Adec Preview Generated PDF File - The Sydney eScholarship ...

fight. For fully an hour the main street was the scene of the wildest
disorder, and the foulest language was shouted at the top of men's voices.
"As far as we could judge there were two or three couples had a "go in",
but the principal combatants had it out to a finish and it must have been
very satisfying.
"It too frequently happens that whenever the town is left without any
guardian of the peace some outrage of this kind occurs and the place is
given up to the excesses of drunken men. It soon gets wind that there are
no police about and advantage is taken of it to throw off all restraint. Such
an example as the present should be sufficient to show that under no
pretext whatever should the town be left without police protection" (Sturt
Recorder, 26 February 1897:2).
The police were also criticised by T.W. Chambers for their lack of attention
to straying pigs...
"Pigs, pigs, pigs...
"We have received frequent complaints from townspeople about the
trouble and annoyance of stray pigs and from personal experience we can
say without any doubt that they are a confounded nuisance. They walk
through wire netting fences like so much tissue paper. The police are
always going to see to it but they never do. Too much talkee talkee and no
action. So it remains to the local paper to sound the tom tom. So after this
notice owners of pigs had better look out (Sturt Recorder, 7 February
1896:2).
A few weeks later the comment was a little less verbose...
"The truth must be told even should the heavens fall. When is it to be?
"Pig Pig Pig! Pig Pig Pigl Pigtown!
(Sturt Recorder, 3 April 1896:3).
However, Thomas Wakefield Chambers, who by now was perhaps
becoming a little disenchanted with the town he had adopted, did
occasionally acknowledge work done by the police. One such occasion
was reported as follows:
"About midnight on Tuesday a most unearthly noise broke out in the town
which proved to be a mob of tin-kettlers who had arranged themselves
opposite the residence of Mr. Thomas Baker, armed with their instruments
of torture, with a view possibly, from their point of view, to do honour to the
occasion of his marriage to Miss Maggie Henry. Such attention, however,
is not appropriate. In fact it can only be regarded as the most insane kind
of larrikinism. Fortunately the police were early upon the scene of disorder
and the performers were dispersed" (Sturt Recorder, 25 December 1897:2)