CHAPTER I.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1833, 5 April 1884, Page 5 (Supplement)

CHAPTER I.

Herbeit Gilford was the only sou of an Australian magnate recently deceased, who had begun life in Melbourne on the proverbial half-crown, and by paying attention to the breeding of sheep *und the taking up of new country in Victoiia, New South Wales, and Queensland, closed a career of thirty years devoted wholly to the god Mammon, whom he worshipped as few have worshipped, worth two millions of money, all of which he left to this favorite of fortune, observing on his death-bed to the clergyman who rebuked him (because he left nofchuig to himself) that if Herbert found as much pleasure in spending the money as he had in getting it together he would be satisfied, a sentiment which he had heard hi 3 shepherds relate as being uttered by another gieat capitalist, Mr. Forbes, \ihom he looked up to as a superior being for having died worth four millions. Mr. Gilford's death was really caueed by hia attempt to save a penny. A fine sperm candle was left burning on a table at his bedside, so that he could give an alarm if he was taken worse — he would not hear of an attendant at two pounds a week. Thi3 candle he at once extinguished when all left the room, with a chuclke at having so ranch money. In the night he woke and felt the giim banker was at hand demanding payment, and he made an attempt to ring the bell, but beinr

unable to find ifc for want of light, foil back isi an apoplotio lit. He wa3 found dead in | ■•he morning ; the candle almost whole. Cliia candle was appropriated by the housemiid, and enabled her that night to finish ' 1.119 oonolnding chapters of that entrancing ■<tory, " The Seven Lovers, or the Secret of the Serpentine," The early history of Giffnrd was shrouded in mystery, and there were not wanting envious and badhearto 1 people who were ready dt «waar that he had come out to Australia at nis country's expense. Indeed, soino wits ■<a:d he had stolon a handkerchief to get a r m passage, albeit with some unpleasant c mditions. Old settlers, however, repudiated that tali 3 , and said he had been a shepherd in S iotland, and hating raked a few pounds tog >lher by starring him»elf, had worked his passage "to Sydney, whence he came to Melbo'in.e in a small barque, whiah carried a I'Mie flock of merino sheep, the adventure of: ijoung Sydney native named Henry MorJen, who, allured by the new settlement of Port Phillip, wa.3 about to stock a run recently taken up by him. At that time Gifford was a iiaunfc, bony Scotchman, who looked as if he had not had a good meal all his life. His knowledge of sheep was, however, undoubted; \nd happy-go-lucky Mordcn, who preferred in Melbourne to roughing it in the bu'-h, made him hi 3 overseer. No one was cl'Y.v what occurred after this, but Morden went down and down, and Gifford soon had fill his leases. Morden drank heavier and heavier, and in a fit of rage half killed bis overceer. For this he was sentenoed to a year's impiisonment ; and being bereft of friends, and without a penny, he vanished, pnd was never heard of afterwards. There wcrr not wanting tho^e who hinted that Giffoid had robbed and ruined his partner, but hi 3 increasing wealth and respectability soon silenced them. The old settlers were dying out, und when Gifford departed this life all the scandal had been forgotten. At the time, the ravings of Morden in the dock, and his vehement accusations, attracted a little notice, though influence suppressed their publication in the local papers of tho day ; but when the ears that heard them were dust and -ashes, who would rise and accuse the millionaire ? "Loid of himself, that heritage of woo," Herhsrt found himself, at twenty-one, inpos--.e^siou of a fortune few ever possess, a fortune that would enable him to gratify °very wnh to live like a caliph, for i-he io venue from tho stations was over Cl5O 000 ayoar. He could spend about £400 a day, enough for even tho moat extravagant, and still idain his capital of two millions, hii i».>perty as a matter of fact yearly incioaiiii;< in value. When it was known that old Griphaul, by which name Mr. Gifford, the eldec, was populaily lecogniped, had paid the la'-fc debt, evciy gooaip in Melbourne, from the spinsters and matrons at the tea-tablea, to the wild young men who were " seeing life," agreed that Herbert would soon make the old fellow's money fly. Motions, who had marriageable daughters, regretted so fine a youth should go to the dogs, and take to horses, champagne, actresses and strange and made a vow to attempt his rescue by mauying him to their Euphemia or Alexandra. Rich squatters looked over the map of hn .stations, and complacently thought how aoou some of them would be in the market, to be bought cheaply, owing to forced sales and the magnitude of the capital involved, leaving tho parcha-e to a small knot, filoney-fcndora sighed when they reflected that, at least for a time, they could have no finger in the pie. Young fellows just on tho brink of ruin hoped to be able to get another lift from the generous young spendthrift, and to have a glorious time with him. The " ring," especially the card and dice circles, metaphorically whetted their beaks, and hungered for the appearance of the victim. Anonyma read the news, and studied fre3b charms. Beggars of all descriptions, from the clerical and ebaritabls subsubscription people down to the professfonal "reduced lady" and "gentlemen that had seen better times, ' got out " their hats and letters." In fact, for some time Melbourne forgot its political and social controveisies, for which it is so famous, and thought and spoke of nothing but the young millionaire, Mr. Herbert Gifford. An enterprising phothographer, who had taken Herbert's likeness as he was on his way to his father's deathbed, had hundreds of copies struck oft", and thby were eagerly bought athalf-a-crown eaoh. I wairant many a yonng heart, beating in a feminine bosom, throbbed at the sight of that finely developed form, that soulful, handsojrco face, crowned with a glory of curling ch'edtnut hair — tho photographer's colourist had been successful in giving the hues faithfully. The illustrated papers had portraits of the dead capitalist, " the worthiest o£ our pioneers " (the writers of the obituaries were nearly driven to suicide to find something good to say of the deceased) and his son, and all agreed it was marvellous how old Sourface could have begotten so bright a being as Herbert Gifford. All this time, when Melbourne was so excited ovr him, and the wave had even reached sleepy, money-grubbing Sydney, Herbert remained at Oorathule station. His father was buiied in the cemetery which he had himself selected. It waa the first spot on which he had "squatted" in Victoria, and he had washed his clothes in the neighbouring creek, while " resting " on Sunday, f [ere old settlers who knew him often came to look at the grave of the pioneer. The will had been read and made public, and Herbert woald soon have to visit Melbourne to take up the load the dead man had so unwillingly laid down, and to spend weeks with business i men and lawyers, ne delayed purposely, dreading the dry details, and the round of parties he would have to encounter. It was a pleasant place, Corathule, an u adulating basaltic country in the Western District, eternally green and clothed with clumps of trees that made it look like an English park. Herbert had been born in the old fashioned homestead ; here he had spent his childhood, saddened only by the melancholy of his mother, a tender, spiritual woman of the rarest beauty, who would have died brokenhearted at a forced union with a repulsive nature, a nature ihafc knew nofcliing but money, had not God sent her this bright, loving, chestnut-haired boy. She had died as ho was well in his teens, commending him with her last breath to his generous Giver, and passing away full of the assurance that as He had accorded such a mercy He would watch over her treasure when she was gone. A? for Mr. Gifford, he never troubled about these matters. His wife's beauty and the beauty of the child she had brought him, he had never seen— he never saw any beauty except in a sovereign. He had married her because she was heiress to the station adjoining Corathule, and in the hope that she would provide him with an heir, for he had sworn an oath not to leave anything to his relatives, who had been guilty of the heinous crime of poverty all their lives. When he was seventeen, Herbert, some months after his mother's death, went to England and passed Oxford with credit. In the old laud he made many sincere friendships. He was distinguished, however, during his stay in England for seeking the company of intellectual persons, and rather avoiding the dissipations of the collegians, though he was by no means an anchorite. In London he generally spent the time in literary and artistic cirolea, and formed somewhat a contrast to his fellow-Aus-tialian btudents, v/ho, when they got to that great city, seemed to try and outdo Circe's swine in wallowing in the mud r>f filthy pleasure. After passing Oxford,

Herbert, with his father's consent— grudg ingly given, though Herbert was spending the money his mother left him, which the old man thought should havo been invested in station property — travelled all over the Continent, spending much time in Italy, where his warm temperament several times nearly entangled him with the stgnore. After a trip in Asia Minor and Palestine, he returned to England, and then pioceeded to Australia by way of America, in which he spont several months, arriving in Australia in timo to be present at his father's de^th. • His trip across the Pacific inspired him with ideas wnich he afterwards carried into effect, the purchase of a yacht leading to one of the great incidents of his life. His visit to Melbourne was a vast disappointment. He applied himself to business in the most exemplary manner, declined most invitations to parties and dinners (excusing himself on the plea of the recent death of hia father), subscribed to religious and public institutions only upon a modest scale, never replied to the thousand begging letters and " projects " he received, and was not onoe geen in the haunts of "life." He was a pretty constant attendant at the theatres, particularly if opera was on, but amused himself by leading the newest works at home, practising the latest music, for he was a tasteful pianist; and entertaining at quiet dinners, followed by decorous card or music parties, the few persons in Melbourne for whom he had an esteem. To the ladies he was utterly j indifferent, much to the surprise of those who knew well enough he was fond of the sex. At first the matrons bewailed this, but when they found their chits snubbed, they cried out against Herbert. He didn't want virtuous females, they said ; he was a profligate ; he had left his heart in Italy ; probably lie had married there. He would yet be indicted for bigamy. Then they decried the practice of sending money out of the oountry by educating lads in England. After all what wag he, with his two millions— only the son of a man who had been a shepherd in Scotland. Harry Forbe3 was wealthier than Herbert. The sharpers suffered perhaps the most, for they had looked upon Herbert's thousands as good as money in their pockets, and, as one of them graphically said, "he didn't come worth a hang" — you may depend the language waa stronger than that. But he miglu " come" yet. As for the fast young men who were going to the devil their own way, they agreed Herbert was a milksop, and not worth knowing— a virtuous resolution, seeing he would not know them. i am not going to say that Herbert was a saint, nor that during this time he was visibly moved, but as a matter of fact I think ho was pietty free from taint. Idleness is the paient of vice, and for months after Herbeit came to reside in Melbourne he had hardly a spare hour. Wealth had its duties, and hard enough they were at first. Indeed, after a fortnight's attempt to master the giant business which his father had conducted without an apparent effort, Herbert was on the point cf throwing up the whole affair, and appointing a sort of commission to carry it on. He could not catch the many threads that went towards raakiug that mighty web. Bnt when ho reflected that to surrender would be to acknowledge he -\\as not as good a man as his father, whose abilities he had always looked down upon — he thought very differently now — the proud boy could not bear such an idea. So he set his teeth, and while other men in his position would have been revelling in pleasure, he mastered every hard, dry, practical detail. At first this was a terrible task, against which his soul, which inclined to the romantic and sentimental, and loved ease, revolted ; but gradually he grew to like the work. And why? Man is an animal that likes power ; it is the greatest of the passions. And as Herbert grappled with his business, as he began to understand it, he came to know what a terrible power he had, how much depended upon his will. He held the fates of hundreds of employe? in his hands. Indireotly, he could sway the markets, and thus deoide the fate o£ the masses. Ha was the Bovine Ban'c, which held so many mighty men in its grasp. But for a circumstance that presently occurred, Herbert might have been swallowed up by thia lust of power, and gradually becomj what his father had been, though never so mean or penurious. He had his mother's generous, loving nature, and could never become unjust, ungenerous, or ungrateful. When he had firmly grasped the reins and had everything well in hand, Herbert effected a revolution that fairly scared the squatting and mercantile community of Australia, aaa made them " squatter " like a lot of frightened ducks. He had a list of every employe made out, and was shocked at the wages given, considering the profits made, especially the salaries of men who had grown gray in his father's service. Old Milburn, the head clerk, who managed the business, had absolutely become an automaton, without a tl'.onght except work, which he carried on late into the night. The surprise of that starched, formal and one-sided gentleman, when Herbert gave him back the list with increases of 50 to 100 per cent, marked thereon, cannot be described. He almost had a fit. He pored over it all day, and concluded swift and speedy ruin was at hand, so imbued had he become with the ideas of the man who had mastered him and made him but a mere machine. But Herbert's orders were peremptory, and by his direction the changes were telegraphed, with orders not to let the newspapers know, for Herbert had a dread of the fuhome flatteries the servile press showered upon him, and that night throughout Australia, from the burning lands of the far north of Qaeensland to the temperate latitudes of New Zealand, for he had property in every colony, there was held wild holiday on the G-ifford stations. It ' is reported that on the Benjelmajingah Station on tha Diamentina, no one was sober for a fortnight — it would have been an insult to walk straight. On that day Herbert made happy many a home and many a heart, and if Heaven hears the prayers of the grateful surely it would make the young man's path a pleasant one. When the Melbourne monetary world heard of this proceeding next day a hubbub was raised to which that of Ephesus was but a mere trifle. They would now have to increase the rates — at least those who had stations adjacent to Gifford, and there stared at them from the walls the reduction in their profits that meant a loss. This action was the reversal of all the fundamental principles of the financiers of Australia, that the more profit that was received the less should be paid to the employes. Herbert, however, had the general public with him, and eloquently defended himself. He asserted that all troubled of modern days were caused by the extremo inequality of the earnings of wages and capital, and urged that the holders of the latter were unwise to provoke the former. The horror that these opinions created in the bosoms of the old skinflints who directed»the operations of capital in Melbourne was indescribable. They thought the pit was opening under their feet. These men had once been laborers themselves, and had risen to their position through purely fortuitous oircumstances, though of course they possessed , shrewdness and cleverness, but no more than men they left behind them in the old land, and who never got higher than a foreman's place. :