AUSTRALASIA

[ Louis de Rougemont, 'colonial Munchausen' in Australia. ] Autograph Letter Signed to Sub-Lieutenant Sidney R. Conson, RN.

Author: 
Louis de Rougemont [ born Henri Louis Grin ] (1847-1921), hoaxer, 'colonial Munchausen' claiming adventures in Australia
Publication details: 
13 Bloomsbury Street, London W.C. 19 April 1899.
£180.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition. He thanks him for his 'very kind note', but regrets that 'owing to my being engaged on a lecturing tour for some time to come I am at present unable to fix a date to avail myself of your invitation'. He hopes to be able to do so when 'free from my appointments'. For information on de Rougemont', see B. G. Andrews's entry on him in the Dictionary of Australian Biography. Born in Switzerland, at around the age of sixteen 'he became a footman to the actress Fanny Kemble, touring extensively and learning fluent English.

[Printed act of the United Kingdom parliament.] Chapter 60. An Act to constitute a Federal Council of Australasia. [14th August 1885.]

Publication details: 
London: Printed by Eyre and Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty. 1885.
£950.00

9pp. [paginated ii+ 7], 8vo. Disbound. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with first leaf loose. Government stamp at head of first page: 'SUPPLIED FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE'. The first two pages (paginated i-ii) give an 'Arrangement of Sections'. An historic document, almost never found alone: no copies listed on COPAC.

[Printed British parliamentary report.] Australasia. Correspondence relating to the Naval Defence of Australia and New Zealand. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty, October, 1908.

Author: 
[British Parliamentary report into the naval defence of Australia and New Zealand, 1908] [HMSO]
Publication details: 
London: Printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office, by Darling & Son, Ltd, London. 1908.
£75.00

Folio, iv + 56 pp. Stitched. In original blue printed wraps. Text clear and complete. Internally good, on lightly-aged high-acidity paper. Wraps worn and a little chipped, with a few closed tears. Wraps carrying Hull University withdrawal stamps.

[Printed British parliamentary paper.] Report from the Select Committee on Colonisation; together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, and Appendix. Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, 31 July 1890.

Author: 
[House of Commons Committee Select Committee Report on Colonisation, 1890.] [Hansard]
Publication details: 
London: Printed by Henry Hansard and Son; and Published by Eyre and Spottiswoode, London. [1890.]
£30.00

Folio, xiv + 499. Stitched. In original blue printed wraps. Text clear and complete. Internally good, on aged high-acidity paper. Front wrap (with small paper label in top corner) detached, and spine chipped.

[Printed British parliamentary paper.] Commonwealth of Australia. Report (with appendices) of the Royal Commission (Mr. Justice Street) on the Meat Export Trade of Australia. Presented to Parliament by Command of His Majesty, April, 1915.

Author: 
[Mr. Justice Street's report to the British parliament on the meat export trade of Australia, 1915.] [HMSO]
Publication details: 
London: Printed under the Authority of His Majesty's Stationery Office, by Darling and Son, Limited, London. 1915.
£145.00

Folio, 50 pp. Stitched. In original blue printed wraps. Text clear and complete. On aged and lightly-stained paper. In worn and chipped wraps. Front wrap carrying the stamp and withdrawal stamp of the University of Hull. Scarce. Only one "electronic resource" recorded.

Whaling at Encounter Bay. Prepared by Keith Travers Borrow [for the Hisorical Memorial Committee of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (S.A. Branch) and with their permission published by the Pioneers' Association of S.A.].

Author: 
Keith Travers Borrow [Encounter Bay; the Historical Memorials Committee of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia; the Pioneers' Association of South Australia]
Publication details: 
[1946.] Published by the Pioneers' Association of S.A. Steamship Buildings, Currie Street, Adelaide. [O.J.D. Printery, 174 Angus Street.]
£45.00

12mo, 16 pp. Stapled pamphlet. Not paginated. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Includes a three-quarter page 'Chart of the Anchorages in Encounter Bay by Wm. Light, Surveyor General'. Scarce: no copy in the British Library, and the only copy on COPAC at Oxford (where dated to 1846).

Under Southern Skies. A series of articles conveying the impressions of the writer during the course of a visit to Australia and New Zealand as a member of the Imperial Press Conference, 1925.

Author: 
J. W. Dafoe [John Wesley Dafoe], Editor-in-Chief, Manitoba Free Press [Australia; New Zealand]
Publication details: 
Winnipeg, Canada: The Free Press. ['Reprinted in order as they appeared from day to day on the editorial page of the Manitoba Free Press, November, 1925'.]
£85.00

8vo: [iv] + 43 pp. Stapled pamphlet. Inscribed at head of title 'With regards | J W Dafoe'. Text clear and complete. On grubby, aged paper, with wear to outer leaves. An introduction explains that of the seventeen articles, 'the first seven [...] are merely comments on certain aspects of the New Zealand scene as they appeared to a passer-by', while 'the ten articles devoted to Australia deal with the same subject from various angles. They constitute an attempt at a study of Australia's political developments in the social and economic field.' No copy in the British Library or on COPAC.

The Deportation of the Norfolk Islanders to the Derwent in 1808. I. The Settlement of Norfolk Island. II. The Deportation to the Derwent.

Author: 
Jack Backhouse Walker [Norfolk Island deportation, 1808; Derwent; Tasmania; Van Diemen's Land]
Publication details: 
Tasmania: William Grahame, Jun., Government Printer, Hobart. 1895.
£75.00

12mo: 26 pp. In original printed wraps. Stapled pamphlet. Unopened. The only copies on COPAC at the British Library and Oxford. For more information about Walker (1841-1899) see his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Speech delivered by Mr. G. A. L. Wilson, M.L.A., in the Legislative Assembly on Closer Settlement: Purchase of Bald Blair Estate. [From "Parliamentary Debates," 20th July, 1938.]

Author: 
G. A. L. Wilson [Bald Blair Estate, New South Wales, Australia]
Publication details: 
Sydney: David Harold Paisley, Government Printer - 1938.
£85.00

8vo: 6 pp. Stapled pamphlet. Text clear and complete. On aged and creased paper. For Wilson 'the most important aspect of the question' is 'the conversion of unsound country to sound country [...] It is a recent discovery, and, while ten or fifteen years ago one would have wiped the proposal before the House right off the slate, on the ground that the land is unsuitable for closer settlement, one to-day welcomes it.' Red-ink 1 cm accession stamp of the Webster Collection on reverse of blank final leaf, numbered 4188. No copy in the British Library, on COPAC, or on WorldCat.

Unattributed engraving entitled 'A FAMILY in DUSK BAY, NEW ZEALAND.'

Author: 
George William Anderson [NEW ZEALAND; CAPTAIN THOMAS COOK; ALEXANDER HOGG]
Publication details: 
Without date or place, but taken from George William Anderson's 'A new, authentic, and complete collection of voyages round the world [...] containing a new [...] account of Captain Cook's [...] voyages' (London: Alexander Hogg, [1785]).
£68.00

Roughly nine and a half inches by fifteen wide. Mounted on a piece of card, with some fraying to extremities. Somewhat aged, but a good impression of a strong, striking idealised illustration, showing a bearded warrior with a club, emerging from the undergrowth beside a tree and fast-flowing water, beside which four women (one of them baring a breast) recline with their children.

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