Mr Bennie was the first settler who established a home for himself and family in the Upper Piper district, and with his deceased wife has for the last twenty-five years in many instances been a friend and adviser to the newcomers, who in general stand in need of advice and help in a strange place.
On Sunday, the 20th January, we had the honor of having Divine service conducted by a highly, esteemed gentleman from Launceston, who delivered a well arranged sermon to an attentive and numerous congregation.
Harvest operations have been commenced, and the farmers are busily engaged in cutting their grain. The weather being dry and hot is favorable for this kind of work. Red rust is in the wheat either more or less, and will affect the yield of this cereal accordingly. The oat crops are very promising, and judging by the number of stooks, the yield must turn out satisfactorily. A marked improvement is to be seen in at Mr W. Sommerville's farm; one may notice that a practical and systematical plan is adopted in improving this place.
Further on a great scope of land has been brought under cultivation by Messrs Bardenhagen, Gottlieb Sulzberger, and J. and G. Sulzberger respectively, and it is a pleasure to see all the other settlers making similar improvement. A great number of acres of scrub had been cut down this season, and will soon be burnt, and in six months hence one may see a crop of wheat, or whatever it may be, instead of the dense scrub so hateful to all the settlers.
It is not my intention to spin a long yarn concerning the improvements effected by the settlers in this place, for they are the same all over the country, but I mean to say that all their improvements and work is done under difficulties and drawbacks of the worst descriptions staring the settlers in the face, and it is aggravating to think that all this trouble to thousands of industrious people, willing to convert the wild bush into cultivated land, is caused by the pernicious actions of a few men, who are obstructing the progress of the country by opposing measures brought forward which would give to the Battler what was promised to him when he bought his land, namely, the construction of roads and bridges. How much would Government have been a gainer these last 15 years, and how much more land would have been bought and cultivated, if a liberal system of road making had not been opposed by the factious opponents of progress ! Why their race would soon be run out.
The weather is keeping hot, with a south and south-easterly breeze blowing some days, and a threatened shower of rain, as long waited for by everything living, went past, disappointing all. I have received news of the death of another child, one belonging to Mr A. Downey, and I also hear that the second one is not expected to live. We hope and pray that this dreadful sickness soon may leave this district February 3.UPPER PIPER'S RIVER (1879, February 7). The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 - 1880), , p. 3. Retrieved April 5, 2016, fromhttp://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66499219
Thank you to Lorraine Wootton for forwarding this article 5 March 2016. Sad to read of the deaths of children and a mother. I guess germs were not understood, antibiotics still 60 years away in 1879, and so dysentery, diphtheria, cholera, and typhoid/typhus ran rampant among settlers reliant on creek water and with animals near the house. My grandmother's sister lasted only six weeks in Kalgoorlie WA before succumbing to typhoid in 1889. What a precarious life. Our complaints now are so petty by comparison.