He kindly volunteered his services, and most effectually kept his word. Through him I ascertained that the Melbourne Customs department possessed no special information on the subject. All that could be said was that King's Island was within the Governmental jurisdiction of Tasmania. A promise was, however, given that an official enquiry should be made. This was done accordingly, and on the 25th March, 1884, I was afforded an opportunity through Mr. Le Soeuf, of perusing a correspondence in relation to the matter. A communication from Mr. Alexander AVilson, Engineer in charge of Ports and Harbours, dated 24th March, enclosed a letter from Mr. Edward Nash Spong, ex-Superintendent of Cape Dickham Light, addressed to the Master Warden, Hobart. It was dated, Rhyndaston, 17th March, 1884, and supplied certain information, in the words of the writer, "chiefly obtained from my sons, who have often visited the spot." Next follows a rough pen and ink drawing of an "iron tablet about 6 feet by 3 feet, in three pieces fastened to a large rock just above high water mark." This description does not tally with the one printed in the Melbourne newspapers of the period. Next is given the "Inscription from Memory," also materially different from the published version. The communication proceeds thus:—"David Howie, the Straits Constable, arrived on the island three or four days after the wreck to visit the four Tasmanian women (Aboriginals) employed by him hunting for kangaroo on the island, and who informed him of the wreck. H e buried all the bodies he found washed up, in two large pits, just above high water mark, which were afterwards fenced in by the Port Phillip Government, but all traces of fencing have long since disappeared from lapse of time and bush fires. The tablet is in a very corroded state from the action of sea water, and the lack of paint for so many years." The latter portion of this extract is, I fear, only too true; but thefirsthalf about the lady kangarooers is an amusing exercise of some fertile imagination. The circumstances under which Howie, at the time a sealer, found the survivors, and saved them from the horrors of starvation, have been truthfully and specifically detailed in the chapter devoted to Shipwrecks. As to the improvised cemetery referred to, it should be a sacred obligation on the Tasmanian Executive to save it from oblivion.*
THE
MELBOURNE
GENERAL
CEMETERY.
As years rolled on, the City gradually spread its wings northward, and houses sprung up so close to the Old Cemetery, as to render it necessary to obtain another site more proportionate to the increasing mortuary necessities of the population. Accordingly, in February 1849, the City Council adopted a resolution on the subject, which was transmitted to his Honor the Superintendent, but nothing definite was determined until the following year, when on the 23rd May a communication was received by the Council intimating that 40 acres of land had been reserved for a new cemetery about one mile northward of the town, and this was the nucleus of the now " Melbourne General Cemetery." In September 1850, the Act 14, Vic. No. 19, was passed "For the Establishment and Regulation by Trustees of a General Cemetery, near the City of Melbourne." This new necropolis was opened for public use on the 1st June, 1853, and how admirably it has been managed there is no need to say. Its present extent is 100 acres; and, through the courtesy of Mr. A. Purchas, Secretary to the Trustees (who though far from being the least zealous of our public officers, is far from being the least abused), I am enabled to state that the number of interments there, viz., from the opening day to the 31st December, 1887, was 132,414, inclusive of both sexes. Thefirstmale buried there was John Alexander Burnett, and thefirstfemale Jane Bell. If I mistake not, this Mr. Burnett was formerly chief clerk to the well-known mercantile firm of Dalgety, Borradale and Co., in Bourke Street West, and was esteemed a man of a highly-cultivated intelligence, and much commercial knowledge. Burnett Street, St. Kilda, was so named in compliment to him.
•Full particulars of the wreck of the "Cataraqui" will be found on page 582, ante.
