Last modified on 20 November 2015, at 22:00

Alexandra Times at KellyGang 22/7/1876

(full text transcription)

(see No 1) (see next) (see No 3)

MORNINGTON AND SOUTH GIPPSLAND

No. 2

By A. TRAVELLER

The township of Cranbourne, if ,you, can call it one from its scattered appearance has been well laid out by the surveyors, but having got into the grazing lords’ hands it has not been built upon, to any extent, thought no better situation exists for a township in Mornington. It boasts of a very good shire hall, built partly out of the shire funds and partly by Government subsidy; two hotel, butchers, grocers, drapers, &c., and a Rechabite hall and temperance hotel for the dispensing of coffee. The population here must have had an eye to keeping the ‘devil' out of the township, for they have posted the Roman Catholic chapel at one end and the police station at the other, while the Church of England and Presbyterian churches fill the Clyde side, and, the cemetery the Frankston side. They must have been Rechabites at heart that placed the cemetery where it is, but I suppose they thought as water was good to preserve bodies in this world, they could preserve them in water for the next, for a more wet and nasty situation could not be imagined. Here you can see the effect of sensible men being elected to manage the ratepayers' business at the Shire Council, table. Though they can boast of a shoe maker, tailor, &c:, it did not deter them from making one or the other president, as the case might be. There is no wrangling and calling one another hard names, but all sit down to do what the rate payers sent them, there for - to do all things for the good of the shire - and the same may be said of the Board of Advice, who have done their work honestly and well. This I think may be called the model shire of Victoria. There are no tolls, and all parts have meted out to them justice and fair play but the shire is one very easy to work, with the exception of Koowerup Swamp, which, by means of a drain now being cut to Westernport, will in time be as well off as any other part. From, this township to, Clyde - three miles - from, there to Berwick, and thence by St. Germain's to Tooradin, is all a market garden, as far as the paddocks are concerned, but as at Dandenong very little agriculture is carried on - all grazing, dairying; butter and cheese making. The population is increasing, but mostly of the McNab kind, so Scotch that they do not know which side of the channel they come from, though oatmeal is evidently no stranger to them. hailing from that part of Scotland called Belfast, of course I put up at Tucker’s Cranbourne Hotel, where 1 can ever no better accommodation could be desired,, and it was about the only hotel I even, visited, where no. inducement. was held out to me to spend my cash. As the natives of this part of Scotland are quick in perception, my appearance denoting piety and poverty no doubt may account, for it. So much for my view of Cranbourne.

continued

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