SOUTH AUSTRALIAN LEAD

Taranaki Daily News, 16 February 1933, Page 7

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN LEAD

THE PREMIER AS AGENT-GENERAL. ONE NEW MAN IN THE MINISTRY. By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright Adelaide, Feb. 14. Following his appointment as AgentGeneral, Mr. L. L. Hill handed the reins of Government to Mr. R. S. Richards, the newly elected leader of the Parliamentary Party. Mr. F. C. Stamford is the only newcomer to the Cabinet, which is as follows:— Premier and Treasurer, Mr. Richards. Chief Secretary and Minister of Agriculture, Mr. S. R. Whitford. Attorney-General, Mr. W. J. Denny. Commissioner for Public Works, Mr. J. Mclnnes. - „ Minister of Education and Labour, Mr. Stamford. FAMILY’S EARLY STRUGGLE. Mr. Hill became Premier of South Australia in April, 1930, after defeating the Butler Administration at the polls- This, however, was not Mr. Hill’s first experience as a Minister. He held one of the portfolios in the 1924 Labour Ministry, and was Premier from August, 1926, to Apjjl, 1927; Referring' to- his boyhood days, ana the early affairs of his family, Mr. .Hill once said that the farm on, which he had worked as a boy with his father had recently changed hands at over £29 per acre. His father, who died some time ago, was a son of Mr. J. D. Hill, of Dry Creek, who arived in South Australia in 1839. This Hill was a carpenter, and took up a city acre in the days when it was thought that Adelaide was doomed to languish as a backward town. He later took up the land at Dry Creekwhere he reared a family of seven sons and seven daughters. The boys, of whom Mr. L. L. Hill’s father was one, carted stone for the first section of a railway line which was laid to Gawler, and transported copper from the Burra Mines. Mr. T. H, Hill, the father of the Premier, settled at a place known as Maitland, and lived there for 19 years. Ultimately, he was driven off the land by red-dust, pestilence among the stock, and continued bad seasons. In those days, there was no superphosphate and there were no seed drills to be had. The Premier was on his father’s farm until he was 10 years old and obtained his early education at a private school at Maitland, and later at the/public school there. It was, however, not known by the name of Maitland in those days. Later he went to Adelaide and there attended three institutions, the Flinders Street/Grote Street,, and, finally, the Sturt Street schools. At the age of 12, the future politician started work and for his first job he was employed at the large sum of 5s per week. This was in a chaff store. He worked as blacksmith’s assistant, and married when his wages were 39s 6d per week. These were hard days, but he says now that he gained a wonderful experience of the working man which he would not have lost Mr. Hill’s rise to the Premiership saw him widely congratulated- -