WEST AUSTRALIA

Evening Star, Issue 17854, 28 December 1921, Page 5

WEST AUSTRALIA

MR HARRY ARMSTRONG MAKES GOOD THERE, HOW REVISITING DUNEDIN. Amongst the many' visitors to Dunedin this Christmas! ide is Mr Harry Armstrong, ono of the eons of the Uto iAIr C. C. -Amistrong, and brother to Mr Charles Armstrong, tho photographer. _ Ho has come back to his native city niter a long absence, to seo relatives and friends and have a look round the inner parts ot Otago. He served his lime with A. ami T. Burt and Short and Pearce, in the metal trade. When he was shout eighteen year? of ago he noted that business wiw somewhat slack in Dunedin, prices idw and wages very moderate, and, making up his mind to get out and see something of Australia, he was attracted to Melbourne by the Exhibition. He worked there at his trade for about six years, witnessed the bursting of tho land boom, and came to the conclusion that another move won.d bo advisable. Bv chance lie was directed to West Australia—tho chance of seeing it stated that that State was entering into the privileges of Responsible Govennnon . So ho packed up and tried his luck in the young country which promised to start a career of development. First he tried gold prospecting at Murchison and elsewhere, but after six months at that game ho came to tho conclusion that it would pay him better to look for that soit ol o-old that carries the milled rim; so b ( ’ went to Perth, took a contract for work at his trade, and made a lift. Impressed with West Australia, but still having a lingering idea that Melbourne might be the place for him if it had recovered from the disaster of the boom, he slipped cue; to tho Victorian capital, taking the precaution, however, to have a return ticket with him. Ho found Melbourne tight enough, but without tho possibilities ter a young man that West Australia offered, so he quickly returned to Perth, stepped ashore with 12s 6d in his and set to work at his trade at a wage ol 10s per day. When he had saved £7 10s, and paid for a kit of tools woUli about £2O, he took a lease for four yearn of a cottage in the main street, at a rental of 5s per week, opened the front as a shop, and slent in the back on a lied that he made out of an old packing case .that cost him a shilling.. That was Mr Aimstrongs real start in life in 1833. He soon built up a good business. The old cottage is now replaced bv a handsome row of buildings named St. George's* terrace, one of the edifices being that of the Colonial .Mutual Company. His place of business is not far .away. Ho lias roared a iamity, made over to his son the original trade in plumbing and repairs, bni personally retains tho sheet metal business out of which he principally made his money. Though nut boasting about it, he has the bull by tho burns, and need not- worry any more. As a city councillor of Perth, and a man who takes a hand in promoting the welfare of his adopted State, Mr Armstrong is iu a position to speak with authority as to the present position and the prospects over there. Greater Perth, he says, has a population of about 125,000, and immigrants from tho Old Country are arriving at the rate of £OO per month. Tho city w divided int-p eight, wards, each represented by three, •councillors. The city dues not own the electric trams nor the gasworks, but it is counting upon a push ahead as a result of u new town-planning scheme. It has lug endowments in land from the Government —laud dose to the town. Quite recently the corporation acquired the fee simple ai 2,281 acres of that endowment, and also bought 1,220 acres contiguous, and now Perth is -busy in developing the scheme of a model town on (he new site, with , direct communication by electric trams with the sea beach three miles long that can bo reached by a twenty minutes’ ride. Much is expected from these enterprises. A market scheme is also propounded, and the corporation has already purchased the .site. Great promise is given by an industry newly established in Perth-; the making of china cups and , saucers. The day found in the Darling Range fifty miles distant is proved to ba equal to that used in the Staffordshire potteries, and it can be landed at Perth at half tho cost tho Staffordshire manufacturers have to pay. Experts have been procured from England, also tho machinery, and the work has started under most promising auspices. The women who came, out were able to spin fifty dozen cups in a day j tho colonial girls after a fortnight’s instruction dout twenty-five dozen a dajf—not a start. The concern is financed by private ly -subset'! bed ca pi ta I. Glass-blowing is also to be established. Tho works are at Subiaco, a suburb of Perth. The capital is subscribed, and the machinery is on its way out. The sand is found about eight miles from Perth, Agriculture is going to be a great thing in West Australia, particularly wheatgrowing, Land is cheap, and there has been only one serious drought in thirty years- Already West Australia is exporting flour to Egypt, Java, and India. Mining is not what it was, but Air Armstrong fully believes that more gold will be found when prospecting is undertaken systematically. The Labor Government that lived for six years borrowed a lot of money for State enterprises that have failed. Mr Armstrong says that the meat works (which cost over a million), the brickworks, the implement works, the fish shops, and tho butchers' shops are all State failures. Tho only State enterprise that paid was the timber, and that paid because, of Government concessions. Tho State now has an agricultural Government, and it is going the right way to settle tho country .by encouraging men t» work.

Mr Armstrong expresses his delight at. finding Dunedin stilt the solid city of the Dominion. He had hoped to see it expanded) to tho further hills by this time, but believes that its progress is merely delayed, not arrested.