Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/613

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

Mr. R. wooinough ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 587 more skilled seaman on the coast. Eor many years Mr. Wooinough served South Australia m an adventurous capacity, meeting dangers by storm or rock with the calmness of a typical British mariner. He was a skilful seaman, and no serious accident happened to a vessel under his command. Those of the emigrants now living that arrived in the Electric in the early sixties will remember the pilot who risked his own life to save theirs, and the successful manner in which he saved the ship frf)m being wrecked on the Brighton Rocks. Mr. Wooinough was chosen by the President of the Marine Board on many occasions for special duties, and when the members of the Royal Commission took evidence on the Outer Harbor Scheme, he was selected as an expert to apppear before them. When Mr. Wooinough retired from the pilot service, he spent his remaining years at the Semaphore. Here he pursued a quiet career. Beyond being one of the earliest members of the Semaphore District Council, he did not engage in public affairs. He was trustee and treasurer for several years in the Oddfellows, and was a Mason. In 1854 his wife joined him in South Australia, and she now lives in a street in the Semaphore which bears the name of the worthy old pioneer. Mr. Wooinough died on October 22, 1895, after spending nearly 50 years most usefully in South Australia. His eldest son, Mr. Robert Wooinough, is shipping and insurance manager for D. & W. Murray, Limited, and has been chairman of the Woodville District Council. Another son, Mr. C. Wooinough, is harbormaster at Wallaroo, and a third, Mr. W^illiam Wooinough, is a naval architect in Scotland. Pastor Henry Hussey THE sturdy pioneers are fast passing away; but Pastor Henry Hussey, who arrived in the Province in the barque Asia on July 16, 1839, is still living at Hackney, and is full of reminiscences of the time when Hindley Street was sometimes a bog-hole, and bullock-drays were the only means of locomotion. Born at Kennington, London, it was as a lad of / he arrived in South Australia with his parents. As office-boy, sailor, postman, compositor, master printer, editor, ])reacher, bookseller, he has played many parts in his long and active career of over 76 years. One of his most useful acts was the compilation, for the late Mr. (i. F. Angas, of the materials for the " History ot South Australia" edited by the late Mr. Edwin Hodder ; and subsequently he issued a handy volume, "Colonial Life and Christian Experience," which is a treasure-trove to the seeker of information as to how the Province has developed. In 1873, upon the death of Pastor Thomas Playford (father of the Hon. T. Playford), Mr. Hussey became pastor of the Bentham Street Christian Church, Adelaide — a position he occupied, as a labor of love, for 23 years. He was also superintendent of the Sunday-school, editor of the "Au.stralian Journal of Prophecy," and for many years conducted a Bible Hall in Flinders Street. He was on the committees of the Adelaide City Mission, the Aborigines Friends' Association, and the Benevolent and Strangers' Friend Society. He was ever willing to help the poor and needy and give his assistance to charitable causes. -M M 2