Page:ChroniclesofEarlyMelbournevol.1.pdf/88

country, literally carried his life in his hand. Once he had a horse drowned under him in the Murray ; m a n y a time was he chased by blacks, and on one occasion he fell into an ambush, was surrounded by a m o b of yelling savages, w h o endeavoured to spear him ; but, and as if by a miracle, got off " b y the skin of his teeth." This John Bourke was afterwards a wealthy publican in Melbourne; but, meeting with reverses, found a refuge in advanced life in the General Post Office, which he recently left on account of his advanced a g e - a n event that was followed by the presentation of an eulogistic address from his late fellow employes. T h e fortnightly mail was replaced by a weekly one on April ist, 18"9, and the first overland mail between Melbourne and Geelong was started on the 6th June, 1839'; M r . William Wright obtained the contract. T h e conveyance left Nodin's Store, Market Square, each Wednesday at 7 a.m., arriving at Timm's Store, Geelong, the same evening. Passengers' fare was £2, and luggage per small parcel 2s. 6d. It was not until the 9th September, 1839, that thefirstregularly appointed Postmaster arrived from Sydney, and another was appointed to Geelong. T h e former was a M r . David Kelsh, sour and uncivil, unless to a few recognised magnates of the time. Kelsh's civility was an unknown commodity, and it m a y be stated that he and his Geelongese colleague, were permitted to whack between them the munificent allowance of ,£200 per annum, payable as a commission upon the proportion of work done by each. Each of them was allowed the s u m of 30s. a year " for light, for sealing, and night duty," but very little could be "cabbaged " out of this liberal extra. T h e Melbourne "establishment " was removed to a small brick cottage in Chancery Lane, above (now) Temple Court, and the hours devoted to the public requirements were as before, though the postal business was n o w rapidly increasing. Kelsh was Postmaster, sorter, and window-clerk. T h e English mails occasionally arriving via Sydney and direct, were considerable, as compared with the population, and then the delay in delivery was almost unendurable. T h e newspapers were usually distributed upon a self-acting principle, for they were suffered to deliver themselves, not to the persons to w h o m they were addressed, but to the friends and favourites of the Postmaster, w h o had leave to help themselves. T h e consequence was that by this Liberty-hall way of doing business the few were surfeited, and the general public thoroughly dissatisfied. Heaps of newspapers used to be for days and weeks knocking about unsorted in the Postmaster's room, and when this place wasfilledthey were barrelled in old casks in the yard. If you were unacquainted with him, and unless you found him in a good humour, you might as well expect to knock a newspaper out of a neighbouring gum-tree; but if you belonged to his "set" you bad the private entree and could r u m m a g e the penetralia, and help yourself to newspapers ad libitum, without the slightest appreciation of the obligations of vieum et tttuni. T h e delivery of letters was extremely unsatisfactory, and many were the bickerings, heart-burnings and disappointments caused by letter miscarriages. But what could poor Kelsh d o ? H e was left to m a k e a one-man fight amidst all his paper troubles. In March, 1840, a private carrier was appointed without responsibility, his remuneration being a penny on each letter or paper, payable by the recipient, who, if he objected to pay, had to go or send to the Post Office for his correspondence; no provision being m a d e for the conveyance of ship mails from the bay to Melbourne, it depended upon the captain's pleasure when he would deliver it, and if the Captain was not sufficiently obliging it did not come for perhaps two or three days; and then as a matter of chance. T h e inconvenience was first remedied by the public spirit of a person n o w forgotton—Liardet, the pioneer of Sandridge, who, in April, 1840, offered to bring the ship mails to town ; and this he did until the 20th August, when a " Royal Mail" cart commenced to m a k e three trips per diem between Melbourne and Sandridge, carrying mails and passengers—fare for the latter, 2s. 6d. each way. T h e overland mails to and from Sydney were subject to frequent delay from floods. Indeed, in those times, many mails would have never reached their destination were it not for the Aborigines about Albury, on both sides of the Muiray ; for, Ihough in the beginning they would readily murder a mailman if they had the chance, in after years, when the river was flooded, they often lent their canoes and risked their lives in helping the mails to be ferried over. Kelsh, and his Little Collins Street regime, continued to toil and growl together until the following year, when he was allowed a regular letter-carrier at the not very liberal salary of ,£30 per annum, with a £l red coat livery; and, though the smart little Hibernian w h o slipped into the lucrative billet didn't fatten on his screw, changing times saw him comfortably anchored in a public-house, where he dwelt,