Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/484

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458 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY Mr. William Austin Horn IX South Australia, the home of many eminently-successful commercial magnates who have built up their fortune and their reputation by a consistent display of intelligence, are to be found examples of what men endowed with keen faculties can do in life. Mr. William Austin Horn, a man of this class, is widely known in South Australia and in England. His patriotic ten- dencies, directed towards explora- tion and the advancement of human knowledge regarding the unknown interior of the Australian continent, have received approba-

  • tion both in Australia and among

scientific authorities in Great Britain. Mr. W. A. Horn was born in New South Wales in 1841. He left the mother colony in 1852, and came to South Australia, where he began his education at St. Peter's College. Later, he proceeded to Worcester College, Oxford, to continue his studies. He returned to .South Australia in 1874, and for many years followed pastoral pursuits. Frequent travel and tours were indulged in during a 10-years' sojourn on a sheep-run ; and these expeditions added piquancy to existence and relieved the otherwise overwhelming feeling of tiresome monotony inseparable from station life in lonely parts. Solomon, Photo In after years, when speculative successes brought more plenitude to his doors, he invested considerable sums in the purchase of station property in the Province. It was while actively engaged in squatting that he became interested in the famous Moonta copper mines, and had the good fortune to become one of the original proj^rietors. Anyone who has followed the subsequent history of the.se mines can easily guess how lucrative must have been a first share. Mining ventures henceforth attracted his energy. He purchased interests in the leading mines on Yorke Peninsula, and associated himself prominently with their development.