Then I looked at the letter and saw it were posted the 10th of May so I told them maybe it were too late for any prize.
Pa said, ‘We’ll see about that!’ I love it when Pa says that like nobody’s going to stop his kids from having things done fair. Only it were after 5 o’clock then and too late to ring them at the factory. He said we would first thing in the morning.
29th May, Tuesday
Pa and me went up to Millers Point post office—that’s opposite Lord Nelson Hotel—and rung Peacock’s factory from there. Pa spoke to the manager, who was very glad to hear from us on account of he didn’t know where to find me. Then he asked to speak to me and said he were very sorry but the other girl had come in and chosen the lady’s dressing case.
I said, ‘That don’t matter, sir. I were going to ask for the writing case anyway.’ And the manager sounded real pleased and said any time I cared to call at the factory office my prize’d be waiting.
Pa had to go to work on clean-up that day so after school this afternoon Ma had Mrs Cook mind Maisie and Ma and I got ourselves smartened up and went up town on the electric tram. They only been running since last December so this were our first trip. And we went as far as Parramatta Road and walked to the factory from there.
The manager was ever so nice and shook hands with us both and give us a cup of tea and a biscuit. Then he said my essay were very well thought out and most interesting. I could see Ma beaming all the time. He said the other girl wrote her favourite occupation were riding her new pony. Ma give me a look from behind the manager’s back like she weren’t the least surprised.
Then he give me the writing case and we come back down town on the tram. I showed Miss Collins my case and she said it were beautiful and all the kids crowded round to see. Even Reggie. I think he’s a bit sorry now he didn’t go in the competition.
When you open it up there’s paper and ink bottle and blotter roll and a real nice pen. And the leather’s smooth and dark shiny red. Then when you go to write something you put the lid down and it’s like a little desk almost. The first thing I’m going to do is write a letter to Bertie to tell him about it.
England says we can have federation and Pa says the gold miners in Western Australia have said they want to vote on it so now all of Western Australia will have to vote again.
The Herald says the army’s only twenty miles from Johannesburg where all the Boer gold mines are.
30th May, Wednesday
Seems like all the townspeople cheered as the troopers marched into Johannesburg. Pa says that’s because lots of them aren’t Boers but British moved there for the gold mining.
President Kruger still says he won’t give in but, and Lord Roberts won’t get as far as Pretoria, only Pretoria’s starting to panic on account of that’s the capital city and the British army’s getting awfully close now.
31st May, Thursday
There’s new notices gone up. One on the wall outside the grocer’s.
BOUNTY
6d A HEAD!
Ma says that’s outrageous to pay that much for a dead rat. Even Pa says it’d buy him two beers and maybe now he should start collecting rats instead of doing clean-up. Only Fred and Artie’s eyes lit up like candles when they heard. I think they’re planning maybe they can make hundreds of pounds now. Only the notices say the rats got to be taken in cans with lids on and in disinfectant and taken out again with tongs. So Fred’s worked it all out and says he can’t afford cans with lids and disinfectant and tongs on top of their tram fares. So he says him and Artie just have to give up the rat business from now on.
1st June, Friday
The harbour’s been closed. There’s no-one allowed to go fishing or bathing in it while all that carbolic’s still in the water and all them dead fish floating about on top. Pa says there’s no way you’d get him eating fish now even if he caught it hisself. He used to take Fred and Artie down the wharf pier before all this happened and they’d sit there hoping to catch us our tea of a night.
2nd June, Saturday
My hair’s real long now. I keep it tied back from my face and now I’m starting to put it up. Pa says I look quite the young lady when it’s all done up neat.
There’s going to be a new railway station at Devonshire Street called Central Station. It’ll be closer in to the city than Redfern and underneath the city they’re going to make tunnels and have railway lines running through them right up as far as St James Road. Pa says that means a lot more people’ll be able to come into the city by train. Only I can’t see how. If there are buildings already there and they dig tunnels underneath them, won’t the buildings fall in?
3rd June, Sunday
Ma give me my new unmentionables this morning. The ones she put the lace on and I’m wearing them to Mass today. No-one will know what I’m wearing except me. Certainly not Reggie Cook.
4th June, Monday
Lord Roberts has ridden into Pretoria at the head of all his troops, so Mr Kruger was wrong. Winston Churchill, who writes for the Morning Post in England, rode in in the middle of the night on a bicycle while the Boers were still there! Then he turned round and rode straight back out again with the Governor of the city to where his lordship was waiting. Ma said that were a daft thing to do. A New South Mounted got to take in Lord Roberts’ message of Surrender Or Else.
Then all the newspaper writers like Banjo Paterson went in and had the Boer flag taken down and the Union Jack run up in its place and the band ready to play God Save the Queen when his lordship got the keys to the town. Then all the troopers cheered and some of them took photos.
5th June, Tuesday
Whenever Ma’s busy I got to play with Maisie, keep her out of Ma’s way. She’s always wanting to brush my hair only sometimes she gets the brush tangled and I got to undo it. After that she wants me put her hair up so’s she can pretend she’s ‘growed up’.
6th June, Wednesday
I sometimes think how lucky Elsie and Jess were not getting plague when their pa did. And how lucky Maisie and Eddy have been as well. There’s a little girl, Lilian Stephens, come down with it now, and a man died over in quarantine. Just shows you there’s some not been so lucky.
Clean-up gangs started over in Manly today and one house they pulled down had thirty rats under the floorboards all dead and rotting. The stink were that bad the men had to keep rushing out and gulping fresh air before going back in.
7th June, Thursday
Dr Ashburton Thompson’s the man in charge of getting rid of plague. He says slums in Sydney are some of the worst he’s ever seen, even worse than London, where he comes from. Only Ma said did he have to say that in the paper where everyone reads it. It’s embarrassing enough for them that has to live in them.
8th June, Friday
Really big storm yesterday. Rough seas and winds of 60 mile an hour and cold. Still cold today too. It’s times like this I wish we were back in our old bedroom, not in a draughty school hall. At least there with six of us it were warmer.
Maisie had a nightmare last night and woke up crying.
I said, ‘What’s wrong, Maisie?’
She says, ‘Where will we live now? We don’t have a house no more. Will we ever have a house again, Kitty?’
So I give her a cuddle and tell her not to worry, that Pa will fix everything up. And once all the clean-ups done they’ll start building houses. She seemed to settle down after that, only then I lay awake wondering. With all this talk of houses being built, is Pa going to have the money for one?
9th June, Saturday
I asked him this morning and he said, not to worry my pretty head about it. So I hope it’s all right.
There were a big meeting in Sydney this week. It seems lots of people want the Premier to get a bill passed to give women the vote. They say if Mr Lyne gets one passed soon, we could have it in time for federation voting. I asked Ma what she thought and she said of course women should be able to vote. They can’t make any more of a mess of things than m
en.
There’s been over a thousand babies born in May and that’s far more than the number of people who’ve died. Ma says it’s nice somehow to think of little babies making up for all those poor people that got sick and died of plague.
10th June, Sunday
Dolly come over this arvo and said she had something she wanted to talk about. Only it’s hard with other families round all the time. So Ma said why don’t we go for a walk and we all went up Observatory Hill. I had to play with Maisie and keep her out of their way and the boys ran about by themselves. Only it turns out Dolly says she’s tired of working in the factory and wants to do something else. And Pa said what for instance when she got no training. Then Dolly says she’d like to go nursing. Ma and Pa seem stunned only they don’t say she’s not to or anything. Pa just says she should maybe write to the matron at Sydney Hospital and see what she has to say. I told Dolly I thought it were a wonderful idea and I’m real proud of her.
11th June, Monday
I’m spending more time playing with Maisie these days on account of Ma still don’t like her wandering round the Rocks on her own. There’s houses going up and she could get in the way. So I showed her how to make dollies’ clothes out of scraps Ma give us. Now Topsy’s got a new dress that’s ever so smart and she don’t look so bad no more.
12th June, Tuesday
It’s Ethel’s birthday today. Ma said when she had Ethel she were that pleased she were a girl. She was beginning to think maybe all she’d ever have was boys.
14th June, Thursday
There’s been two more cases today and the paper says war’s broken out in China now. Pa says we won’t be sending troopers to this one.
15th June, Friday
There’s another two more people got it today so it’s not gone, not by a long chalk.
16th June, Saturday
Mr Oliver’s been to Braidwood now and looked at that for a capital city. I wonder where they’ll end up putting it and what they’ll call it after all that.
17th June, Sunday
We’ve met Ethel’s young man. Very polite to Ma he was and seems very fond of Ethel. Not much to say for himself but, as Pa says, he would have had a hard time getting a word in what with Ma and Ethel, Maisie and me all talking at once.
19th June, Tuesday
Bertie’s pay’s been coming in regular and Ma’s saving what she can. He did say he wanted to help out so she’s putting aside for us too. There’s bound to be things she needs for the new house when it’s built. No sign of it starting even yet.
22nd June, Friday
The House of Commons in England has said we can have a federation. Pa says it took them long enough but. And there’ll be celebrations for a whole week all over the country when we get it. It’ll be like being in a new country almost and just in time for starting off the 20th Century.
26th June, Tuesday
Three new cases today. I’ve lost count how many that is so far.
27th June, Wednesday
I’ve had another one of them things I got back in March when Ma catched me out in the washhouse. That’s three times now. I don’t know what you call it still. Ma didn’t say and I don’t like to ask.
28th June, Thursday
No-one sick today. I wonder what’ll happen to all those people that’s buried at North Head. It’s not like an ordinary cemetery where you can go any time and put flowers on the graves. No-one’ll be able to go there just for that. So people will have nowhere to visit and feel close.
29th June, Friday
Two more deaths for the cemetery at North Sydney.
Reggie told Fred and Artie there’s going to be a new bridge over to Pyrmont. It’ll go from the bottom of Market Street across Darling Harbour. Reggie wants to build bridges. Only you have to be an engineer first. He says this bridge will swing round in the middle to open up and let ships through. Fred and Artie can’t wait to see it working, only Reggie says it’ll take them two whole years to build.
30th June, Saturday
Ethel’s been made an inspector at her factory. Instead of just putting in laces in boots and packing them, now she has to make sure each pair’s perfect with no stitching coming undone or nails sticking up inside that could hurt someone. It means extra money for her each week. That’s good too.
1st July, Sunday
No-one’s said anything at Ragged School about me being 13 now and should have left. I’m sure Miss Collins don’t mind me there and next year so long as Pa’s got work I’ll go on somewhere else and stay till I turn 15 and done me Junior.
2nd July, Monday
It’s not as crowded now with other schools back and some families gone already. There’s a few houses finished and more going up. Lessons go on same as usual but, and Ma’s taken to sitting on one side when we do spelling and I can tell she’s practising in her head to get it right.
3rd July, Tuesday
There’s going to be memorials all round Sydney for troopers that’s died in the war. There’s one going up for Lieutenant Grieve out at Watson’s Bay and a plaque for Corporal Kilpatrick at Leichhardt Public. And Lieutenant Harriott’s to have one at St Thomas North Sydney inside the church and maybe the gates as well. I think it’s nice to have something to remember them.
5th July, Thursday
The House of Lords has passed the bill for Federation Pa says, and our first Governor-General might be Lord Hopetoun. He’s been Governor of Victoria already so he should know what to do.
Mr Oliver’s been and looked at Bathurst now.
6th July, Friday
We’ve had horrid weather. Pouring rain and cold and blowing a gale again. There’s huge waves hit Manly too, and trees are pulled up all over Sydney, as well as telegraph lines down. No-one can send a telegram in or out of the city, and up the Blue Mountains there’s been snow. Some places even got floods. Why can’t it just be pleasant instead of too hot and sticky or freezing cold to chill your bones?
8th July, Sunday
Mr Kruger’s told Lord Roberts the Boers will go on fighting even if there’s only 500 of them left and that could take for ages. There’s more troopers gone over from Australia since Bertie left.
A whole week’s gone by without one person getting plague.
9th July, Monday
The Queen’s signed the bit of paper to say we can have Federation. Queen Victoria’s my favourite queen on account of she’s got freckles too. At least that’s what Ma said when I told her I hated mine. But I sometimes wonder how Ma knew?
10th July, Tuesday
Mabel come to see us today. It seems Mr and Mrs Alexander come back to the city last weekend to get away from the snow and cold and they give Mabel the day off. She says she were thrilled to get Ma’s letter, only it made her feel homesick.
‘Don’t they treat you right?’ said Ma starting to bristle. Mabel says it weren’t that, it’s just that they’re not her real family and since she’s on her own mostly she gets lonely.
Mrs Alexander’s always going out to parties and dinners and concerts and no sooner has Mabel got her dressed and ready than she’s left by herself for hours, sewing tiny tears in things or missing buttons or maybe sorting washing and ironing. She don’t see no-one, only downstairs maids maybe when she has her meals, or the housekeeper if she has to. So Ma give her a bit of a hug and I felt mean we’d said them things about all she ever wanted were lady’s maid.
No cases for eight days now. Maybe it’s gone at last?
12th July, Thursday
Artie wants to know where the Governor-General’s going to live? He could stay in Government House for a while as a visitor, only that’s the Governor’s house so he can’t stay there for long. So they’re going to have to find somewhere else for him to live.
13th July, Friday
Pa says other countries have heard we’re going to be a federation and France has put a message in one of their papers saying, ‘A great nation is thus born.’ That were good of them.
; Ma and I played a trick on Pa tonight. We’ve been waiting to let it slip that Ma can read, so no sooner had he finished with the paper tonight than Ma picks it up real casual like and starts reading out loud.
‘It says here the chief of the tribe of Kalenza, Chilimonzie, has got 56 wives and 118 children and he’s very rich.’
Plagues and Federation Page 8