Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 19
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 19]
9
train chugged and clickety-clacked, first through the rugged Bumberry hills and then, as night fell, across dimly seen hilly plains and through the steep valleys of the Blue Mountains, until we were crossing the Penrith Plains in the early dawn light. There were of course several jolting halts and starts at the towns we passed through, but finally we arrived at the main city railway station at Redfern, feeling weary, hungry and grubby, just as the shops and offices were opening for the day's work.
My Father was making his first venture into the retail grocery trade, under the advice and guidance of two cousins (William and Andrew Forsythe) who had established themselves in Sydney as wholesale merchants and importers. Dad rented a shop at 96, Queen St, Woollahra, and we lived above and behind it.
The State Liberal Government, under Premier Sir William Lyne, had passed the Early Closing Act in 1889, but it was not proclaimed as law until after we had arrived in Sydney. Previously, shops could stay open as late as the owners desired, long after my bedtime, I remember. But how dull and lifeless the suburban shopping streets became when the once brightly lighted shops closed their doors at 6 p.m. The only remaining bright spots were the bars of the public houses, which still remained open until 11 p.m. except on Sundays, when they were closed all day.
The unpopular Boer War against the little Dutch Republic in South Africa, to which conflict N.S.W., before federation, had sent a volunteer contigent of Mounted Rifles, was still dragging on. The old Queen died in the middle of it and was succeeded by her elderly son (in his 60th year) as King Edward the Seventh. In the Spring of 1900 the town of Mafeking, besieged by the Boers, was relieved, and the commander of its defence, Colonel Baden Powell, became a national hero, though the Boers had not made any serious attack on the town. The news of the relief was received in Sydney with much patriotic and jingoistic jubilation. That night my Mother took me in to Hyde Park where shouting and singing crowds were dancing wildly round a huge bonfire. But to future generations Baden Powell will probably be better known as the founder of the world-wide Boy Scout