HISTORY

THE LATE MR J. W. HAYES, (SENIOR)-Roger's Great, Great Grand Father

It was our most painful duty to have announced, in our issue of Friday las,t, briefly, the melancholy intelligence of the death of Mr. James William Hayes, Senior, one of the oldest, most prominent, distinguished and conspicuous of the residents of the Mysore Province and, more recently, of the civil and Military Station of Bangalore, and who was widely known throughout the Mysore Province during the past fifty years. The deceased gentleman began his public career at an early age,at an age when most men were still under the control and guidance of pastors and masters. The annals of Bangalore would, indeed, present a blank, if we did not record in these columns, as full a biographical notice as far as the information at our disposal and our own personal knowledge of a deceased gentleman during a long course of years, can furnish. The late Mr. Hayes was so widely known that his name and career had become welded with the progress and prosperity of the Bangalore Cantonment and Bangalore City and we may, without exaggeration, say, with the progress and prosperity of the Mysore Province - that it is but simple justice to the memory of the deceased gentleman that the large circle of the members of his family, of his relatives and of his friends, should have before them as a permanent record, the fullest account of his eminently useful career as a citizen in the varied capacities of life which he so worthily and creditably filled.

Mr. Hayes was born at Mysore on the 3rd September 1823 and was baptized by the Reverend Elijah Hoole, the well known Pioneer Missionary of the Mysore Wesleyan Mission, whose name and connection with that Mission have become historic.

Mr. Hayes was educated in Bangalore, at first under those good old Missionaries of the Mysore Wesleyan Mission, the Reverend Messrs. Cryer, Hudson and T.Crowther. He then proceeded to Madras and completed his education at that well-known Institution, Bishop Corrie’s Grammar School. On his return to Bangalore he joined the Wesleyan Mission in Mysore and laboured for sometime as a lay itinerant Missionary in the hamlets and villages in the Neighbourhood of Bangalore. He, however, gave up the idea of entering the Missionary field, as indeed he had intended to do, and proceeded to Madras where he entered himself as a student of the old Madras Medical School - the present world-famed Madras Medical College with its galaxy of professors not then in existence, and remained there for about fourteen months, at the end of which time, he quitted the Medical School, and returned to Bangalore, where he took service again with the Mysore Wesleyan Mission as Head Master of the Wesleyan Anglo-Canarese School, Bangalore. During this time Mr. Hayes devoted himself to the study of Canarese and Sanscrit. and attained a thorough knowledge of these languages, the more thoroughly so as he was well schooled in Greek and Latin. After a while, the deceased gentleman entered the public service in the European Mysore Commission as Canarese Translator in the Superintendent's Office, Nagar Division, Mysore, but owing to ill-health, was compelled to resign this appointment, and then turned his attention to the business of a general merchant, in which line, as in other matters to which he put his hand, he achieved much success. As a merchant he acquired a thorough knowledge of accounts and, indeed, proved himself to be second to none in the matter of keeping and auditing of accounts. We then find him undertaking what was then considered to be the very onerous and difficult position of Sayer Isaradar or Farmer of the public revenue, (Octroi duties) of the late Bangalore Division, in which, as usual in all that he undertook, he rendered the highest satisfaction to the Government. We next find the deceased gentleman devoting his unabated energies in a semi-private capacity, namely, as Editor and Proprietor of the Bangalore Price Current, the first English newspaper published in the Mysore Province, and which was subsequently converted into the Bangalore Herald, of which journal he continued as Editor for some time. During his career, Mr. Hayes made himself known by his writings as a sound logical and brusque writer - many of his editorials having attracted the attention of the public. Again we find him, with indomitable pluck and energy, taking up public contracts for the supply of horse-gram, forage, bread and other provisions for the troops in Bangalore, as also for the supply of horse-gram and other provisions for the Remount Depot at Muttikerray, near Hosur.

Mr. Hayes then turned his attention to Coffee Planting, for which purpose he purchased the ‘'Hermitage Coffee Estate" on the Shevaroy Hills, and this Estate he worked with the characteristic energy so peculiar to him. In this career he showed his brother-planters how to obtain the best results with good labour and high cultivation. He introduced into that part of the District a class of labour from the neighbouring Districts which proved most beneficial to the Planters in general, by importing and encouraging maistries and their gangs with kind treatment and good wages.
The deceased gentleman, after this, returned to official life in the capacity of Chief Canarese Translator to the Chief Commissioner of Mysore (the late Sir. Mark Cubbon), who entertained the highest regard for his mental capabilities and qualifications as a Translator, and the general management of the office under his charge. During the time he held this appointment he turned his attention to gold mining with the assistance of old Charles Elliott, the Australian miner, and became the first Concessionaire of the gold mines in the Kolar and Betamangalum Taluks. In this connection it may be well to state that it was Mr. Hayes who first introduced General Beresford, the late Colonel J. L. Pearse and Major Lindsay to engage Mr. M. Lavelle (now amongst us) to apply for the very same lands, so that it is to Mr. Hayes perception and enterprise that we are indebted for the flourishing district now known as the Kolar Gold Fields. Mr. Hayes must therefore be looked upon as the Pioneer of the gold-mining industry in the Province of Mysore. And be it said to his modesty that when others had, during his lifetime, claimed to be the Pioneers of the said industry, he simply laughed in his sleeve, but cared not to come forward and lay his just claim to the title, although General Beresford and several other gentlemen could have substantiated his claim thereto.
About this time Mr. Hayes became the Proprietor and Editor of that well- known Journal - the Vrittanta Bodhini, the first Canarese newspaper in the Province under the auspices of the Government, who made annual grants towards its up-keep and took a number of copies of every issue for popular distribution in each Taluk.
During the regime of Sir Charles Trevelyan, Governor of Madras, Mr. Hayes was, (on the recommendation of the late Sir Mark Cubbon, and having become generally known by means of his contributions to the papers on topics engrossing the public attention at the time), appointed a Deputy Collector of the Madurai District in the Uncovenanted Civil Service of the Madras Presidency, and in which capacity he was also President of the Madurai Municipality. Indeed to Mr. Hayes must be accorded the credit of having first suggested to the Madras Government the Formation of Municipalities for Sanitary purposes in the large towns and stations of South India. On his transfer to Madras Mr. Hayes resigned his appointment under the Madras Government and returned to Bangalore, whence he proceeded to Sri Rangapatnam, where, at a village named Palhully close by, he purchased the famous Ashtagram Sugar Works and Rum Factory from Messrs. Henry Groves & Co. Of this Factory he was sole Proprietor for about eight years, and at the end of that time he sold the Works and Factory to a Joint Stock Company, which worked the concern for many years with success, but the Company was wound up about ten years ago. Mr. Hayes was at the same time a Public Contractor and had obtained the Abkarri Contract for the Mysore and Hassan Districts. At this  time he also took to Coffee and Coffee Planting by purchasing from Mr. Minchin, the Pioneer of the Coffee Industry in Coorg, the Tittimutty Coffee Estate in South Coorg. Mr. Hayes, during his visit to the famous Fort at Seringapatam, discovered a large quantity of gunshots in the River Cauvery near the Fort. He obtained permission from the Government to remove these shots, paying a small sum for the concession to the Government, and he founded the Burton Iron Works, where these shots were beaten out with a steam hammer and ploughshares and all sorts of Agricultural implements were manufactured from the best malleable iron.

With the Newspaper Press of Southern India, in which the Province of Mysore is included, Mr. Hayes connection is too well-known to call for any lengthy record. He removed himself from Mysore where he had been residing for some years to Bangalore, where, with that restless energy which always seemed desirous of change he in 1871 started the Bangalore Examiner, a tri-weekly journal, which continued, if we remember alright till 1882, when he purchased the copy- right and goodwill of the Bangalore Daily Post, a paper which had been started in the interval by the grand journalist - the late Mr. Alexander Houston of Jersey, New York, U.S.A.
These two papers are now issued as one, and a daily Edition for the Post, and as a triweekly for the Examiner. Mr. Hayes was also engaged in the issue of other publications from his Press, namely the Mysore (Chief Court) Law Reports; a newly printed and handsomely bound volume entitled "The Mysore Maharajah's Tour" and "The Mysore and Coorg Directory" (since 1881), which later publication is on all hands admittedly considered and acknowledged to be the most trust-worthy compendium of reference for all things and persons concerning the Mysore Province from year to year; and more recently the publication entitled. "Weekly notes on the cases in the Chief Court of Mysore."
Mr. Hayes took the chief part and was indeed one of the promoters of "The Maharajah of Mysore Cotton and Spinning Manufacturing Company Limited," and of which he was for some years a Director and Legal Adviser.
Mr. Hayes also took a large interest in the commerce and trade of the Mysore Province, and owing to constant agitations by him in the Daily Post and other newspapers, the Mysore State Railway (now the Southern Mahratta Railway) and its extensions in the Province were sanctioned and have now become faits accomplis. He was for many years and till very recently a Director of the Bangalore Bank Limited and its moving spirit. This Bank was at one time in a very precarious condition and likely to collapse, when Mr. Hayes, with that keen perception and indomitable perseverance to ensure success, came to its rescue. At this time the Bank shares were nominally Rs.200 each and the Bank was paying but poor dividends on such shares on a fictitious capital - there being a large unsecured debt. Mr. Hayes resuscitated matters by having his proposition, (which was at first most strenuously opposed) carried viz. to reduce the capital, thereby decreasing the shares by 30 per cent. The present flourishing condition of this Bank (second to none in Southern India) is entirely owing to this very wise and timely reduction.

As in all other matters of public interest and progress which concerned the Civil and Military Station so in matters Municipal, the deceased gentleman took the liveliest and most enduring interest by devoting a large portion of his valuable time and attention to them during the number of years he held the position of an elected Commissioner on the Board; most especially in the long- pending question of the Bangalore Water Supply, which now seems approaching a practical solution through his untiring exertions.
Mr. Hayes' connection with the Bangalore Rifle Volunteer Corps is well known, and his services to that Corps and the deep and abiding interest he took in all matters that concerned the Corps are equally well known. He was appointed a Lieutenant of the Corps on the 22 July 1873, and at the time of his decease, had attained the rank of Major and Honorary Paymaster. He was present at the Delhi Assemblage in 1879. He took the greatest interest in the formation of the Volunteer Reserve in this Province as is evident from the voluminous printed correspondence before us with the Military authorities at Simla and in the Madras Presidency, the result of which was that a large Volunteer Reserve Force has now been formed in this station and in the Province generally. So zealous and earnest was he as to his duties that he had attended the last General's Inspection on the 25th March 1892, when it is said he contracted the illness (pneumonia) to which he succumbed.
On the 17th June 1869 Mr. Hayes was enrolled as a Pleader of the Court of the Judicial Commissioner of Mysore by the presiding Judge, Mr. J.R.Kindersley, who subsequently became a puisne Judge of the Madras High Court of Judicature. So that at the time of his death Mr. Hayes had been in successful practice for 23 years, the designation of First Grade Pleader in the meanwhile having been changed to Advocate. On the 2nd October 1886 the Government of India was pleased, on the recommendation of the Local Government. to appoint Mr. Hayes as a Notary Public for the Province of Mysore.
Mr. Hayes' connection with Free Masonry is not less close and intense than in all that we have recorded above in his life-career. He was admitted into the Masonic Brotherhood in July 1845. At the time of his death he had attained to the dignities of Past District Grand Junior Warden of the District Grand Lodge of Madras, Past District Grand Principal J of the District Grand Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons of Madras, Past Grand Master Overseer of the Grand Lodge of Mark Masters in England, &c.   His mother Lodge was Lodge Bangalore No. 1043, and for this Lodge he had done many great services, most especially in securing for the Brethren their present Temple in Primrose Road.
The deceased gentleman was married three times and has had a large number of children (14 we believe) and numerous grand-children. He has left behind surviving one brother, one sister, his widow, five sons, four daughters and fifty-six grand children, to which must be added five great-grand children.
We have thus had the pleasure and satisfaction of recording, as fully as the information at our disposal could command, the life-history of a man who, for fifty years, and more especially during the past generation, lived, and moved and had his being amongst us, as one of the most prominent, distinguished and most useful citizens; distinguished and useful not only in his own day, when he was a living figure, most familiar to all of us in our every day life, but whose practical work and labour will also leave their prints behind him, and for which we, his survivors, will reap the benefit and advantage. Kind, courteous, patient, forbearing, charitable, affable, of a calm dispassionate temper, magnanimous, and of the keenest perceptions, and tact, the late Mr. Hayes was a pattern and example to all those around him with whom he came in personal contact. The deceased gentleman possessed a temperament which no rebuffs could ruffle, and no difficulties and opposition daunt.
Having made up his mind as to the justice and correctness of the course to be adopted in regard to public questions for the welfare and benefit of the public, he had the courage of his convictions and resolutely persevered in them till he had accomplished the end in view. Success did not elate him, failure never discouraged him.
A man so various that he seemed to be Not one, but all mankind’s epitome.
He might well say in spirit to us, his survivors; "Fellow citizens of Bangalore, do you seek a monument for me? Look around; and we, his survivors may truly say of him -
He was a man, take him for all in all, We shall not look upon his like again.