New England

The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 – 1893), Tuesday 20 June 1865

NEW ENGLAND.

(From the Armidale Express, June 17.)

There has been a good deal of drizzling rain through the week, which has been excellent for farming, but a heavier fall is needed for waterholes. To the N. of Armidale, however, the rain has been far more copious.

A correspondent informs us that on the night of the 6th instant Mr. A. Drummond, blacksmith, of Maryland, was killed. The person blamed for this is stated to be Michael Gallagher, a mail driver, of Tenterfield.

We are informed that if water could be got at Puddledock, a very fair supply of gold might be obtained from it, the innkeeper there having purchased on an average about 10 ozs. a week for some time. There are about twenty-five European miners on the ground, besides six or eight Chinese. Messrs. George Stickler and party expect to wash out about 40 ozs. from a heap of wash dirt of some thirty-five loads. A miner generally known as George the Fiddler also expects to make good wages out of the stuff he has piled up. During the last fortnight ten new men have come to Puddledock, but the miners are pretty much at a stand-still from want of water. There are five sluicing parties in readiness to take advantage of a heavy fall of rain. The want of a post office is very much felt, or of some arrangement by which a mailman could pass through the diggings en route to other places. Five miners rights were taken a few days ago, and more will be applied for as soon as the miners can wash.

(From the Armidale Telegraph, June 17.)

A few young men in Armidale, we understand, are actively engaged in initiatory practice prior to giving an Ethiopian minstrel entertainment, to take place early in July. They propose to make their first debut upon the occasion of a public concert, which the committee of the School of Arts have it in contemplation to give to assist in liquidating the debt remaining upon that institution.

The first snowfall that took place in New England this season occurred on the night of the 8th instant, at Ben Lomond, and extended as far down the road to Falconer. The snow commenced falling early on Thursday evening last, and continued till noon on the following day. Tbe snow was two feet deep on several ridges along the road from Falconer to Glen Innes. The Glen Innes mailman, on coming into Falconer, was powdered as white as a flour sack could have made him. The Gwydir has risen two feet in consequence. The bridge at the Swamp has broken down, and at the Pinch, at this side of the Gyra station, the culvert there has met the same fate.

By a letter, received by a gentleman in town from an Inverell resident, we are informed that Mr. Bawden, the Secretary to the Clarence and New England Steam Navigation Company, left there on the 11th instant, en route for Glen Innes and Tenterfield. Mr. Bawden, we hear, met with considerable success at Inverell and in the neighbourhood.

We have been much struck since residing in Armidale, at the scarcity, as well as the high price, of bricks. If they were more cheap and abundant, we entertain no doubt that wood for constructive purposes would, in many instances, be superseded by bricks, seeing that the latter are not only more lasting, but offer a more effectual safeguard against fire. From all we learn there is no scarcity of good clay in the vicinity of the town, which, if manufactured into really good bricks at a moderate price, we believe the demand for them would be very considerable, thus giving employment to a large number of hands. The field is a large one, for some enterprising spirit amongst us, and presents many attractions as a profitable sphere of action.