Page:Notable South Australians.djvu/308

 David Bews, J. P., M.P., HE junior member in the Assembly for the district of Wallaroo, is a living example of what energy and well-directed enterprise will do for a man in South Australia. Privately he is deservedly esteemed for his benevolent and genial disposition. He is regarded as one of the most popular public men in the colony; and as he possesses youth^ vigorous health and ability, he has every prospect of occupying a very prominent position. Mr. Bews was born near Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, in 1850, and came to South Australia on July 28, 1851, in the ship "Marion." His parents went to the Victorian diggings in 1853, whither he accompanied them. They returned in 1854, and his father undertook agricultural operations, first at Port Elliott and subsequently on the Adelaide Plains. The present Member for Wallaroo began work on a farm when he was a mere child and when there were not then the educational facilities now provided in the county districts, and he had absolutely little or no schooling as a boy, except what he received from his mother, who still lives, and to whom he has always been most fondly attached. He remained working as a ploughman and at other farm occupations until his 21st year, when he went to Wallaroo; and in 1872 entered the employ of the Kadina and Wallaroo Railway and Pier Company as clerk. He soon rose to the position of manager of the Goods Department, which he successfully conducted for nearly seven years. Subsequently, after the Government purchased the lines, and when they gave no promise of placing the old officers upon the fixed list in the Government Service, he resigned his position, and joined the firm of D. & A. F. Taylor, the partners in which are his brothers-in-law. Though possessing no previous journalistic experience except that given to him as a most valued representative of the Register on Yorke's Peninsula, he showed great ability in the editorial management of the Wallaroo Times, which he still efficiently conducts. Imme-