"The assigned servant of a respectable Scotch family residing
near Sydney."
1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 75:
"Of the first five persons we saw to Van Diemen's Land, four
were convicts, and perhaps the fifth. These were the assigned
servants of the pilot."
1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 324:
"Under the old practice, the convicts, as soon as they arrived
from Britain, were assigned among the various applicants. The
servant thus assigned was bound to perform diligently, from
sunrise till sunset, all usual and reasonable labour."
<hw>Assignee</hw>, <i>n</i>. a convict assigned as a servant. The
word is also used in its ordinary English sense.
1843. `Penny Cyclopaedia,' vol. xxv. p. 139, col. 2:
"It is comparatively difficult to obtain another
assignee,--easy to obtain a hired servant."
1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 324:
"Any instance of gross treatment disqualified him for the
future as an assignee of convict labour."
<hw>Assignment</hw>, <i>n</i>. service as above.
1836. C. Darwin, `Journal of Researches' (1890),
c. xix. p. 324:
"I believe the years of assignment are passed away with
discontent and unhappiness."
1852. John West, `History of Tasmania,' vol. ii. p. 126:
"That form of service, known as assignment, was established by
Governor King in 1804."
1861. T. McCombie, `Australian Sketches,' p. 117:
"The assignment system was then in operation, and such as
obtained free grants of land were allowed a certain proportion
of convicts to bring it into cultivation."
<hw>Asthma</hw> Herb, Queensland, <i>n. Euphorbia
pilulifera</i>, Linn. As the name implies, a remedy for asthma.
The herb is collected when in flower and carefully dried.
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 183:
"This plant, having obtained some reputation in Australasia in
certain pulmonary complaints, has acquired the appellation to
the Colonies of `Queensland Asthma Herb'. Nevertheless, it is
by no means endemic in Australasia, for it is a common tropical
weed."
<hw>Aua</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand fish,
<i>Agonostoma forsteri</i>, Bleek. Another Maori name is
<i>Makawhiti</i>; also called <i>Sea-Mullet</i> and sometimes
<i>Herring</i>; (q.v.). It is abundant also in Tasmanian
estuaries, and is one of the fishes which when dried is called
<i>Picton Herring</i> (q.v.). See also <i>Maray</i> and
<i>Mullet</i>. <i>Agonostoma</i> is a genus of the family
<i>Mugilidae</i> or <i>Grey-Mullets</i>.
<hw>Aurora australis</hw>, <i>n.</i> the Southern equivalent
for <i>Aurora borealis</i>.
1790. J. White, `Voyage to New South Wales,' p. 214:
"Sept. 5, 1788. About half after six in the evening, we saw an
<i>Aurora Australis</i>, a phenomenon uncommon in the southern
hemisphere."
<hw>Austral</hw>, <i>adj</i>. "Belonging to the South,
Southern. Lat. <i>Australis</i>, from <i>auster</i>,
south-wind." (`O.E.D.') The word is rarely used in Australasia
in its primary sense, but now as equivalent to Australian or
Australasian.
1823. Wentworth's Cambridge poem on `Australasia':
"And grant that yet an Austral Milton's song,
Pactolus-like, flow deep and rich along,
An Austral Shakespeare rise, whose living page
To Nature true may charm in every age;
And that an Austral Pindar daring soar,
Where not the Theban Eagle reach'd before."
1825. Barron Field, `First Fruits of Australian Poetry,' Motto in
Geographical Memoir of New South Wales, p. 485:
"I first adventure. Follow me who list;
And be the second Austral harmonist."
<i>Adapted from Bishop Hall</i>.
1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 184:
"For this, midst Austral wilds I waken
Our British harp, feel whence I come,
Queen of the sea, too long forsaken,
Queen of the soul, my spirit's home."--Alien Song.
1855. W. Howitt, `Two Years in Victoria,' vol. i. p. 43:
"Every servant in this Austral Utopia thinks himself a
gentleman."
1868. C. Harpur, `Poems' (ed. 1883), p. 215:
"How oft, in Austral woods, the parting day
Has gone through western golden gates away."
1879. J. B. O'Hara, `Songs of the South,' p. 127:
"What though no weird and legendary lore
Invests our young, our golden Austral shore
With that romance the poet loves too well,
When Inspiration breathes her magic spell."
1894. Ernest Favenc [Title]:
"Tales of the Austral Tropics."
1896. [Title]:
"The Austral Wheel--A Monthly Cycling Magazine, No. 1, Jan."