HJ McCooey 1902

H. J. McCooey part 16

THE FOX PEST.
Evening News (Sydney, NSW)
Date: August 18, 1902
Page Number: 8

To the Editor of the "Evening News."
Sir,—In view of the destructiveness of the fox in this State, the action of those responsible for fixing the price to be paid for its scalp seems, to many whom I have conversed with and to my self, singularly penny-wise and pound-foolish, to say the least; while, when dispassionately considered, it seems little less than suicidal, and not far removed from criminal. For example, what can be more absurd and undesirable, in Narrandera, whose staple industry is sheep-farming, than to reduce the price of fox scalps from 20s to 5s? And this too when the foxes are daily increasing in numbers, and becoming more and more aggressively destructive. The result of this irrational action on the part of the scalp board has simply teen to stop altogether fox trapping, as trappers say they will not catch them at 5s per head.
...

Narandera Hospital.
Narandera Argus and Riverina Advertiser (NSW)
Date: September 12, 1902
Page Number: 3

...
The Secretary said that no reply had been received from the Chief Secretary's Department in regard to the fever ward or M'Cooey's complaint.
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ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.)
Date: October 6, 1902
Page Number: 7

James M'Coy, 50 years old, attempted self-destruction to-day in a room attached to the pavilion in the park. Information was conveyed to the police by another traveller named Patrick Lyons, who was camped in the park, and discovered the would-be suicide. The police had the man conveyed to the station, where Mr. Harkin, M.B., attended him. His head was nearly severed, but the jugular vein was untouched. His leg was also gashed. He was sent to the Wangaratta Hospital this evening. M'Coy admitted in writing his attempt. It is alleged that he tried to hang himself twice yesterday, but was prevented.

The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.)
Date: October 10, 1902
Page Number: 3

James M'Coy, also known as Henry James M'Coory, who cut his throat in a determined manner at Chiltern on Saturday died in the Wangaratta Hospital yesterday morning from heart failure, induced by loss of blood. Deceased did not recover sufficiently to explain why he sought to take his life, but it is believed that he was very despondent through illness, being a sufferer from consumption in an advanced stage. He was about 50 years of age, and was a resident of New South Wales for many years. At a magisterial inquiry, held before Mr. N. S. Thomson to-day, a verdict of death from self-inflicted wounds was returned.

SUICIDE OF H. J. M'COOEY.
An Eccentric Genius Dead.
Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW)
Date: October 14, 1902
Page Number: 2

[BY TELEGRAPH.]
SYDNEY, Tuesday.
A telegram from Albury states that it has transpired that an unknown man who died in the Wangaratta hospital last Wednesday from self-inflicted wounds in his throat was H. J. M'Cooey, well known throughout Australia as a bush naturalist. M'Cooey was an eccentric genius, and was a contributor to the pages of many Australian papers, especially the Bulletin. For some time past he had been living in the Albury district, and at the time of his death was "footing it" towards Melbourne to seek admission into a sanatorium. His health was utterly broken.

The death of H. J. McCooey:

Singleton Argus (NSW)
Date: October 16, 1902
Page Number: 4

The man who died the other day in Wangaratta hospital through self-inflicted wounds in the throat was H. J. M'Cooey, who was well-known at Albury and in many other parts of Australia as the "Bush Naturalist." He was an eccentric man of marked ability, and had been a contributor to the Sydney press for some time past. He had been living in the Albury discrict, and at the time of his death was on his way to Melbourne, in order to seek admission to a sanatorium, his health having utterly broken down.

Death of the "Bush Naturalist."
Narandera Argus and Riverina Advertiser (NSW)
Date: October 17, 1902
Page Number: 2

The death took place at Wangaratta hos pital last Wednesday from self-inflicted wounds, of H. J. M'Cooey, the eccentric naturalist who during the post few months was camped near Narandera. M'Cooey was in precarious health while here, caused by drink, exposure, and an assault of which he was the victim. He was treated at the hospital for some time, and objected to leaving on his discharge, complaining of the matron's treatment when she did not look at the matter from his point of view.

The Interpretation of Nature.
THE NEGLECT OF NATURALIST M'COOEY.
SOME REFLECTIONS.
The Catholic Press (NSW)
Date: October 25, 1902
Page Number: 4

It has been well said, albeit it is the interpretation, or, rather, paraphrase of the French philosopher, that without the great gift of beautiful thought there can be no beauty of styles. No writer who wanders into the wastes of the bush only that he may gather matter for a book can hope to catch the beauty of the dewy morning, the glamour of noon, or the farewell sigh of eve and imprison them in his pages. It is only inspiration that can do this, and that comes unsought, unasked for : but it requires in order to nourish it to strrngth, a loving spiritual communion with Nature at her own shrine in the wooded bush, or in the one we have erected for her in the memory. The memorials we have gathered should, how ever, be real and not artificial ; but the foundations of Nature's shrine may be broadened and deepened, and the whole edifice take on finer and fairer proportions by being moulded and welded together by the impressions we have thrown into the views of the interpreters, the high priests, of Nature.
     Boyhood is the time of quick susceptibilities, of inspiration, with the keenness of appreciation that must gradually be blunted. We have always pitied those who have only liked the country when they have found leisure to make holiday late in life. They miss the lingering fragrance of those bright early associations which are revived by sights and scents and sounds to the country bred boy who has passed a busy working time in cities. To him the laugh of the goburra, the cry of the curlew, the rasp of the parroquet, the first glint of golden wattle, or the fragrance from the freshly upturned earth, will call up a rush of happy memories. For once he forgets toils and cares, and is charmed back to the pleasant state of existence when he lived in each passing hour without troubling his head about the morrow.
     Because of this lack of inspiration the efforts of writers on natural history manifestly fall short in power of expression. This last sentence, though containing the truth generally, has to be modifiod when we consider the life of H. J. M'Cooey, whose untimely death is reported in the CATHOLIC PRESS. Surely it was not lack of inspiration that did not give power to that wonderful wizard of the woods to glorify the pages of Australian literature. No, it was lack of opportunity. For him there was no State appointment; feeble barristers had seen to that. For him, as in older countries there would have been no grant from the civil list, and it was only in the intervals of his toil for bread that he could make the world a partaker of the bush lore he knew. Scrappy, too, it was, like the in tervals alone he could give to its presentation, for the trick of style can only be caught after much labour, and is apt to be lost, like the rower's wrist, when attention is too long taken away. M'Cooey knew more about Australian nature, animate and inanimate, than any naturalist of to-day or of many a day, and I do not think Mr. Price Fletcher will question this, but would rather help to put the wreath, although now it be cypress, on his brother naturalist's brows. It was not only the great classes of animate nature or the wide sweep of inanimate nature that M'Coooy could recognise. His minute subdivision of lizards would alone entitle him to the title of wonderful wizard. In the bush he know when and where to look for each budding tinge of colour, when each tree should be bursting in the summertime, or putting forth its second shoots. Every gradation of the three seas around our coasts was mirrored on his mind with photographic accuracy, and he knew the arrival and going of every fish. M'Coooy was an Australian—an Australian native—and the Australian Natives Association saw him tramp, unaided and foot-sore, towards Sydney until, spent and weary with half the journey done, he died in a hospital. The Australian Natives Association prefers to spend its resources in debating whether garbage shall be carted away by night or by day, as if anyone cared whether the daylight or the dark saw the end of its existence, or in advertising its suckling politicians at brass band meetings, in diffusing false sentiments about our relations to Great Britain.
     It is comforting to reflect that the cultured classes remain outside the ranks of this Australian Natives Association, which has for its men of light and leading only a few opportunistic politicians.
     As M'Cooey was the one who knew the ways of the bush best, so Australian natives have been the most successful in turning to profit the pageant of wild nature. As farmers, as squatters, as pioneers generally they have prospered where colonists born in other climes have failed.
     As explorers the contrast between the native born and explorers born in Europe is most striking. Eyre, 52 years ago, travelled through the country between West and South Australia, and pronounced it sterily and bare of water and unfit for settlement, and yet 20 years later, all thought in the interval being turned aside on account of Eyre's report, the Australian native (Alexander Forrest) showed it was good country, and the whole surface of the land is now dotted over with stations. The same contrast is noticed between Sir John Forrest and Alexander Forrest with regard to Sturt's tracks, and the two Gregorys with regard to the camel jaunt of Burke and Wills. The Forrests and the Gregorys have interpreted Australian nature with fidelity, and their reports read like romances. The Gregory geological notes of West Australia, despite the lapse of many years and the importation of foreign geologists, have not yet been surpassed.
     All this of course goes to prove that, without inspiration, there can no no interpretation ; and the seeds of inspiration are sown in youth to grow into the tree, of knowledge, which will bear the blossom of books, ornamental it is true, but a fruit blossom containing the seed of the future.
     Nature need not be approached critically to yield the greatest delight. The days of Cambreusis and the Trifi beaver need not be lived over again, nor need every part of a beetle's anatomy, for instance its mesothorax, its parapleura, its pronotum, &c., be set forth for a proper understanding. That is indexing and not interpreting Nature, though the work of Mr. Etheridge, of the Sydney Museum, partakes of the nature of both, and is well done. There is steady flame in the writings of the Rev. J. M, Curran that light up his pages as in his popular text-book on the "Geology of the Blue Mountains" to the truest interpretation of nature ; but I have written so recently and frequently of Father Curran's work that I shall leave it with this reference. Mr. "Price Warung" has written as no one ever has of the scenes on our rivers. His is a distinct and unique contribution to the interpretation of nature, and all the more valuable because the conditions written in "Half-crown Bob" are now rapidly passing away. Lawson has more effectually interpreted one aspect, which callow critics assure us is the only aspect, of Australian nature, its mournful loneliness, than Gordon, inasmuch as in the former's prose work the essential drama, the awful despair of the bush, is unfolded by the scenes themselves, and the latter's stanzas are but a chorus with the refrain—the bush is grim.
     Ah ! who shall rightly and wholly and not fragmentarily tell the story of our bush, or interpret the whispering leaves and singing birds. Our birds do sing and our blossoms are not without scent. The mere assertion that our birds, have no song and our buds have no scent proves that the novelist Marcus Clarke, and the callow critics who follow him, have been wanderers outside the secret halls of nature. And I look around in vain for one who has been her confidant.
     Who shall sing the song of Nature ; now the roll of thunder, then the rattle of the summer shower ; and, again, when all else is hushed and the evening sun looks down upon the moist earth, the sweet, pathotic coo of the bronzewing ! Who has the ear to understand the note of the lorie, tuneless to most, except in bondage. The trill of the reed wren has doubtless thrilled countless numbers, as they heard him amid the rushes of the lonely creeks ; but those who have understood his harmony have left no books behind them. Who shall interpret the chant of the open-air choristers amid the drooping branches of the eucalyptus trees !

J. E. S. HENERIE.

The Cobargo Chronicle (NSW)
Date: October 24, 1902
Page Number: 4

The 'Bulletin' much regrets to learn of the self-caused death at Wangaratta (N.S W.) of its eccentric bush contributor, H. J. M'Cooey. Mr. M'Cooey, though somewhat dogmatic and irascible, was a very competent naturalist, and was specially well versed in Australian zoology.

Nepean Times (Penrith, NSW)
Date: October 25, 1902
Page Number: 2

Mr J H McCooey, naturalist, and an exresident of Burragorang, died in Albury recently. Deceased had been in bad health, of late, and was making for a sanatorium in Victoria when death out short his earthly career. Mr McCooey is looked upon as one of the best authorities on snakes in Australia, and, some years ago, contributed several articles for your correspondent on the different reptiles in New South Wales.

With federation achieved in 1901, the ANA withdrew from political activity, although it continued patriotic activity such as promoting the observance of Australia Day. Other nationalistic issues supported by the ANA included afforestation, an Australian-made goods policy, water conservation, Aboriginal welfare, the celebration of proper and meaningful citizenship ceremonies following the increased levels of migration after World War II and the adoption of the wattle as the national floral emblem in 1912. Together with the Returned and Services League, it was one of the last Australian pressure groups to support the White Australia Policy. It maintained this support until the 1970s.

Edward John Eyre
(1815-1901)
Explorer and governor

Alexander Forrest
(1849-1901)
Explorer, politician and investor

Sir John Forrest
1st Baron Forrest of Bunbury (1847-1918)
Surveyor, explorer and politician

Charles Sturt
(1795-1869)
Explorer, soldier and public servant

Sir Augustus Charles Gregory
(1819-1905),
Explorer and surveyor-general

Francis Thomas
(Frank) Gregory
(1821–1888)
Explorer and politician

Robert O'Hara Burke
(1821-1861)
Explorer

William John Wills
(1834-1861)
Explorer

Robert Etheridge (1846-1920), palaeontologist and museum director

John Milne (Michael) Curran (1859-1928)
Priest and geologist

William Astley (1855-1911)
Journalist and author under the pseudonym 'Price Warung'

Marcus Andrew Hislop Clarke (1846-1881)
Journalist and novelist

Henry Lawson (1867-1922)
Short story writer and balladist

Price Fletcher - the 'Bush Naturalist' of Queensland (SOURCE)

The North Queensland Register (Townsville, Qld.)
Date: November 17, 1902
Page Number: 50

I'm sorry and sorely grieved to have to report the demise of another wallaby scribe and old and beloved mate of ours. H. J. McCooey, the well-known naturalist, "Bulletin," "Australasian," "Town and Country" writer, committed stricide the other day in Wangaratta, a small town in the Victorian Goulburn Galley district. Once we travelled a few weeks with Mac, and he simply overwhelmed us with his natural historical knowledge. In literary and scientific circles there is no manner of doubt that H. J. McCooey was the finest and most reliable authority on Australian animal life in general and the life and mannerism of Australian snake species, in particular. McCooey was his worst emesmy. Liberal, generous, kind and considerate, he was a true Bohemian. Three times before this last successful attempt at self destruction, he had attempted for reasons unknown to take his own life. The great mistake he made was that he never made proper use of his experiments and knowledge of Australian snake life. True he did write about them in different Australian papers, just enoughto give some others the information he made so little use of. I might mention that one time in Bathurst, New SouthWales, Mac attempted to leave this world by means of alcoholic poisoning, i.e., drinking two bottles of three star brandy. Sad as it was, there was a humourous side to it.
Fancy a snake authority attempting to commit suicide by swallowing snake juice. However, this is the way all my old wallaby writers go to other fields, and still leave me to battle here...

Narandera Hospital.
Narandera Argus and Riverina Advertiser (NSW)
Date: August 15, 1902
Page Number: 5

...
From Chief Secretary, forwarding complaint made by H. J. M'Cooey, in regard to the Matron's alleged ill-treatment. The Matron reported that on the occasion referred to, M'Cooey came to the hospital in an intoxicated condition with abrasions on his face. His language was offensive in the extreme. The necessary dressing was effected and M'Cooey left, no harsh treatment whatever being received by him. Mr. Matthews moved that the Chief Secretary be informed of the circumstances, and their confidence that the Committee felt that the Matron's treatment was not unkind ; and enclosing the Matron's report on the subject. It was suggested that M'Cooey's letter to the "Ensign" be enclosed ; and several members of the Committee related what they personally knew of M'Cooey's case and his behavior in the hospital.
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Bowral Free Press (NSW)
Date: October 18, 1902
Page Number: 2

Pretty well everyone knew McCooey, "the Bush Naturalist," by repute, and many people knew him personally. He is now reported to have died, poor fellow, in a country hospital, while endeavouring to reach Sydney on foot, in order to get relief, his health having altogether broken down. McCooey was often at variance in his views from academic naturalist, and possibly, in matters of theoretical reasoning, might have been occasionally at fault. But in actual, knowledge of the wonderful natural history of the Australian bush he was in many respects unsurpassed. At the same time, like many another self-taught scientist, his brain took him into strange divagations of thought. As a controversialist, when arguing about his favourite pursuits, he could be as bitter as a theologian. In actual dealings with his fellow-men his disposition was most kindly. He also possessed a certain grim and quaint turn of humour, which he sometimes displayed when giving names to new discoveries. He will be a greater loss to Australian life than many men held in more esteem by chamber scientists.—"News."