g to the breaking down of
the ss. _Chingtu_, we had a delay of some days in that fair capital of
what will undoubtedly be in the future one of the richest of the
Australian States.

We rather taxed the splendid efforts of our hospitable friends by the
length of our stay. But they were not to be beaten. Strike or no strike,
they laid themselves out to give us as much joy as it was possible to do
in the time. I laid the foundation of many lasting friendships within
those few days. Then the _Chingtu_, with Lord Kintore on board, left for
Port Darwin, and I made my way backward to Adelaide.

The Melbourne Cup Meeting of 1891 was a fateful one for me, for I had the
happiness of becoming engaged to be married. I had known my future wife
for several years. She had been born in Victoria. Her father hailed from
County Galway, having emigrated to South Australia with his brother, the
late Hon. Nicholas Fitzgerald, than whom no public man in Australia was
ever held in higher esteem by all classes. The brothers made Burra Burra,
then a prosperous copper field to the north of Adelaide, their first
hunting-ground. From there they moved on to Victoria, in the days of the
discovery of the goldfields--Ballarat, Castlemaine, Kyneton and Bendigo.
At the time I married they had prospered well enough. Later on they
lost--for want of food and water--some 400,000 sheep on the various
stations they were interested in. My wife and I had hopes of buying old
Wardhouse, in Aberdeenshire, from my Spanish nephew. These hopes went by
the board. Ours was by no means a singular experience in the history of
Australian pioneers in the back country. I know of many friends who--if
possible--fared worse.

I was married on February 29, 1892. At the conclusion of our honeymoon,
which we spent at Gracedale House, close to the Blackspur range of hills,
Victoria, we returned to Adelaide, and once again I became a resident at
the Largs Bay Hotel.

When I look back to those happy days I feel thankful that my term of
office cost me but small worry. I happened to be successful in
maintaining quite cordial relations with the successive occupants of the
ministerial chair. I was not hampered by any serious reduction in our
financial vote. I was not troubled by any especially adverse criticisms
on the conduct of the forces, either in Parliament or in the Press. I was
able to carry out reforms which led the way to the adoption of the
"Universal Service System" now in