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THE CHRONICLES OF EARLY MELBOURNE.

25th August, 1838, amounting in the aggregate to ,£398 8s. In the Letter-book appears the following, from the Manager to the Chairman of the Board of Directors :—" I have now about ,£200 in small bills from , w h o is a good mark; shall I do them?" T h e M'Nall referred to kept a somewhat extensive butcher's shop in Collins Street East. T h e T h o m a s Napier was an enterprising old colonist, n o w dead. The first immigrant ship to arrive from England was the "David Clarke" in 1839. The first person for whom a residence was erected at the now flourishing St. Kilda, was Mr. George Thomas, of the firm of Thomas, Enscoe, and James, established at the corner of Flinders and William Streets. This was in 1840, when Thomas held a license to depasture cattle on the picturesque country then known as the R e d Bluff and the Green Knoll. T h e R e d Bluff was nautically denominated as Point Ormond, and the designation "St. Kilda" was conferred by Mr. Latrobe, thefirstSuperintendent of Port Phillip.

SPECIAL SURVEYS.

In the early days of colonization, a right of free selection on a large scale was permitted in Port Phillip, by which tracts of country were taken up at the rate of jf per acre. Brighton, Kilmore, Belfast, and other places were so appropriated until the system was abolished in 1840. T h e following is a waif relating thereto, the original of which is not now to be found in our Lands and Survey Department:— Return of all special Surveys taken prior to the abrogation of the system .—

COUNTY.

Bourke Bourke Gippsland Gippsland Gippsland Unnamed at Bourke

PARISH.

Bulleen Moorabbin Unnamed Unnamed Unnamed Mt. Martha Boroondara

No

OF ACRES.

A.

R.

p.

5120 5120 5120 5120 5120 5120 5120

0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0

N A M E OF

PURCHASER.

Frederick Wright Unwin Henry Dendy John Orr William Rutledge John Reeve Hugh Jamieson Henry Elgar

NOTE.—Besides the above, a special survey of 5120 acres was purchased for Henry Hopkins, of Hobart Town, which was subsequently taken in detached sections, and is consequently not included in preceding return. There still remains unsatisfied a special survey order for 5120 acres, purchased by P. W . Flower, Sydney.

Amongst the earliest sticking-up cases is that of Mr. place was, on the 7th January, 1840, surrounded and pretended they were shooting lyre birds. O n the 17th blackfellows rushed the homestead of Mr. Hector Munro, the shepherds, drove off all the sheep.

Watson, a settler on the Goulburn, whose gutted by seven armed scoundrels, who of the same month a m o b of thirty-six near Mount Alexander, and rounding up

A BACHELORS' BALL.

The commencement of 1840 was distinguished by a pair of happy re-unions. There was a susceptible influx of imported respectability in the latter portion of 1839, including a sprinkling of gay young cavaliers and attractive damsels. It was therefore determined to get up thefirstbachelors' ball. There were three hotels, the Lamb Lnn, the Caledonian, and the Adelphi, with large apartments attached, though for some reason or other none of them was deemed suitable. Mr. W . F. A. Rucker