the Mannheim Exploration Company. After flotation he was appointed representative and attorney in Western Australia, and began his return voyage to the colony. But, instead of sailing direct he paid a visit to his home in Germany, and took his mining degree in Freiberg. This degree, he considered, would give him a greater locus standi among his confrères. The first transaction into which he entered for his new company was the purchase of the Lady Charlotte Mine. The purchase was effected in conjunction with the New Zealand Mines Trust, for which Dr. Scheidel is representative. The main object of his company is to take options of properties. Mr. Mannheim has travelled extensively on the goldfields. Every small acre seems familiar to him after his repeated visits, and one can imagine his feelings as he sees the leases which he pegged out between the Great Boulder and Brown Hill, and which he was forced to forfeit, now being floated for hundreds of thousands of pounds. But despite the chagrin that naturally follows such an unwelcome incident, he has good reason to be proud of his flotations, and this happy knowledge of achievement more than counterbalances his former negative feelings. In Adelaide he floated the Crœsus Mine for £52,000, and the conjoint mines of Young Mount Morgan and Mount Morgan Extended were floated in London for £150,000. In the latter place, also, he disposed of the Hannan's Golden Dyke for £15,000, which not long afterwards was floated for £80,000. Mr. Mannheim's sympathies are all showered on Coolgardie. He evinces the warmest interest in every matter pertaining to the welfare of its citizens, and he zealously assists in the promotion of utilitarian schemes.
ROBERT LEES HAIR.
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Photo by ROBERT LEES HAIR. Greenham & Evans. |
"GIVE me knowledge of a man's character and circumstances, "John Stuart Mill exclaimed, "and I will predict his future, and the correctness of my prediction will be in proportion to my knowledge of these components." Such an assertion, denying the existence of free will, would, if practicable and reliable, entirely abolish the narration of past events, and substitute for it a narrative of future and future perfect events. The history of nations and individuals would merely become a corroborative and reference manuscript. But such disaster is not likely to overtake us on this side of the millennium. No doubt there are men—and this is no mere hypothesis—possessing rare determination, and teeming with vigour and energy, for whom we can safely predict, or at least augur, a bright future. If a man has the essential qualifications, he can outdistance others in the race for position. Mr. Robert Lees Hair, when he came to the colony, agreed with multiple writers that "hard work" is the summum bonum of philosophy and success. He had a hard task before him, but to counterbalance its depressing influence, he possessed a will capable of overcoming every obstacle. He was born in Gippsland, Victoria, in 1860. His father was for many years a farmer in the Alberton district, where the young Robert received careful training under a private tutor. At the age of nineteen years he prepared to enter business life. Going to Melbourne, he connected himself with the well-known firm of Robertson and Moffat in that city. For three years he performed the unwelcome role of commercial traveller for the firm, and, after considerable business experience reaped during that valuable period, he embarked on a little enterprise of his own. It is, perhaps, one of the proudest moments of a man's life when, after serving another, he feels himself the untrammelled, supreme captain of his own affairs. When a land boom forces itself in any city, a natural infection leads every business man to set up an agency. The very atmosphere smells of land, and the competition and mad excitement of buying and selling makes the purse of the land agent swell out to bursting point. This was the state of affairs in Melbourne when Mr. Hair set up a business as land and estate agent. His success made him feel proud of his first endeavour, and he averted any calamity which a severe re-action might cause in land prices. In June of 1893 he sailed for Western Australia in the S.S. Bullarra. On his arrival he set out on what was then the tedious journey of getting to Coolgardie. Many a story and witty anecdote has been told of travellers who sought to enliven dreary moments by humorous mirth. Mr. Hair found on his way to Coolgardie a few others bent on attaining the same spot, and he availed himself of their comradeship. On the 21st July, 1893, he reached his destination. He remained in Coolgardie for a breathing space, and made for Kalgoorlie, arriving there on the 22nd July. That thriving centre was known as Hannan's, and had not received the
