The Early Mayors.
Henry Condell, the "Father" of Mayors, Aldermen and Councillors, stands at the head of the muster-roll. He was born in Madeira in 1799. His father was a wine merchant, of the firm of Condell, Innes and Co., and his mother a Roman Catholic, of Irish parents. Young Condell was sent at an early age to Scotland to his grandfather, a distiller and brewer, who for several years was re-elected Chief Magistrate of Leith. At sixteen the youth was despatched to India to fill a situation in the house of Small and Co., of Calcutta, but bad health compelled his return home in 1817. He next adventured to British America, where he remained for some time; and sailed from England in 1822 for Van Diemen's Land. Arriving at Hobart Town, he obtained an appointment in the Commissariat, and was thence transferred to the Ordnance. In 1830 he started business as a brewer, which he continued until 1839, when he migrated with his family to the infant settlement of Port Phillip. Purchasing some land at the northern side of Little Bourke Street, he put up a brewery there; and though "Condell's Entire," as his beer was facetiously termed, was never the best in the market, the local industry throve, its master's bank account throve too and the master himself soon came to be in the condition now colloquially known as "well in." Condell was not ambitious for public life until he became a candidate for Gipps Ward, at the first election in 1842, when he was returned mainly through the influence of his brewage. Even for the Mayoralty he was only trotted out at the last moment, when no other person could be got to oppose the " opular candidate," Councillor Patterson, upon whom the Scotch faction had a "down," and were determined to keep him out. In 1843 Condell committed a great blunder in allowing himself to be made a catspaw of in opposing Mr. Edward Curr at the first Legislative election for Melbourne (to be hereafter described); and though he won, a defeat would have been better personally for him than a victory, because he was brought into a prominence which made his utter incapacity the more conspicuous. As a Legislative representative he was an arrant failure; and he took an early opportunity to re-seek the more congenial sphere of his malting-houses, varied by the liveliness of the Council Chamber, to the scenes in which, Condell, to do him justice, listened with a wearisome disgust. After some years in the service of the City he retired from business, and went Home , once re-visiting the colony, and ultimately going the way of all mortality. There are two mementoes of him extant, viz.:— an oil painting in the Town Hall, and the clock in its tower, the latter being a presentation by his son (Mr. W . V. Condell); and as its hands diurnally travel through their horological routine, to how few does it occur that they perpetuate the memory of the first Mayor of Melbourne.
Henry Moor,
A Solicitor, was the second aspirant to the Mayoralty. An Englishman of very plausible manner, and fair experience in his profession, Mr. Moor arrived in Melbourne in 1842, and soon got into lucrative business. He was a popularity monger; he soon chose his side in the partyism of the time; he stood well with some of the newspapers; and took a laudable interest in every movement for the public weal. He was among the candidates for the first Town Clerkship, although making money faster than he ever expected. After his election to the Council, he was opposed to what was known as the "Kerr," or "Scotch" clique, for which he was never forgiven, and was exposed to many newspaper libellings, and Kerr's animosity to him never died whilst Kerr lived. In 1844-5 Moor was elected Mayor, and of him it can be said that he was the only man who ever held the office without some allowance or emolument! During his first Mayoralty he was the best-liked man in Melbourne. His pecuniary position was such as to enable him to be liberal and bountiful to every public or charitable project. His manner was pleasant, and there was a merry twinkle in his eye, which imparted a partial fascination. Shake hands and smile constituted a personal property with which his nature was largely stocked, and kept ready for profuse distribution. With the people in general he managed to be good friends; and if there was a National or Friendly Society of influence, Moor had the adroitness to back up its funds with a handsome donation, and for professional business he would only charge costs out of pocket. Condell, Moor, Smith, and the modern Meares, were the only Mayors ever re-elected to the Civic Chair. In the interval of his first and second Mayoralty, Moor's popularity
