Shire-wide news extracts from the Moruya Examiner of 22 March 1919, provided by the Moruya & District Historical Society:
BIG GOLD YIELD. – The yield of the Victorian-Araluen Dredging Company for the fortnight ended March 8 was 335oz. gold.
OMISSION. – So numerous have been the kindly acts of Mr. Mackay that the various speakers at the presentation meeting overlooked mention of his generous gift of four acres as building sites for returned soldiers and £50 to the local Repatriation committee. Their delight in securing the beautiful park site must have overshadowed everything else.
PERSONAL & OTHERWISE. – There was a slight frost in Braidwood and throughout the district on Saturday morning last. A good deal of vegetable crop was cut off.
Ex Pte. Chas Harper was married to Miss Kathleen (daughter of Mr. F. W. Hyland) at St. Saviours’s Church, Quaama on Wednesday.
Mr. J Davison, of Narooma, is in receipt of a cable from his son Lieut. A. Davison, stating that the title of Captain had been conferred on him. Hats off to our gallant boy.
As a result of prohibition in several hundred postal towns in America, the postal authorities refuse to deliver newspapers or periodicals containing liquor advertisements. This is affecting various Australian publications which circulate in America.
Mr. Chas Marsden of Bodalla has received advice that his son Pte. Steve Marsden who has served a long term of imprisonment in Germany is now approaching the shores of Australia and may be expected to arrive in a week or two.
LATEST TELEGRAMS. – SYDNEY, Friday
50 new cases of influenza are reported in the 24 hours ended last night and two deaths; also 18 new cases from the encounter and 35 mild cases from the Long Bay Penitentiary, totalling 103.
There were 103 cases in Melbourne yesterday and two deaths.
WEDDING. – O’REILLY -HEFFERNAN.
On Monday 17th inst., in honor of St. Patrick, Ireland’s Patron Saint and the marriage of one of our fairest and noblest girls Katie Heffernan, Queen of Moruya, the sun shone forth in all its brilliancy – it being just one of those days when the golden glory of summer mingles with the gorgeous hues of autumn.
In the Sacred Heart Church the Revd. Father McCormack, assisted by the very Revd. Father Quilter, of St. Francis’, Melbourne, celebrated the nuptials of Katie, youngest daughter of the late Roger Heffernan, and Mrs Heffernan of Moggendoura to Corporal Jack O’Reilly, eldest son of the late J. J. O’Reilly and Mrs O’Reilly, of Sydney. The bride, who entered the Church on the arm of her brother, Mr. E. Heffernan, to the strains of “The Bridal March” played by Miss Eileen Keating, wore a smart-cut tailored suit of white gabardine with shell pink georgette vest and collar, and hat of white panne velvet.
The bridal party then adjourned to McKeon’s Commercial Hotel, where the dejeuner was in readiness.
Mr. and Mrs. O’Reilly then left by Weatherby’s special car for Moss Vale, en route to Sydney, where their future home will be.
OUR BOYS. – Mrs Lawler of Nerrigundah is in receipt of the following interesting letter from Pte Gilbert Jessop of the same locality and who was a prisoner of war in Germany.
Dear Mrs Lawler, - Just a few lines to let you know how I am getting on. I arrived in London a few days ago from Germany. It is a grand thing to be free again. I had a very rough time in Germany, working hard all the time, Sundays included. I often got up and went to work without breakfast and had to work until 4 o’clock and then come home to tea which consisted of a bowl of barley and a cup of coffee. Germany was in a very bad state for grub. It was that that ended the war.
Twenty 100 years ago booklets containing articles for the years 1899 to 1918 are available ($5 ea) from the Society’s rooms. Copies of local newspapers from the 1860s to date can be viewed at the Society’s Family History Research Centre (Ph 4474 3224) situated at the rear of the Museum in Campbell St. Moruya (www.mdhs.org.au).
