SirLangdonBonython ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 319 during the following August, tendered him a banquet, at which the attendance was very large and completely representative. Another important position, in an educational sense, held by Sir Langdon is the presidency of the Council of the Roseworthy College, the chief centre of agricultural instruction in the Province. vSir Langdon was a Commissioner for South Australia to the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition in 1888, and many years previous to that date he was gazetted a Justice of the Peace. He is vice-president of the Council of the South Australian Branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, and he was a founder and vice-president (the chief office being occupied by Sir James Boucaut) of the Cornish Association. Many other offices have been filled by him, and indeed no opportunity of assisting in the intellectual or social advantage of the land he loves so well has ever been neglected. His reputation has gone out through the length and breadth of the Province, and in other Australian cities as well as in Great Britain he is known because of his patriotic desire to prove in all respects a good and useful friend of progress and culture. Sir Langdon is an excellent platform speaker and trenchant writer. His method is to go to the heart of things with as little circumlocution as possible, and both his utterances and his articles are full of point, vigor, and eloquence. Politically he has always been a great power, as well as socially, but he has never wielded his influence for selfish ends, and he has never allowed himself to be placed under an obligation to any particular party. His whole career has been marked by a manly spirit of independence, which has compelled universal respect. He takes a great delight in books, and possesses one of the most valuable libraries to be found in any private house in Australia. His pride in his Cornish ancestry has made him a devoted student of the history of Cornwall and its people, concerning both of which he is a recognised authority. His busy life contains no idle moments, and the recreations of his leisure are all part of his great plan for continually acquiring knowledge. Until the winter of 1900 he took no holidays, but an illness caused by close application to work compelled him then to take a sea voyage, and he made a long-desired journey to PLurope, where, however, he continued his favorite pursuits, and concentrated his attention on the accumulation of information likely to be of service to his much-loved Schcjol of Mines and other institutions with which he is officially connected. Sir Langdon's eldest son, Mr. Lavington Bonython, is closely associated with his father in the management of The Advertiser and its kindred papers.
