perfect and most extensive machinery in the world is now erected at this place.
The success which attended the flotation of this company did not cause Mr. Vanzetti to rest on his laurels, for, on turning his attention to other fields, he saw an opportunity of launching out on a scale of far greater magnitude. Not far from Newcastle, on the Avon River, there is a splendid site for the erection of an enormous battery, fed by an even larger permanent supply of water than at Seabrook. True, it is many miles from the field, but with that energy which has marked Mr. Vanzetti's career, he at once set to work to surmount all difficulties. He made (1896) the bold proposal of constructing a line to connect the works with the northern belt of mines (which he maintains are the richest on the fields), beginning at Mount Jackson and ending at Mount Margaret, for the time being at least. The magnitude of this scheme will be appreciated when it is realised that it involves the construction of a railway 500 miles in length, at an estimated cost of £2,000,000. The capital which this intrepid financier has at his command is, perhaps, greater than that of almost any individual in Western Australia, he being the representative of several of the largest mining corporations, and in touch with the most influential business men of the day. All that is required is the consent of the Government for the work to be undertaken. This rail, or ore tramway, will, it is pointed out, in no way interfere with the Government railways, but will merely act as a feeder for the works, and aid the development of fields which would otherwise remain untouched.
Few men would have the courage to propose such a scheme, and fewer still could find the enormous capital required to put it into execution. Mr. Vanzetti is, however, a man who impresses one with the idea that whatever he earnestly undertakes is bound to succeed, if once the prejudice against private enterprise can be overcome with regard to Government concessions.
Unlike many scientific men, he strikes one as being thoroughly practical, and combines with keen business tact that charm of manner and courtesy characteristic of a widely travelled and well-read Italian gentleman.
THOMAS WALL HARDWICK.
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Photo by THOMAS WALL HARDWICK. Greenham & Evans. |
JOHN Bull and John Barleycorn are inseparable friends, the ale and roast beef of England being held in national repute from time immemorial. The Britisher is the greatest beer-drinker in the world; for the thin and insipid lager of Germany is only a mockery of the generous full-flavoured brew of Bass, Guinness, or the competitors who produce liquor quite as good as that of those old-established houses. To judge from the ascendancy of England it would appear to be possible to trace some affinity between malt and muscle, in spite of the jeremiads of the total abstinence party, so long as the brewer is a master of his art and plays no tricks by putting a chemical infusion into his vat. But after all it is not easy to cheat the critical palate of the public, which among the lieges of Her Majesty may be said to have an inherited, rather than an acquired, acumen in discerning and doing honour to the scientific expert who lives to pleasingly assuage the thirst of his fellow men. One is almost as much to be pitied if he cannot get the favourable award of the public as the slave of the Eastern potentate whose head was taken off if he failed to amuse his master; for a second-rate brewer is not to be endured, while a popular one grows rich and lives in the lap of luxury. Of this the life of Mr. T. W. Hardwick affords striking proof.
Thomas Wall Hardwick is a native of Somersetshire, where his family has held the ancestral property of "Barrowcourt" for more than 300 years. It was in the picturesque farmhouse on this estate that the subject of our notice first saw the light in 1834. After his schooling was over he followed agricultural pursuits until he was twenty-eight years of age, when he went into the great house of Messrs. Flower and Son, Stratford-on-Avon, to learn the brewing business, and was the founder of the Ashton Gate Brewing Company, which is now regarded as one of the leading firms in the trade. Mr. Hardwick was manager of the Ashton Gate Company for twenty years, during which he built up its fortunes on a strong foundation. It was in 1885 that he was induced to accept an appointment in the Castlemaine Brewery in Victoria, a position which he resigned in order to control the establishments of Messrs. Lindsay and Co., at Bourke and Orange, New South Wales. His fame preceded him to Western Australia, where the Swan Brewery was getting into low water for want of more skilful direction than was at that time available in this colony, and judging Mr. Hardwick by the highly satisfactory results which he had attained in connection with all his previous ventures, the directors were willing to make
