Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/480

 454 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY MrAHay who purchased these properties. His public life began with his appointment as member of the City Corporation, which office he filled for three years. The groundwork of a legislative system for the city was tluMi still in the process of formation, and the framers had no easy task assigned to them in initiating laws and regulations for the benefit of the community. They had little precedent to fall back on save the customs and ordinances which obtained in the countries they had left, and these they could not well import into their new municipality. They had to devise enactments that would be suitable to their new environment, and many of the measures promulgated by the pioneer band of mimicipal legislators of Adelaide remained in serviceable activity without amendment for many years after the city had crystrtllised into more definite form. On the Central Hoard of Health, Mr. Hay plied his energies for five years, tendering his assistance to his colleagues in their praiseworthy attempts to raise the standard of hygienic management, and remove certain insanitary customs that imperilled the health of the community. The Board did much to improve the conditions of Adelaide by the by-laws it instituted for the maintenance of cleanliness. Erom his earliest years as a colonist, Mr. Hay identified himself with every form of religious, social, and jihilanthropic work in the Province. With the Rev. T. O. Stow and Dean Earrell, he served on the; local committee of the British and Eoreign Bible Society, an institution which has wrought inestimable good in the religious history of the colonies. As a loyal and patriotic Scotchman, he always evinced a keen interest in the welfare of his compatriots. His great desire was to foster among them a true esprit dc corps, and he was eminently successful in this endeavor. The Caledonian Society was founded by several enthusiastic Scotchmen, including Mr. Hay ; and of this Association he was elected the first Chief in South Australia. The conception was hai)py, and the birth a success, for to-day that society claims many of the foremost names in thci Province on its roll of membership. To him also fell the honor of I)eing ont; of the (earliest Presidents of the Youne Men's Christian Association in the Province. ',-. In commercial and financial fields, where the material and practical side of a man's abilities is summoned into greater n^juisition, Mr. Ilay also attained prominence. He was connected with the promotion of many local financial institutions, including the Bank of Adelaide, the .South Australian Branch of the Australian Mutual Provident Society, the South Australian Insurance Company, and the .South Australian Gas Company. Mr. Hay for years sat on the directorial board of each of these concerns.. In 1857 Mr. Hay made his political ddhitt as the representative of Gumeracha in the Lower House. He sat for this district till 1861, and was again its representative from 1867 to 1870. In the Parliament of 1870-71 he took his seat as member for East Torrens. He sat for two years, and in 1873 entered the Legislative Coimcil, (jf which he remained a member for 18 years, up to his final retirement from active politics in 1S91. In the Reynolds Ministry Mr. Hay held the portfolio of Commissioner of Public Works from May, i860, to October, 1861, and his administration was marked by di'liberation and sound common sense. He was responsible for many utilitarian Acts ; but perhajis the measures with which his political record will be most closely associated were the Real