Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 61
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[Page 61]
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more news than the dailies about sporting results and social and governmental happenings. In 1902 there was another Russian invasion scare, and on the front page of one issue of this paper, there was a drawing of a spiky-bearded Russian soldier, with a long rifle and bayonet, standing astride an outline of Australia. Many years before, in the infant years of the Colony of New South Wales, Fort Denison was built especially to repel an imagined invasion of the harbour by a Russian fleet. The 1902 scare really originated in England, because the Russians started building a branch railway line, due south, towards Afghanistan and India, from a small place, Merv, on their trans-Caspian railway across Turkmenistan. London "Punch" called the scare "Mervessness".
Late in 1902 my Father moved to a new and bigger shop at Charing Cross, Waverley. It was a nice new building right on the main road to Bronte, and we lived on the premises: I was switched to Waverley Public School nearby. However, the new shop was not a success, mainly because of the difficulty in getting honest and trustworthy assistants: one knave robbed Dad right and left before being found out. So our Father decided that there was no future for him in the retail trade, and we moved to a private house in Belgrave St, and he went alone to Parkes, now the booming centre of a rich new agricultural district, to establish himself as a Land Agent specialising mainly in the Crown Lands Act (a very complicated piece of legislation) and appearing before Local Land Boards on behalf of farmers and graziers applying for selections, or seeking to add more land to their existing holdings. All this kept him very busy corresponding with the Lands Department and the Mines Department, in Sydney. It was rather amazing how many of the farmers and would-be settlers were quite illiterate.
This new venture was successful from the outset, and within a year Dad had an encouraging number of clients and a good income. He had acquired a thorough knowledge of the ramifications of the abovementioned Acts during his court service at Peak Hill. This fact, combined with an impressive personality,