thought there was a big opening for raising and despatching to India a good class of horses. About fifteen miles from Wyndham they took up 60,000 acres of land, and procured a fine strain of animals as a nucleus. But after a year's trial they observed to their chagrin that the country was unsuitable as a horse pasture, and they therefore had to relinquish their hopes of trade with India. But while this country is not congenial for horses, it is excellent cattle-grazing land. Bush and herbage, highly nutritious in fattening cattle, are there in abundance in good seasons, and Messrs. Connor and Doherty purchased 200 cattle and initiated an industry which has since made them among the best known cattle owners in the colony. The first station did not satisfy their demands, and penetrating farther afield than any other pastoralists they selected a station of 1,200 square miles on the Ord River. There the tropical growth of herbage is seen at its best. The soil to a considerable distance from the watercourses is very fertile, and grass literally springs up, attaining at times twelve inches growth in a fortnight. At the rear of the station is an impregnable range of hills or mountains which baffles stock to cross and makes a barrier as formidable as a Trojan wall. On the plains and in the ravines beneath, Messrs. Connor and Doherty fatten their stock; their enterprise is now widely affecting the Western Australian cattle market. In 1896 they shipped 8,000 fat cattle to Fremantle. The great steamships Liddesdale, Eskdale, and Tangiers were chartered by them in that year, and ran between Wyndham and Fremantle with valuable live stock. The firm despatch not only cattle reared on their own stations but those of other north-west pastoralists which they purchase. They now have over 3,000 cattle depastured on their Ord River run.
While devoting their energies to these pursuits they found time to interest themselves fairly heavily in mining at Kimberley, and among their properties is the Ruby Queen gold mine, which a company failed to make remunerative. The firm have invested much capital in development work, and have erected twenty head of stampers. Although they have largely devoted their attention principally to prospecting on the Ruby Queen, they have yet been able to make it pay its way, and are gradually bringing it to a profitable issue. Some years ago when there was an export duty of 2s. 6d. an ounce on gold they purchased very large quantities of gold at their Wyndham store. This gold was not published in the Government statistics of the output of the Kimberley fields, which suggests that the gold deposits were much more valuable than the declared returns led the public to believe.
In 1894 Mr. Doherty removed to Perth to reside, and the firm now conducts in addition to its other large interests a substantial and stable auctioneering, land agency, and shipping business. Mr. Doherty was married, in 1888, to a daughter of Mr. Cable, of Talbot, Victoria.
In a way necessarily discursive we have sought to show how rapidly the enterprise of Mr. Doherty and his partner in Western Australia was brought to its present important standing. The gold discoveries at Kimberley were primarily responsible for their coming here, and they have since bravely and energetically toiled and reaped. The climate of Wyndham is so generously hot that it needs courage to remain there any length of time, but those men who have not been afraid of this inconvenience, have reason to be proud of their hardihood. On their stations at the Ord River these pioneers have been brought into most unpleasant contact with the natives. As we have shown in our history, the natives in the north-west are most treacherous and difficult to control. Messrs. Connor and Doherty have found it impossible to civilise and tame these wild aboriginals, and the consequence is rather unhappy.
For their fearlessness in investing capital in northern Western Australia, the two old schoolfellows merit unstinted praise, for by these means the wealth of the colony has been considerably augmented; they have paved the way to the development of much hitherto waste country. A strong built man, Mr. Doherty's intelligence partakes of the hardihood and stability of his physique. Quick, enterprising, and wisely cautious, no better stamp of man for an advance guard of civilisation could be obtained. Truly he and his partner sowed in tribulation and discomfort, and they now reap in joy the rich harvests so carefully tilled.
[Since this sketch was written Mr. Doherty has been elected a member of he Western Australian Legislative Council, a position which he should fill with credit—Ed]
