Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/48

24 The town is not laid out with any regularity; the modern bungalows, surrounded by balconies and verandahs, and all built on piles, are just dotted down anywhere in the sand and inland from it, a good many being drinking shanties and billiard saloons. At the back rises a wooded hill. This hotel is quite roomy and comfortable, two-storied, and with broad verandah and balcony. It too is planted on the sand near the sea and pier. It is distinctly an Irish establishment. There is no doubt about the nationality of Mrs. M‘Nulty, and still less about that of Bridget, her handmaiden. The big dining-room has a piano, pictures of Emmet, Daniel O'Connell, od many other patriots, and the bookcases contain Sir Charles Gavan Duffy’s works and those of numerous other Irish writers. In the days when I knew Sir Charles Gavan Duffy; I could not imagine how he could inspire any one with enthusiasm, clever and cultured though he was, for he could scarcely be described as a sympathetic character.

Such of the houses as are not built of wood are of corrugated iron. The house of the Government Resident, the Hon. John Douglas, is at a point, with a prominent flagstaff. He is away just now; so I cannot see him. There is another hotel; the Torres Straits, and as well I see near here a boarding-house, kept by “Tommy Japan.”

There are about two hundred white people on this and other islands scattered throughout the Straits, and about two thousand people in all, counting the mixed races of whites, Kanakas, Australian aborigines, Malays, Japanese, Chinese, and half-caste Manila men. There is a Queensland National Bank, not so big as its name, and prominent is the general store of Burns, Philp & Co., a well-known firm.