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All this was done before party politics were introduced into municipal government, and when only the ratepayers had a vote in Council elections. No City Council has ever done as much in the way of street improvement, or is ever likely to do so.
Outstanding events of this period, were the proclamation of the Workmen's Compensation Act, and the arrival of the newly built destroyers "Yarra" and "Parramatta" as the advance guard of our Royal Australian Navy to be.
The year 1911 saw the first Commonwealth of Australia banknote issue; the transmission of messages over two thousand miles from Randwick Wireless Station, with Australian made apparatus; and the first flight of an Australian aviator, W.E. Hart, from Sydney to Penrith.
In 1912, Murrumbidgee Irrigation farms became available, and intensive Horticulture began there. Also the Commonwealth Bank was established under the Governorship of a brilliant banker, Denison Miller who had been a schoolmate in the little school at Deniliquin, of my future father-in-law, Francis William Gibson, of "Plevna", Trundle. Next year the new Federal City was named Canberra and the laying of foundation stones for its many public buildings became a popular pastime of politicians and personages. On the Fourth of October of this year the rest of Australia's infant navy arrived in Sydney Harbour, a really historic occasion. It comprised the battle cruiser H.M.A.S. "Australia" and the light cruisers H.M.A.Ss. "Sydney" and "Melbourne". A third cruiser of the same class, H.M.A.S. "Adelaide", was shipped out from Britain in sections, and was put together at Cockatoo Island dockyard: Australian's first entry into naval shipbuilding.
At the end of the second term of 1912, I left "Scots", and spent a few weeks of convalescence at "Rosedernate" recovering from a chronic cold that had plagued me all through my last term at the College. It lowered my morale considerably, and left me very despondent. I had already passed the University Junior examination (in Algebra, Arithmetic, Latin, French and English) the forerunner of the Education Department's "Intermediate", but I