Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/418

 392 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY Mr. Thomas Barnfield THE subject of this memoir, Mr. Thomas Barnfield, spent many a toilsome day on the plains of the wilderness in the search for gold before he reaped the ripe reward of his energy and well-directed efforts in that absorbing but so often delusive pursuit. Mr. Barnfield was born in England in 1842. When he was a mere lad his father sailed for Victoria, taking young Thomas with him. After receiving his education in Melbourne, he, as a youth, proceeded to the goldfields of Ballarat, and there received his first introduction to the sphere in which he was destined to move thenceforward. Mr. Barnfield came to Adelaide in 1873, in which city he has remained ever since, and started as a mining financier. He soon became a prominent investor and specu- lator, and his name was associated with some considerable ventures. Having travelled over most of the goldfields of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, he had gained a fair accjuaintance with their respective prospects, and this practical know- ledge of mining in all its branches was, of course, of great service to him in his operations. One achievement in particular did much to place him in the front rank of mining financiers. The Baker's Creek Mine at Hillgrove, New .South Wales, was put in his hands, and he made a successful flotation of the concern. Up to the present, dividends to the large amount of a quarter of a million have been paid by the Baker's Creek Gold Mining Company, without a .single call having been made. Consequent on the success which attended his financial exertions in this direction, he next took in hand the Eleanora Mine, which is also situated at Hillgrove. The company was fioaled in Adelaide; and this property has since been developed into a valuable and remunerative concern. Mr. Barnfield's performances in connection with the.se mines were productive of a flow of mining business in his direction. Positions in the directorates of various companies were placed at his disposal, and in the h'rithlini;, Fhoto