This will be understood from the fact that a dozen bottles of whisky, and a two-gallon jar of the same medicine were brought on the ground for refreshments. The town went into bat first, and by the time their innings was finished, so were the refreshments. CHAPTER XIII. When returning from the Court House with my L20 deposit after the nomination, I was way-laid by Sergeant Murray, of the police, who in oily sentences of congratulation suggested that I should give half of the money towards the erection of a Roman Catholic church, then about to be built. I succumbed to his flattery, although my own clergyman was daily expected, and my name was coupled with Father Plormel, the resident priest, on a piece of paper, and inserted in a hole in one of the blocks underneath the building. The church has been enlarged since, and I heard that the paper with our names, and those of the members of the committee, was found in a good state of preservation. This Sergeant Murray was a man of great dry humour and shrewdness. One day I was speaking to him, when one of two partners in a racehorse came up, and told us he and his partner had a dispute; the latter had the horse in his possession, in Lynett's stable, the door of which was secured with a padlock and trace chain. Murray asked him, "Why don't ye lock him up?" "Hang it all, the horse is locked up already; what is the good of my locking him up?" "Well, as your partner has the horse locked up you can't get him out, and if you lock the horse up, then your partner can't get him out." "Oh, I see," said the owner, and immediately bought the lock and chain. This advice was so novel to us that we all visited the stables and were amused to see two locks and trace chains to prevent the removal of the horse by either partner. It proved a common sense way of settling the dispute in a few hours, and the partners became better friends afterwards. On reaching Brisbane to attend the House, I interviewed Sir Thomas McIlwraith, who, after congratulating me on my return, said:--"I intend to put down an artesian bore at Winton." I asked if I might make use of this. He replied, "Well, it rests on me and my party being returned to office." I felt certain that this would follow, so I wired to Winton that I had been promised an artesian bore. The town was painted red on the news. At the opening of Parliament, Sir Samuel Griffith, seeing 45 members to his 27, resigned the Premiership, and Sir Thomas McIlwraith was sent for by Sir Anthony Musgrave. On the House meeting again within a few days, Mr. Albert Norton was unanimously elected speaker, and Sir Thomas McIlwraith asked for two months to construct his ministry. This was granted.