CHAPTER X.
Kiandra.—The Bank.—Depositing Treasure for Safe Custody.—A Narrow Escape.—Hospital.—Chinese Employed as Packers.—Disturbance at Kidd’s Hotel.
The township of Kiandra is situated on a tributary of the Snowy River, about fifty miles from Cooma, perhaps the coldest climate in New South Wales. From the mountainous character of the country the temperature is very low, sometimes falling as low as 5 degrees. The mean actual temperature in the shade is 46 degrees.
On the morning after my arrival at Kiandra the agent of the bank (Mr. Yates), whom I had known previously at Castlemaine, took me up to the bank, which I found to be a calico tent, built on the high side of the street, fully 10 ft. higher than the Oriental Bank, which was on the opposite side. On entering I saw a young man behind the counter, and was introduced to him by Yates as his assistant (Mr. Swain). The young fellow was perched on a piece of bark which rested on two logs, a stream of water running under him; in fact right through the building. I was puzzled to account for this, but on examination found it was caused by the snow, which was a foot or two deep at the back of the tent, thawing. The floor was one mass of puddle. No fireplace, so of course no fire; no door to the tent, but merely a piece of calico with a piece of sapling at the bottom, which was rolled up or down as occasion required. The counter was a novelty in its way—four saplings stuck into the mud with a few rough boards on the top. Altogether it was a most dismal prospect. How was it that such a state of things existed? And who was to blame for all this? These questions were easily answered. Yates was a man that did not value personal comfort; he had been accustomed to roughing it, and so long as he could get his meals and bed at a shanty he was satisfied. On inquiry I found out that a select few—principally bank officials—had a private room at Kidd’s Hotel (all these shanties are here called hotels). So there I went and made an arrangement for board and lodging, at the moderate sum of 50s. per week! The private room was 8 x 10 ft., in which there was a fireplace. Here we had our meals, and at night eight of us slept—four on stretchers and four on the floor. I was one of the unfortunates
