Free The Mayne Inheritance by Rosamond Siemon

uneducated Mayne’s political aspirations, was probably instrumental in ensuring a second donation, this time of £100 from Patrick. Mayne was publicly hailed as a generous donor, made one of the patrons, and, as such, was invited to replace the Catholic Duncan on the temporary Board of Education. He then took practical action to demonstrate his belief in the school. Nine-year-old Rosanna remained with herteacher, but his first-born son, Isaac, aged seven, was enrolled at the Government’s Normal School, a forerunner to that near Adelaide and Edward Streets. In that act Patrick was now seen as a supporter of the needs of all the town’s children, not just those of the Irish Catholic immigrants.
    Perhaps it was on Raff’s advice that he curbed his larrikinism and avoided trouble with the law. From June 1858 until August 1860, well after both local and Queensland Government elections had been finalised, he managed to stay out of court. But the brutish characteristics in his nature were always there; he could not suddenly become docile. The press record suggests that he still threatened people with his whip, but for that period, he apparently did not use it.
    By the time the heated debates on incorporation had resolved themselves and the municipality of Brisbane was proclaimed (7 August 1859), thirty-seven candidates were ready to contest the nine aldermanic seats. Five weeks later the town’s businessmen were runaway winners: John Petrie (builder and contractor), Patrick Mayne (butcher), T.B. Stephens (tanner and fellmonger), Joshua Jeays (architect and builder), A.J. Hockings (seedsman), George Edmonstone (butcher), Robert Cribb (baker and land agent), and two innkeepers, George Warren and William Sutton. Of the 1,519 votes cast, John Petrie, educated, able, and possibly the most respected man in the settlement, topped the poll with 325 votes. Patrick Mayne, with little respect for the law, but a wealthy patron of the school with a glib Irish tongue and boundless enthusiasm and energy, achieved274. At last his name was high on a public list, proudly second instead of being at the tag-end, and ahead of the educated, socially accepted and wealthy T.B. Stephens, who had become part-proprietor of the Moreton Bay Courier.
    It had not been easy to find nine good men who wanted this unpaid responsibility. On election, Petrie contented himself with promising to discharge his duties faithfully. Mayne declared that he would concentrate on work rather than talk, and was sure that his election reflected the appreciation of the community for the work he had already done. Stephens implied that he had not solicited election, but would accept office as a matter of duty. ‘‘Honest Bob’’, Robert Cribb, known for his simple tastes, austere habits and personal kindness, was further down the poll. Petrie and Cribb were men for whom Patrick and the townsfolk had great respect. Petrie appears to have kept a business length away from Mayne, but Cribb, more charitable towards his fellow men, offered the Maynes neighbourly concern at several times of need.
    All nine aldermen were practical men. Most had some formal education, a few had almost none, but they had all made their own successful way in a rough, uncaring colony. Seven of them were bearded and soberly dressed and looked the epitome of city fathers; the clean-shaven, nattily dressed Sutton and Mayne both had police records. Sutton’s was related to being drunk in charge of his hotel. One wonders what dark and fearsome thoughts whispered in Mayne’s mind at meeting after meeting as he satopposite William Sutton in Council. In 1848, those two men, with Lynch and Platt, had been post-midnight drinking companions at Sutton’s Bush Inn a short while before Patrick Mayne murdered Robert Cox, and Sutton had been arrested as a suspect.
    Patrick’s role as school patron had been worn with great success during the municipal elections. In the