A SYDNEY CELEBRITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 176, 18 August 1909, Page 4

A SYDNEY CELEBRITY.

Writes "The Watchman" in the I'aliiKTston Times:—The death of Sam Ilordern at the age of UO removes a very notable figure from the Australian commercial life. There are many "llordcrn" shopij in .Sydney run by cousins who are most keenly jealous' of each other, Two of them are very big places, but none of them compare with the Colossus which grew up at the Haymarket, and, when burnt out theie, moved further up George street where it occupies a block with a iloor .space tiiat would be well able to take in all the businesses of Palmerston. I don'l recollect just now what the number ol employees is, but before Hiirder.i'.s began taking largely to motors it required 1000 horses to handle the town deliveries. And, such horses! Sam Hordcrn not only bred at his own stud farm but ho had agents everywhere who bought'the most promising horses they could see, however low their condition, and after a sojourn at the splendid stables they would be turned out in the vans superb in mettle and appearance to be presently sold at high prices as. carriage horses in Australia. Tiny were the best in Australia.

In the Emporium itself there are thousands of employees, and after the terrible fire in which employees were burnt before the eyes of ' the helpless scores of thousands looking on below, temporary premises had to be occupied ami the loose way of doing business in them set going a systematic lOblicry, on a scale commensurate wiih the establishment. It was afterwards shown that employees used to go yachting in .Sydney. Harbour and at their picnics hold regular conferences' as to the best methods of robbing the firm. One department alone lost ,£3OOO "in this way ami there are some 40 odd departments each like a great business in itself. Every imaginable tiling is supplied in thorn and huge factories .manufacture very largely everything from bicycles and furniture to "genuine Worcester sauce," from pianos to iron bedsteads. In the early days it even constructed the first West Australian railways. Zola's dc* •!•!;■'i"n of the Bon Marche in "The i,.i.;ics' Paradise'' would apply to some extent to wis great place. Sam Hordern owned the finest steam yachts and some of the finest sail boats that the famous English designers could build for him. tie was a multi-millionaire, and leaves a son and daughter. The son has been managing for some time.