Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/393

 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 2,^7 Mr. Charles Tucker, MP. THE City of Adelaide has been fortunate in having many able men as mayors. The progressive work begun by one is continued through a series of capable and patriotic municipal chiefs ; and the attainments of former occupants prove a stimulus to the advance of the successor. Air. Charles Tucker, ex-Mayor of Adelaide, has, by his own industry and persever- ance, won his way to the front. His capability for high and onerous positions has been proved and verified by the ability with which he has discharged the manifold functions of the offices he has held. Charles Tucker was born at Walkerville, Adelaide, in 1857. His parents arrived in the Province in 1836, the year of the foundation of South Australia. In those primitive days of the Province money was not too abundant, education was lax, and work was the all-in-all of existence. Attention was chiefly concentrated on the tilling of the soil, for if it failed to yield, starvation rudely stared the settlers in the face. But certain scholars in Adelaide supplied as best they could the rudiments of knowledge to the young ; and Mr. Unwin, of Walkerville, who had a fair scholastic reputation in those days, was entrusted with the early school training of Mr. Tucker. His education thus begun was continued at Mr. J. L. Young's school, and completed under private tuition. Mr. Tucker then repaired, with his parents, to the Encounter Bay district, where the family resided for several )ears. In 1880 he migrated to Port Adelaide, where already the busde of commercial life seemed to offer opportunities for success. Serving for some time in the office of Messrs. G. R. Selth & Co., he acquainted himself sufficiently in the routine of ledger-keeping and general business life, thus enabling him to undertake the management of the carr) ing business of Messrs. Graves & Co., of Port Adelaide. This firm was in a comparative state of prosperity, and the managerial position was a Hammer or^ Co., FhuCu