Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/408

 382, ADELAIDE AND VICINITY Mr.c.F.Angas designs of the French Government were thus checkmated by the energy of Mr. Angas, who. in consideration of his services, was offered a knigluhood and then a baronetcy, each of which he at once declined. One further instance of his activity in colonisation is afforded by his accepting, in 1840, the position of Director of the North American Colonial Association of Ireland. Even as early as 1838, Mr. Angas and members of his family were inclined to take up their residence in South Australia, but the time was not yet. During the land boom of 1839-40. Mr. Fla.xman, an agent for Mr. Angas in the Province, made erratic and unauthorised purchases of large areas of land on the Rhine and Gawler Rivers. To find the money to meet the drafts that were drawn upon him was a serious difficulty, and the action of Mr. Flaxman imperilled the financial position of Mr. Angas. In April, 1843, Mr. J. H. Angas, a son, sailed for South Australia in the barque Madras, to look after the affairs of his father, and to " examine and develop the large tract of country purchased by Mr. Flaxman, and undertake such measures as would tend to retrieve the fallen fortunes of the family." This work he performed to the credit both of his father and of himself Another .son, George French Angas, who had chosen art for his life-work, proceeded to the Antipodes in the same year, returning in 1846 with many sketches and curios which he had the honor of showing to Her Majesty and the Prince Consort. In that year the father suffered heavy los.ses, but in 1848 a better era began to dawn. Just previous to this, Mr. G. F. Angas began to look with confidence to removing from lingland to take up his residence in South Australia ; and as his affairs got brighter, he disposed of his P^nglish interests, and on October 3, 1850, in the ship Ascendant, left for the Province with Mrs. Angas and his youngest son. In January, 1851, he first set foot in the Province for which he had labored so long and so well. P^or several years in PLngland he had been using his influence to obtain a liberalised Constitution for South Australia ; and it was singularly appropriate that the vessel in which he arrived should have on board the official copy of the Constitution Act which awarded a modified system of representative government to the Province. Of his subsequent connection with .South Australia, the South Australian Register of May 24, 1879, in its biographical notice published some days after his death, says: — "A few days after he had landed, Mr. Angas was entertained at a public dinner, at which cordial acknowledgment was made by the Chairman (the late Sir J. H. P^isher) and other prominent colonists of the services he had rendered to the Province. At this time Mr. Angas had reached the age when men usually prefer a quiet life, but his active disposition forbade his withdrawal from public duties. His entrance upon political life occurred in August, 1851, when, at the request of the electors of Barossa, he offered himself as a candidate for election to the Legislative Council, and had the honor of being returned unopposed. One of his earliest votes was against the continuance of the State grant in aid of religion, which was finally abolished by the votes of 13 out of the 16 representative members. P'our years later he contested the same district against Captain Rodda, whom he defeated by a majority of 257 votes, and was thus one of those who assisted in framing our present Constitution Act. In the warm contest in the Council between the advocates of a nominee and an elective Upper House, he strongly supported the latter, although his views were not nearly so democratic as those of some of his colleagues. In 1857