According to popular report, the great millionaires of Australia are Mr. James Tyson, six millions; Sir William Clarke, three; and Mr. George Lawson, one and a half.
James Tyson, the well-known Australian millionaire, was born near Sydney in 1823. His father was the scion of a good old Cumberland family, but having offended his parents by marriage against their wishes, he found things so unpleasant at home that he enlisted in the army. His discharge was purchased in 1818, when he emigrated from England in the service of Mr. Commissioner Bigge, who was sent out to investigate the charges against Governor Macquarie. In time, he commenced his career as a farmer, and died. His son, after assisting his mother on her farm, entered the service of a firm of agriculturists, on a salary of £30 a year. Many were his ups and downs. At one time he had to go to a station for a draft of cattle, which were to be placed under the care of himself and brother. James Tyson, to prepare himself for his journey, cooked as many rations as he could carry on his horse, and of money he had just one shilling, which was demanded of him by the ferryman for taking him with his horse over the Murrumbidgee. Declining to part with his shilling, he swam over the river, if not at the risk of his life, greatly to the detriment of his rations. Again, we find him in another part of the colony, where, while his brother kept a dairy, James went jobbing and cattle-driving, until a few of his cattle were fat, and fit for market. He afterwards, with the neighbouring stock-owners, sold a lot at Sydney. He and his brother, in time, obtained possession of a run near the junction of the Lachland and Murrumbidgee rivers. In 1851, when the gold discoveries were made, James Tyson commenced cattle-driving to Sandhurst, where he opened up a large business as a butcher, wholesale and retail, and where he made a good deal of money. After carrying on business successfully till 1855, he made some purchases of stations, and next extended his operations to Queensland. He afterwards acquired several immense stations on the Warrego, where, as in Victoria and New South Wales, he now holds large areas of freehold land. His mother is naturally very proud of her distinguished son. When the Duke of Edinburgh was in the colony he was taken to see the old lady. ‘There,’ said the old woman, as the Prince bade her good-bye, ‘you can tell your mother you have shaken hands with Jem Tyson’s mother,’ and no doubt the message was faithfully reported.
Mr. Tyson is a broad-shouldered, robust man, standing 6 feet 3½ inches high. He has never had a day’s illness in his life; has lived much in the open air, and prefers it; is a keen sportsman, and a good shot. Nevertheless, he is a good deal of a vegetarian. On one occasion, it is said, according to the custom of the country, in the course of his travels he rode up to a station for a night’s lodging. ‘Oh, is that you?’ said the woman of the house. ‘You can go and hobble yourself,’ throwing him the leathern straps by means of which the Australian colonists hobble their horses for the night. The millionaire is reported often to indulge in an economical supper of boiled grass, and hence the woman’s allusion. A stricter teetotaler there is not in Australia. Mr. Tyson has never indulged in a glass of wine or spirits in his life, nor has he ever smoked an ounce of tobacco. It is to be questioned whether he would have had such a successful career as he has marked out for himself, had he indulged in the drinking customs which were the disgrace of all Australia at one time. He owes his good fortune almost entirely to his energy, his untiring industry, and his great self-denial. He is a true friend and a staunch protector of the aborigines on his various stations, who are all much attached to him, and render willing service. He is of a very retiring disposition, and has always refused to allow parliamentary or any other public honours to be thrust upon him. He is a bachelor, and mingles but little in society—is, however, very fond of children, and has always been a liberal supporter of all local schools and other popular institutions, though generally averse to having his name paraded before the public. The exact amount of his wealth is not known, but he is supposed to have amassed from four to six millions, and, on one occasion, he offered the Government of Queensland the loan of half a million towards the construction of a trans-continental railway. Those who know him best, say of him as Disraeli said of Gladstone, ‘He has not one redeeming vice.’ It is to his credit that his temper is so even that, under the most trying circumstances, no profane word has ever been heard to escape from his lips. On one occasion, riding late at night to one of his many stations, he was refused admission by the keeper, to whom he told his name in vain, as the man did not believe him. He slept out that night, and, when he returned in the morning, rewarded the man handsomely for his obedience to orders. Of course Mr. Tyson is not very popular. He is too wealthy to be that. Impecunious people always make a dead set at a millionaire, and are very wrath if he does not see his way to set them on their legs again, or, at any rate, to give them a start in life. ‘The simplicity and frugality of his habits,’ observes Mr. Henniker-Heaton, M.P., from whom I borrow most of the particulars of this sketch, ‘should disarm the envy of those who might be disposed to covet his great riches.’ Alas! the reverse is the case. I found few who had a good word to say of the richest man in any of the Australian colonies, and all sorts of wild stories are told of him—even as to his exploits when in a state of alleged drunkenness. Mr. Tyson has, at any rate, one fault, and that is he is a very great hater of women; he even dislikes, I was told, to employ married men. ‘He sees no good in having a man who is under the influence of a woman.’ Clearly he holds that no man can serve two masters. Poor fellow! I asked:
‘What is to become of all his wealth?’
‘It will help to make work for the lawyers,’ was the somewhat cynical reply.
We admire Mr. Tyson for his abstinence, and for his energy, his industry, and economy. In this respect he sets the Australians a good example, but he is not a model to be followed in every respect. The best of us, it is to be feared, are poor creatures after all.
CHAPTER XIII.
AUSTRALIAN FACTS AND FIGURES.
Increase of the Colonies—Further Emigration Required—New South Wales and Free-trade—The Australian Type.
Statistics are not pleasant reading. They are so easily twisted to serve the writer’s purpose rather than to develop the real truth of the case, but to please certain readers who are always wanting to know, I give the Australasian statistics for 1888 laid before the New South Wales Parliament, which show another year of steady progress on the part of these colonies. The total population of Australasia on December 31 last is estimated at 3,672,803, Victoria standing highest with 1,090,869; New South Wales, 1,085,740; New Zealand, 607,380; South Australia, 313,065; Queensland, 387,463; Tasmania, 146,149; Western Australia, 42,137. The total increase for the year was 126,077, the Queensland ratio of increase being 5.59; Victoria, 5.28; New South Wales, 4.10; Tasmania, 2.57; New Zealand, .66; South Australia, .21; while Western Australia showed a decrease of 351 persons, or .82 per cent. There was a total of 26,584 marriages, 122,982 births, and 48,400 deaths last year; the average birth-rate per 1,000 being 34.05, and death-rate 13.40. The number of immigrants and emigrants during the year was respectively 24,889 and 188,230, the excess of emigrants being 65,599. The Victorian net gain by immigration was 41,803; that of New South Wales, 21,545; Queensland, 11,805; whilst in South Australia there were 113 less immigrants than emigrants, Western Australia being on the same side of the balance to the extent of 1,196, and New Zealand to the extent of 9,175. Of sheep the Australian Colonies possess 96,487,811. Of these New South Wales has 48.20 per cent.; Victoria, 11.20; Queensland, 13.93; South Australia, 7.41. Horned cattle, total 9,248,949, New South Wales possessing 17.54 percent.; Victoria, 14.19; Queensland, 50.32; South Australia, 4.65. Horses amount to 1,136,683, New South Wales having 21.88 per cent.; Victoria, 21.31; Queensland, 607; South Australia, 14.95. The imports for the colonies in 1888 were: New South Wales, £20,885,557; Victoria, £23,972,134; South Australia, £5,413,638; Queensland, £6,544,324. Exports: New South Wales, £20,859,715; Victoria, £13, 853,763; South Australia, £6,984,098; Queensland, £5,226,929. Total imports and exports for the whole of the colonies, £121,859,908, or £33 15s. 2d. per head. New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia exceeded this average, whilst the other colonies were considerably below it. The total tonnage entered and cleared at Australian ports amounted to 14,689,766 tons, of which New South Wales represented 4,765,419 tons; Victoria, 4,307,883 tons; South Australia, 1,973,651 tons.
In answer to the question why Australia does not attract a far larger European emigration, the reply is, the mistaken policy of the Australian Parliament. The working man in Australia is opposed to it, and M.P.’s truckle to his wishes. An Australian M.P. is paid, and he naturally wishes to retain his pay, and hence he bows to the majority, whether right or wrong. If English emigrants went to Australia, as they do to Canada or America, the Australian colonies would flourish, labour would be cheap, agriculture would prosper, and the railways would be filled with passengers whose payments would enable them to yield good dividends. Mr. Macfie, a gentleman who resided ten years in Australia, and who is a master of Australian statistics, in a paper read before the Royal Colonial Society last year, contended that the most urgently needed aid to Australian development is selecting British and European population suitable for settlement on the land, and for raising productions for which there is a large demand in the colonies, the United Kingdom, and in foreign countries. Under the present system of government, this seems to be quite out of the question. He describes, for instance, the operatives of Victoria as organized into a compact phalanx under leaders who have succeeded by dogged persistence in imbuing the colony with the notion that they constitute the party which controls the voting power at elections. ‘So widely,’ says Mr. Macfie, ‘is this assumption believed, that candidates for the Legislative Assembly, to whom a Parliamentary salary or political influence is a consideration, defer with real or affected humility to the wishes of the Trades Hall Council of Melbourne. The inevitable outcome of this state of political subjection on the part of members of the House, and in many cases of the Government also, is the injustice of class legislation. On the unjustifiable plea that the tendency of emigration is to reduce the rate of wages in the colony, the working-classes make no secret of their determination that the Government shall be prohibited from taking steps to encourage immigration of any kind, or even to diffuse information systematically, by pamphlets and lectures throughout Europe, in localities where thousands are thirsting to learn about Australia, and who would gladly proceed thither at their own cost, and engage in profitable branches of land culture.’ It is really discouraging to find that while the Argentine Confederation receives an addition to its population on an average of 7,000 a week, and the United States 10,000, Australia, with its splendid climate and other advantages, only attracts a little over 1,000 persons, old and young, male and female, per week. This state of things is mischievous in many ways. It is not pleasant to find that, as Mr. Herbert Tritton pointed out, the Australasian Government debts increase in a very much larger ratio than the population. On this head Mr. Macfie makes a rather alarming statement. ‘I have,’ he said, ‘recently been informed that a large investor in Australasian securities, deeply impressed with the necessity of investigating this subject for himself, proceeded to Australasia for the purpose of doing so. He returned to England convinced that in most of the self-governing colonies the working classes were barring the door against any effort whatsoever being made to promote immigration, extend widely agricultural settlement, and thus develop export wealth to Europe and America. He arrived at the conclusion that there was a tendency in the Local Governments and Parliaments to pander to the prejudices of those who indiscriminately discourage the introduction of even desirable immigrants. The belief was forced upon him that it is no sufficient answer to the fears of the bondholders to say that the money lent by them goes into reproductive works, such as railways. He saw railways constructed to serve an extremely sparse population in country districts, instead of a population twenty times the size, which would have rendered the line proportionately remunerative, had as much care been taken to attract people from Europe as to obtain British capital to build new lines for the limited number of settlers established in the districts through which they pass. The result of that visitor’s observation was that he sold out—I think, with unwarrantable haste—his interest in Australasian stocks on his return home. Whether his views are correct or erroneous is not the question.’