AUSTRALIAN PIONEERS

Evening Star, Issue 19659, 12 September 1927, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN PIONEERS

THE GARUNS FAMILY 112 YEARS IN COMMONWEALTH A gathering; unique aiming the pioneer families of Australia took piano at Sydney on August (i, when Mr Pereira!' S. Garling; "and Mrs Griding entertained about 120 descendants of Frederick and Elizabeth Garling, who arrived in Sydney on August 8, 1815. There were' present grandchildren, and, in sonic instances great-great-great-grandcdiildrcn, of the original members of the family to come to Australia. It was remarked during the afternoon that very few indeed ot the descendants of Frederick and Elizabeth Garling had left Australia. Frederick Garling was born in London in 1775, and was the first Crown Solicitor of New South Wales. Mo died in Sydney on May 2, 1818, at the ago of seventy-three years. At the gathering many members of the family renewed acquaintance after many years, while others had not met before. The reunion was a happy one in every respect, and a feature of the feathering was the appearance of sonic . f the members of the family in the dress of the period of their ancestor. At luncheon, Mr H. C. M.. Garling proposed the toast of “The Day We Celebrate.” He said that Mr W. M. X. Garling, who was eighty-six years of agb, and was unable to be present, was the only surviving grandson of their common ancestor. Ho, in his early childhood, saw and know Frederick Garling. Governor Macquarie had permitted solicitors sentenced for such crimes as forgeries, perjury, and the like to practise their profession as solicitors among the civil population, and even to appear before the courts of the day. On the establishment of the first Supreme-Court the first judge, Jeffery Hart Bent, objected to such men appearing before the courts, and ultimately the Home Government agreed to two attorneys being sent from England. Frederick Garling was the first of these, and the other was a Mr Moore. Frederick Garling was the senior, and was, therefore, the first Crown Solicitor. “Wo may honor our ancestor as pioneer of an important and honorable profession,” said Mr Garling, “and if there is wanted a monument to Frederick Garling it is only necessary to lopk at the gathering to-day.” 'Mr Percivai Garling, responding to the toast, said that they should keep alive the best traditions of those who had gone before them. Time and circumstances had resulted in many of the family drifting apart, but ho hoped that the reunion would serve the friendship of,the various branches of the family. Frederick Garling had had a dispute with Judge Bent, but the best commentary on that dispute was the fact that their ancestor had remained in New South Wales, .while Judge Bout was recalled.