Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/411

 Mr.j.H.Angas ADELAIDE AND VICINITY ,385 taken from Edwin Hodder's "Life of George Fife Angas," is interesting: — " Tlie first word lie ever spoke to his son, Mr. J. H. Angas, with regard to his going to South Australia, was in 1841, when he said, somewhat abruptly, ' I wish you to go to South Australia!' John replied, 'I am quite willing; when do you want me to go?' 'As soon as you can get ready.' ' What am I to do when I get there ? ' asked the son. ' You must do what you see requires to be done,' was the laconic reply. ' Had he written a book of instructions,' said his son many years afterwards, 'he could not have given fuller or more detailed information than the single sentence which comprised the whole.' 'Before you start,' Mr. Angas added, 'you must make yourself ac([uainted with the German language, in order that you may look after the 700 (icrman immigrants by settling them upon my lands and collecting the advances which I miide for their passage money ; and you must spend six months in studying land surveying, mapping, and so forth.'" At this time Mr. J. H. Angas was only 18 years old; but he pursued his preparatory studies with avidity, and sh(jwed by his shrewdness, firmness, and judgment, that he was worthy of his father's confidence. The elder Mr. Angas, as previously staled in this volume, had, in obedience to his philanthropic nature, helped numbers of Germans, victims of religious persecution, to emigrate from the Fatherland to .South Australia, and these he intended his son to settle on the land. On April 15, 1843, when 19 years of age, Mr. John Howard Angas left England, after receiving an affectionate letter of recommendation as to character and conduct fn^m his father. He arrived in the Province in the Madras, in September of the same year, having remained three weeks in Western Australia. His mission was an important one for so young a man. Shortly put, he " was commissioned to look after the affairs of his father in the new colony, to examine and develop the large tract of country purchased by Mr. PMaxman (his father's agent), and to undertake such measures as would tend to retrieve the fallen fortunes of the family." The affairs of Mr. G. F. Angas, as well as those of the Province, were in "hopeless confusion," and a great deal depended on the son's efforts. The estate consisted of seven special surveys of 4,000 acres each in the Barossa Range, then sometimes called " New Silesia." " The Baro.s.sa Range," says Hodder, " is situated about 40 English miles to the north-east of Adelaide, and comprises some miles of the best land in .South Australia. It is watered partly by the Gawler, and pardy by the North and .South Rhine Riv(rs, with splendid 'parks' and valleys between picturesque ranges of hills. The soil is fertile, light, and easy to be worked ; there are considerable tracts of pasture land for sheep and cattle, and it retains a large body of fresh water all the year round. The district abounds in useful materials, such as large timber trees, gum, watde bark, asbestos, marble, iron, limestone, granite, and building .stone." In the most fertile portions of this country Angas Park and Salem Valley were situated, amid types of the prettiest scenery in South Australia. Ten thousand acres of this land had been surveyed into 80-acre sections, and offered for sale or lease, with or without the right of pre-emption, on moderate terms. There was a "poor response," and it remained with Mr. J. H. Angas to "set matters right." Immediately after his arrival, the young man made a careful study of local conditions and of the exact state of his father's property, and then embarked on his mission of