I had only two offers of marriage in my life, and I refused both.

Drinking habits were very prevalent among men, and were not in any way disgraceful, unless excessive.

Even before the discovery of copper South Australia had turned the corner.

I count myself well educated, for the admirable woman at the head of the school which I attended from the age of four and a half till I was thirteen and a half, was a born teacher in advance of her own times.

I look back to a happy childhood.

I had learned what wealth was, and a great deal about production and exchange for myself in the early history of South Australia - of the value of machinery, of roads and bridges, and of ports for transport and export.

My brothers went to the parish school, one of the best in the county.