A SUCCESSFUL COLONIST.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5314, 6 April 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

A SUCCESSFUL COLONIST.

"Anglo-Australian, ” in the European Mail, thus refers to the death of an old and very successful colonist of New South Wales ;

I have to chronicle the demise at the age of 66 of one of the earliest and moat suocesful of the pastoral settlers of New South Wales and Eiverina, , in the person of Mr. John Peter, late of 30 Park-lane, who died at Torquay on January 28 last. His health for some time had been precarious, and since the year 1870, in which he sat on the Committee of Inquiry into the mode of conducting the wool sales in London as one of the representatives of Now South Wales, he had been more or less an invalid. His life affords perhaps one of the most striking illustrations of the success attained by some of the early pastoral tenants of the Crown. The son of parents in the middle walk of life in the neighborhood of Glasgow, he emigrated in 1839 with the intention of advancing his interests in the world, bub so certain did his family regard his speedy return that all he possessed on landing at Sydney was £SO, as his father expressed it, “ to pay his passage home •again." ' lit was fortunate in his introductions, and still more fortunate : in, his indomitable resolution and clear forecast of the future. To"the Hon, Alexander Macleay, the first

Speaker of the Legislative Council, at that, time Colonial Secretary, lie addressed himself, and at once entered upon an engagement to superintend and manage ids sheep station at a fixed salary, with a .--maU per.-entage on the increase, Mr. Fetor's aente observation showed him the extreme liking of sheep for rock-salt, which they were in the habit of constantly licking, and which contributed to keep them tolerably free from epidemic disease. With tins clue Mr. Fetor went farther a-field into districts hitherto untrodden by the white man, and as he journeyed he noticed that the vast plains of the Riverina were covered by a small ■stunted, shabby-looking shrub largely impregnated with saline properties, which was afterwards to l)e knowu and appreciated for its fattening qualities as the “saltbush,” and here lie took up extensive tracts of the finest sheep country, which he leased from the Crown for ids patron, Mr. Macleay, and also for himself. Fortune favors the brave, or, as the old Duke Duke of Wellington adopted for his motto Fortnna comes virlutis, aud the same keen ap-, preoiatiou of surroundings, and how to mould them to his purpose, induced Mr. Peter, upon the discovery of the great mineral wealth of South Australia, which was attracting a large population to Adelaide, to send thither some thousands of sheep, which, arriving at the nick of time upon a starving market, were sold by his agent at fabulous prices, and the proceeds invested in shares in the Burra Burra Copper Mine, which subsequently proved to bo the richest inthe world, yinfilarslicesof that which is usually called “good luck” attended most of his operations, until at last Mr. .Peter had accumulated so large a fortune that at his death it is counted by hundreds of thousands. It is believed that Ids real and personal estate iu England and the four colonies of Australia will reach, if it does not exceed, three-quarters of a million, a very encouraging example of what may be done by men of steady, untiring perseverance, aud shrewd common sense. His will has not yet been proved, but I hear that one of his executors is Air. Alexander Donald Macleay, the nephew of bis early friend and patron, a name with which my readers are tolerably familiar. The other executors, I believe, are Mr. Ducroz, of Dalgety and Co., Sir Charles Stirling, Bart., a former neighbor and squatter in the Mnrrumbidgee, aud his solicitor. Mr. Peter is by no meaus a solitary instance of a successful squatter; there are others, many, I may say, upon whom fortune has similarly smiled ; but. it is only when their estates come to be distributed, upon death, that the extent of their wealth becomes known. As Sir Daniel Cooper very justly remarked, in his paper,read before the Royal Colonial Institute hist month, in a sketch of New South Wales, there now exist the same opportunities of making fortunes iu this grand country as at any former pednd. It only requires the men of like mettle to make the effort.”