Please wait. Contacting image service... loading

Article text

E.A.M. MEREWETHER
AN APPRECIATION
(By One Who Knew Him.)
The death of Edward Alworth Mitchell
Merewether has removed from amongst
us one whose whole life of 62 years was
spent in Newcastle. Here he was born,
here he grew up, here he went to school,
here he married, here the activities of
his life manifested themselves; here he
died, and it was fitting that here, in the
God's Acre at Sandgate he, the first of
his family, should be laid to rest.
His father, Edward Christopher Mere-
wether, was a man of no small note in
the early years of New South Wales. The
son of a Wiltshire county gentleman, an
eminent lawyer, Henry Alworth Mere
wether, Sergeant-at-Law and Solicitor
General to Queen Adelaide, the Consort
of William the Fourth. Educated at
Charterhousue and Westminster Schools,
and at Oxford University, he came to
Australia in 1838 as private secretary
and aide-de-camp to Governor Sir George
Gipps, and later he acted in a similar
capacity to Governors Sir Charles Fitz
roy and Sir William Denison. E. C.
Merewether was a pioneer in many di
rectlons. He was one of the leaders
sent by the Government of New South
Wales to plant a colony at Port Curtis
-now Gladstone-in Queensland; he was
Commissioner of Crown Lands when the
unsettled districts of New England and
the Northern Rivers were being opened
up, and after that he was clerk to the
Executive Council and Principal Under-
Secretary. In 1859 he was sent as a
special envoy by the New South Wales
Government to negotiate the Panama
Mail Service, and when in England he
was induced to accept the position of
General Superintendent of the Austra
lian Agricultural Company in succession
to Mr. Arthur Hodgson, a position he
took up in 1861, and which brought him
into close contact with the people of
Newcastle. Mr. Jesse Gregson, in his
"History of the A.A. Company," writes
of E. C. Merewether as a man who dur
ing the fourteen years he was general
superintendent "showed never-tiring
energy, excellent judgment, and the
courtesy of an accomplished gentleman,
who was esteemed highly by his many
friends and loyally served by his fellow
officials; and with the miners he estab
lished for himself a character for fair
and generous dealing, which made for
him many firm and worthy friends
amongst their number. E. C. Mere
wether married a daughter of Dr. James
Mitchell, a Sydney physician, who sat in
the Legislative Council from 1856 to his
decease in 1869. Dr. Mitchell was con
nected by marriage with the Scotts, of
Glendon, and had large interests in the
Newcastle and Hunter River districts.
Of this union E. A. M. Merewether was
the eldest son. At the Newcastle Gram
mar School, now the Church of England
High School for girls, which was then
ruled over by that sternest of dis
clplinarians, the Rev. Mr. Millard, an
old Cambridge "Blue"—and later at
the Sydney University—Merewether was
first amongst his equals. He worked
hard and he played hard. In the tennis
court, on the cricket field, at the rifle
range, as in the examination halls of
the University, he was in the first rank.
He came down with a degree in arts
and a degree in engineering. I have not
got the calendar by me, but I think Mere
wether was one of the first to graduate
from the engineering school. Then de-
volved on him the management of the
family estates. He came into contact
with the people as tenants and as citi
zens, and followed in the footsteps of
his father. In all his business relations
his word was his bond. He was as just
as he was generous, and so the people
with whom he had dealings soon came to
have a very high opinion of him. When
his uncle, David Mitchell, died and left
his priceless collection of books and re
cords to the people of New South
Wales and an endowment of nearly
£100,000 to build and equip the Mitchell
Library, it was mainly owing to Mere
wether's business capacity and energy
that the wishes of his uncle were so
quickly realised.
As a sportsman Merewether was un
rivalled. He had all the instincts of the
true sportsman. He had an equable
mind and so was as good a loser as he
was a winner. He valued the game
more than the result. He derived from
his father a love of outdoor life and
games and sport. His knowledge of the
Australian bush was exceptional, of the
fauna and the flora, of the trees and
flowers, of birds, their calls, their song,
of their food, feeding grounds, and
their migrations, that made him a de
lightful mate. He was a fine field shot,
and nothing delighted him so much as a
tramp for miles on a crisp winter's day
watching his pointers working. Once
when he was travelling abroad he wrote
to one of his shooting mates—"I am
going to Scotland to shoot, and
must try to hold the old gun straight
for the credit of Australia. I expect the
driven birds will bother me a bit at
first, but I doubt if I shall get anything
as hard as shooting the brown quail
among the oaks on Quartpot Creek or
anything more enjoyable." He loved
the Australian bush. Merewether was
a fine fisherman, and would go far
for a day's fishing. When Swansea
was so far distant and so inaccessible
that only fishing enthusiasts found their
way there, Merewether had a fishing
lodge at Black Ned's, and was a constant
visitor.
He loved horses and was always fond
of horseracing, and it was as an owner
and as a member of the committees of
the Newcastle and Australian Jockey
Clubs that he was best known to the
public. He told me that he remembered
when a very little boy that the New
castle races were held on a racecourse
which is now in the centre of Mere
wether, and he pointed out the winning
post somewhere near where Colonel Ran
claud's house now stands. In 1865 his
father gave a lease of 80 acres near the
Junction to the Newcastle Jockey Club
and it was on that course that "Ted"
Merewether's colours were constantly
seen. The most consistent winner he
raced was a chestnut horse named York,
trained by Bob Fleming, and usually rid
den by Arthur Quinn. Merewether some
times sent a horse to race at Randwick,
and I think Countess was his best win
ner there. He at one time raced in
partnership with R. H. Dangar, of Neots
field, and in later years with Hugh Main,
of Illabo. For many years "Ted" Mere
wether was on the committee of the
Newcastle Jockey Club, and became chair
man on the death of Clarence Hannell.
At the beginning of this century the
A.A. Company contemplated cutting up
the racecourse and requested the New
castle Jockey Club to look out for a
new course. The outlook for the club
was not promising, but Mr. Jesse Greg
son, the then general superintendent of
the A.A. Company, generously allowed
the club to go on racing until such time
as it was ready to move to a new course.
"Ted" Merewether and Alan Wallace,
who was also a member of the com
mittee of the jockey club, looked about
all over the district for a tract of land
to make a new course. After much con
sideration they fixed on the site of the
present Newcastle racecourse. At that
time this tract of land was the most
dismal and unpromising spot one could
imagine. It was a wide expanse of
swampy scrub, full of waterholes and so
low-lying that a few showers of rain
flooded it. It was called Wallaby
Swamp, but there were more hares,
snipe, cranes and moorhen to be seen
than wallabies. George Waller, who used
to specialise in the first snipe of the
season, generally shot his first bird on
Wallaby Swamp. Merewether and Wal
lace had fine imaginations and great
foresight to see in such a hopeless
looking area the future racecourse,
which now ranks as one of the finest in
New South Wales. However, Mere
wether went to Mr. Jesse Gregson, and
got from him an option to buy one hun
dred acres for a racecourse. When
Merewether and Wallace reported to the
jockey club committee that they had se-
lected Wallaby Swamp and had got the
option from the A.A. Company, they
were laughed at. "Make a racecourse on
Wallaby Swamp," said some of the com
mittee. "It would be throwing our
money into a bog." However, Mere-
wether insisted that the place could be
drained and he requested the committee
to get a surveyor to take levels, and to
give his opinion on the possibility of
drainage. A. F. Hall made a survey, and
made a scheme to unwater and drain the
hundred acres, and laid out a
course. Merewether's proposal, never-
theless, met with much opposition, but
was eventually adopted by the members
of the Jockey club, and so the Newcas-
tie people have to-day a pleasant and
easily accessible racecourse.
"Ted" Merewether was a man of a
retiring disposition, hated the limelight,
and it was with difficulty that he could
be brought into public affairs or to
make a speech. He had deep convictions
and a thoroughly progressive mind, and
was exceptionally tolerant of the opin-
ions of others. Jesse Gregson's eulo-
gium of E. C. Merewether might with
equal truth be applied to his son. En-
ergetic, public-spirited, fair and gener-
ous, and honourable in all his actions,
E. A. M. Merewether will be remembered
as a sincere friend, a pleasant acquaint-
ance, and a courteous gentleman.
$