very liberal terms to seduce him from his allegiance to Messrs. Lindsay and Co. The potent power of gold was irresistible, and Mr. Hardwick was soon installed at the head of the operations of the Swan Brewery, which from the day he entered upon the management has been better than most gold mines to the shareholders, while the Bourke and Orange Breweries were relegated respectively to the charge of his sons, Messrs. Thomas James and Philip Bower Hardwick. The new brew of the Perth Company was first sampled by its patrons at the beginning of the year 1891, and the effect of it was an immediate and great expansion of business. The turnover when Mr. Hardwick was inducted into his new post was £500 per month; to-day it amounts, according to the season of the year, to from £6,000 to £8,000 per month, which is the best testimonial that can be given in a work like this of the new manager's ability. He has raised the value of the shares from 3s. to £2, and so increased his work that he was glad to avail himself of the services of his son, Mr. Philip Bower Hardwick, as assistant manager, an appointment which that gentleman still retains.
The Swan Brewery, as may be expected from the enormous development of its work, makes an exacting call upon the time and energies of its manager, but Mr. Hardwick has nevertheless been able to become identified with other fields of activity, and in the ancient institution of Freemasonry he has set his name deeply and honourably upon the roll of the officers of the guild. He is president of the Board of General Purposes of the Grand Lodge of Western Australia; in England he held the rank of Past Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies, and in New South Wales he also took high office. At Bourke he went through the chairs of Lodge No. 18, N.S.W. Constitution. As a sportsman, to show the interest that he takes in racing, it is only necessary to mention that Mr. Hardwick is a member of the committee of Tattersall's Club. He lends his support to the pastoral and agricultural interests, believing that upon their strength and prosperity the welfare of the colony largely depends. The Royal Pastoral and Agricultural Society has placed him on its committee, in which capacity his business experience is found to be of much value. He is deputy-chairman of the Swan River Shipping Coy., Limited.
Mr. Hardwick is the father of a large family of ten children, seven of whom are boys. Four of his sons are in England receiving the highest educational advantages which the old country and its classic seminaries of learning can provide, while his son, James, who is mentioned in an earlier portion of this sketch as having in 1891 taken charge of Messrs. Lindsay and Co.'s Orange Brewery, is now the manager of the South Australian Brewing Company's Works at Broken Hill.
The world has gone well with Mr. Hardwick because he is a specialist who is above the competition of the host of half-taught men who overcrowd every profession, but who are hopelessly out of the contest when first-class work has to be done. He has found, to use an American expression, that there is plenty of room in the upper stories. All his life his employers have had to seek his services; he has never had to look for an appointment or an increase of salary; they have always been spontaneously presented as a tribute of gratitude for the payment of liberal dividends out of businesses which had languished in other hands. If, as we are told by one philosopher, success in life is the most satisfying and enduring reward of toil, Mr. Hardwick has tasted of this nectar from his boyhood.
ALFRED MACKENZIE
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Photo by ALFRED MACKENZIE, J.P. Hemus & Hall. |
A DEPTH of meaning lies embedded in that great Shakesperian phrase, "There is a Divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may." One cursory mental glance at it leaves untouched and imperfect the many side and corner issues that fuller enquiry satisfies. Its application must be by the laws of nature, universal. Go into the highways and byeways of life with this heaven-inspired text floating on your mental stream, and apply it to the lives of their denizens. You will find ample verification even in the life of a questioning sceptic.
When a man sails forth on the ocean of life, stemming the rising tide, and then drifting merrily with the turn, he does not always steer on an unalterable course. He keeps the needle of his mental compass fixed on some certain definite beacon at the start, but confidence and experience, born of something higher than the mere mechanism of body and mind, cause him to change and rechange at its beck and call. When we look back on the life of Mr. Mackenzie, and wonder at the different courses of rosy morn and sunny noon, we see the Great Teacher's phrase at work. Occasions and opportunities arise which snap the connecting threads of one vocation and spin a web for a second. Mr. Mackenzie was born at Woodend, Victoria, in 1861. Soon after leaving school he joined a firm of contractors in Melbourne, and on gaining practical insight into the conduct of operations transferred his services
