Some
of us, who were doing our best in the same general direction, often had
to wish, with reference to Wilson, to be saved from our friends, while
Mr. La Trobe, if affected at all, was only encouraged or scared into
still more decided indecision.
Wilson was not much of a man of practical business. He was not
successful in his early life at home, where business is a harder ordeal,
and with fewer of the "flukes" that cross the path in young colonies.
Arriving in Melbourne shortly after myself, and in company with a
friend, one of the brothers Kilburn, he squatted upon a small cattle run
to the south-east, towards Dandenong. But as this did little beyond
merely keeping soul and body together, as things were all now subsiding
from the riot of the earlier years, it was given up. Foregathering next
with Mr. J.S. Johnston, they between them bought "The Argus" from Kerr
for a very small sum--I think under 300 pounds--and the paper then
started upon its successful career under the increased vigour and
improved method of its management.
Although, as I have said, not a business man himself, Wilson was
fortunate in business partners--first Mr. Johnston, as above said,
succeeded by my old friend James Gill, who, retiring, was replaced by
Lauchlan Mackinnon whose energy and application piloted the paper
financially into its later grand position.
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