Adelaide, Tuesday morning, July 5/98.
Yesterday morning I had to meet Mr. E. at his office at 9:30 & we filled in a very busy day. He introduced me to no end of acquaintances here & took me through many leading establishments, one of which was a butter making factory, & the process in operation. Also through two large wholesale warehouses. We also called at Government House & signed the visitors’ book.[1] It is a fine establishment & in beautiful grounds, & close to the centre of business. He also took me through the government offices & into his old department, “export produce department”, & two fine rooms they were, saw his old clerks, & they were so kindly, & courteous to him. Depend upon it, he has been a man of importance, his department so closely and vitally affecting the welfare of this part of the great colony. He had a grand salary, told me what it was, but the work was too slow for his active brains, & he saw a great field through commerce, & my observation amazes me at the immediate results & what a future. Every body seems to know him & the respect they shew him is enviable. [5:24] You know I always said he was clever, but his experience gathered here & while in the government service has given him a fund of such valuable information that could not otherwise be acquired. He has a big field of commerce to plough in here, & he is just the man to do it, & given health & strength, he ought to make his mark within ten tears from now.
I told you the rabbit season was on now. Well, in 3 days he has had 7,060 sent in to him & these are now in the cold chambers ready for shipment by first steamer home. I was in the P&O office yesterday with him while he was arranging about refrigerator space in the boat. He introduced me to all the heads of departments in the offices & all so kindly received us & could not do enough by way of entertaining us. We afterwards ascended the clock tower of the post office.[2] We had a grand view, so clear, distance brought so close, & the extreme outlines of the hills so sharply defined, & what a view looking down on the town, & people quite midgets in the streets. I sent you an album off & you will see the clock tower in it (Mr. Leask will also receive one). We had a rare day, I assure you. The milk of human kindness never ceased flowing. I have dined with them every night, & after dinner last night, we set out at 7 for Mrs. Parker’s, Mrs. Stoddart’s sister, & found her easily, 2 miles out by tram, which stopped at the door for us. He then returned home after shaking hands with young Mr. Parker who carries on the grocery store. Mrs. Parker gave all a very warm welcome, knew I was to visit them, & I gradually saw all the family as they came in. The two sons had been out at classes. They are fine young men, not quite 18, & Miss Parker [5:25] is a fine, rosy young woman.[3] Mrs. Parker is a nice body, older than Mrs. Stoddart, has her voice exactly, & the eldest son would pass for one of the Stoddarts fine, a smart young man & fond of his business & home. The district is growing & they have recently built premises on the main road, which will one day be a good position. He, the son, is very anxious & ambitious to do business. Willie had stayed, I think, 5 months with them. Miss Parker had recently been over in Sydney, staying with her uncle Minto, brought one of his boys back for a while, & she had often seen Willie [Stoddart]. Mrs. Parker was delighted I thought him so much improved. They are all cyclists & showed me their machines. One of the twins had his stolen from the premises & had not recovered it. I spent 3 hours, had supper with them, & they begged me to stop all night, but as I had to meet Mr. E. at 9:15 in the morning to go to the Botanical Gardens, I thought I better be in town, so I left at 11 o’clock & got to hotel at 20 past. After spending a very pleasant night, Mrs. P. was going to write home by this week’s mail so Mrs. Stoddart will hear all news. It is raining this morning, unfortunately, as after visiting the gardens, we, with Mrs. E., were to drive out 4 ½ miles to view one of the famous vineyards of So. Australia where they have immense wine vats. So now I will close for the present.
Tuesday night, 9:30, July 5/98.
We drove to the celebrated “Auldana” vineyard situated on a lovely hill side & had a most interesting forenoon. Saw through the enormous cellar filled with vats [5:26] of various capacities, one 3,000 galls., 3 – 2,500 & so on, 11 of which held, & was full, 19,000 gallons, besides hundreds of hogsheads & small casks, & this vineyard is only one of many. One place they have 1 vat which contains 10,000 gallons. Miss Pape had seen it. Well, the manager of Auldana was very kind, a Frenchman named Mr. Mazure[4], & we tasted some rare & old vintage wines. He was anxious to know what prospect there was for unfermented wines & I gave him the information I possessed as to sacramental wines, & possibly we may hear more about our conversation.[5] We were there nearly 2 hours & then drove to a very large orange & lemon grove close by, & had there a very interesting time with the chief gardener. It is a beautiful estate. They grow everything that will grow here. I ate almonds, oranges, both mandarin & others, which I plucked off the trees. The olive groves are a lovely sight.[6] We had a dish of olives at the Auldana cellars & they were delicious to eat. They had been cured & ready for marketing. Some they use for extracting oil & can get thousands of gallons in a season. This large orangery estate is called “Restrovor”, & the owner a wealthy mine owner, Mr. Reid, who has a lovely mansion on the estate, but lives in Melbourne. There is a most unique & perfect system of irrigation whereby every square yard can be watered by means of a network of piping.[7] It’s a rare sight. There is a large reservoir, 15 million gallons, for water supply & it was dried up all last season, but is filling now, consequent on the rains of late. Every person you converse with comments on the parched seasons of the 3 years gone & are full of hope now that copious rains have fallen. They congratulate me on seeing the face of the earth in such a lovely green mantle, & true enough, it is a beautiful sight.
[5:27]
It was just unfortunate that we had not a very favourable day to view such pretty & interesting spots. It rained & drizzled most of the day. We, however, enjoyed it thoroughly & got back at 2:30. The parliament is sitting now & Mr. E. would have me go in.[8] It is just opposite the hotel & we went in for a short while, but there was nothing of interest going on, tho’ visitors were numerous. On coming out of the chamber, & viewing the lobbies & passages, Mr. E. fell in with 4 MPs to whom I was introduced, & we had to partake refreshments with them & enjoyed conversation on things in general & on home affairs. One of them amused me by telling me he represented 335 million acres. He is member for Port Darwin. Mr. Soloman also is a member of the convention. His constituents are few, & the Northern Territory enormous – look at your map of So. Australia, Chambers, & you’ll see its extent from Adelaide or Mount Gambier right up to Port Darwin. We parted merrily. I then left Mr. E., had a wash & tidy, then went to pay a visit to Mrs. Linklater, Mr. Leask will know her, & her two daughters were also in, & I spent a very pleasant hour. Another daughter is married to a Mr. Isbister, a wealthy Orcadian, & their son is a young doctor (this for Mr. Leask‘s information). Next I went on to Mrs. Leask‘s of “Inglemere” & spent about ¾ hour very cheerily, & bade her good bye, sending lots of kindly good wishes home to all at Roker House. I then went to Palmer Place, Mr. Ebdy‘s, only about 10 minutes’ walk from Mrs. Leask’s, & I just got in as Mr. E. got home from office & we had dinner, & at 7:15 set out to visit the technical school & school of mines, where a rare work amongst the rising young men & women is carried on. Every branch of mechanism to book binding, dress cutting, fitting & making, chemistry, assaying, &c. &c., [5:28] & we were shewn throughout by the secretary, Mr. Hughes, & each department master.[9] There were no less than 28 plumber lads at work. Mr. Windrim would have been delighted, I’ve no doubt, to see them shaping their material. They were all making bends. Chemistry was well represented & all kinds of experiments being made. A very big carpenter’s shop & an engineering shop full of machinery, principally made by students. We certainly have had a very throng day. I had intended going away today, but no chance. However, I go tomorrow. Mr. E. declares he has not got a quarter shewn me he would like me to see. He accompanied me to the hotel & then he went away home. He unfortunately suffers acutely with the same stomach affection as I so long was a victim to & was poorly tonight. About rabbits: they got 2,500 in this morning.[10] These are now, in the cold chambers, 42,604 waiting shipment & he will also ship 30,000 – 2[11] tons, “Mount Gambia” brand, in the “Yarrawonga”, and expects he will have by then 51,000 fresh rabbits for the 16th inst. steamer. On May 5th last, he shipped 72,000 tons rabbits to London. It’s a big business you’ll see, & there’s no mistake about it. Australians will scarcely look at a rabbit & are prepared to give any man a fortune if he can devise a way to exterminate them. I tell them to catch them & send them to England. They will take all they can send and glad to get them. Wine is likely to become an immense article of export too, & Australians are proud of their product, & well they may. The wine is delicious indeed. Mr. E. intends to go largely into the exporting of it. What a country this So. Australia is, & likely to be a land of plenty, meat, fruit, oil, wine, butter, & I know not what.
I ascertained the height from which we viewed yesterday from the clock tower was 45 feet. [5:29] I posted a newspaper & marked some items. We were present at the dedication of the land to the Prospect district & saw the Premier & some of the children plant trees. Then the steamer Gulf of Taranto. We were on board her at Port Adelaide. The chief officer knew the late James MacKay well. He was the superintendent. You know who I mean, Mrs. McBeath’s brother. I forgot to tell you that some miles before we reached Adelaide last Friday morning, & on high ground, it’s a pretty spot named, “Mount Lofty”. The hoar frost was on the grass, the first frost I had seen since I last saw it at home.[12]
[1] Inserted on facing page: “Government House”.
[2] Inserted on facing page: “PO clock tower, view from 145 feet high”.
[3] Inserted on facing page: “Miss Parker afterwards visited Berwick while I was staying there”.
[4] Léon Edmond Mazure.
[5] Inserted on facing page: “I bought 5 cases of port & 5 cases of unfermented, & sent them home”.
[6] Inserted on facing page: “Olives”.
[7] Inserted on facing page: “Irrigation of orchard”.
[8] Inserted on facing page: “Parliament House”.
[9] Inserted on facing page: “Technical school”.
[10] Inserted on facing page: “Rabbits”.
[11] Illegible superscript character here.
[12] Inserted on facing page: “Frost”.