ROMANTIC CAREER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 194, 15 August 1936, Page 9

ROMANTIC CAREER

FROM POVERTY TO WEALTH DEATH OF MR. C. ATKINS. PERTH, July 28. The death is announced of Mr. Charles Atkins, who used to sell matches and papers in London as a boy, and made a fortune in Australia, said to amount to £500,000. Mr. Atkins, who was 86, was born in the East End of London. He sold matches and papers in the streets at the age of nine, for the support of his mother, and when about 16 worked his passage to South Australia and back again. He married, and when 21 sailed for South Australia with his wife and son. He earned a living by hawking and then entered the wholesale fish business. He next became a bookmaker, a stock broker, and a hotel-keeper. When Broken Hill was discovered, Mr. Atkins examined a find and invested every penny he had in it, and became rich. He came to Western Australia in 1904, and in later years bought Murgoo Station for £25,000 cash, Mt. Marryer Station for £30,000 cash, and the Tibradden Station for £45,000 cash, and the Palace Hotel, Perth, for £45,000 cash.