THE MEN OF THE NORTH.
There were never lacking men ready for the enterprise and hardship of
pioneering when there was such a field of profitable work open before
them, work that was for those trained in bush experience, hardy and
acclimatised as they were. The life, in spite of hardships, was not
without attraction and satisfaction to many who took part in it. There
was a kind of fascination to many bushmen in the idea of being the first
to enter upon new and unknown scenes; to note the surprise of native
game beholding for the first time the presence of the stranger, and to
observe the terrified astonishment of the aborigines when first they saw
the white intruders; all this tended to add to the romance and interest
of helping to open a new district. But outside pioneer life in early
days had a reverse side; there was little or nothing of comfort or
relaxation; there was always hardship and exposure; there was no Sunday
for rest, no holiday, no Eight Hour Day, nothing but constant movement
and watching. The duties were shared by all alike; each had to take a
turn at anything and everything, cooking one time, driving a team
another, shepherding sheep occasionally, herding cattle sometimes,
cutting timber, making bough-yards for sheep, lambing down a flock of
ewes, shifting hurdles, and poisoning dingoes, killing and salting beef,
ear-marking, washing and shearing sheep, looking for stragglers, yoking
bullocks, building huts, tracking and hunting stock, all little duties
that made up the routine life of the outside grazier. They all took
their turn, and generally there was one dish and one table. Where the
ways and customs consequent on the life brought all on a partial level,
the man who could turn his hand to anything from shoeing a horse to
weighing out a dose of quinine or driving a bullock team, was the most
valuable.
THE STOCKMAN, OR STOCKRIDER.
He was native to the soil and bred,
Merely a cowboy he;
A nomad's life was what he led.
And all he wished to be.
He is a class of his own, and is a man of some importance in the daily
life of a station. The term may mean to many any man who can climb into
a saddle; but a good stockman is not so easily picked up, nor is he made
out of any material to hand. A good and experienced stockman, one who
knows his work thoroughly, is active, and can ride well, can command
wages all the year round. His work is not by any means easy; there are
long hours, in fact all hours, hard fare, and often no lodging but the
bare ground; he must endure hunger and thirst, cold, heat, and wet, and
often has to take a watch at night. When at work in the yard branding
and drafting, he has either to endure tremendous dust, or else he is
covered with mud. But the trained stockrider makes light of all these
discomforts, in fact he looks on them as all in the bill of fare, and
belonging to the day's work. He is hardy, wiry, as well as possessed of
a good deal of endurance and pluck, and like all men who ride much, is
nearly always lean in condition. He is generally the owner of a couple
of horses and an outfit of saddle, swag, stock whip, and spurs, and
takes an interest in all racing and sporting matters. As a rule, he is
not a saving man, although some may lay up enough money to start a small
store. The native youth makes the best all-round stockman; many follow
horse-breaking at times, or take a turn at droving. To draft on
horseback in the cattle yard, or in the yard on foot, to castrate and
brand horses and calves, to ride a young horse, to make a leg or head
rope out of green hide, or a pair of hobbles, to counterline a saddle,
to cook a damper, all comes within the province of the stockman. Towns
and townspeople are not much in his way, any more than the customs of
the city are congenial to his free-and-easy style of associations.
Moleskin trousers, Crimean shirt, cossack boots, and felt hat, are his
rig out. The modern type is less pronounced than he of the ancient
school, the flash, hard-riding, tearing, loud-swearing, rowdy stockman
of olden days, with a stockwhip sixteen feet long, sporting breeches and
leggings, and a loud red shirt. Stockmen have very little to do with
unions, but are seldom without employment on stations or on the road.
THE COOK.
Bush cooks are of every shade of colour, complexion, and social
standing, from the foreign count who has been expatriated for political
leanings, to the squalid shuffling Chinee, or the wily, treacherous
Cingalee. Hut keeper was the term employed in the olden days when two
shepherds had each a flock of sheep folded for the night inside a yard
made of movable hurdles, and a hut keeper was joined to them to do a bit
of cooking, as well as to shift one set of hurdles each day. He was
supposed also to watch at night against native dogs, strychnine not
being so much in use then to reduce the numbers of these pests. They
were men of dirty, lazy habits; their cooking was fearful, consisting
simply of boiling a bit of beef or mutton, making a damper, and rinsing
out a tin pannikin. Greasy-looking, growling, and drunken they were,
with scarcely energy enough to fetch a little wood or water; to wash
their clothes was an unheard-of thing. Those who cook for drovers on the
road have to be more alert; a good man on the road is a great
consideration, and it is no sinecure to cater for a party while
travelling with stock. The cook is exempt from watching, as he has to
be up during the night to get breakfast ready by daylight for the men to
start on with their cattle. Some good cooks will provide hot suppers for
the men in all weathers. The shearers' cook is quite another variety. He
is often a boss man employs one or two others under him, and gets top
wages, but he has to be up to the mark, for our shearer is a fine
specimen of an inflated growler, and will have nothing but of the best,
and up to time, tea and cake between meals, duff and all the luxuries
for dinner; in any case he comes in for a full share of the shearer's
arrogance and abuse. Station cooks comprise all sorts, good, bad, and
indifferent, clean and unclean; but one who can make real good bread is
a rarity, and all are self-taught. They frequently get good wages, but
soon become lazy and dirty, and often a Chinaman has to be put on to do
the kitchen cooking. About the towns it is notorious that European cooks
cannot be relied on for any time on account of their drinking habits,
and once again the Chinaman has to be resorted to.
THE SHEARER.
This class of labourer has been very much in evidence of late years in
Queensland on account of the numerous strikes that have taken place,
brought about by them or their leaders, although it is the best paid of
all unskilled work in the colony. The Shearers' Union attempted to rule
all labour and labour interests throughout the whole colony, and
succeeded for a long time in keeping things in a very disorganised
state. There is nothing in shearing that any man could not master in a
few days, although the work may be laborious when long continued. The
money earned is out of all proportion to what other classes of labour
receive, nevertheless the shearer is the most discontented and turbulent
of all classes, and very decidedly aggressive. He can earn in a few
months enough to keep him for the rest of the year without work, he is
gregarious in his habits, and travels about in mounted groups, generally
armed. He may be said to be a flash man, given to gambling, dicing, and
other sports, and a good deal of his money is spent at roadside
shanties. When at work, however, he is sober and industrious, as most of
them are desirous of making a good tally at the end of the shearing, and
the rules of the shed forbid any latitude for loafing or mischief.
Shearing by machine instead of by hand will tend to modify the aspects
of the work, and allow more men to learn the art. Shearers travel from
shed to shed during the season, and sometimes earn from four to six
pounds a week. They live on the best that can be got. Instances are
common of men shearing over two hundred sheep per day for days running.
Amongst the shearers will be found many respectable men, who have homes
or selections of their own on which their families reside, and who
travel round a few large sheds to earn enough money to carry on with and
support their homes.
THE BULLOCK DRIVER.
The man of strong body, and of stronger language, the old
"bull-puncher," is going out. He was an institution of early days when
the pole-dray was in vogue, a fearful kind of vehicle that tipped up
going out of a steep creek with a load on, and going down would bear on
the polers fit to break their necks. The four-wheeled waggon has for a
long time superseded the old bullock-killing dray, but the driver
remains much the same. Instead of driving ten bullocks in a pole-dray,
he yokes up eighteen or twenty to a waggon and draws instead of three
and a half tons, about seven or eight tons.
His whip is a terrible long plaited thong with a strip of green hide
attached, and a handle like a flail, with it he wakes the echoes and his
oxen at the same time. The crack of the whip is accompanied by a voice
as deep and hoarse as the bellow of one of his own long-suffering
yoked-up slaves, and his lurid language makes even his bullocks shudder.
To see the "bullocky" at his best is only given to those who travel with
him for a whole trip, and observe his style of getting out of
difficulties that would dishearten many another man. He is full of
resource, and not lacking in energy, and when his team is bogged in a
creek in a seemingly hopeless mess, and beyond all appearance of ever
being extricated, after exhausting his ample stock of dire profanity, he
proceeds in a methodical manner to dig under his wheels and corduroy
the track with branches and limbs of trees, weeds out his jibbing
bullocks, and with renewed energy and awful voice, he calls on his
patient and weary team for a big effort, and out they walk with their
load on to the bank. The "bullocky" was a great factor in the early days
of settlement, where there were no roads and loading had to be dragged
over mountains and through steep creeks and over all obstacles. His
bodily strength, great experience, and energy, came in to help in no
small degree to keep settlement alive. The arrival of the bullock teams
was quite an event, perhaps after being months on the road, and when all
supplies had run short--not that the fact of supplies being short on the
station would induce them to hasten their progress, for no bullock
driver was ever known to hurry or go out of his slow, crawling pace for
any inducement whatever. The "bullocky" could drink rum in buckets, and
was always given to use his fists. Take him all round, he was about as
rough a specimen of a bush artist as could be found; but he was
hospitable in his camp; it was always "Come and have a pot of tea,
mate," to any traveller. The quicker-moving horse teams and the
railways, are elbowing the bullock driver out into the never-never,
where there are still opportunities for his special faculties, and it is
not often that bullock teams, with their wood and iron yokes, and dusty,
hairy drivers, are seen on any roads coming into railway stations. To
ask a bullock driver where he got his beef from was not always a safe or
prudent question; it was looked upon as a piece of wanton impertinence
that would require suppression. After putting down so much on the debit
side, something should be said to the credit of the carrier. He must
have been hard-working and thrifty to have acquired the necessary
capital to purchase his waggon and team. Physically, he must be
exceptionally strong to stand the life he leads. Mentally, he must be
full of resource to overcome the obstacles he meets with on unformed and
often uncleared roads. Morally, he must be passing honest, for he often
carries loads of great value, for the safety of which he alone is
responsible for weeks and often months. These men take up the work of
distributing goods where the railways end. Their duties are arduous and
responsible, and they deserve more consideration than they generally
receive.
THE TRAMP.
"My life is a failure, the weary one said,
And the days of my youth are past;
But I still tramp along, and am not afraid,
While grub in the bush shall last.
"My shirt is patched, and my trousers are torn,
My hat is a sight to see,
The nap of my blanket has long been worn,
And is patched with an old soogee."
The tramp is found everywhere in the world. The bush tramp is only
another variety, and since the big strikes took place in Queensland some
years ago, the tribe has multiplied, as it taught them to loaf on the
stations for rations. Now they make a practice of getting all their
supplies for the road from the station stores, pleading they have no
money, and from policy rations are given them, and no questions asked.
Many men carrying their swags on their backs are really looking for
work, and deserve encouragement by the gratuity of a little rations to
help them along, as stations are far apart in the outlying districts. As
station owners are dependent on these same swagmen for the extra labour
they require from time to time, it is policy to keep on good terms with
a class that can work incalculable damage to station men that have miles
of grass in sheep paddocks to burn, woolsheds to demolish, and gates on
the main road to be left open, with no evidence forthcoming as to how
fires were started, etc., and no police to supervise or control the
actions of these irresponsible wanderers. But the tribe of "whalers," as
they were called in New South Wales, men who tramped up one side of the
Darling River, and tramped down on the other side, never betraying any
desire to find work, these can be found in the Queensland bush too, but
not far out, where there are long dry stages between the stations, and a
shortness of water which terrifies these old "bummers." There are men
who have tramped all over the colonies--every colony in Australia they
have been through, and know all the tracks. They come up to a station
and ask for work in a sort of a way, and then ask for rations to carry
them on, even asking for a bit of tobacco; they say they have no money
(and their appearance confirms all they say), and have done no work, for
six months past, or longer, tramping all the way, and never a job. Their
rags and swag betray dire poverty; their clothes patched in every
colour, so that a blackfellow would hardly wear them, and they are dirty
in the extreme. These men are not decrepid or weak, but are simply lazy,
whilst the fine dry climate enables them to live without hard work.
Occasionally, in order to procure some tobacco or a little money for a
spree at a shanty, they will take a job for a time as rouseabout or
wood-chopper, but they are soon off on the "wallaby track" again. It is
a recognised custom now among stations in the west and north-west to
ration the swagmen as they pass along, and the cost to some stations
during the year is very considerable; they just bring up their ration
bags and get them filled, and go to the creek to camp and cook the
evening meal they have walked perhaps twenty miles to obtain, but which
cost them nothing but the exercise. Poverty is the inheritance of some,
but many of these wanderers are poor because as soon as they do earn a
few pounds at odd jobs during shearing time, they march at once to the
nearest bush shanty and drink what they have earned until turned away,
and then tramp back to the stations, begging rations as they go along,
and at the same time regarding the donors with a consuming and
persistent malice. The professional tramp is not a nice character,
there can be no mistaking him, with his swag done up in a long roll, and
hung round his shoulder and down his side, a billycan and water-bag in
his hand. He creeps along slowly with sore feet and shuffling steps,
camping in the shade when he can to rest; he has no companions
generally, and his life is a joyless and miserable one; but there he is,
and there he will remain, for his tribe will not die out, because no one
will refuse to give a little rations to a wayfarer because he is hard
up, ragged, and penniless.
THE DROVER.
He knew of every drover's way,
From Normanton to Bourke;
From far Port Darwin's ample bay,
Right through to Muswellbrook.
The desert plains he knew full well,
Where duststorms blind the eye;
And oft he had come from Camooweal,
Drivin' stock to Narrabri.
The life of a drover, under the most favourable circumstances, is the
reverse of a pleasant one, but like all nomadic occupations, it has a
fascination for many bushmen. The drover would appear to be regarded as
the common enemy of every owner or superintendent through whose run he
passes, although in many cases it is a fact that roads are fenced off so
that a drover cannot leave them without breaking down the fences. In
many instances the only permanent water on the stock routes has been
fenced in by the owner of the run. The principal wealth of Australia is
stock, and these, both sheep and cattle, to be marketed need bringing
down to some seaport or market, either as stores or fats. Sometimes long
distances are travelled, from one end of Australia to the other, the
journey occupying months. At starting, the stock are counted and handed
over to the charge of a competent drover, who delivers them at the end
of the journey, and is paid either by contract at so much per head, with
an allowance for losses, or else by weekly wages, the owner finding the
whole plant and money. Overlanding is a constant source of anxiety from
start to finish of the journey. The varying items, such as floods,
droughts, disease, incompetent hands, lost stock, and the surveillance
from the owners of runs through which they pass, make up the daily
routine of a drover's life. Stormy nights, when cattle become very
restless, keep the drover awake and anxious. His duties are of a
responsible nature, and he requires a good deal of tact and patience to
manage his men properly, for he may have over a dozen employed with him
on a droving job. With sheep the anxiety is not so great as with cattle
or horses, as sheep are much easier to manage. The law provides that
unless detained by flood, stock shall be driven not less than six miles
every twenty-four hours. In most instances this distance is exceeded,
but should the drover fail to travel the prescribed distance, through
any accident, the owner or manager of the run turns up at the camp and
gives the drover the option of either moving his stock on the proper
distance, if it is only one mile ahead, or of appearing at the nearest
police court, perhaps a hundred miles away, to answer an information for
a breach of the Pastoral Leases Act or the Crown Lands Act. Although,
perhaps only a nominal fine may be imposed, the vexatious delay, loss,
and inconvenience of attending at the court, induce the drover to avoid
any needless infringements of the Act. Some managers of runs are ever
ready to pounce on any unfortunate drover who may deviate a few yards
from the regulated half mile on each side of the road, and then it will
be so arranged that the drover will not get a summons until he is a
hundred miles away from where the offence was committed, when he has to
leave his stock in the hands of the men, while he returns to answer the
trivial charge; he is always fined, as he cannot well defend his case,
and he is anxious to return to his duties.
As a rule, the drovers in Queensland are a trustworthy and respectable
class of men--of course there are exceptions, but these are soon found
out. Cases have come to light where cattle sold on the road have been
returned as knocked up lame, or dead from pleuro, and grog has been
entered in the accounts as stores supplied. The owner is a good deal at
the mercy of the drover after the latter has taken charge of the stock,
as he has then very little control over them until they reach their
destination. Some drovers have a plant of their own, twenty or thirty
good horses, a dray or waggonette, and saddles, and make contracts to
shift cattle or sheep at so much per head, paying their own men, and
finding everything. The wages of drovers are always high, but not too
high when the care and constant work are taken into consideration.
Sundays and week days alike, rain or fine, grass or no grass, whatever
turns up, it all means that the drover, or man in charge has to be on
hand and see to things himself. The life is monotonous, wearying and
fatiguing in the extreme. Man and boss alike have to rise before dawn,
roll up blankets or swag, get breakfast, catch horses, and move the
cattle off the night camp as soon as it is light, then ride all day with
them, keep them moving slowly along feeding on any grass to be found,
watering them when a chance offers, carrying a bit of lunch on the
saddle, and a quart pot to boil some tea in. After the day's journey is
over, the cattle have to be rounded up on the camp at sundown and then
each takes his turn at watching during the night, which means three
hours solitary riding round in the darkness, turning in any cattle
inclined to stray out from the camp, and keeping up one's spirits by
calculating how long the trip will last. When the weather is fine, the
life is bearable, if monotonous, but when it rains, especially in cold
rain and wind, the pleasures of droving are limited; with wet ground to
lie on, wet clothes to ride in, and scarcely fire enough to cook at,
with stock restless and troublesome at night, the drover will sometimes
think longingly of the home and the comforts he once despised. Still,
droving is a popular calling, and men have followed it constantly for
years, procuring a long droving job during the season, and spelling
their horses when work is scarce.
More provision should be made for regular stock routes throughout the
country, and the area of these should not be included in the runs on
which lessees have to pay rent, as the case is now. The drover's calling
is a necessary one, and he should have more protection and greater
facilities for getting his stock to market, and not a continual fight
for the rights of the road as he has now.
"In my wild erratic fancy, visions come to me of Clancy,
Gone a-droving down the Cooper, where the western drovers go;
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know."
--"Banjo."
A. S. N. CO.
Not least among the forces that worked for the settlement of the north,
may be reckoned the steamer services. In this respect, the old A. S. N.
Co. held the premier position, as their steamers were the first in all
the ports of Queensland, and the colony is much indebted to the energy
and enterprise of that Company. From Brisbane to Cooktown, their
steamers were the first to cast anchor in the new harbours and help to
develope the trade of the coast. Although not always very popular, for
the public complained often at the charges made for freight and
passages, the Company gave a good helping hand towards the opening up of
the young country.
A few notes about the history of this pioneering Company, obtained
through the agency of their secretary, Mr. F. Phillips, may be of
interest to some. It was originally established under the name of the
Hunter River Steam Navigation Company, in August, 1839, with a capital
of L40,000, and premises at the foot of Margaret Street, Sydney. In
April, 1841, the "Rose," steamer, arrived from England, 172 tons burden.
In October of the same year, the "Shamrock" arrived from England, under
Captain Gilmore, being 123 days out. The "Thistle" had previously
arrived. In 1841, the Company advertised their intention of sending one
of their steamers to Moreton Bay, and the "Shamrock" sailed thither in
December of that year. The fares were L8, L6, and L4; freight, 20s.
wool, 20s. per bale. After five months, the steamer was withdrawn, as
the trade was not remunerative. In September, 1842, the "Tamar," and
"Sovereign," steamers, were purchased by the Company from Mr. Grose for
L12,000; they were then carrying on a trade with Twofold Bay, Melbourne,
and Launceston. In July, 1844, two water frontage allotments in Brisbane
were secured for L50, and Mr. James Paterson was appointed manager in
October, 1845. The Company's engineering works were established at
Pyrmont in February, 1846, the land being leased for that purpose. The
"Eagle," steamer, a well-known old northerner, was built for the Company
at their Pyrmont works. On March 11th, 1847, their steamer, the
"Sovereign" was wrecked in the south passage in Moreton Bay, and
forty-four lives lost. In March, 1851, the Company's name was changed to
the Australian Steam Navigation Company, it was incorporated, and its
scope enlarged. The capital of the Company was L320,000, divided into
16,000 shares of L20 each, and the opposition of the Melbourne Steamship
Company, which had been carried on at a great loss to both, ceased. In
May, 1858, the Company offered the colonies a mail service to Galle, and
in September of the same year the rush to the Port Curtis diggings set
in, and land was purchased by the Company at Rockhampton in 1860. Their
steam service was extended to Bowen, a port which was just then opening
a way to inland settlers to obtain their supplies from, and the Company
obtained a contract for a mail service between Adelaide and King
George's Sound. In February, 1863, a new opposition was started by the
inauguration of the Queensland Steamship Company. The following year the
A. S. N. Co. had extensive wharves and stores built for themselves both
in Brisbane and Rockhampton. The "Leichhardt," steamer, was built at
their works for the northern trade, and the Company's operations were
extended to Townsville in 1865, Captain Trouton being appointed manager
the next year. In January, 1868, the Queensland Steamship Company was
wound up, and its steamers and wharves bought up by the A. S. N. Co. In
1870, the Californian mail service was opened by H. Hall, who chartered
the company's steamers "Wonga" and the "City of Melbourne" for that
purpose. Campbell's Wharf in Sydney was bought for a large sum in 1876,
and the next year Captain O'Reilly leaving the Brisbane agency, Mr. W.
Williams was appointed.
* * * * *
In 1878, three Chinese crews were obtained for the A. S. N. Co.
steamers, a circumstance which caused a strike in November, 1879,
lasting until the following January. The Company had been engaged in the
trade between Newcastle and Sydney, but this was abandoned in September,
1880, when the plant and stores were sold to the Newcastle Steamship Co.
* * * * *
In January, 1887, the extensive intercolonial trade of the A. S. N. Co.
ceased, and all their steam fleet was sold to a new company called the
A. U. S. N. Co. The fleet stood at L481,000 in their books, and was sold
for L200,000. The shareholders received L20 8s. 9d. per share, the par
value being L20 per share; the shares when the fleet was sold were L9
10s. in the open market, but the increase in the value of the landed
properties of the Company helped to this satisfactory result.
BURNS, PHILP & CO.
Throughout Australia, but above all in the northern parts of Queensland,
the name of Burns, Philp and Co. ranks foremost among the many wealthy
and large companies that have helped to develop trade in the northern
parts, and a short account of the growth of this great business may
prove interesting. Intimately associated with North Queensland, the
business of the Company has grown and prospered with the growth and
prosperity of the youngest colony of the group, and much of the rapid
opening of new ports and harbours on the northern coast line, and also
among the Pacific Islands, is due directly to the natural business
capabilities of the founders of the Company.
A number of shipping agencies are also held in North Queensland, Western
Australia, and Sydney, and the Company itself owns a fleet of small
vessels used in the coasting, lightering, and island trade. Altogether
there are between sixty and seventy steamers, sailing vessels, and
lighters owned and chartered which fly the flag of Burns, Philp and Co.,
and the red, white, and blue, with Scotch thistle in the centre, is a
flag well known throughout the Pacific Islands and all round Australia.
A mail service is run by the Company between Cooktown, New Guinea, and
Thursday Island, also a three years' contract was in 1897 entered into
with the Government of Western Australia to run weekly between Albany
and Esperance. Considerable trade is done with the Solomon Islands, and
steamers run regularly from Sydney in this trade. The Company have also
steam and sailing services with the New Hebrides, Louisades, New Guinea,
New Britain, Ellice, and Gilbert, and many other islands in the Pacific,
having a ten years' contract with the Commonwealth Government for
regular communication with all the islands which are practically under
British control, while branch businesses have been established at Port
Moresby and Samarai in British New Guinea, at Elila in the New Hebrides,
Nukualofa in the Friendly Islands, and elsewhere. The first steam
service down the Gulf of Carpentaria from Thursday Island was
inaugurated by the senior partner of the Company, Mr. James Burns, in
the year 1881, by means of the little steamship "Truganini," which used
often to be overcrowded with passengers and freight for Normanton.
The Company is the largest colonial shipper to the European and Eastern
markets of Pacific Island produce, such as copra, beche de mer,
sandalwood, ivory nuts, tortoise shell, and, above all, pearl shell, for
which Torres Straits is so famous; add to this the amount of tallow,
wool, and other Australian produce annually exported, and it will give
some idea of the export business done. The Company has two fleets of
pearl shelling luggers, comprising about forty pearlers in all.
Burns, Philp and Co. is essentially a company of a co-operative
character, and a glance at the share list will show that the great bulk
of shareholders are managers, employees, and others actually working in
the company. This tends to a live interest all round, and each branch
vies with the other in good management and success. The business was
originally established at Townsville, thirty years ago by the senior
partner, Mr. James Burns, and the new offices lately completed there at
a cost of L15,000 are the finest in North Queensland, while recently,
premises costing L50,000 were erected in Sydney. Mr. Philp, now the Hon.
Robert Philp, Premier of Queensland, joined Mr. Burns some twenty-five
years ago. Both are Scotchmen, the one hailing from Edinburgh, and the
other from Glasgow. The Company was formed into a limited liability
company twenty-one years ago.
Much could be written of the varied character of the business of Burns,
Philp and Co., which embraces almost every colonial interest besides,
while they are allied to a group of other colonial companies which act
in accord with them, notably the North Queensland Insurance Company, and
other concerns. For some years the Company engaged in the whaling
enterprise with fairly successful results, but the detention of Captain
Carpenter, and the seizure of the whaling barque "Costa Rica Packet" by
the Dutch authorities in the Malay Archipelago, abruptly terminated what
promised to be a most important colonial enterprise. It will be
remembered that the Dutch Government had to pay a considerable sum to
the captain, owners, and crew of the vessel for this wrongful seizure.
The total turnover of this Company now exceeds two millions sterling,
and it is one of the largest and most progressive of the purely
Australian concerns.
In the Sydney office a special telegraphic operator is always at work,
and cable and telegraphic messages are sent to, and received from, all
parts of the world direct. This is the only company in the colonies
which has a Government operator established on the premises solely for
its own business.