Alexandra Times at KellyGang 21/6/1872
Full text of article
Mr J B Morris, of the Corner Hotel, will within a few days leave Alexandra for Penshurst, at which place he has taken a hotel. We cannot allow Mr Morris to depart from amongst us without putting on re cord that we are losing one of the best men in our district. That he has been attentive to his business, punctual in his payments, civil and obliging, is saying what no one will deny, and nothing more than is the duty of every man. In addition to these good qualities, Mr Morris is a gentleman by birth and education. His father was a major in the army, and served with considerable distinction in the Peninsular war and at Waterloo; besides Mr Morris, when a young man, held the commission of an ensign until he came out to this country upwards of 20 years ago.
Hotelkeepers as a class are jolly good fellows, but few of them come up to Mr Morris's standard. It is therefore with much regret that we have to record the fact that he is about to leave our district. Mrs Morris will excuse us in making a slight allusion to her departure. At all our entertainments for local or other charitable purposes, this lady has always rendered most important service by acting, singing, or playing the piano, and whatever she did in this way was done with an ability equal to that of a professional.
The aggregate amount of money which Mrs Morris has assisted to raise in this way must be over several hundred pounds. It has been under her own roof, however, where Mrs Morris has most excelled. Her ever hearty welcome and uniform kindness have been observed and felt by all who have had the pleasure of her acquaintance; and we feel perfectly assured that the departure of Mr and Mrs Morris from Alexandra will be universally regretted, We understand that it is the intention of Mr Morris's friends to invite him to a fare well dinner prior to his departure.
The sale of Mr Morris's furniture at the Corner Hotel commenced yesterday, and will be continued to-day. As things are being sold remarkably cheap, those who have a pound note to spare, should avail themselves of this opportunity of adding some little additional comfort to their establishments.
Cobb & Co. have put on a coach for six passengers to run between Yea and Broadford. A coach leaves the Alexandra Hotel every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 4a.m., (passengers arriving in Melbourne at 5 p.m. the same day, returning every alternate day. Fare right through, 33s. This will be found a great improvement on the Yarra road, in fact, it is likely that the passenger traffic by that route will entirely cease from this date. Every effort should be made by the Alexandra Shire Council and the Yea Road Board to keep the roads along the line to the railway in the best possible order, as once a bad impression of a road is produced it is difficult to remove it. The road on the Alexandra side of Sloan's punt requires immediate attention, also the approaches to the punt. A few men should be kept constantly at work all the winter, filling up ruts and cutting side-drains, as some of the places will in a short time become dangerous ii not impassable quagmires.
The following letter has been received by us from Mr Coster:- "Mr Norman Whitelaw, Proprietor and Publisher Alexandra Times newspaper.
| ! | The text has been retyped from a microfiche copy of the original. We have taken care to reproduce this document but areas of the original text may been damaged. |
