meetings held at Moonta Mines, at which the miners' grievances were ventilated, "Reuben" was one of the stock speakers. Among the last meetings of this kind which he attended were those at which the "dynamite question" was discussed. He was an ardent opponent of the use of dynamite in blasting underground, and regarded the ill-health which he suffered from as due to inhalation of the fumes of that compound. He came to Adelaide, where, after working for some time as a mechanic, he took the position of a life assurance agent, in which occupation he was engaged at the time of his decease. Mr. Gill was a consistent advocate of teetotalism, and by his speeches and lectures did good service for numerous Rechabite tents in the colony. He was a power for good in the sphere in which he moved, and his death is regretted by thousands of people in the colony.
John Bailey,
THE first Colonial Botanist of South Australia, under Colonel Gawler, at a salary of £80 per annum, which sum was afterwards retrenched by the Grey Government in 1841. Was the founder of the Nursery, now better known as "Bailey's Gardens," at Hackney, an eastern suburb of Adelaide. Mr. Bailey was born at Hackney, near London, November, 1800, and after leaving school entered the service of Messrs. Conrad Loddiges & Sons, proprietors of the most extensive Botanical Nursery in England. He remained there until 1838, when he left his native land with his family by the ship "Buckinghamshire," and arrived in Holdfast Bay, March 22, 1839. Prior to leaving he was presented by his employers with a purse of 150 sovereigns, and they also gave him several cases of plants, containing the vine, date, damson, olive, and other trees. Most of these arrived in good condition, and formed the nucleus of the large number at present
