whole place exists on sufferance, the owners of the buildings being in unauthorised occupation of Crown land". In February 1864 Frank Johns transferred his licence for the Maude Punt Hotel to Patrick Prendergast (another of son of Henry). The Prendergasts built several stores at Maude, including a wool store. Wool from surrounding pastoral runs was loaded onto steamers at Maude for transportation (by that stage most often to Echuca). By 1865 John Prendergast was the post-master at Maude. Henry Prendergast died in January 1867 and the business was carried on by his son John. Land at Maude was eventually offered for sale on 27 December 1865 (over four years after the township was first laid out and "after many of the original applicants [to buy land] had left the district"). 1866-1900 From 1 July 1868 Daniel Murphy replaced Patrick Prendergast as the licensee of the Maude Punt Hotel. During the same year a second hotel opened at Maude – the Post Office Hotel – with Patrick Prendergast as the first publican. The Maude Punt Hotel had ceased trading by about the early 1870s, leaving the Post Office Hotel as the only hotel at Maude. A visitor to Maude in early 1879 described "the little township of Maude" as situated "on the river bank", consisting of "four habitations, among which are a hotel and store, both kept by Mr. [Daniel] Murphy, and a police station, where a solitary trooper dreams his life away, praying, doubtless, for the Kellys to come and end his dreary lot". He added that "there is a punt crossing the river here, and a good-sized wool store, both in the hands of the almost solitary resident of the city, D. Murphy". The writer pointed out "that considerable traffic occurs through this place across the river, but great inconvenience is experienced after any heavy rains, owing to the billabong by which the township is surrounded becoming too deep to cross". A visitor to the township in about May 1881 remarked that Maude was "chiefly remarkable for its pigs", adding that "one sees them scattered up and down the prospect as far as the eye can reach, and in any variety". The writer made these additional observations: "Maude (from what fair creature the place has taken its name, I can’t say) boasts a store, a pub., post office, a police barracks, a punt over the river, and a talking