COACH DRIVER TO CATTLE KING.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 14 April 1908, Page 1

COACH DRIVER TO CATTLE KING.

One of those engrossing romances, racy of the Australian soil, which periodically break in upon the tedium of plodding work-a-day life, is unfolded from the career of Mr Daniel Kingsland, one-time horae-breaier and driver of Cobb and Co.'s coaches in various parts of Australia, now the , owner of fine estates in the Mother, land. In tno spacious sevenl-iea, and ( the hustling eighties the name of Dan Kingsland was famous throughout New Souhh Wales, Victoria,, and Queensland, as being borne by one to whom the habit of handling and subduing the wildest horses came naturally along the pathway of every day's march. Tho last twenty years of his life he has spent in the Argentine Republic. In 1889 he became intersted in the horse and cattle trade at Buenos Ayres, and ten years later was responsible for moro than half the cattle exported from the Republic. A year ago he retired from the control of freezing works that cost half a million sterling, and are among the largest of their kind in the world. The story of Mr Kingsland's accession to fortune includes none of those dazzling elements of luck which sometimes enter into the careers of men. For seve- . ral years prior and subsequent to his leaving Australia, he was the target for a more than ordinary share of the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. After many vicissitudes he fiI nally drifted — advancing beyond middle age — a widower with a family ol young children — to Buenos Ayres. His stepping-stone proved to be the subjugation of a team of fiery greys belonging to the President of the Republic. Eventually he began in a small way to export horses to England, with indiffer ent success, and afterwards turned hi! attention to cattle. Resourcefulness pluck, and steady application returned a due reward, for within eleven year! the busisness had grown to •majnmotl proportions, the chartering of 40 steamera at one time being a common occurrence. At the time (1899) of the English embargo being placed upon the import of Argentine stock, Mr Kingsland's figures represented more than half the total cattle exports from the Republic. He African Storage Company, whose workt ing, and became interested in the Soutli then turned his attention to refrigeratwere capable of dealing with 300 bullocks and 3000 sheep a day, and spread over an area of 40 acres. In June last, the concern was taken over by Swift and Company, of Chicago, and preparations are being made to double the output. It is a simple but fascinating story this naxative or the progress of a hard-bitten, lone-handed Australian coach-driver to cattle-king. i I