Arthur DAW (1859-1949)

ARTHUR DAW, J.P., auctioneer, of Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, was born at Adelaide in the year 1860. He is the youngest surviving son of Mr. John Wickham Daw, of the same place, who came to South Australia in 1836 by the sailing ship "Winchester," and settled on the island when the subject of this notice was an infant of nine months. His initial move was to take up leasehold estate for sheep-farming purposes, but experiencing disappointing results during the first three years, he removed to Cygnet Park, where better fortune attended his efforts. After continuing here for fifteen years, he sold his interest and purchased property on the Cygnet River, where Mr. Arthur Daw now has his private residence, which is also the home of his parent, now in his eighty-third year. From

an early age, the gentleman under review assisted his father in the sheepfarming industry, and was associated with him until his twenty-second year. He then took up a small farm of 300 acres between Brownlow and Kingscote, which he has since acquired as his own freehold, and worked it for about eighteen months without any special measure of success. Relinquishing operations, he engaged in sleeper-carting on the Cygnet River and various other contracting work for a year and a half, then, returning to his holding, proceeded to bring the land under cultivation again, this time being rewarded with better returns. Five years later he sold all his farming implements and stock, retaining the land, and established himself in a commission and agency business in Adelaide. The climate, however, not proving so suitable to the health of his family, he took a lease of the building at the present time occupied by the Union Bank at Kingscote, and carried it on as a first-class boarding-house for about four and a half years, during which period the above Bank started operations. He then built the residence known as ''Bay View House," on Chapman Terrace, facing the sea, where he lived privately for twelve months. At the time of his return to the island Mr. Daw also opened in business as a commission agent and auctioneer at Kingscote, Hammer & Co., Adelaide. and continuing in this calling has followed it with considerable success ever since. He holds the agencies for the Gulf Steamship Company; James Bell & Co., wheatbuyers; the International Harvester Co.; Luxmoore Brothers; A. W. G. Pitt, lime merchant; and conducts a general agency business, having a wide connection. He owns a property of 1,600 acres on the Cygnet River, and upon this built his residence "Sunnyside," which is an ideal country home. Other properties held by him in the township have been utilized for the improvement of the place, particularly that on which stands the Ozone Hotel, which was sold by Mr. Daw on the express condition that this splendid building should be erected there.

He has also recently built some fine business premises, and has forwarded the interests of Kingscote in every possible way. For nine years Mr. Daw has occupied a seat in the local District Council (having never been defeated as a candidate), and during the past three years has occupied the chair. In January, 1905, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace, and finds the duties of his position no sinecure.

In 1891 he married Clara Emma, youngest daughter of the late Mr. Charles Calnan, who came to South Australia by the sailing ship "Africaine" in the year 1836, and three sons survive of a family of four children.

- Cyclopedia of South Australia, 1909, pp.1004-1005