introduction of the Gothenberg system, which he believes would purge the drink traffic of its most objectionable features and reduce drunkenness.
He is a member of the Adelaide University Committee for Western Australia, and is a master of the St. George's Lodge of Freemasons. Bishop Riley married, in 1876, Elizabeth, daughter of the late Dr. Merriman, of Knutsford, and niece of the late Bishop of Grahamstown, South Africa.
Although Bishop Riley has had a comparatively short residence in Western Australia, he has evinced such a sincere interest in the welfare of all classes that he is much loved. He is a fluent speaker, and his sermons are marked with simplicity and flashes of brilliancy. Yet he does not confine himself to oratory pure and simple, for his deliveries expound so many useful everyday lessons, so much that gives his listeners subject for thought and guidance, that they look up to him as a real "spiritual teacher." Courteous, benevolent, and earnest, Bishop Riley has innumerable friends over the colony, who respect and revere the head of the historical Church.
HENRY JOHN SAUNDERS, J.P., M.L.C.
MAYOR OF PERTH, 1895.
THE honourable office of Mayor is in every British community the highest gift of the citizens to a distinguished townsman. To wear the robes and golden chain of office, to be the chief magistrate of a city, are dignities to which very few members of a council may aspire with grace and fitness. To be Speaker of the House of Commons or Lord Mayor of London is to be the unquestioned possessor of intellectual endowments of a very special order; and the same rule applies in every constitutionally governed portion of the Queen's dominions. The corporate honour of a parliamentary Assembly or of a civic body is so closely bound up in the character and calibre of its president, that the members are jealous to ensure that their leader shall win his place by the display of qualifications that will impart a lustre to the performance of the duties of the post. In Perth, the watchfulness to allot the mayoralty by merit is sharpened by the fact that, while in most, if not all, of the neighbouring colonies, the election is made only upon the vote of councillors, in the capital of Western Australia the whole of the burgesses have a voice in appointing the civic head, so that none but an able man, and one of unblemished character, has any chance of receiving this laurel wreath of fame.
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Photo by HENRY JOHN SAUNDERS, J.P., M.L.C. Greenham & Evans. |
Henry John Saunders was born at Broadford-on-Avon in 1855, where his father was chief magistrate, and at an early age he was sent to Clifton College, whose curriculum he passed with credit. On leaving the college he, following the bent of his inclinations, learned civil engineering, but after successfully practising the profession for eight years, his health declined, and it became necessary or him to seek a change of air. The genial climate of Western Australia presented itself agreeably to his friends, and in 1884 he emigrated to this colony. A business opening soon presented itself and he went into partnership with Mr. James Barrett, the designer of the Perth Waterworks. The firm of Messrs. Saunders and Barrett, civil engineers, flourished for two years, and then Mr. Saunders, upon the discovery of the Southern Cross Goldfield, resolved to identify himself exclusively with the mining interest, of which be speedily became one of the leading promoters. He was one of the first to bring the valuable mineral resources of Western Australia into notice in London, "the market of the world," and this virgin field of enterprise has richly rewarded him for his efforts on behalf of his adopted country. As a company promoter, he almost stands alone in the extent of his operations, and the confidence which they have inspired on both sides of the globe. While he made it a rule never to associate himself with any property whose bona fides could not bear the strictest investigation, he has been indefatigable in obtaining the aid of capitalists for the development of first-class leaseholds, with the result that it has only been necessary for a projected flotation to bear the imprimatur of Henry J. Saunders in order for its capital to be more than fully subscribed long before the day appointed for the opening of the application for scrip. In most of his ventures he has worked with Mr. Allen H. P. Stoneham, forming a conjunction of business talents and peculiar strength and fitness for the work in hand, similar in the greatness of the results which has been achieved to the powerful influence exerted in a different sphere by the singularly harmonious union of Cobden and Bright, who towered above all their opponents. Among the first flotations which Mr. Saunders carried through was that of the West Australian Goldfields Company Limited, the objects of which are to explore the auriferous territory of the colony, and acquire payable leaseholds discovered by its well-equipped and well-paid prospecting parties. During the first year of its existence, this company paid a dividend of 37½ per cent., and in 1895 an interim one of 40 per cent. Nett profits for the year ending 31st March, 1896, were £232,000 upon a capital of £100,000. The Lady Shenton
