the mining industry. Except for a slight break while negotiating corresponding work for a section of the London financial press and while editing the Geraldton Express, he was associated with this newspaper up to the time of his being returned to the Assembly, in May, 1897. His clever leaders are well remembered by Western Australians, and, with the proprietor, he infused such spirit into the organ that it became the champion of the mining industry in the colony. Whether in advocating the rights of goldfields people, or in publishing useful lessons for the miners themselves, Mr. Vosper acted as a buttress to the industry. Not content with wielding the power centred in the editorial columns of a widely read newspaper, he addressed numerous public meetings, and on the platform was as inflexible and sturdy as in the editor's chair. He thus obtained a well-earned popularity. When the goldfields were subdivided into several constituencies—a step long advocated by him—he was presented with a requisition signed by 322 persons (said to be the largest yet presented to a public man in the colony) asking him to stand for Coolgardie. Deeming the cost of such a contest to be too great, he entered the field for the smaller constituency of North-East Coolgardie. Notwithstanding opposition from the official labour party, and of such men as Messrs. Dwyer and Barclay, he was returned by a large majority, the polling being—Vosper, 236; Harper, 177; Dwyer, 69, and Barclay, 67. In the campaign he had neither committees nor canvassers, posters nor colours.
During his few years sojourn in this colony, Mr. Vosper has been a tireless worker. He is intimately acquainted with all the goldfields centres, and has travelled from Esperance and Albany, in the south, to the Upper Gascoyne and the Robinson Ranges, in the north-west. His political principles are of the liberal and democratic order, and he considers that Western Australia is at present passing through a transition period, in which the policy based on the old traditions of the colony will go to the wall, and a new era will be inaugurated in consonance with the advanced ideas of the population, based on the general progression. He is as eloquent a speaker as he is a writer, and he is sure to further his views in the House. Perhaps there is no such powerful satirical writer in the colony, and when advocating a principle or political platform he carries strength in every line. In public speaking he can call to his aid the same useful quality, and those who oppose him are sure to suffer in any wordy duel. Since the formation of the Goldfields Parliamentary Party, Mr. Vesper has been appointed its secretary and whip. He has published two books—one, "Social Armistice," a study in economics (now out of print), and the other, "The Prospector's Companion," which marshalls in simple language all those useful and rudimentary facts on mineralogy so indispensable to mining men who have not had the privilege of a scientific training. Mr. Vesper is a member of the Australian Institute of Mining Engineers, is the founder of the Western Australian branch of the Geological Society of Australasia, and is at present its vice-president. He has been nominated for membership for the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain, one of the most exclusive learned societies in the world, and is a member of the Western Australian Mining Exhibition Commission at Coolgardie. He is an ardent collector of mineral specimens, one thousand of which he has presented to the Perth Museum.
COUNCILLOR FRANK WILSON (PERTH).
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Photo by CR. FRANK WILSON. Greenham & Evans. |
IN his 1895 Budget speech Sir John Forrest felicitated Western Australia upon the infusion of new blood. He rejoiced with the breadth of view of a statesman that the country's veins were being filled with the vitalising sap of other nations and by the influence of thousands of enterprising, self-reliant, and capable young men from all parts of the world—men who required no spoon-feeding, in other words a state-aided immigration system, to induce them to come to this colony to throw in their lot with the native population, and to help in developing the colony. In the opinion of the Premier the best class of colonists was coming, namely, those who came because they thought that Western Australia was a good place in which to push their fortunes, and who would push the colony along with them. As there is nothing new under the sun, it is evident that Sir John in uttering these congratulations was giving a local adaptation to the familiar political axiom, that the keystone of national wealth and the stability of a country depend upon the number and character of its population.
America shows that a country is what its people make it; if that is not so, what is the difference between the America of to-day and the America of the red man's undisputed sway? Washington's great country has been placed abreast of the leading and oldest empires by the mighty colonising power of the fusion of races. Spain has fallen from the pride and
