Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), Tuesday 1 September 1936, page 32


ELDER, SMITH E CO., LIMITED THE genesis of Elder, Smith & Co., Limited dates from 1839, when Alexander Lang Elder, 24 years of age, son of George Elder, Sr., a merchant, of Kirkcaldy,

Scotland, arrived at Port Adelaide in his father's schooner, "Minerva," a vessel of 89 tons, and commenced business in Adelaide as A. L. Elder & Co. Mr. George Elder, Sr., and another of his sons, Mr. Thomas Elder (afterwards Sir Thomas), then resident in Scotland, were partners, and the firm's first office was in Rundle Street, but was later moved to Hindley Street, a little to the west of the present Theatre Royal. Subsequently Captain William Elder and George Elder, Jr., joined the firm. In 1841 an acute financial crisis was caused in the new Province by the dishonoring by the British Govern-ment of Governor Gawler's bills, issued to cover a deficiency in the public accounts, and in the severe depression which followed the young firm was one of the few mercantile houses which survived the pressure of the years of strain and stress. The bad times passed away with the discovery of the Burra Burra Copper Mines in 1843. On the 31st January, 1853, George Elder, Sr., and A. L. Elder retired from the firm, the latter becoming its London Agent, the remaining partners being Captain William Elder, George Elder, Jr., and Thomas Elder. In 1854 Robert Barr Smith, a son of the Rev. Dr. Smith, of the Free Church of Scotland, Lochwinnoch, Renfrew-shire, Scotland, voyaged out to Melbourne and after-wards came to Adelaide, where he married Joanna, the youngest daughter of George Elder, Sr, and in 1856 joined the firm, which was reconstituted with the following members:—Thomas Elder, Robert Barr Smith, Edward Stirling, and John Taylor. This firm of Elder, Stirling & Co. was dissolved and reconstituted on 31 st January, 1863, as Elder, Smith and Co., the partners being Thomas Elder and Robert Barr Smith. Until the firm opened a branch in London in 1884, Mr. A. L. Elder continued to represent it there. He was a Director of the English, Scottish & Australian Chartered Bank and National Discount Bank, and local Director in London of the Queensland National Bank and the Mercantile Marine & Fire Insurance Co. of South Australia. He also acted as London Agent for the proprietors of Wallaroo and Moonta Mines from the time the first shipments of ore were made in 1860. He died in London on 5th September, 1885. Captain William Elder relinquished his partnership in the firm on 31st January, 1854, and returned to settle

in Inverkeithing, Scotland. He died at Cannes, France, in April, 1882. Mr. George Elder, Jr., returned to Scotland in 1855 and retired from the firm in that year. On 31 st January, 1861, Mr. Edward Stirling retired, and Mr. John Taylor on 31st January, 1863. The latter contracted suppressed smallpox and died at Southampton in 1865 on completion of a voyage to England. The name of Sir Thomas Elder, partner in the firm from its inception in 1839, is so well known to South Australians that further comment is hardly necessary. In the early days of the Province, he and his partners, Robert Barr Smith and Peter Waite, took up thousands of square miles of arid and semi-arid country in the Far North and North-East, which they improved and stocked with sheep. He imported a herd of 110 camels in 1866 for carriage in the dry areas. Sir Thomas financed a preliminary expedition of exploration led by Major Warburton in 1872, and in the following year he and Mr. W. W. Hughes found the whole of the money for Warburton when the Government abandoned its inten-tion to equip this overland party. He also presented camels to the parties led by the explorers, Ernest Giles and W. C. Gosse, and entirely financed the trip of the former to and from West Australia in 1875. As late as 1891 he financed an expedition led by David Lindsay to fill in the blanks in the map of Australia. In 1874 he gave £20,000 to aid in the establishment of the Adelaide University, supplementing this gift ten years later with another £10,000, and he was responsible for the found-ing of a Chair of Music in Adelaide by the gift of £20,000. He provided funds for a scholarship at the Royal College of Music, London, for the benefit of South Australian pupils; he was liberal in ensuring the founda-tion of the Adelaide Zoological Gardens and the National Art Gallery and Museum. Many charities benefited by his practical sympathy, and his Will provided £25,000 to erect homes for working men. He died in 1897. Mr. Robert Barr Smith, Sir Thomas Elder's brother-in-law, partner and staunch friend, contributed largely to the success of the Company by his business acumen and foresight, and South Australia has had no more generous a citizen. He gave many thousands of pounds to the University, £10,000 for the spires of St. Peter's Anglican Cathedral, £10,000 to the Company's Staff Provident Fund, and £5,000 to build a lifeboat for use in the dangerous waters of our south-eastern coast, while his private charities and benefactions can best be described as boundless. Mr. Barr Smith passed away in 1915 at the age of 91, full of years and honour. His son, Mr. Tom Elder Barr Smith, has been a Director of the Company since 1916, and Chairman since 1921. He unites in his own person the names of the two founders

of the firm and has inherited their abilities and generous spirit. His record of gifts to public institutions is only what South Australians would expect of one of his name, and his private generosity is unbounded. Mr. Peter Waite, though not a direct founder of the Company, was one of its great men and builders. He was born at Kirkcaldy, Scotland, in 1834, and came out to Australia in 1859 in the ship, "British Tar." He was associated with Sir Thomas Elder and Mr. Robert Barr Smith in their pastoral properties for many years. Becoming Chairman of Elder's Wool & Produce Co., Limited in 1883, he continued in the same capacity in Elder, Smith & Co., Limited until his retirement in 1921, but remained a Director until his death in 1922, thus serving for 38 years without a break. One of his most remarkable qualities was his power to assimilate and develop new ideas, and this was coupled with the capacity to communicate his enthusiasm to others. In 1913 Mr. Waite gave his home at Urrbrae, together with 134 acres of land, 53 acres of Claremont and 112 acres of Netherby to the Adelaide University, to be used for Agricultural Research. This gift was valued at £24,000, and in 1918 he presented the University with shares in Elder, Smith & Co., Limited, which realised about £64,000, to be used for the purposes of the Research Institute. He also gave to the South Australian Government, for the purposes of an Agricultural High School, 114 acres adjoining "Urrbrae." Mr. Waite died in 1922 at Victor Harbour, aged 88. It will interest readers to know that the gifts of Mr. Peter Waite, Sir Thomas Elder, and the Barr Smith family to the University of Adelaide total £228,000 in value. Mr. A. G. Downer was another of the Company's great men. He joined the Board in 1892 at a time of great stress and financial difficulty, and his sound judgment and wise counsel were of inestimable value to the Company. Mr. Downer died on the 17th August, 1916, aged 77 years. Sir Walter Young, K.B.E., has been associated with the Company for 50 years, joining the service as a boy in 1887, and is still its Managing Director. He was General Manager and Managing Director during the period of its greatest growth. In 1882, in view of the continual expansion of the business of Elder, Smith & Co., it was deemed advisable to hand over the Wool section to a subsidiary, which was named Elder's Wool & Produce Company Limited, the first Directors being R. Barr Smith (Chairman), Hon. R. C. Baker, M.L.C., Hon. John Crozier, M.L.C., Hon. A. B. Murray, M.L.C., Hon. David Murray, M.L.C., Walter Reynell and Peter Waite, with S. R. Wakefield as Manager. In 1888 this Company was re-united to its parent, which then became Elder, Smith & Co., Limited.

The authorised capita! of the new Company was £1,000,000, of which £50,000 was paid up. The first Directors were R. Barr Smith (Managing), Peter Waite (Chairman), Hon. R. C. Baker, C.M.G., M.L.C., James Angas Johnson, Walter Reynell, James Harvey, A. B. Murray, and S. R. Wakefield, the Secretary being A. S. Chapman. In 1903, when the paid-up Capita! had been increased to £190,000 and the total assets to £934,000, the period of the Company's great expansion began, coincident with the forming of a limited liability Company in Western Australia jointly with Sir George Shenton and other friends, under the title of Elder, Shenton & Co., Limited; the business of this Company was absorbed by the parent Company in 1918, under the management of Mr. T. E. Field, who became General Manager of Elder, Smith & Co., Limited, in 1929, after being Manager of the Western Australian Branch during a period of great development. In due time Branches were opened in the Eastern States—Melbourne and Sydney in 1915, and Brisbane in 1917. From 1898 to 1906 the paid-up capital of the Company was £190,000, the authorised capital being £1,000,000 —the Nominal Capital is now £5,000,000 and the paid-up Capital has been raised to £2,393,640. A very important subsidiary of Elder, Smith & Co., Limited—Elder's Trustee and Executor Company Limited—was formed in 1910. Trust funds under its control in the following year, £53,562, have now grown to £12,950,000, and this success is due in a great measure to the name and prestige of the parent Company. A good idea of the growth of Elder, Smith & Co., Limited in the past 50 years is given by the following comparative figures:— 1886 1936 Capital (authorised) £200,000 £5,000,000 Capital (paid up) £50,000 £2,393,640 Reserves and Undivided Profits £3,045 £1,141,215 Total Assets £99,640 £5,576,150 Branches 2 50 The Staff Provident Fund started in 1913 by the generosity of Mr. Peter Waite and Mr. R. Barr Smith, who each gave £10,000, and to which the Company con-tributed £30,000, now stands at about £300,000. Elder, Smith & Co., Limited was founded by Scotsmen and had its origin in South Australia, and, although its ramifications now extend throughout the whole of Australia, its Head Office is still in Adelaide, and eighty-five per cent, of its shares are owned by South Australians. The growth of the Company has been parallel with the development of South Australia.

Rising early on a summer morning of 1836 to release his Cashmere goats yarded nightly against savages and wild beasts, Robert Gouger, from habit, scanned the un-ruffled waters of Holdfast Bay, visible over the fringing sand dunes, and the horizon be-yond, indistinct in a slate-blue haze. It had been hot the previous day — the thermometer beneath the canvas porch of his tent had risen to 104 degrees — and it would be hot again today, for the haze portended heat. His eye leapt at the sight of two vessels in the bay. One he knew as the Cygnet. The other was a long-awaited stranger which had stolen up the gulf under the cover of night, and found her way to the anchorage in the dawn. She was the Buffalo, 149 days out from London, bearing the Governor of the infant colony. Captain John Hind-marsh, R.N. This was December 28, marked as a memorable day for South Australia. The news spread like wildfire, for she had been expected for weeks, and the shouted tiding, "An English ship is in," precipitated a rush from the huts and tents around the bay for vantage points in the sandhills, though some of the hurrying ones questioned if it was not another false alarm, such as they had had a week or two since. Then a whis-per of the advent of a ship from home had passed around while Mr. Deputy Surveyor-General King-ston, with the Colonial Storekeeper, Mr. Thomas Gilbert, as his clerk, was reading prayers at the Sunday morning service. Those nearest the door had stolen out to see her. Others, less circumspect had hurried after them, until the preacher and his clerk were left alone. There was no mistake this time. The portly Buffalo was no phantom. At eight o'clock a boat left her for the shore. It was met by the assembled settlers, avid for news. Before their thirst was half assuaged, the gig put about with Gouger, who, being Colonial Secretary, was the principal officer in the settlement, and Kingston, who had been summoned to meet the Governor. Welcomed at the rail by Hindmarsh and James Hurtle Fisher, the Resident Commissioner, they gladdened them with reports of good land, plenty of fresh water, and the pros-pect of an excellent location for a settlement. Splendid! The news for the moment effaced the hot words and angry shipboard scenes between Hindmarsh and Fisher, which had threatened to stifle the colony at its birth. Desire to begin life in the new land was high. Hindmarsh was eager to land, for Gouger's report confirmed the glowing news of the richness and beauty of the country he had had from the Sur-veyor-General (Colonel William Light) in the dis-patch handed him at Port Lincoln. Light and his people had been entranced by the beauty of Boston Harbor, assessing it fine beyond description, but an absence of fresh water, and barren shores covered by stunted scrub were grave drawbacks, and they counselled Hindmarsh to go to the eastern shore of St. Vincent Gulf. The first glimpse gave ample warrant for Light's choice of that locality as the site for the capital, but he was eager to see more. So it was de-cided to land at once. The decision was acclaimed by the 170 settlers aboard, for they were weary of the confinement of shipboard, eager to escape from the smells of the rows of filthy hogs penned on the main deck, the cattle in the long boat, and the poultry cooped here, there, and everywhere, and full of hope and ardor to begin their colonial life. It had not been a happy voyage. The dissen-sions born of the foolish division of authority be-tween the bluff autocratic naval Governor, with his contempt of legal forms, and the hair-splitting lawyer Commissioner, portended antagonism from the start, and in the hotbed of the discomforts, and confinement of a wallowing transport, the plant flourished exceedingly. Combining the office of Governor with that of captain of the ship was an-other piece of folly, for the unpopularity which fathered about him from his faults in one office re-flected upon him in the other. There were faults in plenty. The image was unconscionably prolonged by the captains strange

necessary to carry sail, and his insistence, every night, even in the calms, on reefing down and making "snug." There was indignation over the rationing or water, even though they made an unauthorised call at Rio to fill the tanks; the captain's dogs were allowed loose to bite emi-grants and crew at their pleasure, while those or the pas-sengers were cooped up; from morning till night passen-gers were aggravated by a hammering, sawing and plan-ing of men making " hot houses, dog houses, and other sorts of houses'' for the captain. So joy was unbounded at the prospect of landing. At 1 o'clock, three boats left the Buffalo, the Governor and Fisher, and their families, in the first, the several officials and settlers in the next, and about 20 marines and officers of the ship in the last. The boats touched on a sandbar, and leaping into surf up to his neck, an emigrant waded ashore, eager to be the first of the company to put his foot on land. Women and children were carried to the beach by sailors. Warm hands were extended to wel-come them. AS they surmount the sandhills they see before them a park-like plain set with spreading gum trees, the shimmer of a fresh-water lagoon, with undergrowth lush and green beside it. At the entrance to the plain is a group of brush huts and tents. There are others here and there, 40 or 50 in all, and the party sets out for a cluster about a mile from the beach. It is the official quarter of the settlement, where Gouger has his temporary home close to the tent of Mr. Deputy Surveyor Kingston. The gums give the walkers grateful shade, and on every hand they see the flowers of lupins and buttercups, poignant re-minders of the home they have left, brilliant bank-ias in full bloom, and other plants strange to them. They flush flocks of quail from the grass, and from the foliage above them comes the shrill cries of black and white cockatoos, and gaily plumaged parrots. So many are the distractions that Mary Thomas finds it hard to keep her young family beside her. Bluff Jack, the essence of bonhomie, and his face the color of claret from the heat and exertion, chats with Gouger as they stroll along, congratulating him on the choice of the site, for to his eye the plain seems capable of anything. Gouger shows his home — a hut and a tent shaded by a noble gum tree. The tent, his office, is of double thickness, and has the luxury of a boarded floor, the only one in the colony. It serves the very practical use. too, of protecting the in-mates against ants and centipedes which abound. Only a few days before Gouger found several at least five inches long nearby. Adjoining the tent is a hut 20 ft. long and 12 ft. wide, a miracle of workmanship, for only six nails have been used in building it. The uprights, cross-beams and joists have all been tied with cordage, and it is thatched with reeds 10 feet long cut from the banks of the lagoon. His only assistants in transporting the material were his man, and his son, and a port-able hand truck which he brought out from Eng-land. There are no draught animals in the col-ony yet. There is important work this day, but none of the company had assisted before at the birth of a State, and a conference is held in Gouger's tent to settle the order of procedure. Meanwhile the ladies adjourn to Mrs. John Brown's tent, there to discuss another imminent event . Scarcely has the State been proclaimed before Gouger's wife presents him with a son. The taking of the oaths, first by Gouger as the principal colonial official, then the other officers, and the swearing-in of the Governor having been completed within the tent, the proclamation estab-lishing South Australia as a colony is read. Not more than a dozen can squeeze into Gouger's tent, and there are nearly 200 outside with but a faint idea of what has ben going on. So it is decided to read the proclamation to them out of doors. The marines from the Buffalo are drawn up in line before tile Secretary's tent at 3 o'clock, and behind them assembles nearly every colonist and a big proportion of the company of the two ships in the bay, grateful for the shade of the fine tall gum. Naval and military uniforms give the gathering a semi-official air, and the smocks and gaiters of the farm laborers a touch of the pastoral. Round about are figures who are to loom large in the new colony — Fisher, later to be President of the first Legislative Council under representative government, with his family of five sons and three daughters. One of them. Marianne, who is to see another century dawn, is carried

ashore in her nurse's arms. There are too, the Rev. Charles Beaumont Howard, first Colonial Chaplain; Osmond Gilles. Colonial Treasurer, to be commemorated in the nomenclature of the capi-tal yet to be founded; Robert Thomas, husband of Mary Thomas, soon to be Government Printer and publisher of the State's first newspaper. On news of the arrival of the Governor, he has had a mis-sion with Mr. Gilbert concerning a fine Hampshire ham, of which more anon. With them, too, are Boyle Travers Finniss. marked out to be the State's first Premier under constitutional government; Captain Thomas Lipson, harbormaster of a colony which has yet no harbor; Surgeon Edward Wright, and George Kingston, to be first Speaker of the House of Assembly. With their parents are children who, in the space of three score years, are to see the nascent State grow beyond recognition. The only absentee of note is Colonel William Light, who is camped out on the plain selecting the site, and plotting the boundaries of the capital. He has heard of the arrival of the Governor, but having had much to do, has not had time to come down to meet him. George Stevenson begins to read the proclam-ation. It could not have had a better herald. Standing 6 ft. 4 in., he is a dominating figure in the assembly, an intellectual face and scholarly voice according well with his gracious demeanor "Proclamation," he read, "by his Excellency John Hindmarsh, Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's province of South Australia. —In announcing to the Colonists of His Majesty's province of South Australia, the establishment of the Government, I hereby call on them to con-duct themselves on all occasions with order and quietness, duly to respect the laws, and by a course of industry and sobriety, by the practice of sound morality, and a strict observance of the Ordinances of religion, to prove themselves worthy to be the founders of a great and free colony." There follows a declaration that the aborigines have equal rights and an equal claim with white men upon the pro-tection of the Government. It ends with the for-mal—"By his Excellency's command, Robert Gouger, Colonial Secretary.— God save the King." As Stevenson pronounces the prayer, a desultory feu de joie is fired by the marines, the White Ensign is run to a masthead by the boatswain of the Buf-falo, and a salute fired by the ship's carronades, striking the natives on the beach with terror. Jubilation follows the serious business of the day. The company adjourns to a rough board table supports by casks and lined with boxes on which the most distinguished take their seats for an open-air spread. Ham — Robert Thomas's ham — salt pork and beef are the titbits of the cold collation, and there is porter and ale, port and sherry brought up from the crypts of the Buffalo. Glasses are filled, and Bluff Jack mounts a chair with "Ladies and Gentlemen" — I ask you to drink to the health of His Majesty the King." It is re-ceived with three times three, and the company looks round for someone of substance to start the singing of the National Anthem. Osmand Giles the great "O.G." meets requirements in two re-spects and starts them aright, but there is a smile as some, habituated by a reign of four successive Georges, begin. "God save great George, our King," forgetful of the coronation of a William. They sing with more will than harmony, but there is grandeur in its simplicity. Then follows

the health of the Governor, received with cheering and "Rule Britannia." Hindmarsh is a proud man as he rises to respond, and the people are proud of their sailor Governor, with medals and clasps for distinguished service with Nelson at the Nile and Trafalgar, Saumerez at Gibraltar, and half a dozen more. Mr. Gilbert calls for a bumper for "Mrs Hindmarsh and the ladies." It, too, is given with eclat. Yet not all is jollity. A young mother seated on a box with her two children weeps quietly from the strangeness of her surroundings and the sever-ance from loved ones at home. There were other unsmiling faces, as well Hear Margaret Stevenson —"The scene might have been an impressive one. To those ignorant of some of the actors in it, it was perhaps so. The simple grandeur of forming a colony in the wilderness the smallness in number of the new people, the vastness of the plain around them, the heavenly canopy above, and the blessings of nature everywhere visible — we could feel these at a distancewhile while hearing their voices raised in our National Anthem, and we could feel how complete and entire was the dependence of this handful of human beings upon the mercy and sustenance of God, but during the whole of the ceremony not a single Buffalo face, at all events, was to be seen unwrinkled by a frown, and not distorted in a sneer. Sad, this. Even discounting exaggeration, it was a sad commentary on the discord in the little commu-nity, and a gloomy portent for the coming year. But at the moment all is focussed on the present

and ugly prospects do not obtrude on the con- viviality which comes to a conclusion as the Governor rises again. "May the present unanimity continue as long as South Australia exists," is his toast, and the plain rings with acclamation which drives the chattering parakeets, frightened, from the trees, and alarms the ducks and swans on the lagoon. After the gathering, some of the newcomers walk over the plain. They return delighted. Late in the afternoon the Governor and his officers leave for the Buffalo, where they remain until a temporary home has been prepared. Mrs. King-ston and Mrs. Brown entertain some of the passen-gers who remain at coffee. At Brown's the fire which burns in the open beside the tent is revived, water is drawn from the shallow well a few yards away, coffee is ground in the mill nailed to a tree, and soon its exotic aroma mingles with the incense of the burning gum. As twilight falls, the settlers stroll home to their tents, there to find the mos-quitoes which have followed the plague of flies by day the only disturbers or a halcyon scene. The festivities continue far into the night. Some excellent porter has been landed, and the wine brought from England, as well as that from the Cape, has improved with the keeping. Barrels or it have been landed on the beach and placed under the guard of marines. They have done their duty circumspectly as far as strangers are con-cerned, but many an army mug has been held be-neath the bungs. Guthrie's canvas grog shanty near the beach, too. has done a roaring trade. So tongues are loosened and voices raised, and in the silence of the bush, magnifying every sound, roy-stering choruses are carried far with marvellous clarity. But before dawn all is still. SUCH was the birth of a State. Its significance was not appreciated by many, but Mary Thomas and Gouger sensed its possibilities. That night, Gouger, torn between the de-mands of public and domestic duty, found time to reflect on the years of anxiety and labor which he had devoted to the enterprise, to the alternations of hope and chagrin which he had suffered as the prospect of its ac-complishment appeared near or distant, and con-fessed that his heart beat faster when he saw the fulfilment of the project whose consummation he had dared "sometimes to anticipate and rejoice in." ANOTHER December 28 — 21 years on South Australia celebrates its coming of age. Its population has grown to 105.000. Com- memoration Day has become a public festi-val. Those of the Duke or York. Cygnet, Buffalo, and Africaine are scattered, and their ranks thinned. Gouger, Light, and others who tended the

State in its infancy have laid down the burden. The survivors come from afar to attend the festival din-ner arranged by the Old Colonists' Association. They see a new Glenelg. It has no railway yet, but its roads are thronged with buggies, wagonettes and horsemen. The first arrivals stroll about the growing township seeking familiar landmarks. Was it here that Thomas's printing press stood, or there, and where Gouger's cottage? It is difficult to tell, for the old trees and knolls have gone, and there are cottages and roads where once was open ground. A commemorative plate is to be fixed to a gum tree said to be the one beneath which the proclam-ation was read. Our Mary Thomas visits the spot. "That the tree! I am certain it is not." she protests. "That shapeless old trunk looks as if it had been decaying for centuries. The tree at Gouger's cot-tage was a magnificent gum. If the proclamation tree were still standing, which I very much doubt, it would most likely be in full vigor, as it was in 1836." People come in thousands to attend a memor-able festival, but at noon rain spoils everything. The sports are washed out; even the marquee un-der which the colonists are entertained at lunch leaks copiously, and soon everything is soaked. The Governor (Sir Richard MacDonnell) is there, and the chairman is James Hurtle Fisher, now Presi-dent of the Legislative Council. He tells of the great day of 21 years ago, and of progress since. FIFTY years—Commemoration Day again. A great jubilee festival at Glenelg. And still greater changes. Where once was a line or sand dunes is now an esplanade giving on to a terrace of houses. The groups of tents and huts are crowded from the memory of all but a few by a town animate with 40,000 visitors, and gay with flags and bunting, yet they still may see the spot where Bluff Jack landed, for it is marked by two carronades from the Buffalo which sounded the Royal salute when John Hill broke out the White Ensign. Trains from North and South terrace dis-charge tens of thousands into Moseley square, and lawns and beach are gay with swings, roundabouts and refreshment booths. The Mayor of Glenelg (Mr. W. F. Stock) is host at an official luncheon at which the Governor (Sir William Robinson), rejoic-ing that South Australia is now a noble State, ex-presses the hope that soon she will be united in Federation with those with a kindred destiny. A pilgrimage is made to the "shapeless trunk" of Mary Thomas's scorn, and it is honored as the genuine proclamation tree, to be zealously pre-served for posterity. There is again a naval vessel in the Bay. It is the Protector — South Australia's navy and she fires a salute which 50 years before belched from the wooden walls of the Buffalo. ANOTHER 10 years — the diamond Jubi-lee. Today 50.000 throng the town and seafront. The colonists' lunch is held within a fine new town hall, where not a few thoughts turn to a leasing marquee of 39 years ago. There are still links with the summer day of 60 years ago. The Premier of the day. Charles Came-ron Kingston, is a son of Mr. Deputy Surveyor-General Kingston, whose tent adjoined Gouger's and James Cock, one of the company of the Buffalo, is now member for Victoria in the State House of Assembly. Two years ago the town clerk of Glenelg insti-tuted a visitors' book in which old colonists pen their names. The list today shows the diminishing ranks of the "thirty sixers." There is G. A. Strang-ways, William Chittleborough (Reynella), Henry and John Broadbent, James Cock, H. T. Morris, Miss H. Wadham of the Buffalo. Henry Douglas of the Emma, William Hodges, of the Rapid, J A. Hill (Laura ). of the Africaine, and William Beare of the Duke of York. The seventy-fifth birthday. — December 23. 1911. The list of 1836 arrivals in the visi- tors' book falls to three — Mrs E. H Hos-ken (Buffalo), Mrs C. Hawke and Mrs. G. Tansell (Tam O'Shanter). A vast throng 60,000. sports, official luncheon, and the Commemo-ration Day as we of the present generation know it. AND what of the one hundredth birthday of December 28, 1936. A Glenelg with speeding electric trams glaring lights 12,000 people and 20th century amenities. But nobody will sign the visitors' book now who knew the wooden fleet of 1836. The last of them knew Marianne Fisher who came ashore from the Buffalo as a babe in arms, saw the change of 90 years, but not the hundred.

THE PICTURES —The Old Gum Tree is the link between the Glenelg of 100 years and that of today. In the centre is the actual Proclamation manuscript read on December 28., 1836. The pic- ture below is that of Robert Gouger's hut and tent, where Governor Hindmarsh was sworn in and the Proclamation was first read.