Letter from Frederick Teesdale to Aubrey Hall
Dear Aubrey.
Yours of the 12th received & I got into touch with the Mt Lyall Company & their reply was as follows.
It will be necessary for parcel of about FIVE POUNDS to be sent to the companys works for analysis.
When the contents of the sample are ascertained & if the result is of interest to the company, they will make an offer of per ton for the supply of same to Fremantle.
I would suggest that you drop across a passenger by one of the boats thus avoiding any expense & ask them, or him, to deliver to No 5 Mc Neils Chambers, Barrack St & I will attend to the rest.
I do hope there is something in this for you & that there is no one that knows enough to forestall you in securing the right to mine. If the result is good, then wire to me, or write & give me enough details for my information for the Mines Dept.
Hubert is getting on fairly well & will pull through I think, as long as the next season is not a shicer.
What price the intepred explorers (per plane) who get directions from a Mission Station half an hour before they crashed (or sludged) then sit fro eleven days, listening to all the frantic wires that are encircling the earth & still sit on their behind too tired to do a bit of a walk to the said station, just fifteen miles as the crow flies & have to exist on Mud Snails, which we call Periwinkles & for the which provide a good part of a meal in the shire I hail from for the very poor, who cannot buy expensive meat.
This sensational "tripe" that has filled the papers for weeks, will do a lot of harm to the North West & I feel that I am only crying in the wilderness for the future about tropical culture.
The world will connect the whole of the North & North West in the general condemnation of inhospitable barren wastes of rock to nothing of the treacherous & hostile natives, that simply spear ever one on sight.
It makes me so sick, to see a gang of showmen, who not having much to secure a triumphant & sensational enty into Much Maligned England except when a loan is required.
Some Sydney paper has given them "rats" & booze is said to be much in evidence & a libel action is threatened.
The whole damd stunt was a showmens business, but they thought to get through a bit easier.
The hardships were terrible, the mosquitoes actually bit one of them on the legs & caused a STUNNED feeling, "terrible".
Little "Hinkler" did the job they failed in & did no advertising, just showed his face & off back again, unmourned & unsung.
Young Gordon was in to day & I am sorry that he has had a falling out with Jim, but better not mention it to any of the family.
He came & confided in me & told me his Father, had told him to get accomadation somehwre else when he came ot Perth.
Jim complained of him leaving a farm he was on, but it would be well for Jim to remember himself, that he too got tired of a farming life and was very glad to sell out & get some thing easier & more certain. I am surprised at his fathers action & might yet be a great sourse of trouble to him.
To turn a boy of nineteen out loose in Perth, is not good policy & may throw him among undesirables & sixpenny pool rooms etc. Gordon had no money, no bed that night & no prospects of either, Fortunately I ran across him on Easter monday & took him home, but could not induce him to say there, said he would not let his father say he took refuge with his relations.
I have fixed him up for a couple of weeks as he wants to try selling Carpet Sweepers & washing machines, on commission.
I know the canvassing business, from end to end, it is once removed from Insurance & the Go Getting trade of land sharking, still he must have his chance & if a failure I will try & get him back to a farm. He must be pretty good on a farm, he was getting a Couple of Quid per week & there are many more get thirty bob, at the most. Kind Regards to you & yours & am allways glad to hear from you.
Sincerly Yours Fred Teesdale
P.S. Have had a bad turn with Arthritus lately, this damp weather gives that disease, just "FITS", still the tongue is still good & the head as clear as it ever was, so there is much to be thankful for & I am not a bit afraid of next elections. I have something up my sleeve & alive & well, do not fear any reversal of the position.