[1]: 6 According to family legend, Craig invented a means for igniting and extinguishing street lights from the ground, thus obviating the need for ladders, however there is no evidence of any patent having been lodged.
[1]: 6 By whatever means, he amassed enough money to bring his family to the Swan River Colony, arriving on the ship Sophia on 27 July 1850.
Magistrates (Meares and Cowan) developed a high level of prejudice towards him as a result of what were considered flagrant misdemeanours in the past.
[13] In October 1854, Craig sold alcohol on a Sunday and an incident that some described as a riot occurred at the Castle Hotel, resulting in extensive damage to the building.
This emotional outbreak, coupled with strong community support for the Craigs, tipped the scales in their favour and his licence was not lost.
[15] In October 1862, Craig advertised that he had completed a large addition to his hotel[16] but within two months he also announced that he was about to retire because of hill-health and would rent his premises.
In November he advertised that the Perth authorities had refused to renew his licence, claiming that the "best appointed inn in the Colony" was about to be closed down.
An indignant Samuel Craig wrote a letter to the paper saying that “such an atrocity has never been committed on my premises since I have kept the Castle Hotel, extending over 14 years”.
The newspaper published a note to the effect that the “case of stabbing occurred at Albert’s York Hotel on the day in question”.