Austral English Part 63

p.5:

"Much of this paper-money is of the most trifling description.

To this is often added `payable in dollars at 5s. each.' Some ... make them payable in Colonial currency."

[p. 69, note]: "25s. currency is about equal to a sovereign."

1826. Act of Geo. IV., No. 3 (Van Diemen's Land):

"All Bills of Exchange, Promissory Notes ... as also all Contracts and Agreements whatsoever which shall be drawn and circulated or issued, or made and entered into, and shall be therein expressed ... to be payable in Currency, Current Money, Spanish Dollars ... shall be ... Null and Void."

1862. Geo. Thos. Lloyd, `Thirty-three years in Tasmania and Victoria,' p. 9:

"Every man in business ... issued promissory notes, varying in value from the sum of fourpence to twenty s.h.i.+llings, payable on demand. These notes received the appellation of paper currency... . The pound sterling represented twenty-five s.h.i.+llings of the paper-money."

(2) Obsolete name for those colonially-born.

1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. ii.

(Table of Contents):

"Letter XXI.--Currency or Colonial-born population."

Ibid. p. 33:

"Our colonial-born brethren are best known here by the name of Currency, in contradistinction to Sterling, or those born in the mother-country. The name was originally given by a facetious paymaster of the 73rd Regiment quartered here--the pound currency being at that time inferior to the pound sterling."

1833. H. W. Parker, `Rise, Progress, and Present State of Van Diemen's Land,' p. 18:

"The Currency lads, as the country born colonists in the facetious nomenclature of the colony are called, in contradistinction to those born in the mother country."

1840. Martin's `Colonial Magazine,' vol. iii. p. 35:

"Currency lady."

1849. J. P. Townsend, `Rambles in New South Wales,' p. 68:

"Whites born in the colony, who are also called `the currency'; and thus the `Currency La.s.s' is a favourite name for colonial vessels." [And, it may be added, also of Hotels.]

1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' vol. i. p. 6:

"A singular disinclination to finish any work completely, is a striking characteristic of colonial craftsmen, at least of the `currency' or native-born portion. Many of them who are clever, ingenious and industrious, will begin a new work, be it s.h.i.+p, house, or other erection, and labour at it most a.s.siduously until it be about two-thirds completed, and then their energy seems spent, or they grow weary of the old occupation, and some new affair is set about as busily as the former one."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer,' p. 35:

"English girls have such lovely complexions and cut out us poor currency la.s.ses altogether."

Ibid. p. 342:

"You're a regular Currency la.s.s ... always thinking about horses."

Cus.h.i.+on-flower, n. i.q. Hakea laurina, R. Br. See Hakea.

Cut out, v. (1) To separate cattle from the rest of the herd in the open.

1873. Marcus Clarke, `Holiday Peak, &c.,' p. 70:

"The other two ... could cut out a refractory bullock with the best stockman on the plains."

1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories,' c. x. p. 72:

"We ... camped for the purpose of separating our cattle, either by drafting through the yard, or by `cutting out' on horse-back."

1885. H. Finch-Hatton, `Advance Australia,' p. 70:

"Drafting on the camp, or `cutting out' as it is generally called, is a very pretty performance to watch, if it is well done."

1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `Squatter's Dream,' c. ii. p. 13:

"Tell him to get `Mustang,' he's the best cutting-out horse."

1893. `The Argus,' April 29, p. 4. col. 4:

"A Queenslander would have thought it was as simple as going on to a cutting-out camp up North and running out the fats."

(2) To finish shearing.

1890. `The Argus,' Sept. 20, p. 13, col. 6:

"When the stations `cut out,' as the term for finis.h.i.+ng is, and the shearers and rouseabout men leave."

Cutting-gra.s.s, n. Cladium psittacorum, Labill., N.O. Cyperaceae. It grows very long narrow blades whose thin rigid edge will readily cut flesh if incautiously handled; it is often called Sword-gra.s.s.

1858. T. McCombie `History of Victoria,' vol. i. p. 8:

"Long gra.s.s, known as cutting-gra.s.s between four and five feet high, the blade an inch and a half broad, the edges exquisitely sharp."

1891. W. Tilley, `Wild West of Tasmania,' p. 42:

"Travelling would be almost impossible but for the b.u.t.ton rush and cutting gra.s.s, which grow in big tussocks out of the surrounding bog."

1894. `The Age,' Oct. 19, p. 5, col. 8:

"`Cutting gra.s.s' is the technical term for a hard, tough gra.s.s about eight or ten inches high, three-edged like a bayonet, which stock cannot eat because in their efforts to bite it off it cuts their mouths."

D

Dabchick, n. common English bird-name. The New Zealand species is Podiceps rufipectus. There is no species in Australia.