| Notes |
- 1930 'A VALUED SERVANT
A VALUED SERVANT
RETIREMENT OF MR. E. C. D KEYSER.
STATE EXPANSION.
After having served the State in varions capacities during periods close on 35 years, and having now reached the retiring age, Mr. Edwin Charles Donat Keyser will relinquish his position as officer in charge of interstate trade statistics at the end of this week. His retirement will not be spent in idleness, for it is his intention to join this journal
An unusually interesting personality, "Ted" Keyser is well known in the city and outback. Time has dealt kindly with him, and although of the alert vigour of his intelligence his hair is grey he has the hale appearance and the sprightly step which suggest a man many years his junior.
If people are only as old as they look, then Mr. Keyser is a mere 50, and if people are as young as they feel, he is barely 40. To converse with him for however short a time is to realise that the passing of the years has not robbed him of any of the alert vigour of his intelligence, or dimmed the genial warmth and tolerance of his outlook of men and affairs.
Among the colonists who came from England to the Swan River Settlement in 1829, on board the sailing ship Gilmore, were John and Rebecca Pettit, who settled in Perth and later at Busselton.
Thomas Thurkle, one of their fellow passengers on the Gilmore, married their daughter Elizabeth. In the course of time the Thurkles' daughter Elizabeth married Charles Donat Keyser, of Philadelphia, who arrived in the Colony as a lad of 20, in 1852, and became one of the founders of the timber industry at Busselton.
To Charles Keyser and his wife there was born a son, the subject of this sketch, on June 3, 1865 the birth day of King George V. Nine years later the little family sailed from Busselton to Albany in the Georgette, the only steamship then plying regularly on our coast. The vessel was wrecked four years afterwards.
A Case of Les Majesté?
To Mr. Keyser belongs the unique honor of having bowled King George for a duck! In 1881 the young Prince, with his brother, the Duke of Clarence, was at Albany on H.M.S. Bacchante.
One of the events arranged by the loyal townspeople in celebration of the Royal visit was a cricket match between junior teams. The match took place on June 3, the 17th birthday of Prince George and of Edwin Keyser. In fear and trembling, but with a determination to do his best in the true colonial spirit.
Young Keyser, when put on to bowl, sent down a yorkeh. It took the Prince's middle-stump. The Prince had not scored a single run, and the bowler, appalled by his deed, thought he would be punished for lese majesté! But the Prince, a true sportsman, merely made a wry face and retired, grinning.
In 1886 Mr Keyser joined the civil service, as customs officer at Albany and later, while still retaining this post, became at different periods Treasury cashier, quarantine officer, Government land agent and Clérk of Courts "a regular Pooh-Bah," as he says himself.
In 1908 he was selected by the Premier (Sir Newton Moore), to make arrangements at Albany, on behalf of the Government, for the welcome of the American Fleet, gaining experience which stood him in good stead many years later when sent to Albany by the Scaddan Government to arrange for a welcome to the first vessels of the Royal Australian Navy on their arrival from Britain.
In 1909 Mr. Keyser was appointed Protector of Aborigines. He took the task seriously. With that thoroughness which has always characterised him he made a long tour of inspection through the eastern and northern goldfields, upper and lower Murchison , Lake Darlot and Lake Carnarvon and from there northward to far as Derby, visiting all the inter vening ports.
When, in October, 1910, the Federal authorities decided to discontinue the collection of interstate trade statistics, the Wilson Government determined that at all costs a record so far as this State was concerned, must be maintained. Mr. Keyser was requested to organise the branch of interstate trade statistics, under Mr. M A. C. Fraser, the Government Statistician. Mr. Keyser has been in charge of this branch ever since 1910, with only one break, from 1915 to 1918, when he was on active service with the A.I-F A.LF.
An Absent-minded Recruit.
He was well over the recruiting age limit, but developed an acute attack of absent mindedness and gave his years as 40 instead of 50. "Forty my eye!" said the recruiting sergeant. "Yes 40, not a day older," replied Mr. Keyser, "and kindly don't dispute the fact, Sergeant Manly."
The sergeant seemed very much inclined to dispute it, so Mr. Keyser decided to appeal to the sentimental side of his nature. "Let me through, Sergeant,' he pleaded "Remember the days when we were boys together at dear old Albany, when you were at the fort-" and a lot more in the same strain.
Sergeant Manly, a sentimentalist at heart, listened to the stream of heart stirring eloquence, hesitated, and was lost. "Pass friend; all's well," he said It looked as though all would not be so well when weighing time came. The maximum allowed for army recruits was 14st. Mr. Keyser turned the scale at 16-4. "Here, Manly, come here," cried the recruit, "and for heaven's sake read this weight indicator before anyone else gets a look at it."
The sergeant strolled across. "Yes, you're over-weight," he said. "Nonsense," said Keyser. "Rub your eyes and look aagin. And re member, Manly, that we were boys together at Albany-." The ser geant smiled- "Yes, but that hasn't prevented you from putting on a lot of weight. However, for the sake of old times. Im taking a risk, and will very likely get into trouble, oh well, you are just on full weight. Pass." That was how Edwin Keyser entered the army, and no doubt many similar comedies were staged in recruiting depots all over Australia during the. war years
Figures a Mirror of Progress.
When Mr. Keyser joined the civil service in 1886 the population of the whole State did not exceed 30,000. Today the figures stand at 413,000
Mr. Keyser quotes further very illuminating figures comparing 1886 and to day.
Then the wool production was £6,000,000 per annum today it is over £60,000,000.
The total import and export trade of the State was £1,500,000. The total is close on £38,000,000.
The total imports in 1886 amounted to £758,000 not quite equal to the present day figure for a single month, in respect of imports from the Eastern States alone.
In 1886 the land under crop, the land under artificial grass, the new land prepared for crop, the fallow land, and the land previously cropped, covered an area of only 86,000 acres;
today the total is nearly 11,000,000 acres.
The average area under cultivation in proportion to each person in the State, in 1886, was two acres; today the figure is about 26 acres.
In 1886 no returns were made concerning the acreage, nature or quantity of fresh fruit grown, and certainly no fruit was produced in sufficient quantities for export. Last year there were 23,000 acres of bearing and non bearing fruit trees in this State, and the export value totalled over £500,000.
The wheat production in 1886 was 289,000 bushels; this season the production is about 40,000,000bushels
"There is not much wrong with a population of less than 414,000," says Mr. Keyser, "whose annual agricultural production totals about £13,000,000;
pastoral,£7,000,000;
dairying,£2,000,000;
forestry and fishing,£2,50,000;
mining, £2,500,000,
manufacturing £7,000,000
a total of £33,500,0001"
Mr. Keyser has always taken a keen interest in the State's progress as expressed in figures, and has regularly passed on his statistical knowledge to the public, by means of anonymous articles published in the metropolitan and country Press. [2]
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