17 July 1914

of the mountains, about 50 miles, up the Murray from Corryong. It lies right at the foot of Kosciusko and is only accessible by pack tracks. The route in general uses crosses into New South Wales. The other track keeps to the Victorian side all the way, but in traversing the precipitous Indi Gorge, some very rough country is met with, and the grade in places is very dangerous. Gradually all the mountain roads converge into Groggin, and it is the only point from which the ascent of Kosciusko can be made from the Murray valley.

For nearly 30 years, John Riley has lived at Groggin, and for that time, has been in charge of Mr J. Pierce’s cattle station, which comprises most of the good-land there. Familiar with every inch of the river country, he has given all assistance to numbers of tourists passing through and was better known than probably any other man on the mountains. A fearless and dashing horseman in his young days, a first-class hand among stock, and Irish, open-hearted and generous, he was liked and respected by all who know him. In bushcraft, even among the experts of the Murray, Gippsland, and Monaro, he stood alone, and it is said that some of his exploits formed the basis of Patterson’s well-known verses on “The Man from Snowy River.”

Gifted with the bushman’s unerring sense of locality, he had a supreme contempt for the compass and delighted to relate his experience with a party of city tourists who visited Groggin some years ago. The weather was treacherous, and Riley offered to guide the party to the top. They told him that there was no necessity to come, as they had a good compass. The foggy weather set in, and two days afterwards, a party of bedraggled pedestrians returned to Groggin with only one desire to get back to civilisation. Riley never said a word. He gave them food and a drink of tea, and catching his horse, led them over the Divide and put them on the Geehi track for home.

Advancing years and the rough life had been telling upon Riley lately, but he refused to leave his mountains except for a brief visit to civilisation now and again. Word reached Corryong on Saturday that his condition was serious, and some of his friends decided to bring him to Corryong to the hospital. With this object, Mr W. H. Findlay, a well-known Kosciusko guide, went up to Groggin on Sunday lust. Rain fell all day Monday, but a stretcher was improvised and arrangements made for the departure next morning, Messrs.’ A. and J. McInnes, F. Jarvis, and R. Butler assisting. About half-past 9 o’clock on Tuesday, the party left the Groggin hut, carrying Riley on the stretcher, the men taking turn about at the handle and leading pick horses with provisions and blankets. The first four or five miles from the valley was covered without much trouble, but when it became necessary to climb out of the gorge over the shoulder of the Hermit Hut, the real difficulties began. The track ascends through wild scrub and rocks over 2,000 feet, and the party soon found that

the task was beyond them. To make matters; worse, snow began to fall, and the cold became intense.

In all difficulties, the bushman turned to his horse and amounted pony provided the solution. Riley was lifted into the saddle, and Butler, the lightest of the party, mounted behind him. Butler held the reins and supported the half-unconscious man. Two others walked alongside, holding him in place, and the long ascent was made. Snow was thick on the ground as they came over the top of the spur, and more was falling, but the party pushed on and ascended into the Hermit’s Creek late in the afternoon. The stretcher had to be brought into use again, and just at dark, the party reached Surveyor’s Creek Junction, where a deserted mining hut provided a shelter for the night. Mr Jarvis went up the creek to the tin mine and arranged for assistance in the morning, and the others made a fire and installed him as comfortable as possible in front of it. He seemed to rally a little and spoke to his friends, but the weakness reasserted itself, and shortly afterwards, he suddenly swayed and died.

Out among the great trees, with the rain falling gently on the roof of the hut, the old man breathed his last. The body was carried eight miles in a little over four hours. Four miles further on, Messrs. R. Findlay and E. Pendergast met them with a buggy, mid just before midnight on Wednesday, the last stage of the journey was reached.

An inquiry was held today, and the deputy coroner returned a verdict of death from heart failure. This afternoon the body of the old bushman was interred in the Corryong Cemetery, in the presence of his mates and a few friends.

NAVAL AGREEMENT.

Position of Australasia.

Questions in Parliament.

LONDON, 16 July.

Mr Rowland Hunt (Unionist) again questioned the First Lord of the Admiralty in the House of Commons yesterday concerning the naval agreement between Great Britain and Australia, and New Zealand. He asked Mr Churchill why he had failed to carry out the agreement of 1909.

Mr Churchill referred Mr Hunt to his statement on the subject when introducing the naval estimates and added that it was impossible to deny with important issues at question time.
Mr Hunt asked whether Australia and New Zealand would not be driven to seek the protection of another white race unless the agreements were fulfilled. Mr Churchill said that he could not admit that the Admiralty had failed to keep the agreements, nor that if there was any difference of opinion, it would be likely to alter the relationships with the overseas dominions.

St. Petersburg, where one of the Czar’s palaces is situated, troops are out fighting the fires. Near Tyer, on the Volga, the peat bogs are burning to the depth of 7ft. over an extended area, and l8 companies of soldiers are engaged in an endeavour to stamp out the fire. Reinforcements of troops have been despatched to various districts where the fires are the most serious.

SUFFRAGETTE EXCESSES.

MINISTER HORSEWHIPPED.

LONDON, 16 July

 A suffragette slashed the Secretary for Scotland (Mr Mackinnon Wood) with a horsewhip in Portland Place yesterday.

Two women, Jannette Wallace and

Bertha Watson were arrested, and at the police court were each fined £1, or in default 14 days’ imprisonment. They were removed from the court, struggling violently.

explained, would be remitted to Whitehall and thence disbursed proportionately between Ulster and the Irish Government.

One hundred and fifty thousand rounds of ammunition consigned to Belfast have been housed at Stockton-on-Tees. 

 subsequent movements until he ran into Harden, with a magnificent burst of speed (lying at the rate of two miles a minute, and brought to a close his day’s journey of 352 miles.

Guillaux was early astir yesterday.

He sat down to his morning cutlet at the Cafe Denat punctually at 6 o’clock, and a few minutes later set out in n motorcar for the Royal Agricultural Society’s show-grounds at Flemington, where his Bleriot monoplane was housed and ready for his great undertaking-a flight to Sydney with the first aerial mail carried in Australia.

On his arrival at the show-grounds, the aviator, assisted by members of his mechanical staff, ran the Bleriot out onto the oval, and the careful overhaul of the machine began. Giullaux had stated that he would leave Melbourne for Sydney at 9 o’clock, and at that hour, he was standing beside the cab of his machine, ready to start. The fact that it was 12 minutes past the hour before he got away was no fault of his, for the clock in the aviator’s cab had ticked off a good five minutes after the hour before the mail arrived from the General Post office in charge of Mr W. B. Crosbie acting deputy postmaster general. 

The mail was promptly placed on board, good wishes and handshaking occupied a few moments and then to the accompaniment of hearty cheering from the 250 or 300 people present. Giullaux soared into the air and, on reaching a height of about 1000ft, took his bearings like a camel pigeon and set his course northwards.

Guillaux earned a letter of greeting from the Governor of Victoria (Sir Arthur Stanley) to the Governor of New South Wales (Sir Gerald Strickland) and a letter from the French vice-consul in Melbourne (M. Homery) to the French Consul General at Sydney (M. Chauvet.) A mayoral greeting from the Lord Mayor of Melbourne (Councillor D. Y.Hennessy) to the Lord Mayor of Sydney was to have been carried, but, by some mischance, it did not arrive at the show grounds so Guillaux will convey a verbal greeting to Sydney’s Lord Mayor instead. Several persons had prevailed on the aviator to carry small packages to relatives or friends in Sydney by the heavenly route, and these with the air man’s own valise made up his cargo On his way over the not thorn suburbs of Melbourne, Guillaux flew comparatively low, and when passing over Essendon, the noise attracted those-they were not very many-who had forgotten the time of the aviator’s passage. The eyes of most folk outside were turned upwards, and children at schools waved their caps and cheered lustily.