on judgment-day will rise and proudly take their place in the grand army of the dead. Western Australia, with her dreary expanse of sandy desert and silent bush, is the camping-place of hundreds of tired wayfarers who fell, not amid the roar of cannon and the excitement of the battle-field, but in the grim fight with starvation and thirst. As death thins the ranks the gaps are filled by others, and thus the hidden treasures of the land are revealed to the world.
In the foremost ranks of this progressive army is the surveyor who precedes the engineer and opens out the paths into the interior. Accompanied by a handful of assistants, and armed with his theodolite, the surveyor maps out the roadways through the almost inaccessible bush, and paves the way for that now necessary adjunct to civilisation—the railway. His work takes him far out of the beaten track into the wilds, where for months and years he sedulously and quietly works, with no other encouragement than the knowledge that he is doing his duty.
Among those who have braved the privations and discomforts of a surveyor's life in the back-blocks is Mr. Charles Crossland, a member of the firm of Crossland and Co., surveyors and general estate agents in Perth. Mr. Charles Crossland is an Australian native, having been born in Maryborough, Victoria, in 1858. From his earliest youth he was more or less associated with mining, in which he took such a keen interest that the well-known surveyor, Mr. Couchman, who for many years occupied the important position of Inspector of Mines for the Government, accepted him as an articled pupil. During his association with Mr. Couchman, Mr. Crossland not only got a thorough knowledge of his profession in all its branches, including mining surveying, but also gained considerable skill as a metallurgist. After completing his articles, Mr. Crossland removed to Sydney, and practised there for two years. In 1882 he came to Western Australia, and received an important appointment under the Government to proceed to the north-west portion of the colony and carry out several large surveys. At this time very little was known of that remove part of the province, and trigonometrical surveys were necessary for Government purposes. Whilst engaged in these labours, Mr. Crossland did much of the work that generally falls to the lot of a pioneer. Its importance and magnitude may be gauged from the fact that the area of land he covered extended from the head of the Fortesque River to Geraldton, and thence on to the head of the Murchison. The work occupied Mr. Crossland for three years, during which time he surveyed several hundreds of miles of practically virgin country. When this work was completed, Mr. Crossland returned to Perth, and his services were eagerly sought after for the surveys in connection with the Midland Railway, which was on the eve of being constructed. He joined in partnership with Mr. J. Morrison, of Perth, and carried out the whole of the surveys in connection with the Midland Railway, a work which entailed the solution of some acute engineering problems. At the expiration of four years, Mr. Crossland severed his connection with Mr. Morrison, and joined his fortunes with those of his present partner, Mr. Alexander Forrest. The firm conduct a very large business as land estate agents and surveyors, their connections extending throughout the colony. Mr. Crossland's experiences in the far north-west enables him to give valuable information concerning that immense area, the future prosperity of which he is very sanguine. Since he has been settled in Perth, he has taken an active interest in the development of the auriferous country, and is interested in many important companies. Mr. Crossland can claim to be one of the early supporters of prospecting in the colony, as he was one of the original syndicate that sent out that most successful mining pioneer, Mr. J. Dunn, the discoverer of the Wealth of Nations and other mines. Mr. Crossland was married in 1886 to the daughter of Mr. De Courcy Lefroy, brother of Mr. O'Grady Lefroy, C.M.G., one of the earliest of Western Australian settlers. Mr. Crossland is one of those bright, vivacious gentlemen who combines with a happy disposition keen analytical discrimination in business matters, and to this may be ascribed the successful position he holds in life.
JOHN CHARLES HILLS.
WHEN Western Australia was passing through her "night of dark doubt," before her days of golden glory had set in, she was not altogether unbefriended, for the ranks of the pioneers were being recruited from time to time from the homes of some of Britain's best families. Though for years Western Australia had the most scornful epithets levelled against her, she lived to see the day when the eyes of the world were attracted to her, and her vast potentialities drew the brawn and brain of many countries. Fortunately, when her halcyon days arrived, she had men within her gates well suited to lead the colony on the primrose path she was in later days to tread. In the early eighties, quite a number of young Englishmen came to Western Australia to try their fortune in the land, and it is well that those who fought for the colony in her darker days should be rewarded in her prosperity-sharing. Certainly those who came in the eighties did not have the arduous uphill fight of the pioneers, still they had the task of carrying on the duties which fall to successive generations.
John Charles Hills was one of the young men who came to Western Australia in the eighties, and, as a perusal of his biography will show, has played an important part in connection with the gold mining industry. He was born at Sheffield in 1861, and received his education at the Royal Grammar School of his native city. When he had spent some years in travel, he came to Western Australia in the year 1885, and at Perth he joined Mr. H. J. Saunders, M.L.C., the present mayor, as confidential clerk in the stock and sharebroking and mining business which Mr. Saunders had opened. The inauguration of this office seems to have been an auspicious move on the part of Mr. Saunders, for with the discovery of Golden Valley an impetus was given to mining, and it proved but the forerunner of many other important fields. At about this time Mr. Hills' interests in the firm were merged into a partnership, and each day saw the volume of business in the office increasing. When Southern Cross was found an epoch in the colony's mining was marked when the Fraser's Gold Mining Company was floated locally into a company, with a capital of £50,000. This was the first mine locally floated in the colony, and the company's business was transacted in the office with which Mr. Hills was associated. He afterwards became secretary to the company, or legal manager. When the world was made fully aware of the great richness of the Coolgardie Goldfields Mr. Saunders and Mr. Hills took a very active part in promoting companies in London, and, as stated elsewhere, Mr. Saunders floated the Western Australian Goldfields Company—the pioneer company of the Coolgardie fields. The favour in which Western Australian stocks were held in London meant a vast amount of business to be transacted by the firm of H. J. Saunders and Co., and the offices had to be enlarged, the clerical staff increased, and the work of the heads of the firm was now tenfold. When Mr. Saunders was in London the whole of the responsibility devolved on Mr. Hills' shoulders, and this meant no light task when the welfare of such companies as the following had to be undertaken:—The West Australian Goldfields Limited,
