assuming control of the Department of Colonial Secretary, took a seat in the Legislative Council. Mr. Monger was duly elected to the vacant seat for his native district, and sat until the general elections of 1894, when he was again returned, this time unopposed, an honour which was repeated at the elections of 1897. His business training and experience of Western Australia generally enable him to speak on all matters of local importance.
On the 11th April, 1895, Mr. Monger was married to Ethel Margaret, daughter of the late Mr. Charles Vale Sherard, one of the first wardens of the Ballarat goldfields.
It may safely be conjectured that Mr. Monger is on the eve of a bright future. He is one of the rising young men of the colony, and should aid both in mining development and in the perfecting of valuable political institutions.
HENRY BRUCE LEFROY, J.P., M.L.A.
"HAPPY the man whose son lives after him" is an old an homely proverb, which, like all proverbs that deserve a thought, is pregnant of a larger truth than it so tersely expresses. What the axiom in its wider application is intended to somewhat cynically convey is that it is comparatively rare for a father, who has distinguished himself by his intellectual power or business talents, to have an heir who can worthily fill his place when, full of years and honours, he is laid to rest. Charles Dickens, in his delightful story of "Dombey and Son," touchingly exhibits the ardent aspiration which must be keenly felt by every parent approaching the winter of life who sees the strength of his younger days reproduced in his eldest born in the male line. But common experience shows how often this pride and hope is destroyed by a scapegrace, or by one who becomes a mark for reproach and derision in the person of an addle-pated fool. But happy the man whose son lives after him in the fullest sense of the word—in force and probity of character—as well as in physical proportions, and who, when the sire has retired from the more active pursuits of life, is able to take the prominent and honoured place in the world, and in the control of estates, which for many years the head of the family held and exercised himself.
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Photo by H.B. LEFROY, M.L.A. Greenham & Evans. |
Henry Bruce Lefroy, son of the Hon. O'Grady Lefroy C.M.G., for thirty-six years in the Public Service of Western Australia, was born in Perth in 1853, and was sent to England to be educated at Rugby. There he did a great deal for the honour of his colony, not only in taking a creditable place in his classes, but as an athlete, whose colours were to the front in many a doughty contest. To distinguish oneself in any display of prowess on the classic fields of Rugby, where the Duke of Wellington said the battle of Waterloo was won—meaning that it was there the officers in manly sports developed the dash, stamina, and courage that led the British Army to the greatest victory of the century—was an achievement of which any young Australian might feel proud. As a Rugby boy Mr. Lefroy won laurels as an all-round athlete. During the years that he was pursuing his studies at that famous home of scholarship, namely, between the ages of fourteen and nineteen he was facile princeps as a cricketer and footballer, while on the running track his fleetness of foot and endurance gained him much renown. He returned to the colony a well-graced stripling both in mind and person in 1872, and found plenty of exercise for his energy and fine physique in taking up the management of his father's station, "Walebing," in the Victoria Plains, some account of which is given in the pages devoted in this work to the life of the Hon. Anthony O'Grady Lefroy who resigned the control of the property in order to accept a civil appointment under the Imperial Government in the colony. At the early age of twenty-one the Government recognised the calibre and exceptional educational acquirements of Mr. Henry Bruce Lefroy by placing him upon the Commission of the Peace, and he is now the leading honorary magistrate in the Moore district; assiduous in the discharge of the duties of that office, and extolled for his enlightened and impartial administration of justice. Under his superintendence "Walebing" became one of the best pastoral properties of Western Australia; conspicuous for the discretion with which improvements were carried out, the superior quality of its stock, and the large income which it produces. The estate consists of 160,000 acres; carries 12,000 sheep, 150 head of cattle, and 50 horses. The Lefroy family, when they selected this goodly estate, were the pioneers of the Victoria Plains district, which was first penetrated by the Hon. Anthony O'Grady Lefroy when, on his arrival in the colony, he went out in search of desirable pastoral country, and no one can speak with more authority of its changed condition to-day than Mr. Henry Bruce Lefroy, who has done more than his share of the public work of civilising it. For twenty years he has been
