Arthur Clingin, article headed
“The Roll Call” from the Benambra and Bogong Advertiser.
Our local news this week consists principally of a
mournful chapter of deaths. Within three brief days as many well
known residents have been called away to their long home. In the
cases of Mr. Arthur Clingin and Mr. Hugh Waterson the shadow on the
dial of life was indeed beginning to lengthen and to point towards
evening, that inevitable termination of every human being. But
Mr. Colville’s sun has been eclipsed in darkness ere it had scarcely
reached its meridian, and brings forcibly to mind once more those
impressive words of Felicia Heman –
Leaves have their
time to fall,
And flowers to wither at the north wind’s breath,
And stars to set: - but all
Thou hast all season for thine own, O Death !
The greatest sympathy will be felt for all sorrowing
friends especially for her who has lost her father whilst standing, as
it were, beside the open grave of her husband. It seems the
nature of trouble never comes singly. Shakespeare, in this
as in every other connection, fitly describes the common experience
when he makes a character in Hamlet exclaim –
One woe doth tread
upon another’s heels
So fast they follow.
All three were familiar figures in the life of the
district, indeed it goes without saying that each in respective circle
will be long and sorrowfully missed. Mr. Arthur Clingin was a
particularly active and prominent man in his day and is widely known in
the mining circles of the neighbourhood. He and his brother
Archibald who happily survives him, were among the founders of that
once flourishing township – Hillsborough. Between them they made
an immense amount of continuous work by their enterprise and Mr. Arthur
Clingin was very successful in his early undertakings. As a miner
indeed he possessed a shrewd practical knowledge of the business
when that knowledge was not so widely diffused as it is now, and when
there was more hopeful material to exercise that knowledge upon.
During more recent years he took a less active part in mining
affairs, but his interest in the progress of the industry remained as
keen as ever. Nothing pleased him better than to talk of the
early days the very mention of which would light up his face with the
force of vivid recollections. As a man he was genial and kind and
we should say, from what I saw of him, scrupulously just in his
dealings. When the mining history of Yackandandah comes to be
finally written, it is certain the name of Arthur Clingin will occupy a
conspicuous position”.
Page last updated -
25 July
2006