Project Gutenberg Australia a treasure-trove of literature treasure found hidden with no evidence of ownership

HomeSearch SiteContact UsSite MapOur FREE ebooksHelp

SALOMONS, SIR JULIAN EMANUEL (1836-1909), advocate and politician,

son of Emanuel Salomons, a merchant of Birmingham, was born at Edgbaston, England, on 4 November 1836. He came to Australia in 1853 and was for a time secretary of the great Synagogue at Sydney. In 1858 he went to England where he entered at Gray's Inn and was called to the bar in 1861. He returned to Sydney and at first made a reputation in criminal cases, coming especially into notice in connexion with the case of Louis Bertrand who was sentenced to death on a charge of murder. Salomons entered parliament and in December 1869 became solicitor-general in the second Robertson (q.v.) ministry which became the fifth Cowper (q.v.) ministry in January 1870. Cowper resigned on 15 December 1870 and Salomons was not in office again for many years. In the meantime his reputation as an advocate had steadily grown and when Sir James Martin (q.v.) died on 4 November 1886 Salomons was offered and accepted the position of chief justice. Twelve days later he resigned on the ground that the appointment was distasteful to two of the judges and to a third (Sir) William Windeyer, Salomons said "the appointment appears to be so wholly unjustifiable as to have led to the utterance by him of such expressions and opinions . . . as to make any intercourse in the future between him and me quite impossible". This Salomons felt could not fail to affect most unfavourably the whole business of the court (Sydney Morning Herald, 19 November 1886). All three judges wrote disclaiming what had been attributed to them, and letters signed by the leading members of the bar and leading solicitors asked Salomons to reconsider his decision without effect. Windeyer admitted that he thought the appointment "a grave mistake", but whatever else he may have said had probably not lost in the retelling of it. Salomons appears to have been unduly sensitive about the matter. In March 1887 he became vice-president of the executive council in the fourth Parkes (q.v.) ministry, and he held the same position in the second Dibbs (q.v.) ministry from October 1891 to January 1893. His term in the legislative council lasted from 1887 to 1899. He fought against federation because he believed too much power was to be given to the smaller states. For a period in 1899-1900 he acted as agent-general for New South Wales at London. He was appointed standing counsel for the Commonwealth government in New South Wales in 1903, but practically retired from practice in 1907, although he made a few subsequent appearances in court. He died after a short illness on 6 April 1909. He married in 1862, Louisa, daughter of M. Solomon, who survived him with two daughters. He was knighted in 1891.

Salomons was short of stature and somewhat handicapped by defective eyesight. He had great industry, great powers of analysis, a keen intellect and unbounded energy and pertinacity. He not only had a great knowledge of his own case, he knew his opponent's too, and was always ready for any emergency. He was a great case lawyer and has been called a brilliant lawyer rather than a great advocate, but when moved by a just cause his oratory rose to great heights. In connexion with the Dean poisoning case in 1895 a solicitor made statements impugning Salomon's honour, and his impassioned defence of his conduct in the legislative council was long remembered as possibly the finest piece of speaking ever heard in that chamber. His wit and readiness were proverbial, and he was afraid of no judge. Some of his wit appears somewhat barbed, but he was really a good-natured man who, though he pretended he was overfond of money, had been known to argue a case without a fee because it was an important one involving the liberty of the subject. The real basis of his success as an advocate was, that he decided from the beginning that every case would have the same attention as if it were marked with a 200 guinea fee, and to the end of his career he never ceased working on his cases until the last minute available.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 April 1909; The Times, 7 April 1909; A. B. Piddington, Worshipful Masters; Who's Who, 1909.

SALTING, GEORGE (1835-1909), art collector,

was born at Sydney on 15 August 1835. His father, Severin Kanute Salting, was a Dane who had large interests in New South Wales, and in 1858 made a gift of £500 to the university of Sydney to found scholarships to be awarded to students proceeding from Sydney Grammar School. It is not recorded which school George Salting went to in Sydney--it may possibly have been Sydney College, of which Sydney Grammar School was a revival. About 1848 George Salting was sent to England and continued his education at Eton. He returned to Sydney, and entering at the newly founded university won prizes for compositions in Latin hexameters in 1855 and 1857, in Latin elegiacs in 1856, 1857 and 1858, and for Latin essays in 1854 and 1856. He graduated B.A. in 1857. The family went to England and the father dying, when Salting had barely entered middle age, left him a fortune which has been estimated at £30,000 a year. Largely influenced by the well-known connoisseur, Louis Huth, Salting began collecting Chinese porcelain, for which he developed a fine discriminating taste. As the years went by his collection gradually extended and included English furniture, bronzes, majolica, glass, hard stones, manuscripts, miniatures, pictures, carpets, and indeed almost everything one would expect to find in a good museum. He was a most careful buyer, as a rule dealing only with two or three men whom he felt he could trust, though he sometimes bought at auction. He often obtained expert advice and his own knowledge was always growing. As a consequence he made few mistakes and these were usually corrected by the pieces being exchanged for better specimens. He lived mostly in London and except for an occasional few days shooting, he made his collecting his occupation. He died on 12 December 1909. He never married, his personal wants were few, and he did not give largely to charities. In spite of his large expenditure on collecting, his fortune increased and his will was sworn at over £1,300,000. Of this £10,000 was left to London hospitals, £2000 to the Prince Alfred hospital at Sydney, and £30,000 to relatives and others. The residue of his estate went to the heirs of his brother who predeceased him. He bequeathed to the national gallery, London, such of his pictures, and to the British Museum such of his prints and drawings, as the trustees might select. The remainder of his art collection went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, with the proviso that it was to be kept together and not distributed over the various departments. It is a remarkable collection to have been got together by one man, the standard being extraordinarily high. The Chinese pottery and porcelain it is true belongs mostly to the later dynasties, but it must be remembered that much of the work of the great T'ang period was practically unprocurable when Salting was collecting. It was suggested at the time of his death that as his wealth had been drawn from Australia some of his collection might well be sent to the Australian galleries. Nothing came of this; probably the legal difficulties were insurmountable.

The Times, 14, 15, 17, 31 December 1909, 26 January 1910; The Salting Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum Guides; The Sydney Herald, 20 August 1835; The Sydney University Calendar, 1862, 1938; personal knowledge of the collection.

SALVADO, RUDESINDUS (1814-1900), founder of New Norcia, Western Australia,

was born in Spain in 1814. He joined the Benedictine order of monks and was obliged to leave Spain on account of political action in 1835. He took refuge for 10 years in Italy with another Benedictine, Joseph Serra, and became well-known as an organist. In 1845 Dr Brady, who had been appointed Roman Catholic bishop of Perth, took them to Western Australia as missionaries, where they arrived in January 1846. Some 13 months later the two missionaries went into the bush to open a mission station about 70 miles north of Perth. For three months they lived with the blacks, subsisting on the same food and often suffering much from want of water. Salvado then decided to return to Perth for assistance. He arrived with his clothes almost torn off his back, and strong efforts were made by the bishop to persuade him to abandon the mission. This he felt he could not do, and as the bishop had no means with which he could help him, Salvado decided to give a concert in Perth. It was supported by people of all denominations, a good sum was raised, clothes, food, seed and a plough were purchased for the mission, and loading these on a cart Salvado made his way back. The little community ploughed and sowed the land, only to have its crops destroyed by animals. To add to its misfortunes it was found that the land reclaimed had already been allotted to another settler. Some 40 acres of new land was, however, allotted to them, and with help from some of the colonists a small monastry was built. Later more land was given to them and the aborigines, realizing that they were receiving nothing but kindness from their visitors, began to trust and listen to them. A school was opened for the children and gradually the mission prospered both temporally and spiritually. Serra went to Europe and collected funds for the mission which enabled fresh developments to be made. In 1849 Serra was consecrated bishop of Port Victoria but shortly afterwards became coadjutor to Bishop Brady. Salvado was appointed to Port Victoria, but the colony being abandoned, found himself a bishop without a see. He had been sent to Europe to raise funds for the Perth diocese and did not return to Australia until 1853. The mission at New Norcia continued to develop in his hands, but in 1866 he was nominated bishop of Perth. He, however, was able to persuade the Vatican authorities that his true vocation lay with the aborigines. In 1867 New Norcia became an abbey with Salvado as perpetual abbot and bishop. In 1871 a brick chapel was built and a more substantial monastery, the boundaries of the mission were gradually extended, and the mission became self-supporting. Salvado died while on a visit to Rome on 29 December 1900, but his work has been carried on by other hands.

Salvado had limitless faith, patience, courage, and understanding of the primitive mind. As the children of the aborigines grew up, they were taught how to maintain themselves with a success scarcely rivalled in any other part of Australia. His work is a perpetual message of hope to all interested in the aboriginal problem.

H. N. Birt, Benedictine Pioneers in Australia; The Catholic Encyclopedia (under New Norcia): P. F. Cardinal Moran, History of the Catholic Church in Australia.

SANDES, JOHN (1863-1938), journalist and author,

son of the Rev. Samuel D. Sandes, was born at Cork, Ireland, in 1863. He was educated at Trinity College, Stratford-on-Avon, and Oxford university, where he graduated B.A. in 1885. He came to Melbourne in 1887 and joined the staff of the Argus, for which he was a capable musical and dramatic critic. He was one of the original three journalists who conducted the "Passing Show" column, a feature of the paper carried on by generations of writers for more than 50 years. A collection of Sandes's verses from this column, Rhymes of the Times, was published in 1898, and in 1900 appeared another collection, Ballads of Battle, which included a poem "With Death's Prophetic Ear" which gave Sandes a popular reputation. In 1903 he became a leader writer and reviewer on the Sydney Daily Telegraph, and in 1919 represented that paper at the peace conference. He was editor of the Harbour, a monthly devoted to shipping interests, from 1925 until shortly before his death on 29 November 1938. In his own name and under the pseudonym of "Don Delaney" Sandes was the author of several short popular novels, which were published between 1910 and 1917 and are listed in Miller's Australian Literature. He married in 1897, Claire Louise, daughter of Sir Graham Berry (q.v.), and was survived by two sons. He was an excellent journalist with a special talent for writing occasional verse.

The Argus, 30 November 1938; E. Morris Miller, Australian Literature.

SARGOOD, SIR FREDERICK THOMAS (1834-1903), politician and public man,

was born at Walworth, London, on 30 May 1834. His father, Frederick James Sargood, came to Melbourne in 1849, and became a member of the old legislative council. In 1856 he was elected to the legislative assembly for St Kilda. He founded the softgoods business at Melbourne, afterwards so well-known, and died in England in 1871. He married Emma, daughter of Thomas Rippon, chief cashier in the Bank of England, and Frederick Thomas Sargood was their eldest child. He was educated at private schools and in 1850 followed his father to Melbourne. He first obtained a position in the public works department, but in 1851 joined his father's business, and in 1859 became a junior partner in it. In the same year he joined the Victorian volunteer artillery as a private and eventually reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He also took an interest in rifle shooting and was one of the best shots in Victoria. In May 1874 he was elected a member of the legislative council, and in 1875 he became the first chairman of the Melbourne harbour trust. He visited England in 1880, and was appointed a delegate by the Victorian government to represent the colony before the imperial commission for the protection of British possessions abroad. He returned to Melbourne in 1882 and in March 1883 became an honorary minister in the Service (q.v.) government. In the same year when the defence department was formed, he was the first minister of defence, and carried through the reorganization of the defences which involved the change over from volunteer to militia forces. Rifle clubs were formed and the important cadet corps movement for schoolboys was also due to Sargood's efforts. In 1885 he took the additional portfolio of minister of water-supply, and held both positions until the resignation of the ministry in February 1886. He was appointed vice-president of the Melbourne centennial exhibition of 1888 and subsequently executive vice-president and treasurer. He was also president of the Melbourne chamber of commerce from 1886 to 1888, and his name stood very high in -the business world. When he joined his father's business it was a comparatively small one, but now under the name of Sargood Butler and Nichol it had become one of the largest in Australia, with branches in other cities. It was subsequently extended to New Zealand and before Sargood's death the number of employees was over 5000. When W. E. Hearn (q.v.) died in 1888 Sargood became leader of the legislative council, in which position he examined all bills coming from the legislative assembly and showed much critical ability. He joined the Munro (q.v.) ministry in November 1890 as minister of defence and of education, but withdrew when the ministry was reconstructed under Shiels (q.v.) in February 1892, because he was unable to agree with Shiels's adhesion to the "one man one vote" principle.

Though a conservative, Sargood had piloted the first factories act through the council with ability, and so far as his own firm was concerned the Saturday half-holiday had been brought in as far back as 1852. Sargood joined the Turner (q.v.) government in September 1894 as minister of defence, but about three months later again resigned on a question of principle. He took up again the position of leader of the council and had a prominent part in the federation movement. His views on the tariff prevented his being elected as one of the Victorian delegates to the 1897 convention, but at the first federal election in 1901 he was elected as one of the senators for Victoria in spite of the opposition of the protectionist press. When the senate met he was nominated for the position of president which, however, went to Sir Richard Baker (q.v.) by 21 votes to 12. Sargood, however, took a leading position in the house. He died suddenly while on a holiday in New Zealand on 2 January 1903. He was created C.M.G. in 1885 and K.C.M.G. in 1890. He married (1) in 1858, Marion Australian, daughter of the Hon. George Rolfe, M.L.C., and (2) in 1880, Julia, daughter of James Tomlin. Lady Sargood survived him with five sons and four daughters of the first marriage, and one daughter of the second.

Sargood was a man of the finest character both in business and as a politician, shrewd, energetic, and scrupulously honest. He was prominently connected with many philanthropic and religious movements. In politics he was a good speaker and debater, with a capacity for organization and a command of details, and in his work as defence minister he showed wisdom, energy and foresight.

Burke's Colonial Gentry, 1891; The Argus, Melbourne, 3 and 5 January, 1903; The Age, Melbourne, 3 January 1903; The Cyclopedia of Victoria, 1903; Victoria, the First Century; P Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.

SCADDON, JOHN (1876-1934), (correct spelling is SCADDAN ed.) premier of Western Australia,

was born at Moonta, South Australia, on 4 August 1876. His family removed to Eaglehawk, Victoria, where he was educated at the local state school. He became a miner until 1896, when he went to Western Australia, and, while working as a miner at Kalgoorlie qualified as an engine-driver. In 1904 he was elected to the legislative assembly as a Labour member and held the seat for 12 years usually unopposed. In 1910 he became leader of the Labour party which obtained a large majority at the 1911 general election. Scaddan then became premier and treasurer in a ministry which was in office for nearly five years. He was also minister of railways from November 1914. His vigorous policy included the establishment of a state shipping service, the purchase of the Perth tramways, and the erection of homes for workers. Defeated in July 1916 Scaddan became leader of the opposition, but left the Labour party over the conscription issue. In June 1917 he became minister for mines and railways in the Lefroy (q.v.) ministry, but lost his seat at an election held in July. Though not in parliament he was appointed colonial secretary and minister for railways in the Mitchell government in May 1919, a fortnight later was elected a member of the legislative assembly, and exchanged the portfolio of colonial secretary for those of mines, industries and forests. After being five years in office he retired from politics for six years. He re-entered the house as a nationalist candidate in 1930, and was minister for mines and railways in the Mitchell government until 1933. He died suddenly at Perth on 22 November 1934. He was made a C.M.G. in 1924. He married in 1904, Miss H. E. Edwards, who survived him with a son and daughter. He was a forceful speaker, a tactful leader, and a good administrator.

The West Australian, 22 November 1934; J. S. Battye, The Cyclopedia of Western Australia; Who's Who, 1934.

SCHULER, GOTTLIEB FREDERICK HENRY (1854-1926), journalist,

was of German parentage and was born at sea on 24 February 1854. He came to Australia With his parents at the age of two, and was educated at Bendigo. After leaving school he did much reading and gained an intimate acquaintance with English, French, and German literature. He joined the staff of the Bendigo Advertiser as a young man, specialized as a mining reporter, and soon had much knowledge of the industry. In March 1879 he was given an appointment on the Melbourne Age in connexion with which he obtained an intimate acquaintance with Victorian politics. He became chief of staff in 1890 and prepared much of the material which led to the attack on the management of the railways, and the famous Speight action for libel. He was appointed editor of the Age on 1 January 1900 and held the position continuously for the remainder of his life. In 1917 to his great grief, his only son, Lieutenant Phillip F. E. Schuler, was killed in action in France. He had been a war correspondent before enlisting in the A.I.F. and had published a volume on the Gallipoli campaign, Australia in Arms, in 1916.

Schuler died suddenly at Melbourne on 11 December 1926 leaving a widow and two daughters. He was an amiable man with a high sense of duty, much interested in music, art, and literature. Belonging as he did to the old school of anonymous journalism he never came much before the public, but as chief of staff he showed great tact, and as editor had his finger on every department of the paper. It might be said that the Age lost prestige under his editorship, but circumstances in Australia were changing rapidly, and no paper will ever again have the power wielded by the Age under Syme (q.v.) and Windsor (q.v.) during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

The Age and The Argus, Melbourne, 13 December 1926.

SCOTT, SIR ERNEST (1867-1939), historian, [ also refer to Ernest SCOTT page at Project Gutenberg Australia]

was born at Northampton, England, on 21 June 1867. He was educated at St Katherine's Church of England school, Northampton, in which later he was a pupil teacher. He then became a journalist, worked on the London Globe, and coming to Melbourne in 1892, worked on the Herald. From 1895 to 1901 he was a member of the Victorian Hansard staff, and from 1901 to 1914 was on the Commonwealth Hansard staff. In 1910 he published Terre Napoléon, and in 1912 Lapérouse. Students of history in Australia quickly realised that a new historian was among them willing to go to an infinity of trouble in preparing his work. One evidence of this was the bibliography appended to Terre Napoléon which contained over a hundred items. In 1913 the university of Melbourne called for applications for the professorship of history, and two applicants were recommended by the English selection committee. There was, however, some doubt whether either was the ideal man for the position and it was decided to call for fresh applications in Australia. It was suggested to Scott that he should apply, and he eventually was appointed. The university council took a bold step for Scott had never attended a university, but he had shown ability both in research and as a lecturer, and the experiment proved a great success. In 1914 Scott's admirable Life of Matthew Flinders appeared, and a Short History of Australia came out in 1916. In 1920 was published Men and Thought in Modern History, which the writer stated "grew out of a practical need for a series of short explanations of some typical modes of thought illustrating . . . the background of modern history". Twenty-four writers and politicians were selected, ranging from Rousseau to H. G. Wells, to each was given a chapter, and bibliographical notes are appended. In History and Historical Problems published in 1925 Scott gave his views on the value, study, and writing of history; chapter II on "Historical Method" may be commended to all who purpose taking up the last of these. The book was based on lectures given to audiences largely of teachers of history, and still retains its value. His Australian Discovery, in two volumes, largely a compilation, was published in 1929, and in 1933 appeared volume VII of The Cambridge History of the British Empire, edited and partly written by Scott. Two years later he edited Lord Robert Cecil's Gold Fields Diary with an introductory chapter. This is a record of an enormous amount of work having been done by a man carrying on heavy professorial duties, and taking his full share in the life of his university. He was dean of the faculty of arts from 1914 to 1924 and president of the professorial board from 1927 to 1930. At the end of 1932 he was granted two years' leave of absence to carry out historical research in Europe, and in December 1936 he resigned, and was appointed emeritus professor. His Australia During the War, being volume XI of The Official History of Australia in the War, appeared in that year. The privately issued Historical Memoir of the Melbourne Club, and A History of the University of Melbourne, were also both published in 1936. Living in retirement at Vermont a few miles out of Melbourne, Scott devoted himself to his garden and his books. In January 1939 as president of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science which met at Canberra, he chose as the subject of his address, "The History of Australian Science", and in February he was appointed a trustee of the public library, museums and national gallery of Victoria. He died at Melbourne after a short illness on 6 December 1939. He was knighted in June 1939. He married (1) a daughter of Mrs Annie Besant, and (2) Emily Dyason who survived him. There was a daughter by the first marriage who died in 1924.

Scott was above medium height, bluff and open in manner, sincere and kindly in character. He was much interested in music, the drama and poetry, in which he had read widely. He had a sound knowledge of his own subject, and was an industrious and fast worker. He did much to bring Australian history to life. He did not always carry out his urgent advice to his students that they should "verify their references" and consequently errors will be found in some of his books. Generally, however, they are in comparatively unessential things and were caused by trusting to a usually reliable memory. As a rule his work is excellent and was always based on conscientious research. As a teacher he was interesting, vivid and inspiring, exacting hard work from his students and insisting on the value of original documents, while also pointing out that even they cannot be blindly accepted. He had a human interest in his students and no trouble was too great for him if it would help them in their work. Among his students were Professors W. K. Hancock of Oxford, S. H. Roberts of Sydney and A. G. B. Fisher of Dunedin.

The Herald, Melbourne, 7 December 1939; The Argus, Melbourne, 7 December 1939; The Times, 8 December 1939; S. H. Roberts, Journal and Proceedings Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. XXVI; personal knowledge and private information.

SCOTT, ROSE (1847-1925), social reformer,

was born at Glendon, New South Wales, on 8 October 1847. Her father, Helenus Scott, born in 1802, came to Australia in 1821, took up land and became well-known as a breeder of cattle and horses. Losing his money in a depression some 20 years later he joined the government service and became a police magistrate. He died in 1879. Her mother, Sarah Anne Rusden, was a daughter of the Rev. G. K. Rusden and sister of G. W. Rusden (q.v.) the historian. Another relative was David Scott Mitchell (q.v.) the son of her father's sister. Rose Scott was brought up on a station, and owing much of her education to her mother, grew into a beautiful and charming girl with a happy home life. For many years she lived at Newcastle but when her father died she moved with her mother to Sydney. They were presently joined, after the death of her sister, by a brother-in-law with one child, a boy of two years whom Miss Scott mothered. He was to be a great interest for her for the rest of her life. Sheltered in this cultured and comfortable home there appeared to be no likelihood of Miss Scott coming into public prominence. But she was interested in the position of women. In March 1891 she attended a meeting called to discuss the formation of a Women's Suffrage League and was appointed corresponding secretary. The work grew and presently she found that she was giving nearly all her time to it, sending out circulars, interviewing public men, and using her influence with her friends, who included many of the leading politicians and writers of the time. Speaking at committee meetings gave her confidence, and she eventually became a witty and accomplished public speaker. Her mother died in 1896 and Miss Scott was left with a home and sufficient income for her needs. Her interest in votes for women led to much study of the position of women in the community, and she found that young girls were working in shops from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on ordinary days, and until 11 p.m. on Saturdays. Some of these girls were asked to come to her house on Sundays and describe the conditions in which they worked, and there leading politicians such as B. R. Wise (q.v.), W. A. Holman (q.v.), W. M. Hughes and T. Bavin (q.v.) met and discussed the drafting of the bill which eventually became the early closing act of 1899. Other reforms advocated and eventually brought in were the appointment of matrons at police stations, of women inspectors in factories and shops, and improvements in the conditions of women prisoners. This entailed an immense amount of correspondence, all written in her own hand. When the women's suffrage act was passed on 1 August 1902 the league for women's suffrage was disbanded and a new organization, the league for political education, was formed. In 1907 Miss Scott organized a branch of the London Peace Society and was its president for 10 years, and she took interest in and worked for all the women's movements of the time. She was an advocate for the testator's family maintenance act (1916), the woman's legal status act (1918), and was active in the establishment of children's courts. She was also for many years international secretary of the national council of women in New South Wales. When she retired in 1921 a presentation of money was made to her which she used to found a prize for women law students at the university. Another subscription was made to have her portrait painted by Longstaff. This now hangs in the art gallery at Sydney. She died after a painful illness, borne with courage, on 20 April 1925.

Miss Scott was a very important figure in her time and did much to improve the status of women. Her home meant a great deal to her and here she met leading men in the arts and letters, distinguished visitors from other lands, politicians of all parties, and clergy of all denominations. She realized that you could hope for no reforms unless you were quite clear about what was needed, and could produce the facts and the necessary evidence for them. Her advocacy of women's suffrage and pacifism brought her some unpopularity and even misrepresentation, but she had a sense of humour, was never too vehement, and was always willing to admit that there were two sides to a question. She was far too fond of the right to pursue the expedient, but she could be a tactician on occasions, though often she disarmed opposition simply-by her reasonableness and sincerity. She was a good leader, able to show initiative and ready to co-ordinate the ideas of other people, she had a fine intellect and great powers of work, she commanded the loyalty of her associates, and the combination of these qualities made her one of the great personalities of her period.

Miles Franklin, The Peaceful Army, p. 90; The Lone Hand, November 1910; The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 April 1925; The Bulletin, 30 April 1925; The Argus, Melbourne, 20 February 1937.

SCOTT, THOMAS HOBBES (c. 1782-1860), clergyman and educationist,

son of the Rev. James Scott, was born either in 1782 or 1783. His death notice in The Times for 5 January 1860 stated that he was in his seventy-eighth year and the Gentleman's Magazine for March 1860 stated that he had died on 1 January aged 76. Little is known of his early life, but J. Mudie's statement that he had been a wine merchant seems unlikely to be true (The Felonry of New South Wales, p. 39). Scott had certainly been in the diplomatic service and had been a clerk to a British consulate in Italy (S. H. Smith and G. T. Spaull, History of Education in New South Wales, p. 37). He matriculated at Oxford university at the late age of 30, on 11 October 1813, and graduated M.A. on 12 November 1818. He was at St Alban Hall, afterwards merged in Merton College. Early in 1819 he was appointed secretary of the commission of J. T. Bigge (q.v.) and Governor Macquarie (q.v.) was instructed that in the event of the death or illness of Bigge, Scott would take his place. After his return to England Scott took holy orders and became rector of Whitfield, Northumberland, in 1822.

Early in 1824, at the request of Earl Bathurst, he drew up a carefully thought out and elaborate plan for providing for churches and schools in Australia. The central idea was that one-tenth of the lands in the colony should be vested in trustees for the support of churches and schools. Primary schools were to be followed by schools for agriculture and trades, and also schools to fit students for a university which was ultimately visualized. He also suggested that pending the establishment of the university a few of the ablest students should be awarded exhibitions to take them to Oxford or Cambridge. His plans were adopted in a modified form, he was appointed archdeacon of New South Wales in October 1824, and he arrived at Sydney on 7 May 1825. He was also made a member of council and a trustee of the clergy and school lands; this corporation, however, had neither land nor funds. Governor Brisbane opposed his suggestion that "government reserves" should be considered church and school lands, and with regard to land generally, comparatively little of it had even been surveyed. Scott too was working on the assumption that the control of education would be in the hands of the Church of England, which brought vigorous opposition from the Presbyterians, Wesleyans and Roman Catholics. Scott's connexion with Bigge and a friendship he had formed with John Macarthur tended to make him unpopular, and though Governor Darling spoke of him as amiable and well-disposed, he quarrelled with several men of the period. On 1 January 1828 he sent his resignation to England and was succeeded in 1829 by Archdeacon, afterwards Bishop, Broughton (q.v.). Scott's final report on the church and school establishment of New South Wales was dated 1 September 1829. He then returned to England, took charge of his parish at Whitfield, and was later made an honorary canon of Durham. He died at Whitfield on 1 January 1860.

Scott was a capable man who was unfortunately quarrelsome and arrogant. He could not get on with his own clergy, and when he visited Tasmania in 1826 a report he made on the state of religion and education raised similar antagonism to that he had experienced in Sydney. He was a hard worker, he had a fine conception of the place education should take in the colony, and during his five years in New South Wales the number of schools and the number of pupils attending regularly were both more than doubled. His proposed scheme of education in Australia could not be accepted at the time, largely because it assumed the ascendancy of the Church of England, but considered broadly it was a statesmanlike piece of work which must have had much influence on the plans that were later developed.

Alumni Oxonienses, 1715-1886, vol. IV later series; S. H. Smith and G. T. Spaull, History of Education in New South Wales; Historical Records of Australia, ser. I, vols. X to XVI; R. AV. Giblin, The Early History of Tasmania, vol. II, pp. 536-41; James Macarthur, New South Wales; Its Present State and Future Prospects.

SCOTT, WALTER (1854-1925), classical scholar,

son of G. I. Scott, was born in 1854. Educated at Christ's Hospital and Balliol College, Oxford, he graduated with first-class honours in classics and the Ireland, Craven and Derby scholarships. From 1879 he was a fellow of Merton College, and in 1884 was appointed professor of classics at the university of Sydney; his inaugural lecture, What is Classical Study, delivered on 23 March 1885, was published as a pamphlet. In the same year his Fragmenta Herculanensia, published at Oxford by the Clarendon Press, established his reputation as a scholar. At Sydney Scott took much interest in the university as a whole. He was one of the leaders in the movement for the establishment of the women's college, and as dean of the faculty of arts encouraged the teaching of modern literature, history and philosophy, and the inauguration of university extension lectures. His health was, however, not good and in 1890 at his own suggestion his chair was divided, and he became professor of Greek. He carried out the duties of this chair for about 10 years, but resigned in August 1900 on account of continued ill-health.

Scott returned to England and in 1905 became professor of classics at McGill university, Montreal. He, however, retired again in 1908 and spent the remainder of his life at Oxford. He contributed several papers to classical journals in England, Australia and Canada, and devoted his later years to the preparation of an edition of the text of Hermetica, The Ancient Greek and Latin Writings which contain Religious or Philosophic Teachings, ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, with an English translation and notes. When Scott died on 26 February 1925 the first volume had been published, and the second and third were in the press. The fourth volume, completed by Professor A. S. Ferguson, came out some years later.

Though essentially a scholar and something of a recluse, Scott's work at Sydney and Montreal was much appreciated. He was modest, unselfish, and always ready to help a good cause. His combination of profound and wide scholarship with idealism was a strong influence in university and teaching life. He did distinguished work as a classical scholar, but the amount of it was limited by his precarious health.

The Times, 27 February 1925; H. E. Barff, A Short Historical Account of the University of Sydney; Calendar of the University of Sydney, 1891, 1901; H. J. C. The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 4 March 1925.

SCRATCHLEY, SIR PETER HENRY (1835-1885), major-general,

first special commissioner for New Guinea, son of Dr James Scratchley, was born at Paris on 24 August 1835. He was educated at Paris and under a tutor before entering Woolwich academy in 1850. He passed out at the head of the list in 1854 and obtained a commission as lieutenant in the royal engineers. He served in the Crimea and Indian mutiny, and in October 1859 was made a captain. In 1860 he was sent to Victoria to plan a system of defence for that colony, but after working on this for over three years his plan was not adopted as a whole. He had, however, constructed batteries around the coast of Port Phillip by expending a comparatively small sum. He returned to England and in 1864 became chief inspector of works at Woolwich and held the office for 12 years. He reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1874 and in 1876 again went to Australia to act in conjunction with General Sir William Jervois in advising the Australian governments upon defence measures. He visited the various colonies and drew up schemes, but found it difficult to persuade the governments concerned to do anything effective. He was retired from the army with the rank of major-general in 1882, returned to England in 1883, and for nearly two years was adviser on defence to the Australian colonies except Western Australia. In November 1884 he was appointed special commissioner for Great Britain in New Guinea. He went to Australia immediately, made financial arrangements with the various colonies, and in August 1885 went to New Guinea to take possession of the new territory. Port Moresby was made the seat of government, questions of land tenure and the cultivation of the land were examined, and good relations were established with many of the natives and with the missionaries. Everything was shaping well until Scratchley contracted malaria in November 1885. He died at sea on 2 December. He was created K.C.M.G. earlier in the year. He married and left a widow and children.

C. Kinlock Cooke, Australian Defences and New Guinea, compiled from Scratchley's papers with Memoir; The Times, 4 December 1885.

SEE, SIR JOHN (1844-1907), premier of New South Wales,

son of Joseph See, was born at Yelling, England, on 14 November 1844. He was brought to Australia in 1853 by his parents who settled on the Hunter River in New South Wales. After three years at school See worked on the family farm, but in 1863 took up land with a brother on the Clarence River. In 1865 he went to Sydney and began business as a produce dealer. This business became very flourishing under the name of John See and Company. He also became a partner in a small coastal shipping company, Nipper and See, which was afterwards floated into a company, as the North Coast Steam Navigation Company. See was a shrewd investor and became very well known in business circles in Sydney. He entered politics in 1880 as member for Clarence and remained its member until he retired in 1904. In October 1885 he joined the Dibbs (q.v.) government as postmaster-general, but Dibbs was defeated before the end of the year. See was not in office again until October 1891 when he became for nearly three years colonial treasurer in the third Dibbs ministry. He was in charge of the bill which brought in the first protectionist tariff in New South Wales. The whole of his period as treasurer was marked by much financial stress throughout Australia. From August 1894 until September 1899 Reid (q.v.) was in power, but when Lyne (q.v.) came in See was his colonial secretary. On Lyne transferring to federal politics in March 1901 See became premier and held office until June 1904. Failing health then compelled him to retire. He accepted a seat in the council but was unable afterwards to exercise much influence in politics. He died at Sydney on 31 January 1907. He married in 1876 Charlotte May Matthews who died in 1904. He was survived by four daughters and three sons. He was created K.C.M.G. in 1902.

See was a self-made man of strong character, an excellent business man and a sound politician. He was a good friend, much esteemed on both sides of the house, for Labour politicians remembered that during his administration the establishment of the State clothing factory had a great influence in abolishing sweating, and that women's suffrage was also brought in in his time. He was a director of several well-known companies, a trustee of the Savings Bank of New South Wales, and president of the Royal Agricultural Society.

Burke's Peerage, etc., 1907; The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 February 1907; The Daily Telegraph, 1 February 1907.

SELWYN, ALFRED RICHARD CECIL (1824-1902), geologist,

was the son of Rev. Townsend Selwyn, canon of Gloucester cathedral, and his wife, Charlotte Sophia, daughter of Lord George Murray, bishop of St David's, and grand-daughter of the fourth Duke of Athol. He was born on 28 July 1824 and was educated by private tutors and afterwards in Switzerland. At the age of 21 he joined the English geological survey under Sir Henry de la Beche and (Sir) A. C. Ramsay. He had invaluable experience in the preparation of geological maps of western England and north Wales, and earned great commendation from Ramsay. In 1852 he was appointed director of the geological survey of Victoria, where he built up an excellent staff including R. Daintree (q.v.), C. D. H. Aplin, C. S. Wilkinson (q.v.), R. A. F. Murray (q.v.), H. Y. L. Brown (q.v.) and R. Etheridge (q.v.), with (Sir) F. McCoy (q.v.) as palaeontologist. He was a strict disciplinarian and from the beginning set up a very high standard of work in his department. During his 17 years as director over 60 geological maps were issued which were among the best of their period; they were models of accuracy which established a tradition of geological mapping in Australia. Selwyn was also responsible for several reports on the geology of Victoria, and added much to the knowledge of gold-bearing rocks. He discovered the Caledonian goldfield near Melbourne in 1854 and in the following year reported on coal seams in Tasmania. In 1869 the geological survey was terminated by the government of Victoria on economical grounds. In the same year, on the recommendation of the retiring director, Sir W. E. Logan, Selwyn was appointed director of the geological survey of Canada.

Selwyn took up his duties on 1 December 1869. There was an immense area to be covered, and though the staff was increased, it was necessarily inadequate.

His period of 25 years as director was full of activity and a large amount of work was done. In 1870 he made a valuable report on the goldfields of Nova Scotia, in the following year he was on the other side of Canada exploring in British Columbia, and in the next year he was working between Lake Superior and Winnipeg. All the time he was keeping in mind that however interesting problems might be from a scientific point of view, a government survey must be able to collect the facts and bring them to bear on questions of public utility. Every year he presented a Summary of the geological investigations made by his staff. He retired from his directorship on 1 December 1894 and died at Vancouver, British Columbia, on 19 October 1902. He married in 1852 Matilda Charlotte, daughter of the Rev. Edward Selwyn and was survived by three sons and a daughter (Dict. Nat. Biog. 2nd Supp). He was elected a fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1871, of the Royal Society of London in 1874, and received the Murchison medal from the Geological Society in 1876, and the Clarke medal from the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1884. He was made chevalier de la légion d'honneur, Paris, in 1878, and C.M.G. in 1886. A list of his publications and maps will be found in the Proceedings and Transactions, Royal Society of Canada, vol. X, section IV, pp. 191-205. A list relating to his work in Australia will be found in Bulletin No. 23 of the geological survey of Victoria.

Selwyn was tall, quick and alert, and somewhat highly-strung. His writings are scholarly and extremely well composed. He had great force of character with a gift for seeing what was really important in any problem, and no care was too great if it led to the solution. He belonged to the highest class of structural geologists and his work was of the greatest value wherever he was employed.

H. W. Ami, Memorial or Sketch of the Life of the late Dr A. R. C. Selwyn, Proceedings and Transactions Royal Society of Canada, sec. IV, 1904; Geological Magazine, vol. VI, 1899; Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, vol. 75; E. J. Dunn, Bulletin No. 23 Geological Survey of Victoria; E. W. Skeats, David Lecture, 1933; Some Founders of Australian Geology.

SERVICE, JAMES (1823-1899), premier of Victoria,

was the son of Robert Service and was born at Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland, in November 1823. He was educated at the local school, and was for some time a schoolmaster before entering on commercial life in the business of Thomas Corbett of Glasgow. He became a junior partner in this business and when he came to Australia in 1853 was for a time its representative. However, about the year 1855, he founded the business of James Service and Company, importers and wholesale merchants, which became a large and prosperous organization still in business many years after his death. When the suburb Emerald Hill, now South Melbourne, was made a municipality, Service became the first president of the council, and in 1857 was elected to represent Melbourne in the legislative assembly. At the next election he was elected for Ripon and Hampden and in October 1859 became president of the board of land and works in the Nicholson (q.v.) ministry. As minister he brought in a lands bill which first introduced the principle of deferred payments. It was, however, so mutilated by amendments that in 1860 he resigned from the cabinet. In the next parliament he took charge in the assembly, as a private member, of the Torrens transfer of real property act which had been introduced in the legislative council by George Coppin (q.v.). In 1862 Service resigned his seat, was absent in England for some time, and after his return was three times rejected by the electors when he attempted to enter parliament again.

Service was out of politics for more than 10 years. He was a convinced free-trader and protection was steadily gaining ground. In 1874 he was returned for Maldon and became treasurer in the Kerford (q.v.) ministry which only lasted until August 1875. He sat in opposition to the McCulloch (q.v.) ministry but strongly supported the formation of the Melbourne harbour trust, and as a private member carried an act relating to bills of sale and fraudulent preference to creditors. When Berry (q.v.) was elected with a large following in 1877 he offered Service the treasurership. This he could not accept but sat in the ministerial corner for about a year until he became leader of the opposition. At the election held early in 1880 Berry was defeated and Service formed his first administration taking the positions of premier and treasurer. Much time had been wasted in the past by the quarrels of the two houses of parliament and Service brought in a very reasonable reform bill which provided that if any bill were passed by the assembly in two consecutive sessions and rejected by the council, the governor might dissolve both houses. If the new assembly passed the bill again and the council again rejected it, the two houses would sit together and the majority would rule. This bill was rejected by two votes in August, and on going to the country Berry obtained a majority. In the following year Service resigned his seat and went to England for more than a year. In 1883 he was elected for Castlemaine and the parties being nearly equal a coalition government was formed, Service becoming premier and treasurer, and Berry chief secretary. This ministry did more useful work than any other Victorian ministry up to this date. A judicature act was passed with the object of simplifying and cheapening legal procedure, a public service act was brought in with a competitive examination for applicants, and under the railway management act a board of commissioners was established with the object of doing away with parliamentary influence. Other important acts dealt with the early closing of shops, the regulation of public houses, and the factories, work rooms and shops act was the fore-runner of much important social legislation. In June 1883, at a banquet at Albury celebrating the opening of the railway line between Sydney and Melbourne, Service raised again the question of federation. He supported Sir Thomas McIlwraith (q.v.) in his action with regard to the annexation of New Guinea, and suggested the inter-colonial conference which was held at Sydney in November 1883. There a bill constituting a federal council was framed which was carried by Service through the Victorian parliament in 1884. Service himself desired the establishment of a federal government, but the other premiers were comparatively lukewarm and the proposed council was to have very limited powers. New South Wales, however, stood out and for this reason the council was able to do little. Yet it was an important step in the direction of federation, and Service had shown himself to be a true leader. His health compelled him to retire from the ministry in 1886 and he again visited England. Before his departure a public subscription was made and his portrait by G. F. Folingsby was presented to the national gallery of Victoria. In the following year he was one of the representatives of Victoria at the colonial conference, where he was content to let the young and ardent Deakin (q.v.) take the lead. Returning to Australia he entered the legislative council for Melbourne province. He continued to take an interest in the federation question and at a banquet held in connexion with the federal conference of 1890 at Melbourne he was selected to propose the toast of "A United Australasia". He acutely pointed out that the lion in the path was the tariff question which federalists must either slay or be slain by. Henceforth he did not take any prominent part in public life. When the colony was passing through a troublesome time in 1892 the suggestion was made that he should come back to the legislative assembly and lead a coalition government, but the state of his health would not permit him to do this. He had hoped to live long enough to see the adoption of federation and the 1898 referendum showed that it could not be far off. He died at Melbourne on 13 April 1899.

Service had the respect of all parties. He was a successful business man, keen and farseeing, but he was also interested in more recondite matters, such as philosophy, metaphysics, and political economy. In manner he was cautious and self-restrained, in debate he was cool and logical. Never afraid to take the unpopular side, his disinterestedness and personal integrity everywhere won admiration, and he fully deserved Deakin's description as "a man of large ideas and indomitable courage". Though usually ranked as a conservative, during his second administration, in conjunction with Graham Berry, his government passed some of our earliest social legislation of value, and in the federal sphere, while recognizing the difficulties of the position, he never wavered in his belief that these difficulties could he overcome.

The Age and The Argus, Melbourne. 13 April 1899; The Times, 13 April 1899; Who's Who, 1899; H. G. Turner, A History, of the Colony of Victoria; W. Murdoch, Alfred Deakin; Quick and Garran, The Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth; A. Patchett Martin, Australia and the Empire, p. 276; Henry L. Hall, Victoria's Part in the Australian Federation Movement.

SHARP, CECIL JAMES (1859-1924), musician, collector of folk-songs and dances,

was born at Denmark Hill, London, on 22 November 1859. His father was a slate merchant, much interested in archaeology, architecture, old furniture, and music, his mother, Jane Bloyd, was also a music-lover. Sharp was educated at Uppingham, but left at 15 and was privately coached for Cambridge, where he rowed in the Clare College boat and graduated B.A. in 1882. It was necessary for him to find work and he decided to try Australia. He arrived in Adelaide in November 1882 and early in 1883 obtained a position as a clerk in the Commercial Bank of South Australia. He read some law, and in April 1884 became associate to the chief justice, Sir Samuel James Way (q.v.). He held this position until 1889 when he resigned and gave his whole time to music. He had become assistant organist at St Peter's cathedral soon after he arrived, and had been conductor of the government house choral society and the cathedral choral society. Later on he became conductor of the Adelaide Philharmonic, and in 1889 entered into partnership with I. G. Reimann as joint director of the Adelaide school of music. He was very successful as a lecturer but about the middle of 1891 the partnership was dissolved. The school was continued under Reimann, and in 1898 developed into the Elder conservatorium of music in connexion with the university. Sharp had made many friends and an address with over 300 signatures asked him to continue his work at Adelaide, but he decided to return to England and arrived there in January 1892. During his stay in Adelaide he composed the music for two light operas, Sylvia, which was produced at the Theatre Royal Adelaide, on 4 December 1890, and The Jonquil. The libretto in each case was written by Guy Boothby (q.v.). He also wrote the music for some nursery rhymes which were sung by the cathedral choral society.

Sharp had intended to devote his time to musical composition and of some 40 songs and instrumental pieces composed between 1885 and 1900 most were written after 1891. But very few of them were actually published. In London he gave lessons in harmony, played the pianoforte at musical "At Homes", lectured at schools, and from 1893-7 was on the staff of the Metropolitan College, Holloway. He was also music-master at Ludgrove, a well-known preparatory school, where the boys were devoted to him. He became principal of the Hampstead conservatoire in 1896, collected a fine staff, and held this position until July 1905. In the meantime he had found an interest which was to have important developments. At Christmas 1899 he saw a party of men dance the now well-known Morris dance (Laudnum Bunches) which was followed by other dances. He watched and listened spell-bound and it became the turning point in his life. For the next 24 years his great work and interest was the recording of the old folk songs of England, and reviving the old dances. The first part of Folk Songs from Somerset was published in December 1904, the first part of The Morris Book and Morris Dance Tunes in 1907, both followed by many others; a full list of his folk-song collections and folk-dance collections will be found on pp. 221-3 of his biography. He became director of the English Folk-dance Society in 1911, and in the same year he was granted a civil list pension of £100 a year, a welcome addition to his income. In December 1914 he visited America to help Granville Barker with the New York production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and while in the United States did some lecturing. During a later visit he recorded Folk-Songs of English Origin, Collected in the Appalachian Mountains. He remained two years in America and returned to England in 1918. In 1919 H. A. L. Fisher, president of the board of education, discussed with Sharp the best way of instilling a sense of rhythm and a love of English national songs and dances into the minds of the children. As a result in April 1919 Sharp accepted the position of occasional inspector of training colleges in folk-song and dancing. In 1923 a speaker in the house of commons described him as one to whose work in this field British education owes an almost irredeemable debt of gratitude. In 1922 he relinquished his pension as he now had a fairly adequate income. But he had never been a strong man and was having constant attacks of asthma, bronchitis and fever. On 8 June 1923 his old university, Cambridge, gave him the honorary degree of master of music. He died on 23 June 1924. He married in 1893 Constance Dorothea Birch who survived him with a son and three daughters. The work of the English Folk-dance Society continued after Sharp's death, and by 1932 the number of dancers had quadrupled. In that year the English Folk-dance Society and the Folk-song Society amalgamated. In 1930 "Cecil Sharp House" in Regent's Park Road, which had been built by subscription as a memorial to Sharp was opened and is now the headquarters of the society.

A. H. Fox Strangways, Cecil Sharp; The Centenary History of South Australia, p. 366; E. Morris Miller, Australian Literature, vol. I, p. 384.

SHARP, GERALD (1865-1933), anglican archbishop of Brisbane,

son of Thomas Blatt Sharp, was born at Hooton, Cheshire, England, on 27 October 1865. Educated at Manchester Grammar School, he went on to St John's College, Cambridge, with a scholarship in 1883, and graduated B.A. in 1886 with honours in classics. He entered Lincoln theological college in 1888, and was ordained deacon in 1889 and priest in 1890. He was a curate of Rowbarton 1889-93 and at Hammersmith 1893-8, became vicar of Whitkirk, Yorkshire, in 1898, and in 1909 was proctor of convocation, archdeaconry of Ripon. He was consecrated bishop of New Guinea on 25 April 1910. He attended the Lambeth conference in 1920 and in 1921 was elected archbishop of Brisbane in succession to Archbishop Donaldson (q.v.). He was enthroned at St John's cathedral, Brisbane, on 16 November 1921, and was active in every movement for the good of his church and the state. He was a member of the university senate from 1923 and was several times president of the Brisbane branch of the League of Nations Union. He attended the Lambeth conference in 1930 and in 1933 was acting-primate of Australia. He died on 30 August of that year. He was unmarried.

Sharp was a missionary bishop. He was kindly and charitable and much interested in social work. He would have been the last to think of himself as a great preacher or a great organizer, but his sincerity, kindliness and piety made him a force in Queensland, and he was sincerely regretted in his own church and outside it.

Crockford, 1933; The Courier-Mail, Brisbane, 31 August 1933; The Daily Standard, Brisbane. 30 August 1933; Who's Who in Australia, 1933.

SHENTON, SIR GEORGE (1842-1909), politician and public man,

the son of George Shenton, merchant, was born at Perth on 4 March 1842. He was educated in England at Queen's College, Taunton, and, returning to Western Australia in 1858, entered his father's business at Perth. In 1867, on the death of his father, he took control of this, business. In 1870 he was elected a member of the old legislative council and in 1871 became a member of the Perth city council. He visited England in 1874 and in the following year was elected to the legislative council for Toodyay and remained its member until 1890. He was elected chairman of the Perth city council in 1875, 1876 and 1877 and, when the title was altered to mayor, held that office from 1880-4 and 1886-8. In 1890, he was elected a member of the new legislative council and was colonial secretary in Forrest's (q.v.) ministry from December 1890 to October 1892, when he resigned to become president of the legislative council. He held this office until he retired in 1906. Early in 1909 he went to England hoping that a voyage would benefit his health but died at London on 29 June. He married in 1868 Miss J. T. Eichbaum who died in 1897 leaving children. He was knighted in 1909.

Shenton was a man of many interests. He was a member of the committee of the Perth public library and museum and the first chairman of the Perth hospital board of management. He also did much work in connexion with the founding of the children's hospital and became its first president. In business he was a leader in developing the mining industry and was a director of several companies, including the Western Australian bank. He was on its board for 30 years and was chairman for most of the period. He was mayor of Perth on 11 occasions and was in parliament for 35 years. In spite of these many activities Shenton found time to be organist and choirmaster of a city church, and to be a liberal supporter of the Methodist Church generally. His life was spent in constant service.

The West Australian, 1 July 1909; Who's Who, 1909; Burke's Peerage, etc., 1909.

SHERBROOKE, VISCOUNT. See LOWE, ROBERT.

SHERWIN, AMY (c. 1855-1935), soprano singer,

was born at Forest Home, Huonville, Tasmania, in about 1855 and was taught singing by her mother. On 1 May 1878 she appeared with an Italian opera company at Hobart as Norina in Don Pasquale and made an immediate success. Proceeding to Melbourne with the company she sang Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor on 3 June 1878, and was received with great enthusiasm, though it was realized that her voice needed further training. During the next few weeks she appeared as Maritana in Wallace's opera, Leonora in Il Trovatore, and in other leading parts. Proceeding to America in 1879 she created the part of Marguerite in the first performance in America of Berlioz's opera, Faust, in 1880. She studied under several masters both in America and in Europe, and appeared at the promenade concerts in London in 1883. In 1885 she sang at Covent Garden and afterwards with the Carl Rosa Company. In 1887-9 she toured Australia, New Zealand, Japan, America and Germany with much success, in 1896 had a tour in South Africa, was in Australia again in 1897-8 and in 1902-3 toured with Kubelik. She subsequently revisited Australia, and in her later years taught singing at London where she died on 20 September 1935. She married and was survived by a daughter. Madame Sherwin had an excellent light soprano voice and for a time had a successful career. She was optimistic and without any sense of business, and her last years were clouded by a struggle with sickness and poverty. In May 1934 about £200 Was raised for her benefit at Hobart.

The Times, 23 September 1935; The Mercury, Hobart, 2 May 1878, 23 September 1935; The Age, Melbourne, throughout June 1878; P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.

SHIELS, WILLIAM (1849-1904), premier of Victoria,

was born in Ireland in 1849. He came to Australia with his parents when about four years old, and was educated at the Scotch College, Melbourne, and the university of Melbourne.. He had a brilliant course at the university, graduated LL.B. in 1873, and after a short period as a private tutor in South Australia, was called to the Victorian bar in the same year. He practised for about 10 years, but though a capable lawyer had only moderate success. He stood for the Normanby division of the Victorian legislative assembly in 1877 but was defeated. He, however, won this seat in 1880, and held it until his retirement from politics about a year before his death. In his first parliament he was selected to move the address in reply, and made the most brilliant maiden speech that had been heard for many years. From the beginning he advocated economy and moderation in national expenditure and taxation, and while in opposition to the Service (q.v.) and Gillies (q.v.) ministries made vigorous and forceful speeches against the extravagant expenditure of the times. In 1889 as a private member he brought in a bill to amend the divorce laws, afterwards known as the Shiels divorce act, and in spite of great opposition succeeded in carrying it. The royal assent had been refused to a somewhat similar act passed in New South Wales, and Shiels therefore went to London and succeeded in getting the Salisbury government to recommend that assent should be given.

On 5 November 1890 Shiels became attorney-general and minister of railways in the Munro (q.v.) ministry, and when Munro went to London as agent-general, Shiels became premier and treasurer in the reconstructed government on 16 February 1892. He made a remarkable policy speech, but the colony was in the midst of a financial crisis, and Shiels's health, which had never been good, felt the strain. He transferred the treasurership to Berry (q.v.) at the end of April, and became attorney-general. Shiels retrenched and did what was possible to keep the government going on sound financial lines, but it was beset with difficulties and was defeated in January 1893. Shiels was in opposition until December 1899, when he joined the McLean (q.v.) ministry as treasurer and held office until November 1900. His health compelled his frequent absence from debates, but he was still a power in the house, and his speech against the proposal of the Peacock (q.v.) government that there should be a convention to consider the reform of the Victorian parliament, was largely responsible for it being laid aside. On 10 June 1902 he became treasurer in the Irvine government, but a few weeks later gave up this portfolio to become minister of railways. When this government resigned in February 1904 Shiels's health had become so bad that he was compelled to retire from politics. He went to live in the country in South Australia and died on 17 December 1904. He married Jennie, daughter of John Robertson, who survived him with three daughters and a son.

Shiels suffered from an affection of the heart and was often in much pain. It was only by exercising great care that he was able to be in political life for so long, and he was frequently obliged to make his speeches while sitting down. He was one of the most interesting figures in the house, able, high-minded and chivalrous, but possibly more often winning the respect rather than the affection of other members. The last of the old school of orators, a coiner of picturesque phrases, a master of literary allusion, his speeches were singularly effective and had much influence on the legislation of his time.

The Argus, The Age and The Herald, Melbourne, 19 December 1904; H. G. Turner, A History of the Colony of Victoria.

SHIRLOW, JOHN ALEXANDER THOMAS, always known as John Shirlow, (1869-1936), etcher,

was born at Sunbury, Victoria, on 13 December 1869. His father, Robert Shirlow, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, had come from Ireland and followed many occupations in the new land without much success. His mother was formerly Miss Rebecca Flanagan. Shirlow was educated at various state schools and Scotch College, Melbourne, and went to work first at Haase Duffus and Company, printers, and then in 1889 with Sands and McDougall. He began attending evening classes at the national gallery in 1890 and continued there for five years. Towards the end of his course, influenced largely by the Rembrandt and Whistler prints at the Melbourne national gallery, he began to practise etching. His difficulties were great for he had to make his own press and correct his own mistakes. His first plate was etched in 1895 and he continued his craft until the end of his life. Most of his work is pure etching, but he did a few aquatints and mezzotints. In 1913 he joined the electric supply department of the Melbourne city council, he had studied electricity at the Melbourne technical school, and he also began to act as an examiner in drawing for the public examinations of the university of Melbourne. In 1917 a small volume, Etchings by John Shirlow, with reproductions of 25 of his plates was published at Sydney, and had a large sale. This was followed in 1920 by The Etched Work of John Shirlow, with a biography, by R. H. Croll, and a chronological list of 89 of his prints. In 1922 he was made a trustee of the public library, museums and national gallery of Victoria, and soon afterwards became drawing master at Scotch College, Melbourne. In 1932 he published Perspective, a Text Book for the use of Schools. He died on 22 June 1936. He married in 1895, Grace Nixon, who survived him with four children. A bronze head of Shirlow by C. Web Gilbert (q.v.) is in the trustees' room at the national gallery, Melbourne.

Shirlow was a man of medium height with a fine rugged head, strong prejudices, and a kindly and generous disposition. He was interested in music and literature and did a fair amount of journalism on artistic subjects. In his etchings he was not a great draughtsman, but his buildings are solidly drawn and his masses well arranged. He was less successful in his figure work. He is represented at the British Museum, the national galleries of Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth, and at Stockholm, Bendigo, Geelong and Castlemaine. The finest collection is at the Mitchell library, Sydney, which has practically all of his important prints. Though a few earlier men had experimented in etching, Shirlow will always be remembered as the first man in Australia to do work in this medium with any distinction.

R. H. Croll, The Etched Work of John Shirlow; The Argus, 23 and 27 June 1936; W. Moore, The Story of Australian Art; personal knowledge.

SHORT, AUGUSTUS (1802-1883), first Anglican bishop of Adelaide,

was born near Exeter, England, on 11 June 1802. His father, Charles Short, a London barrister, came of an old English county family. Short was educated at Westminster school and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated with first-class honours in classics. He took orders in the Church of England as deacon in 1826 and priest in 1827 and in the same year accepted the curacy of Culham, near Abingdon. In 1829 he resigned to become a tutor and lecturer in his old college; one of his students was W. E. Gladstone. In March 1833 he was appointed public examiner in the classical schools, and in January 1834 was made junior censor. In June 1835 he was presented by the dean and chapter of Christ Church to the living of Ravensthorpe in Northamptonshire. The church and parsonage were both badly in need of repairs and restoration, the church was badly attended, and the education of the children neglected. Short by assiduous visiting and hard work succeeded in making considerable improvements in all these directions. He published in 1838, Sermons intended principally to illustrate the Remedial Character of the Christian Scheme, was appointed Bampton lecturer in April 1845, and preached the course at Oxford in 1846. The lectures were published in the same year under the title The Witness of the Spirit with our Spirit. In July 1847 (sic) the archbishop of Canterbury offered Short the choice of two newly established sees, Newcastle in New South Wales, and Adelaide. Short decided to accept Adelaide and on St Peter's Day, 1847, was consecrated at Westminster Abbey. He sailed for Adelaide on 1 September and arrived on 28 December 1847, the eleventh anniversary of the proclamation of the colony. There were then only five churches in the diocese, three at Adelaide, one at Blakeston and another at Gawler. Short travelled through the settled parts of South Australia, and before the end of 1848 went to Western Australia, then a part of his diocese. He returned to Adelaide early in 1849 and on 24 May 1849 laid the first stone of St Peter's College, founded in 1847 by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and William Allen (q.v.). He was the first president of its council of governors. In 1851 the withdrawal of state aid to religion compelled the Anglican Church in South Australia to devise a voluntary system of maintaining itself. Short, who had prepared a draft constitution for the diocese, visited England in 1853 and obtained counsels' opinion, which agreed that it was competent for a colonial diocese to organize itself without Imperial authority. The constitution was submitted in October 1855 to a diocesan assembly and was adopted. In 1856 the diocese of Perth was founded and Short was relieved of the oversight of the whole of Western Australia, a difficult task especially in view of the limited means of communication. The Adelaide diocese had been presented with some land in the city by W. Leigh, the income from which became very useful for general diocesan purposes, and by the liberality of William Allen the pastoral aid fund was instituted. Other funds for the endowment of the diocese and for providing retiring allowances for the clergy were also successfully initiated. The question of building a cathedral was long postponed. Soon after his acceptance of the see Short made inquiries about a site for it and was informed that the centre of Victoria Square had been allotted for this purpose. This was objected to by the city council and Short decided to have the question definitely settled and brought a friendly suit for this purpose. The decision was against him and eventually the present site was bought. Subscriptions were raised but the building was not begun until 1869. It was consecrated on 1 January 1878. In November 1881 Short became ill while preaching and under medical advice decided to retire. He left Adelaide for London in the beginning of January 1882. On 30 November he attended the consecration of G. W. Kennion (q.v.) as second bishop of Adelaide, and handed him the pastoral staff which had been presented to Short by the clergy and laity of Adelaide on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his consecration. He died at Eastbourne on 5 October 1883. He married in December 1835 Millicent Phillips who survived him with several daughters.

Short was a fine scholar and a thoughtful preacher, always endeavouring to convince by argument rather than by the use of rhetoric. He was interested in education and was elected vice-chancellor of Adelaide university when it was founded in 1874, and chancellor in 1876. Personally he was kind and modest, a good business man and an excellent administrator who could deal with church matters with firmness, wisdom and discretion. A good man and a good colonist, with a great capacity for work, he had all the qualities of a great pioneer bishop.

F. T. Whitington, Augustus Short, First Bishop of Adelaide; The Register and The Advertiser, Adelaide, 9 October 1883; British Museum Catalogue; J. W. Bull, Early Experiences of Life in South Australia, p. 262.

SIMPSON, HELEN DE GUERRY (1897-1940), novelist,

was born in Sydney on 1 December 1897. She came of a family that had been settled in New South Wales for over a 100 years. Her great-grandfather, Piers Simpson, R.N., was associated with Sir Thomas Mitchell (q.v.), and her maternal grandfather, the Marquis de Lauret, settled at Goulburn some 50 years before her birth. Her father, Edward Percy Simpson, was a well-known solicitor at Sydney who married Anne de Lauret. Helen Simpson was educated at the Rose Bay convent, and at Abbotsleigh, Wahroonga, and in 1914 she went to France for further study. When war broke out she crossed to England and was employed by the admiralty in decoding messages in foreign languages. She then went to Oxford, studied music, and failing in her examination for the mus. bach. degree took up writing. Her first appearance in print was a slight volume of verse, Philosophies in Little, published at Sydney in a limited edition in 1921. It attracted little notice but was included by Serle in his list of the more important volumes in his Bibliography of Australasian Poetry and Verse, published in 1925. Her play, A Man of His Time, based on the life of Benvenuto Cellini and written partly in blank verse, was a remarkable piece of work for a girl of less than 25. it was played by McMahon's repertory company at Sydney and published there by Angus and Robertson in 1923. Her first novel, Acquittal, appeared in London in 1925 and was followed by The Baseless Fabric (short stories) in 1925 and Caps, Wands and Swords (1927). The Women's Comedy (a play) was privately printed in 1926. Miss Simpson visited Australia in 1927 and in the same year married Denis John Browne, F.R.C.S., a fellow Australian practising in London and a nephew of T. A. Browne, "Rolf Boldrewood" (q.v.). Mumbudget, a collection of fairy stories, appeared in 1928, followed by The Desolate House (1929) and Vantage Striker (1931). These books were all capably written but had comparatively little success. It was not until Boomerang was published in 1932 that Helen Simpson came into her own. Here was a long rambling novel beginning in Paris at the end of the eighteenth century, wandering all over the world, including Australia, and ending in the trenches in France during the 1914-18 war, always interesting and vivid, and often exciting. It was awarded the James Tait Black memorial prize. This was followed by The Woman on the Beast, in 1933, consisting of a prologue, three books and an epilogue. The three books have no connexion with each other; in reality they form three separate short novels with the common basis that the most hateful things may be done for apparently the best of reasons. An admirable historical novel Saraband for Dead Lovers, came out in 1935, as did also The Female Felon, a long short story. In 1937 Miss Simpson came out to Australia under engagement to the Australian broadcasting commission. She gave an excellent series of talks and while in Australia collected material for a novel set in Sydney about a 100 years before, Under Capricorn, which appeared in 1937. She was then apparently in perfect health but became ill in 1938. She was operated on in 1940, but died after months of suffering on 14 October 1940. Her husband survived her with a daughter. Her last novel, Maid No More, was published in 1940. In addition to the books already mentioned Miss Simpson was the author of two pieces of historical biography, The Spanish Marriage (1933), and Henry VIII (1934). The Happy Housewife, a book of household management was published in 1934, and A Woman Among Wild Men, an account of Mary Kingsley, came out in 1938. The Waiting City, which appeared in 1933, is an interesting selection from Louis-Sebastien Mercier's Le Tableau de Paris, translated by Miss Simpson. Three novels, Enter Sir John (1929), Printer's Devil (1930), and Re-enter Sir John (1932), were written in conjunction with Miss Clemence Dane.

Helen Simpson was tall and handsome with much richness and charm of personality. She was a good musician, widely read, and full of unusual knowledge; her hobbies ranged from cookery past and present, to the collection of books on witchcraft. She was an excellent broadcaster and public speaker, and was much admired in London literary circles where she had made a place of her own. She was a natural writer; there is not a touch of the amateur in even her earliest books. At her best, in Boomerang, in spite of an occasional flowing with too much facility, in the Woman on the Beast, and in Saraband for Dead Lovers, she ranks very high as a novelist. The scenes at the end of the last-named, between the Electress Sophia and Sophia Dorothea, and between the Electress and Clara von Platen, are among the unforgettable things in the fiction of this period.

The Times, 15 October 1940; The Manchester Guardian, 16 October 1940; E. Morris Miller, Australian Literature; The Age, Melbourne, 14 December 1940; The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 October 1940; The Herald, Melbourne, 16 October 1940; The Argus, Melbourne, 26 July 1937; personal knowledge.

SLADEN, SIR CHARLES (1816-1884), premier of Victoria,

was born in 1816 at Ripple Court, Kent, and was the second son of John Baker Sladen, deputy-lieutenant of that county. He was educated at Shrewsbury and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and graduated LL.B. in 1840. He left England in 1841 and arrived at Port Phillip in February 1842 where he was admitted as an attorney soon afterwards. He practised at Geelong from 1842 to 1854 when he retired. At the end of that year he was nominated to the legislative council and appointed acting colonial treasurer. When Haines (q.v.) formed the first Victorian ministry in November 1855 Sladen was his treasurer and held office until March 1857. At the general election held in 1856 he was elected a member of the legislative assembly for Geelong and advocated a public bank of issue and the encouragement of immigration. He lost his seat in 1861 and was out of politics until 1864 when he was elected to the legislative council. When McCulloch (q.v.) resigned in May 1868 on account of the deadlock with the upper house over the Darling grant, Sladen was especially requested by the governor to form a ministry so that the business of the country might be carried on. Sladen found himself in a hopeless minority but he remained in office in spite of adverse votes for about nine weeks. His ministry, though only a stop-gap one, filled a useful purpose in tiding over a difficult period. Soon afterwards he retired from politics, but in 1876 was again elected to the legislative council and became recognized as the virtual leader of the upper house in the constant conflicts with the assembly. Though extremely conservative he recognized that the franchise for the council must be broadened and this was brought about in 1881. He retired in 1882 on account of his health and died on 22 February 1884. He married in 1840 Harriet Amelia Orton, who survived him without issue. He was created K.C.M.G. in 1875. A portrait is at the national gallery, Melbourne.

Sladen played a prominent part as a leader of the conservatives in the troubled early days of Victorian politics. His patience, courtesy and moderation were of great value when feelings were running high, and even his greatest opponents respected his consistent and unblemished career.

The Argus and The Age, Melbourne, 23 February 1884; H. G. Turner, A History of the Colony of Victoria; J. H. Heaton, Australian Dictionary of Dates; P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography; Burke's Peerage, etc., 1883.

SMITH, SIR CHARLES EDWARD KINGSFORD (1897-1935), aviator,

was born at Brisbane on 9 February 1897, youngest son of William Charles Smith, bank manager. When he was six years of age the family removed to Canada, the father having become a superintendent in the Canadian Pacific railway. On the voyage his youngest son was discovered hanging from the hawse-hole in the bow of the ship. He was demonstrating to another boy how it could be done. Having returned to Sydney about four years later, he was with difficulty rescued from drowning when bathing off the beach at Bondi. He was believed to be dead but a nurse who worked over him for an hour brought him back to life. Later on he sang in the choir of St David's and attended the cathedral school, but when his voice broke joined the Sydney technical college and studied electrical engineering. He spent his holidays camping on the Hawkesbury River and began his knowledge of navigation on a sailing boat. At 16 he joined the service of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company in the engineering shop at Sydney. When the war broke out he wanted to enlist and was allowed to do so by his parents on his eighteenth birthday in February 1915. He was trained as a dispatch rider and served in Egypt, on Gallipoli, and in France. In October 1916 he was one of 140 chosen from the ranks of the A.I.F. to go to England to train for a commission in the Royal Flying Corps. Before the end of 1917 the boy was in action in France, and early in his career obtained the military cross for bringing down a two-seater in flames, setting fire to some wooden huts, and machine-gunning a column of Germans who were massing for an attack. He was wounded in the foot a few days later, and three toes had to be amputated. He had been engaged in a fight with three German planes, and though his plane had about 180 bullet holes in it and he had momentarily fainted, he managed to make a moderately good landing. As it would be months before he could fly again he was allowed leave and returned to Australia to visit his parents. On his return to England he was made an instructor and was promoted captain.

When the war ceased Smith and a companion, Cyril Maddocks, did aerial joy-riding in England until both their machines were disabled. When the £10,000 prize was offered by the Australian government for the first flight to Australia, Smith decided to fly with Maddocks and V. Rendle in a two-engined biplane; but W. M. Hughes as prime minister stopped the flight on the ground that not one of the crew really knew anything about navigation. Smith then went to America, worked as a flyer, did aerial stunting, worked for movie-makers, and risked his life in many ways. He was eventually robbed by the promoters of an air circus, and decided to return to Australia. He arrived in Sydney in January 1921 possessed of little more than the clothes he stood in. He obtained work with the Digger's Aviation Company, and shortly afterwards succeeded in landing himself and his passengers safely in a plane with a collapsed wing, a remarkable feat. Following this Smith obtained a position in connexion with Australia's first regular air mail service between Charlton and Derby in Western Australia. Then with a partner a motor truck carrying company was started and carried on successfully. About the end of 1926 Smith sold out of this and returned to Sydney where he met another great flyer, Charles Ulm. Together they did a remarkable flight round Australia in ten days five and a quarter hours, in a seven-year-old Bristol tourer. But Smith's great ambition was to fly over the Pacific from America to Australia, and Ulm shared this ambition. The problem was to raise the money to buy a suitable plane, and the first encouragement came from J. T. Lang, then premier of New South Wales, who obtained for them a grant of £3500. Sidney Myer (q.v.) gave them £1500 but the preparatory costs mounted up, and though help was received from the Vacuum Oil Company, the flight was not possible until Captain G. Allen Hancock of Los Angeles came to the rescue and the purchase of the monoplane, The Southern Cross, was completed. On 31 May 1928 a start was made with a crew consisting of Smith, Ulm, Captain H. Lyon of Maine as navigator, and J. Warner of Kansas, as radio operator. The 7389 miles of ocean was crossed in three hops including the longest non-stop ever flown up to that time. The plane arrived at Brisbane on the morning of 8 June. The actual flying time was 83 hours 11 minutes during which Smith piloted for over 50 hours and Ulm for over 30. It was a marvellous feat considering the conditions; how close they were to disaster may be read in My Flying Life and Caesar of the Skies. Many honours and gifts were bestowed on the flyers, the total amount of the subscriptions being over £20,000

Smith, however, was not tempted to give up flying. A non-stop flight from Point Cook near Melbourne to Perth followed, and after the return journey a flight across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand. On this flight ice formed on the wings and fuselage when going through an electric storm, the air-speed indicator was put out of action, and for once Smith admitted he was terrified. But they got through safely and at Christchurch completed the first flight from Australia to New Zealand. A return flight was made to Australia, and on 31 March 1929 a start was made on a flight to England and from there to the starting point in the United States. Soon after the start the radio aerial of the Southern Cross was carried away by an accident, and Smith was unable to receive messages of bad weather ahead sent from Sydney. After crossing the overland telegraph line the plane ran into a terrific storm and after flying blind for some time their destination Wyndharn was over-shot and their petrol having nearly given out a forced landing was made on a mud flat. There they remained for 13 days before they were found in a practically starving condition, by one of the planes that was searching for them. Unfortunately Smith's friend, Keith Anderson and his mechanic, H. S. Hitchcock, who were on another of the searching planes lost their lives during the search. This led to a committee of inquiry being formed which went into the whole matter and exonerated Smith and his companions from blame. A fresh start was made on 25 June and London was reached in the then record-time of 12 days 18 hours. Ulm then returned to Australia in connexion with the air service company they were forming, and Smith followed by way of America. He was determined, however, to make the east-west flight across the Atlantic which had never been done. He returned to Europe to find the Southern Cross which had been re-conditioned by the Fokker Company free of charge, like a new plane. He felt he would like to pay a compliment to the Dutch people by asking a Dutchman to act as co-pilot, and obtained the services of Evert van Dyk. On 24 June 1930 the plane took off from Portmarnock beach in Ireland and in spite of the usual head wind the flight went well for most of the journey. But after flying blind for some time in a fog the compasses became affected, and the aviators were temporarily lost and in great danger. A successful landing was, however, made in Newfoundland, and going on to New York Smith and his companions had an enthusiastic reception. Flying on to California the first journey round the world by air was completed.

On returning to Europe Smith and his companions had another enthusiastic reception at Amsterdam. Shortly after Smith was operated on for appendicitis, but after a short convalescence, decided to endeavour to beat Hinkler's (q.v.) record of 15½ days for a flight to Australia in a light solo plane. He left on 9 October 1930 and landed at Darwin on 19 October having done the journey in just under 10 days. But within a short time this had been beaten twice, by Charles Scott and then by Mollison, whose time was 8 days 21 hours.

On 10 December 1930 Smith was married to Mary Powell. On his honeymoon in Tasmania he was impressed by the desire for a regular air service to the mainland, which his company inaugurated on 16 January 1931. There was a regular service between Melbourne and Sydney. On 21 March there was a great disaster, the disappearance of the Southern Cloud with eight passengers on board. The loss to the company exceeded £10,000, the financial depression of the period prevented many people from travelling by air, and the company had practically to cease operating. Smith then decided to endeavour to beat Mollison's record and started from Wyndham on 24 September 1931. He had a most unfortunate flight including an attack of sunstroke. A fortnight had passed before he arrived in England. Returning to Australia by steamer Smith demonstrated that an air-mail service between Australia and England was quite feasible. His company sent a plane with the Christmas mail, which left Sydney on 20 November 1931 and crashed six days later. Smith then followed in another plane and delivered the mail on 16 December. A mail from England to Australia was successfully carried in January 1932. It was, however, impossible to obtain a subsidy from the government, and Smith made a living by giving people in various parts of Australia flights at 10s. each. Another journey was made to New Zealand where many people had their first experience of the air. In September 1933 Smith went to England again, and in October made a record solo flight to Australia in seven days four hours and forty-three minutes. The Commonwealth government made Smith a grant of £3000 and a little later he was given the position of aviation consultant by the Vacuum Oil Company. Early in 1934 Smith made preparations to compete for the prize of £10,000 offered by Sir Macpherson Robertson for the winner of an air-race from England to Australia. An accident to the machine he had selected, however, made it impossible for him to be a competitor. In October 1934 he flew the reverse journey across the Pacific from Australia to California. He came back to Australia by steamer, and nearly lost his life when inaugurating a mail service with New Zealand in May 1935. The plane was only saved by the heroism of the navigator, "Bill" Taylor, who climbed out on the wing and managed to transfer oil from the crippled starboard engine to the port engine. In July 1935 Smith sold the Southern Cross to the Commonwealth government for £3000 and went to London to organize a company to carry mails, Airlines of Australia Limited. He had sent the plane he had bought for the air race to America intending to sell it, but he now decided to have it brought to England and to fly it to Australia. He had much difficulty and worry in connexion with the amount of petrol he would be permitted to carry, and he was not in good health. His biographer believed that his physical condition was the most probable cause of the disaster that followed. Smith with his companion, J. T. Pethybridge, left England on 6 November 1935, and on the evening of 7 November left Allahabad on their way to Singapore. On that night or next day Smith and his companion perished. Searches were made by planes on sea and land for several days, but no vestige of the lost plane was ever found. Smith was knighted in 1932. His wife survived him with a son.

Smith was flying for half of his short life of 38 years. He had immense vitality, but the strain of his great flights with their many dangers was beginning to tell on him towards the end. It was ironical that he should have perished just when flying was about to come into its own in Australia, and when the necessity for record-breaking flights had passed. He was much liked and was modest and generous-natured; he was rapid in speech and movement, was a natural mechanic, and had that combination of carefulness, resource and courage that makes a great flyer. When the great Dutch aeronautical designer, Anthony Fokker, wrote his book about 1930 he called Smith "the greatest flyer in the world today" (Flying Dutchman, p. 272), and his biographers called him the world's "greatest airman". Smith would not have agreed with these verdicts, but no man of his period approached his record.

Charles E. Kingsford-Smith and Geoffrey Rawson, My Flying Life; Beau Sheil and Colin Simpson, Caesar of the Skies; C. E. Kingsford-Smith and C. T. P. Ulm, The Great Trans-Pacific Flight; C. E. Kingsford-Smith, "The Old Bus"; P. G. Taylor, Pacific Flight, The Story of the Lady Southern Cross; The Times, 7 December 1935.

SMITH, SIR EDWIN THOMAS (1830-1919), politician and public man,

was born at Walsall, Staffordshire, England, on 6 April 1830. He was educated at Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall, and on leaving school had business experience with an uncle. When only 20 years of age he was taking part in local politics, but in 1853 he emigrated to South Australia and began business as an importer of ironmongery at Adelaide. He subsequently went into brewing and in a few years was in control of the most important brewery in South Australia. He took part in municipal government, was mayor of Kensington and Norwood, 1867-70, and 1871-3, and then was elected to the Adelaide city council. He was mayor of Adelaide in 1879-81, and 1886 and 1887. He had entered parliament in 1871 as member for East Torrens in the house of assembly, and except for a year while he was visiting England, continued to represent this constituency until he retired in 1893. He was elected to the legislative council in 1894 and remained a member until 1902. During the whole of his parliamentary experience he never lost an election. Though an active member of parliament he was not anxious for office, and only once was included in a government; he was minister for education in the Bray (q.v.) ministry from March to June 1884. He was, however, responsible for some useful legislation including a first offenders act, and he took a leading part in the promotion of the jubilee exhibition held at Adelaide in 1887. In the city council he was always anxious to improve the city and it was a result of his advocacy that Adelaide had its first tramways, King William-street was extended, and the Torrens lake formed. He also gave the statue of Queen Victoria which was placed in the centre of Adelaide.

Smith retired from the active conduct of his business in 1888 and from parliament in 1902, but he took a great interest in a large number of institutions to many of which he gave both time and money. He was chairman of the national park commissioners, and of the Adelaide Savings Bank, and was an active worker in the management of the blind, deaf and dumb institution, the Adelaide hospital, the old colonists association, the Elder workmen's homes, the botanic gardens, and the zoological gardens. He was a patron or office-bearer in every important Adelaide sporting organization, was president of the South Australian Cricket Association for about 30 years, and during that period seldom missed a committee meeting. His public benefactions were many and included £2000 to clear the debt off the Norwood Oval, £2000 for the Blind, Deaf and Dumb Institution, £1000 to start an insurance fund for the Commercial Travellers' Association, and his private benefactions were without end. Without any pretensions to oratory or great learning, but with an excellent conception of what would be worth while and feasible, Smith laboured all his life for the good of his community. He died on 25 December 1919. He was married twice, (1) in 1857 to Florence Stock who died in 1862, (2) in 1869 to Elizabeth Spicer who died in 1911. He was survived by a son and a daughter of the first marriage. He was created K.C.M.G. in 1888.

The Register and The Advertiser, Adelaide, 27 December 1919.

SMITH, SIR FRANCIS VILLENEUVE (1819-1909), premier and chief justice of Tasmania,

eldest son of Francis Smith, a London merchant and his wife, a daughter of Jean Villeneuve, was born on 13 February 1819 (Dict. Nat. Biog.). He was educated at London university and graduated B.A. in 1840, having taken a first prize in international law and a second in equity. He was called to the bar of the Middle Temple in May 1842, was admitted to the Tasmanian bar in 1844, and in 1848 was appointed solicitor-general for Tasmania. He was nominated to the legislative council in 1851, became attorney-general in 1854, and a member of the executive council in 1855. One of the few men of the time opposed to the granting of responsible government, he was nevertheless elected as a representative of Hobart to the first house of assembly in September 1856. He was attorney-general in the W. T. N. Champ (q.v.) ministry from 1 November 1856 to 26 February 1857 and in the W. P. Weston (q.v.) ministry from 25 April to 12 May 1857. He then formed a ministry with himself as premier and attorney-general which lasted nearly three and a half years until 1 November 1860, when he was made a puisne judge of the supreme court. During this ministry scholarships were established and the land laws were liberalized. Smith had shown ability as an administrator and his translation to the bench was a loss to the legislature. At the beginning of 1870 he succeeded Sir Valentine Fleming (q.v.) as chief justice, and held this position with distinction until he retired on a pension in 1885 and returned to England. He occasionally while chief justice administered the government. He died in England on 17 January 1909. He married in 1851 Sarah, daughter of the Rev. George Giles. He was knighted in 1862.

The Mercury, Hobart, 20 January 1909; The Examiner, Launceston, 20 January 1909; J. Fenton, A History of Tasmania; P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.

SMITH, SIR GRAFTON ELLIOT (1871-1937), anatomist and anthropologist,

was born at Grafton, New South Wales, on 15 August 1871. His father, S. S. Smith, was headmaster of the government school at Grafton and had originally emigrated from Cambridge. He was a man of many interests and encouraged his son to "cultivate a universal curiosity". Smith's first interest in science came from a small textbook on physiology which his father brought home when he was about 10 years old. He tells us in his Fragments of Autobiography, that while he was still at a high school he attended Professor Anderson Stuart's course of instruction in physiology held at the school of technology, and of his introduction there to Huxley's Elementary Lessons in Physiology. When he was studying for the senior public examination he found that it was permissible to take 10 subjects, and he decided to take physiology and geometrical drawing in addition to the eight subjects he was doing at school. Rather to the dismay of his teachers the only medals awarded to students from his school were given to Elliot Smith for the two subjects he had studied by himself. Though his father would have preferred him to enter an insurance office the boy begged to be allowed to do a trial year at the university. At the end of the year he obtained the prizes for physics and natural history, and in consequence of his good work he was awarded a bursary which took him through the medical course. It is interesting to record that among his examiners were such distinguished men as (Sir) Edward Stirling, F.R.S. (q.v.), and (Sir) Charles Martin, F.R.S.; and that (Sir) Almoth Wright, F.R.S. and Professor 1. T. Wilson, F.R.S., were among his teachers. On completing his medical course in 1892 he spent a year in hospital work, and in 1894 was appointed a demonstrator in the department of anatomy at the university of Sydney. One of the earliest of his papers that on "The Cerebral Commissures of the Mammalia with special reference to the Monotremata and Marsupialia", was published this year in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. This was a remarkable production for a young man of 23, and it was soon recognized as the work of a brilliant and original mind. In 1895 he became the first student to pass the M.D. examination at Sydney, and in the following year was awarded the James King travelling scholarship which took him to Cambridge where he was soon at work in the physiological laboratory and spent three strenuous years. Part of his work was the preparation of about a dozen papers for scientific journals which established his reputation as an anatomist. In October 1897 the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology was re-organized and he was asked to take charge of "the central nervous system". In the middle of 1898 the British Medical Association gave him a scholarship of £150 a year. Difficulties, however, arose over the conditions attaching to the scholarship, and as the Sydney scholarship had expired Smith was obliged to take up a large amount of demonstrating and coaching. He had already begun his studies on the evolution and development of the brain, and was anxious that he should have time in which to do his research work. Fortunately in November 1899 he was elected a fellow of St John's College and he was able to go on with the work he loved without anxiety. On 4 July 1900 Professor Macalister offered him the professorship of anatomy at Cairo and Smith immediately accepted the position. During the intervening few weeks he was married to Kathleen Macredie and he arrived in Cairo with his wife in October. He liked his new surroundings, and soon had the school of anatomy in running order. He was able to spare time to do a good deal of work on his descriptive catalogue of the brains in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and he also examined and reported on a large mass of human remains collected by the archaeologists working in Egypt. This work was the basis of his book, The Ancient Egyptians, published 10 years later. Anthropology was henceforth to form an important part of his work. In the middle of 1902 he had a holiday in Australia, and returned to find an immense amount of work waiting for him. In addition to his other studies he became interested in the technique of mummification and spent much time on it in the following years. The eventual result was his book on The Royal Mummies, published in folio in 1912 with many plates. These studies were not merely archaeological, they belong to the history of medicine, for the bodies of these ancient Egyptians revealed much of physical and pathological interest.

All the while Elliot Smith was continuing his teaching work in the school of medicine, which became very efficient. In 1900 he had undertaken the writing of a textbook of anatomy but time could not be spared from his many other studies. He visited England in 1906 and 1907 and spoke at meetings of the Anatomical Society, and on his return to Egypt found still more work awaiting him. It had been decided to raise the level of the Aswan Dam, which meant submerging a large area. A systematic examination of the antiquities was necessary and Elliot Smith was appointed anatomical adviser. He was fortunate in obtaining Dr F. Wood Jones as his assistant, as no fewer than 6000 skeletons and mummies had to be examined. It was not merely a question of recording measurements and anatomical features, for it was found that many of the bodies were in such a remarkable state of preservation that it was possible to perform post-mortem examinations after some five thousand years, and cases of gout, rheumatoid arthritis and the adhesions consequent upon appendicitis, were all discovered in one district. He was still working hard in 1908 and realizing that he was handicapped by not being in Great Britain. However, early in 1909 the chair of anatomy at the university of Manchester became vacant and soon afterwards Elliot Smith was offered it. Though he had regrets in leaving many interests in Cairo, he felt he could do more valuable work in England and accepted the position.

Arrived in Manchester Elliot Smith immediately began to re-organize his department. He believed that the teaching of anatomy had fallen too much into a groove. The dissection of the dead body was as necessary as ever, but he felt much more study of the structure and functions of the living body might be made with the help of X-ray and other appliances. He became very popular with the students, though it has been said that he occasionally rated their knowledge and intelligence too high and got rather above their heads. He attracted post-graduate students and encouraged research. But research students were expected to be able to work without constant supervision. Immediately, however, that they showed ability and progress there was no lack of help. The department was soon in a high state of efficiency, but Elliot Smith's ability led to his having to give more and more time to administration and the various committees to which he became elected. As dean of the medical school and representative of the university on the general medical council his work was much appreciated.

In 1914 he attended the meetings of the British Association in Australia and gave a number of lectures. The war delayed his return and his department was practically without a teaching staff but he still managed to do a certain amount of research. In 1915 his The Migrations of Early Culture was published by the Manchester University Press, and soon afterwards he began doing war-work in the hospitals. Before the war he had been interested in the treatment of mental patients and had advocated reforms. In 1917, in conjunction with Professor T. H. Pears, he published Shell Shock and its Lessons, in which the use of psychiatric clinics is advocated for people in the early stages of mental disorder. It has been said that probably no one has been more influential than Elliot Smith in securing reforms in the treatment of mentally disturbed patients.

In 1919 the chair of anatomy at University College, London, became vacant and was offered to Elliot Smith. In his Fragments of Autobiography, he mentions that every advancement he obtained was by invitation. At London he continued to be as busy as ever. Early in 1920 he mentions having just finished four series of public lectures, and much time had to be given to the organizing work of his new position. He visited America in 1920 to obtain information before starting to build an institute of anatomy, and on his return found time to lecture at the universities of Utrecht and Groeningen for the Anglo-Batavian Society. Towards the end of the year he wrote the article, Anthropology, for the twelfth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica which has been described as a masterly piece of condensation. It gave great offence in orthodox quarters, as indeed Elliot Smith anticipated, and he was in no way disturbed. He was greatly grieved in 1922 by the untimely death of his friend, Dr W. H. R. Rivers, which upset his plans for future work. As the literary executor of Dr Rivers he prepared and edited for publication his posthumous works. He was much interested in the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen and wrote a popular book, Tutankhamen and the Discovery of his Tomb, which had a great success. Early in 1924 he published Elephants and Ethnologists, and a little later on, Essays on the Evolution of Man. In the same year he gave a course of lectures on anthropology at the university of California. On the way he was consulted by the Rockefeller Foundation as to the establishment of a department of anthropology in the university of Sydney, and he agreed to discuss the scheme with the federal government. He arrived in Australia in September 1924, and after a conference with the prime minister, Mr Bruce, the department was established. In 1925 he gave a course of lectures at the Ecole de Médecine at Paris, and was very interested in the problems involved in the discovery of Australopithecus and the Lloyd's skull. In 1926 he devoted a great deal of attention to the working out of a scheme for a school of anthropology, and in 1927 he gave a course of lectures on the history of man at Gresham College. These were published three years later under the title Human History, one of the most widely read of his books. In 1928 he published In the Beginning: the Origin of Civilization, and in the following year he attended the Pacific congress at Java. In 1930 at the request of the Rockefeller trustees he visited China to examine the newly discovered Sinanthropus at its site.

On his return he lectured to a large audience at University College on "The Significance of the Pekin Man". These various activities were all associated with the carrying on of his London professorship and the strain must have been very great. In November 1931 he mentioned in a letter that he was desperately busy and worried, but there was no limit to his activities and towards the end of 1932 he finished for publication The Diffusion of Culture. In December of that year he became partially incapacitated by a stroke, but after a few months he made a good recovery and was mentally as well as ever. But it was impossible to work as he had done before. In 1936 he retired from the chair of anatomy at University College and he died on 1 January 1937.

Elliot Smith was an honorary member of many leading continental societies and received many degrees and honours. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, London, in 1907, he was afterwards a vice-president and received a royal medal from it in 1912. He became president of the Anatomical Society, he was awarded the hon. gold medal of the Royal College of Surgeons, the Prix Fauvelle, Société d'Anthropologie de Paris, and the decoration of chevalier de l'ordre national de la légion d'honneur. He was knighted in 1934. His former colleague, Professor H. A. Harris, could say of him when he died--"No one ever accomplished so much with so little evidence of hurry or effort . . . his influence and his example will live in our British school of anatomy for many a century to come." (British Medical Journal, 9 January 1937). However that may be it is significant that in 1937 more than 20 of his old demonstrators were occupying chairs of anatomy throughout the empire and U.S.A. It was one of his assistants, R. A. Dart, who discovered in South Africa the Taungs skull, Australopitheca, and another Davidson Black, who found the Pekin man, Sinanthropus. He infected his students with his own zeal. In addition to his books he wrote about 400 papers for various scientific publications. A list of these will be found in Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, a Biographical Record. He was survived by his widow and two of his three sons. A brother, Stephen Henry Smith, C.B.E. (1865-1943), was a distinguished public servant in New South Wales. He became director of education (1922-30) and published works on the history of education in Australia.

Ed. by Warren R. Dawson, Grafton Elliot Smith by his Colleagues; Nature, 9 January 1937; The British Medical Journal, 9 January 1937; The Lancet, 9 January, 1937.

SMITH, HENRY GEORGE (1852-1924), economic chemist,

was born at Littlebourne, Kent, England, on 26 July 1852. He was educated at schools at Ickham and Wingham, and also had private tuition from the Rev. Mr Midgley, M.A. He went to Sydney in 1883 for health reasons, and in 1884 obtained a semi-scientific position on the staff of the Sydney technological museum. He began studying scientific subjects and chemistry in particular, in 1891 was appointed a laboratory assistant at the museum, and in the same year his first original paper was published in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. He became mineralogist at the museum in 1895, and in the same year in collaboration with J. H. Maiden (q.v.) contributed a paper on "Eucalyptus Kinos and the Occurrence of Endesmia" to the Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales. This was Smith's first contribution to organic chemistry; later on from 1898 to 1911 he lectured on this subject to evening students at the Sydney technical college. In 1896 he began his collaboration with R. T. Baker (q.v.) with an investigation into the essential oils of the Sydney peppermint. With Baker working on the botanical side and himself on the chemical, their studies resulted in a remarkable work, A Research on the Eucalyptus especially in Regard to their Essential Oils which was published in 1902. A revised edition of this work embodying later researches appeared in 1920. Another authoritative work of great value by these authors, A Research on the Pines of Australia, was published in 1910. Smith had been appointed assistant curator and economic chemist at the Sydney technological museum in 1899 and held this position until his retirement in 1921. After his retirement he continued working with Baker and in 1924 they brought out another volume, Wood-fibres of Some Australian Timbers. From about 1914 Smith had been informally associated with the organic chemistry department of the university of Sydney, and he continued to work there after his retirement from the museum. In 1922 he was awarded the David Syme prize of the university of Melbourne for original research. He died at Sydney on 19 September 1924. He was twice married, and left a widow and family, including three sons. He was president of the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1913, of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Chemical Institute in 1922-3, and of the chemistry section of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science at the meeting held in Wellington in 1923. He was the author of over 100 papers, 62 of which appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, and others in the Journal of the Chemical Society. An unselfish, modest man, devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, his pioneering work upon the chemistry of the essential oils of the Australian flora achieved a world-wide reputation.

Journal of the Chemical Society, 1925, p. 958; Journal and Proceedings Royal Society of New South Wales, 1925, p. 11; Report of the Eighteenth Meeting, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, p. 2; The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 September 1924.

SMITH, JAMES (1820-1910), journalist,

was born near Maidstone, Kent, England, in 1820 and was educated for the church. He, however, took up journalism and at the age of 20 was editing a country newspaper. In 1845 he published Rural Records or Glimpses of Village Life, which was followed by Oracles from the British Poets (1849), Wilton and its Associations (1851), and Lights and Shadows of Artist Life and Character (1853). In 1854 he emigrated to Victoria and became a leader-writer on the Age and first editor of the Leader. He joined the staff of the Argus in 1856 and wrote leading articles, literary reviews, and dramatic criticism. He also wrote leading articles for country papers. Feeling the strain of over-work in 1863 he intended making a holiday visit to Europe, but was offered and accepted the post of librarian to the Victorian parliament. Smith was not content to merely carry out the routine duties of his position, he had always been a tireless worker, and during his five years librarianship he reclassified and catalogued about 30,000 volumes. The office was temporarily abolished in 1868, and Smith resumed his duties on the Argus, and continued to work for it until he retired in 1896 at the age of 76. He still, however, did much journalistic work, and even when approaching the age of 90 was contributing valued articles to the Age under the initials J. S. He died at Hawthorn, a suburb of Melbourne, on 19 March 1910. He married and was survived by a son.

In addition to the works mentioned Smith was the author of From Melbourne to Melrose (1888), a pleasant collection of travel notes originally contributed to the Argus, and Junius Unveiled (1909). He also published many pamphlets, some of which are concerned with spiritualism, in which he was very interested during the last 40 years of his life. He contributed a large amount of the letterpress to the Picturesque Atlas of Australasia, and edited The Cyclopedia of Victoria (1903), a piece of hack-work in which he could have taken little pleasure. He wrote a three-act drama, Garibaldi, successfully produced at Melbourne in 1860, and A Broil at the Café, also produced at Melbourne a few years later. He was a member of the council of the working men's college and a trustee for many years of the public library, museums, and national gallery of Victoria. A good linguist he was interested in the Alliance Française and the Melbourne Dante Society, of which he became the president. These activities led to his being made an officer of the French Academy, and a chevalier of the order of the Crown of Italy.

Smith was a thoroughly equipped journalist who with his well-stored mind and fine library could produce an excellent article on almost any subject at the shortest notice. During his 56 years of residence at Melbourne he had much influence on the cultural life of the city.

The Argus and The Age, 21 March 1910; Cyclopedia of Victoria, 1903; British Museum Catalogue.

SMITH, JAMES (1827-1897), discoverer of Mount Bischoff tin mine, Tasmania, [ also refer to James SMITH page at Project Gutenberg Australia]

was born at Georgetown, Tasmania, on 1 July 1827. He was educated at Launceston, and after working for some time in that city in 1851 went to the Victorian gold diggings. Returning in 1853 he took up land at Westwood on the Forth River, and making this his headquarters began exploring and prospecting. There was much barren and mountainous country to the south of his home, and Smith had to endure many privations. He discovered gold on the Forth River, copper on the west side of the Leven, and silver and iron ore at Penguin. On 4 December 1871 he discovered tin at Mount Bischoff. His specimens when smelted yielded the first tin found in Tasmania, but it took some time for the importance of the find to be realized. In August 1872 Smith took a small party with him to the field and in 1873 several tons of ore were sent to Melbourne. In that year the mine was visited by William Ritchie, a solicitor at Launceston, and with his help the Mount Bischoff Tin-mining Company was floated with 12,000 shares of £5 each. Of these 4400 were reserved for Smith who also received £1500 in cash. One expert who visited the mine at this time pronounced it to be the richest tin-mine in the world. The company, however, had many difficulties, one being that the bush track to the coast for many months of the year was almost impassable. Eventually a tramway was constructed, the mine became extremely successful, much employment resulted, and an enormous sum was paid in dividends. In February 1878 Smith was publicly presented with a silver salver and a purse of 250 sovereigns. The address which accompanied the gifts stated that as a result of his discovery commerce had developed, property had increased in value, and all classes of the community had been benefited. About the same period the Tasmanian parliament voted him a pension of £200 a year. In 1886 he was elected to the Tasmanian legislative council but he resigned his seat in 1888. Smith, who was an excellent assayer and a close student of geology, continued his prospecting for the remainder of his life. He died at Launceston on 15 June 1897 leaving a widow, three sons and three daughters. A quiet, somewhat reserved man, benevolent and charitable, Smith was a natural explorer of much determination, whom no hardship could daunt. His work was of the greatest use to Tasmania not only for its own sake, but for the encouragement it gave to others who made further discoveries.

J. Fenton. A History of Tasmania; The Launceston Examiner, 16 June 1897; P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography; Sir Henry Braddon. Journal and Proceedings Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. XIX, p. 242.

SMITH, JOHN McGARVIE (1844-1918), metallurgist and bacteriologist,

was born at Sydney in 1844. At 13 years of age he had to make his own living, and having learned the trade of watchmaker and jeweller, opened a business for himself at Sydney in 1866. He carried on this business for about 20 years. He took up photography, which led to his studying chemistry at the university of Sydney about 1867, and later, metallurgy. He set tip as an assayer and metallurgist about the year 1888. He developed improvements in the treatment of refractory ores and his advice was of great value in dealing with problems of this kind at the Sunny Corner mining-field and at Broken Hill. At Mount Morgan, Queensland, he did important work in connexion with the chlorine process of extracting gold. He took up the study of bacteriology, and did a large amount of research endeavouring to find a vaccine against the effects of snake bite. He collected a large number of venomous snakes which he handled himself when extracting their venom. He eventually came to the conclusion that it was bacteriologically impossible to inoculate against snake-bite, but while carrying out his investigations he collected a large amount of information about the relative virulence of the venom of Australian snakes. His most important research was in connexion with anthrax. Pasteur had discovered a vaccine, which, however, would not keep, and Smith after long experimenting found an effective vaccine which would keep for an indefinite period. This he treated as a business secret for many years, but a few months before his death he handed the formula to representatives of the government of New South Wales. He also gave £10,000 to endow a McGarvie Smith Institute. While making his investigations Smith travelled extensively in Europe and the United States and visited many laboratories. He was a man of great determination and remarkable personality. All his life he had a passion for work, but he spared time in his youth to become a good rifle shot. He married the widow of D. H. Deniehy (q.v.) who died many years before his own death at Sydney on 6 September 1918. He had no children.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 September 1918; W. S. Dun, Journal and Proceedings Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. LIII, p. 11; Industrial Australian and Mining Standard, 12 September 1918; Sydney Directories, 1867, 1885, 1889.

SMITH, JOHN THOMAS (1816-1879), politician, seven times mayor of Melbourne,

was born at Sydney in 1816 and educated under W. Cape (q.v.). He was for a time in the service of the recently established Bank of Australasia, but in September 1837 obtained the appointment of schoolmaster at the aboriginal mission station in Victoria at a salary of £40 a year. Shortly afterwards he went into business as a grocer, and was in the timber trade in 1840, In the following year he became a hotel-keeper and was so successful that in a comparatively short period he obtained a competency. At the first election for the Melbourne city council, held on 1 December 1842, he was elected a councillor for the Bourke ward, and except for a short interval, he was on the council for the remainder of his life. In 1851 he was elected mayor of Melbourne and was subsequently elected to that position no fewer than six times, his last year of office being 1864. In November 1854, at the time of the Eureka stockade rebellion, he took an active part in raising special constables, as there were rumours that attacks on the treasury and banks were contemplated. He was especially thanked by the governor, Sir Charles Hotham (q.v.), who said there was "no person in the country to whom he was more indebted". Smith had been elected to the legislative council in 1851, and in 1856, when responsible government came in, he was elected a member of the legislative assembly as one of the representatives of Melbourne. At subsequent elections he was returned for Creswick, and West Bourke, retaining his seat until his death on 30 January 1879, when he was the "father of the house". His wife and children survived him.

Smith took great interest in various charities moving, for instance, the motion that was carried in 1848 for the establishment of a benevolent asylum. He advocated reductions in the hours of labour and generally was an active and useful member of council and parliament, though he only once attained cabinet rank--he was minister of mines in the J. A. Macpherson (q.v.) government from September 1869 until April 1870.

Men of the Time in Australia, 1878; R. D. Boys, First Years in Port Phillip; Letter from Town Clerk, Melbourne, 1939; Kenyon manuscripts, Public Library, Melbourne; P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.

SMITH, ROBERT BARR (1824-1915), business man and philanthropist,

son of the Rev. Dr Smith of the Free Church of Scotland, was born at Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, Scotland, on 4 February 1824. After leaving school he studied for a time at the university of Glasgow, but went into business and afterwards emigrated to Melbourne, where he was a member of the firm of Hamilton Smith and Company in 1853. In 1854 he joined Elder and Company at Adelaide and became a partner in the business which from 1863 was known as Elder Smith and Company. This firm became one of the largest in Australia, connected directly or indirectly with every branch of commerce; mercantile, pastoral, mining, shipping and financial. Smith also took up land and became a large owner in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. When the Wallaroo and Moonta Copper mines got into difficulties, Elder Smith and Company made large advances to them until more profitable times came. Smith made a reputation as a financial authority, and though he refused to enter political or municipal life, his advice was frequently sought by politicians and members of the business community of Adelaide. It has been stated that at the time of the bank crisis in 1893 he was besieged by crowds of people seeking guidance. He was on the boards of the public library and of the botanic gardens and was a director of several companies. He was a keen judge and lover of horses, his colours were frequently seen at race meetings in South Australia and Victoria, and he was president for a time of the South Australian Coursing Club. His private charities were very great, few men have had so large a begging letter mail. These letters were dealt with systematically and all deserving cases were helped. Among the larger sums distributed were £9000 to buy books for the university of Adelaide library, £10,000 to complete the Anglican cathedral, £3500 for a life-boat and £2300 for the Trades Hall building. He contributed largely to exploration funds, the observatory established on Mount Kosciusko was paid for by him, and he was mainly responsible for the expenses of the first South Australian rifle team sent to Bisley. These are only examples of his liberality; he disliked being thanked and it would be impossible to estimate the amount of his benefactions. He kept his mind and faculties to the end of his life, and died in his ninety-second year on 20 November 1915. He married Miss Elder, sister of Sir Thomas Elder, who survived him with a son and three daughters. Smith was an upright and modest man with intellectual sympathies. He shrank from publicity and more than once refused the offer of a knighthood. In business he was shrewd, enterprising and perfectly honest. In 1920 his family gave £11,000 for the endowment of the library of the university of Adelaide and in 1928 his son, Tom Elder Barr Smith, born in 1863 gave £30,000 for the Barr Smith library building.

The Register and The Advertiser, Adelaide, 22 November 1915.

SMITH, SIR ROSS MACPHERSON (1892-1922), aviator,

was born at Adelaide on 4 December 1892, the second son of Andrew Smith, manager of Mutooroo station. Both parents were born in Scotland. Smith was educated at Queen's School, North Adelaide, where he was captain of the eleven in 1908, and at Warriston School in Scotland. In 1910 he was one of the three South Australian representatives chosen to form a company of mounted cadets which visited Great Britain and the United States. On leaving school he entered the hardware firm of Harris Scarfe and Company of Adelaide, and when the 1914-18 war broke out enlisted on 10 August. He was made a sergeant while in camp, and left Australia on 22 October 1914 with the 3rd Light Horse. He was at Gallipoli for four and a half months from May 1915, and then was invalided to England. He had in the meantime been promoted lieutenant. In April 1916 he was sent to the middle east and in October joined the air force. He soon won his wings and during the Palestine campaign showed great gallantry, being awarded the M.C., and bar, the D.F.C. with two bars, and the A.F.C. He did a large amount of observation and bombing work, was the first aviator to fly over Jerusalem, and in May 1918 was selected to take Lieut.-colonel T. E. Lawrence to the Sherif Nazir's camp to carry out his work of arranging Arab co-operation. He also made a remarkable flight from Cairo to Calcutta in a large Handley-Page machine soon after the armistice was signed. The distance was 2348 miles, the longest flight that had been made up to this time.

In 1919 the Australian government offered a prize of £10,000 for the first machine manned by Australians to fly from London to Australia in 30 days. Smith decided to enter for the competition and Messrs Vickers were asked to supply a machine. They agreed to do so in October, and on 12 November Ross Smith accompanied by his brother, Keith, and Sergeants Bennett and Shiers, who had been his mechanics during the flight from Cairo to Calcutta, started on their long journey. The machine carried 865 gallons of petrol and had a cruising range of 2400 miles. Bad weather was encountered soon after starting and during the five days spent in flying to Taranto most of the time the plane was driving through clouds, snow and rain, and often they were obliged to keep to dangerously low altitudes. From Taranto they went to Crete, and then to Cairo, where they arrived on 18 November. Making for Damascus and then Bagdad, a simoon swept up on the night of arrival, and only the help of a squadron of Indian lancers prevented the machine being smashed on the ground. Keeping to the south of Persia the route took them to Karachi, Delhi, Calcutta, Rangoon, Bangkok and Singapore. The governor-general of the Dutch East Indies had ordered aerodromes to be constructed at various points on the islands, which proved to be of the greatest use. But at Sourabaya the aerodrome had been made on reclaimed land which was soft underneath. The machine got bogged, and the position seemed almost hopeless. However, with the help of a large number of natives, a roadway of bamboo mats 350 yards long was laid down, the plane was dug out and hauled on to the mats and a successful take off was made with the mats flying in all directions. Darwin was reached on 10 December by way of Bima and Timor. The task was completed in just under 28 days, the actual flying time being 135 hours, and the distance covered 11,340 miles. The journey was continued across Australia and at Melbourne the prize of £10,000 was handed over and divided equally among the four members of the crew. The machine was presented to the Commonwealth by Messrs Vickers Ltd as a memorial of the first flight from London to Australia. At the request of the authorities it was flown to Adelaide, the birthplace of three of the crew. The brothers Smith were both created K.B.E. Smith wrote a short account of the journey which was published in Sydney in March 1920, illustrated with photographs, under the title, The First Aeroplane Voyage from England to Australia. Lecture tours followed in Australia and England, and early in 1922 it was intended to make a flight round the world. On 13 April Ross Smith and Lieutenant Bennett took the machine, a Vickers Viking amphibian, for a trial flight. The machine developed a spin, nose dived, and both men were killed. Smith was unmarried. His book on the journey to Australia, 14,000 Miles Through the Air, appeared a few weeks after his death.

A man of cheerful and modest disposition, Smith had great courage, determination and foresight. He had a remarkable war record, and considering the conditions his flight to Australia was an extraordinary feat. His brother, Sir Keith Macpherson Smith, born in 1890, also had a good war record. He had intended to go on the flight round the world but returned to Australia and became the representative of Vickers Ltd at Sydney.

The Register, Adelaide and The Advertiser, Adelaide, 14 April 1922; F. M. Cutlack, The Australian Flying Corps; Ross Smith, The First Aeroplane Journey from England to Australia and 14,000 Miles Through the Air; Who's Who in Australia, 1941.

SMITH, WILLIAM RAMSAY (1859-1937), anthropologist,

son of William Smith and Mary MacDonald, was born at King Edward, Aberdeenshire, on 27 November 1859. He attended district schools, and winning a Free Church scholarship, went to Edinburgh university and the training college for two years. At 20 he was appointed head teacher of a school in the north of Scotland, but again attended Edinburgh university, studying arts and science subjects, and won an entrance scholarship for medicine of £100 a year for three years. On completing his medical course in 1885 he was appointed assistant-professor of natural history, and demonstrator of zoology. In 1889 Illustrations of Zoology was published which he had prepared in collaboration with J. S. Norwell. For two years Smith was demonstrator of anatomy at Edinburgh, and in 1896 was brought to Australia by the South Australian government to fill a position in the Adelaide hospital. Three years later he was appointed city coroner and permanent head of the department of health at Adelaide. He had become associated with the military forces soon after his arrival, and during the South African war was officer in charge of plague administration at Cape Town. Returning to Australia Smith published in 1904 A Manual for Coroners, and in his spare time made a special study of the Australian aborigines. He was the author of the excellent article, "The Aborigines of Australia", which was printed in volume three of the Official Year Book of the Commonwealth. of Australia, published in 1910. In 1913 he published Medical Jurisprudence from the Judicial Standpoint, and in 1915 was in charge of the Australian general hospital at Heliopolis, Egypt. On his return to Adelaide he took up his duties at the board of health again, contributed to the Australian Encyclopaedia, including a large part of the article on Aborigines, and following a trip to the South Seas brought out his pleasantly written In Southern Seas in 1924. The second half of this book mostly relates to the Australian aborigines. Smith retired in 1929 and published in 1930 his Myths of the Australian Aboriginals, "a collection of narratives as told by pure-blooded aboriginals of various tribes who have been conversant with the subject from childhood". In spite of this statement the book must be read with extreme caution, for the aboriginals in question must have had much contact with Europeans. One is obliged to ask how much have these stories been influenced by this contact, and though Smith stated that "no pains have been spared in the endeavour to find out accurately what was in the minds of the narrator" how much was he compelled to add in preparing the stories for his book? This was his last volume, and living quietly among his books at Belair he died there on 28 September 1937. He married in 1889 Margaret, daughter of James Mackenzie, who predeceased him. There were four daughters and one son of the marriage.

Ramsay Smith had many degrees, and was a fellow of the Royal Society, Edinburgh. In addition to the volumes already mentioned he published some pamphlets and contributed largely to scientific journals and Chambers Encyclopaedia. He was much interested in literature, philosophy and music, was an excellent public servant, and, apart from his last volume, earned a high position as an authority on the Australian aborigines.

The Advertiser, Adelaide, 29 September 1937; Who's Who, 1938; The Times Literary Supplement, 19 March 1931.

SMITH, WILLIAM SAUMAREZ (1836-1909), first Anglican archbishop of Sydney,

eldest son of the Rev. Richard Snowden Smith, was born at St Helier, Jersey, on 14 January 1836. He was educated at Marlborough College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. with first-class honours in classics and theology in 1858. He was Crosse theological scholar in 1859, Tyrwhitt Hebrew scholar in 1860, and on two occasions won the Seatonian prize for poetry. He graduated M.A. in 1862, B.D. in 1871, D.D. in 1889, and was a fellow of Trinity College, 1860-70. Ordained deacon in 1859 and priest in 1860, he was vicar of Trumpington, 1867-9, and principal of St Aidan's theological college, 1869-90. He was consecrated bishop of Sydney and primate of Australia at St Paul's cathedral, London, on 24 June 1890, and became archbishop in 1897. At Sydney his episcopate was notable chiefly for a great increase in missionary work, and the home mission fund was also established. There was some advance in education; Moore theological college was reopened, and the Church of England Grammar School for girls was established in his period. Smith was always accessible to his clergy and always glad to keep in touch with his parishes. Though an extreme evangelical he was broadminded and an advocate for the union of the churches; and though essentially a man of peace, he spoke strongly against gambling and other evils. He had a dislike of ceremonial, a passion for accuracy, and was a fine scholar and linguist, interested also in astronomy and botany. He died at Sydney on 18 April 1909. He married in 1870 Florence, daughter of the Rev. L. Deedes, who died in 1890, and was survived by a son and six daughters. He was the author of The Bible, its Construction, Character and Claims (1865), Capernaum, A Seatonian Poem (1865), Obstacles to Missionary Success (1868), The Disciples, a Seatonian Poem (1869), Christian Faith, Five Sermons (1869), Lessons on Genesis (1879), The Blood of the New Testament (1889). In 1911 his verses were collected and published under the title, Capernaum and Other Poems.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 April 1909; P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography; Crockford, 1909; Memoir prefixed to Capernaum and Other Poems; British Museum Catalogue; F. B. Boyce, Fourscore Years and Seven, pp. 142-4.

SMYTH, ROBERT BROUGH (1830-1889), geologist, mineralogist and writer on aborigines,

son of Edward Smyth, mining engineer, was born at Carville, near Newcastle, England, in 1830. He was educated at a school at Whickam, afterwards studied geology, chemistry and natural science, and worked for five years at the Derwent iron works. He came to Victoria in 1852 and was for a short period on the goldfields before entering the Victorian survey department as a draughtsman. In 1854 he was placed in charge of the meteorological observations, and in 1860 became secretary for mines. He published in 1863 The Prospector's Handbook, and in 1869 a large volume, The Gold Fields and Mineral Districts of Victoria. He was also responsible for various pamphlets on the mining resources of the colony including Hints for the Guidance of Surveyors and Others Collecting Specimens of Rocks, which appeared in 1871. On 1 February 1876 several members of his staff sent a petition to the minister for mines asking that an inquiry should be held into the despotic conduct of Smyth towards his subordinates. Three members of parliament were appointed to inquire into the matter, and after a series of sittings held in February, March and April 1876, Smyth resigned from the service. He had been working for many years collecting materials for a book on the life of the aborigines, which was published in 1878 at the expense of the Victorian government in two large volumes, The Aborigines of Victoria: with notes relating to the habits of the Natives of Other Parts of Australia and Tasmania. Smyth visited India in 1879 and made a Report on the Gold Mines of the South-eastern Portion of the Wynaad and the Carcoor Ghat, which was published in 1880. He died at Melbourne on 9 October 1889.

Smyth was an able and hardworking man, constitutionally unfitted to be the head of a department. He is remembered for his book on the aborigines in connexion with which he had the assistance of many helpers. A large amount of material was collected but the value of his book is now limited, and it has been largely superseded by later work.

Men of the Time in Australia, 1878; P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography; The Age, 10 October 1889; The Argus, February-April 1876; Letter from R. H. Horne (q.v.) quoted in The Bulletin, 20 February 1929.

SOLANDER, DANIEL CHARLES (1736-1782), naturalist,

son of a clergyman, was born in the province of Norrland, Sweden, on 28 February 1736. He took the degree of M.D. at the university of Upsala, was a pupil of Linnaeus and came to London in July 1760 with strong recommendations, but found it difficult to obtain an appointment. In 1762 Linnaeus obtained for him the offer of the professorship of botany at St Petersburg, but Solander had just obtained some work at the British Museum, and declined the appointment. He was shortly afterward appointed an assistant at the museum, and in 1764 was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He met Sir Joseph Banks (q.v.) about this time, and in 1768 was engaged by him as a scientific assistant on the first voyage of Captain Cook (q.v.). On his return from this voyage Solander became secretary and librarian to Banks, and lived at his house. His position at the British Museum had been kept open for him, and in 1773 he became keeper of the natural history department (Dict. Nat. Biog.). He died following a stroke of apoplexy, on 16 May 1782.

Solander was a good-humoured, modest man, of much knowledge and ability. But he had an indolent procrastinating nature, and did not fulfil the hopes of his great master Linnaeus. He was associated with Banks in Illustrations of the Botany of Captain Cook's Voyage Round the World, and his The Natural History of Many Curious and Uncommon Zoophytes, Collected by the late John Ellis, was published posthumously in 1786. His name was given to a particular form of box used for holding specimens, and botanically it is preserved by the genus Solandra.

A. Chalmers, The General Biographical Dictionary, 1816, vol. XXVIII; Biographical Sketch by B. D. Jackson prefixed to Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, ed. by Sir Joseph D. Hooker, 1896.

SOLOMON, ALBERT EDGAR (1876-1914), premier of Tasmania,

was born at Longford, Tasmania, in March 1876. He was educated at the state school and winning an exhibition went on to Horton College, Ross, and Launceston Church Grammar School. He graduated B.A. in 1895 and LL.B. in 1897 at the university 0 Tasmania, and subsequently qualified for the degrees of M.A. and LL.M. He was admitted to the bar in February 1898. He entered politics as member of the house of assembly for Ross in April 1909, and almost immediately became attorney-general and minister for education in the N. E. Lewis (q.v.) second and third ministries, taking the additional position of minister of mines in October 1909. When Lewis retired in June 1912 Solomon became premier, attorney-general and minister of education, but he had a bare majority of one and it required much tact and finesse to keep the ministry going until April 1914. Attention was given to education and considerable additions were made to the number of state and high schools. Never a robust man Solomon felt the strain of office, his health broke down, and he died at Hobart in his thirty-ninth year on 5 October 1914. He married a daughter of J. Scott who survived him with two sons. He was a man of unusual ability, in private life modest and unassuming, a prominent member of the Methodist Church and a temperance reformer. In politics he was an upright and sound administrator, and a good speaker and parliamentary tactician. His early death cut short a promising career.

The Mercury, Hobart, 6 October 1914; The Examiner, Launceston, 6 October 1914.

SORELL, WILLIAM (1775-1848), third governor of Tasmania,

was born in England in 1775, the eldest son of Lieut.-general William Alexander Sorell. He joined the army in August 1790 as an ensign, was promoted lieutenant in August 1793, and saw active service in the West Indies. He became a captain in 1795. In 1799 he was aide-de-camp to Lieut.-general Sir James Murray in the abortive expedition to North Holland, and in 1800 took part in the attacks on Spanish naval stations. After the peace at Amiens, Sorell was captain in the 18th or Royal Irish regiment, and in 1804 was promoted major to the 43rd regiment. In 1807 he was made deputy-adjutant-general of the forces at the Cape of Good Hope, and was promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel. He returned to England in 1811 and on 4 February 1813 retired from the army. He had married, but had separated from his wife before going to South Africa. There he formed a connexion with the wife of a Lieutenant Kent serving in one of the regiments, and it is believed that this was the reason for his being retired. On 3 April 1816 he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Tasmania, arrived in Sydney on 10 March and at Hobart on 8 April 1817. In the meanwhile Lieutenant Kent had brought an action against Sorell "for criminal conversation with the plaintiff's wife", and on 5 July 1817 was awarded £3000 damages.

The first problem Sorell had to deal with was the suppression of bushranging. He at once instituted a system of passports for assigned servants and ticket-of-leave men, rewards were offered for the apprehension of bushrangers, and a few months later, on 12 December 1817, Macquarie (q.v.) reported in a dispatch that the bushrangers had been "almost entirely extirpated through the active and energetic measures of Lieut.-governor Sorell". Sorell also issued a manifesto relating to the protection of aborigines stating that "any persons charged with killing, firing at or committing any act of outrage should be sent to Sydney to take their trial". However well-meant this might be it quite failed in its purpose. In 1819 he issued a government order, admirably phrased, warning settlers of the causes of the outrages and giving suggestions how to avoid their occurrence. He especially ordered that the aborigines should not be deprived of their children, as he found young natives were being kept by stock-keepers and pastoralists in a kind of semi-slavery. Another ordinance brought in regulations for the effective branding of cattle, a necessary precaution in a country with comparatively few fences. Sorell also developed education by increasing very much the number of schools. The population was increasing, there had been some emigration of free settlers from New South Wales, and in 1820 the colonial office considerably increased the issue of official permits to would-be settlers from England. Until then everything Sorell did had to be referred to Macquarie, but he was now informed that letters from the colonial office respecting land grants would be directed to him so that he could deal with them without the former delay. In this year about 200 stud sheep arrived from New South Wales which led to a considerable improvement in the quality of the flocks. In April 1821 Macquarie visited Tasmania, and in a dispatch to Earl Bathurst dated 17 July enclosed a government and general order he had published in which he more than once highly commended Sorell for the work he had done. The years from 1821 to 1824 were years of quiet progress, during which Sorell, after consultation with the leading business men, succeeded in getting the first bank founded, the Van Diemen's Land Bank, and there was great expansion in trade. Various grammar schools in which secondary teaching was given were started, and in addition to those of the Church of England, clergy from the Roman Catholic and Methodist churches also began to do duty. Sorell also began dividing the convicts into different classes, sending the worst of them to Macquarie Harbour. About October 1823 Sorell heard privately that he was likely to be recalled. He had become very popular, and in December 1821 a general meeting of the inhabitants had decided to present him with a service of plate of a value not less than 500 guineas. When the news of his impending recall leaked out another meeting of the colonists was held on 30 October 1823, and an address to the king was prepared praying that he should not be removed. Similar resolutions were passed at Launceston. But it was too late for these meetings to have any effect. The dispatch intimating Sorell's recall was dated 26 August 1823 and arrived a few weeks later. His successor, Lieut.-governor Arthur (q.v.), arrived on 12 May 1824, and Sorell left for England on 12 June. He was given a pension of £500 a year and died on 4 June 1848. (Death notice, The Times, 8 June 1848.) There were several children of his marriage, one of whom, William Sorell, junior, was appointed registrar of the supreme court at Hobart in 1824, and held this position until his death in 1860. His daughter married Thomas Arnold and became the mother of the novelist Mrs Humphrey Ward (q.v.)

Sorell was an excellent administrator. Coming to Tasmania after a discredited governor and finding everything in confusion, he speedily set to work to put things in order and win the respect of everyone in the community. He was thoroughly honest, active, wise, and intelligent. Courteous to all, he could be determined when it was necessary. Much exploration was done during the period of his rule, the population was quadrupled, and the wealth of the colony much increased. His recall was thoroughly unpopular, and it was unfortunate that the same cause which led to Sorell's leaving the army should have been brought to the notice of the colonial office, and made an end of the career for which he was so eminently fitted.

Historical Records of Australia, ser. III, vols. II to V. ser. I. vols. IX and X: R. W. Giblin, The Early History of Tasmania, vol. II; J. West, The History of Tasmania; J. Fenton, A History of Tasmania; The Gentleman's Magazine, August 1848, p. 204.

SOUTER, DAVID HENRY (1862-1935), artist and journalist,

son of an engineer, was born at Aberdeen, Scotland, on 30 March 1862. He studied art at the local branch of the South Kensington school, contributed to a local journal, Bon Accord, and went to Natal in 1881, where he engaged in journalism. He came to Sydney in 1886, obtained a position with John Sands and Company, contributed cartoons to the Tribune, and in 1888 founded the "Brush Club" of which he became president. In 1892 he began contributing drawings to the Bulletin, and for a period of 35 years had at least one drawing in every issue. There are various stories about the cat which so frequently appeared in his drawings, one being that it was evolved from a blot that fell on a drawing at the last moment, and another that it first appeared to fill in a blank space. When the Society of Artists was established at Sydney in 1895 Souter was elected to the council, and from 1901 to 1902 was its president. He was art editor of Art and Architecture from 1904 to 1911, and for many years was associated with William Brooks and Company and illustrated many of the school books issued by them. In his later years he was on the editorial staff of Country Life. He died suddenly at Sydney on 22 September 1935. He married Janet, daughter of David Swanson, who died in 1932, and was survived by two sons and three daughters.

Souter was a stocky, kindly, humorous, friendly, courageous man, who wrote short stories, verse, light articles and plays, with a capable and ready pen. His separate publications were The Grey Kimono: the Libretto of an Operetta, published in 1902, and Bush Babs: with Pictures, rhymes for children, with his own illustrations, which appeared in 1933. He did a fair amount of painting in water-colour, 10 examples were shown at the exhibition of the Society of Artists, held at Melbourne in 1907; but his reputation rests on his black and white work which considering the mass of it was very even in quality. A scrap-book containing a collection of his earlier work from the Bulletin is at the public library, Melbourne. A collection of his War Cartoons, reprinted from the Stock and Station Journal, was published at Sydney in 1915. He also illustrated volumes written by Ethel Turner and other Australian authors.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 September 1935; The Argus, Melbourne, 24 September 1935; W. Moore, The Story of Australian Art; E. Morris Miller, Australian Literature; The Bulletin, 25 September 1935.

SOUTHERN, CLARA (1861-1940), artist,

was born at Kyneton, Victoria, in 1861. She studied at the national gallery school at Melbourne under Folingsby (q.v.) and spent much of her life at Warrandyte, a township on the Yarra some 15 miles from Melbourne. She did much sincere painting of this country, but though her pictures were admired by the artists of her time, they were not very well known. She died on 15 December 1940. There is an excellent example of her work in the Melbourne gallery, "The Bee Farm", subtle and refined in colour. Miss Southern married John Flinn but usually exhibited under her original name.

W. Moore, The Story of Australian Art; Catalogue of the National Gallery of Victoria, 1943; The Argus, 19 December 1940.

SPENCE, CATHERINE HELEN (1825-1910), advocate of proportional representation, novelist, journalist and sociologist,

daughter of David Spence, writer to the signet, and Helen Brodie, was born at Melrose, Scotland, on 31 October 1825. Her schoolmistress, Miss Sarah Phin, was a "born teacher in advance of her own time". Miss Spence had a happy childhood but in her fourteenth year her father met with heavy financial losses and emigrated with his family to the new colony of South Australia. Miss Spence carried with her a letter from her schoolmistress certifying that she was able "to undertake both the useful and ornamental branches of education--French, Italian and music you thoroughly understand". Some years of privation followed her arrival in South Australia at the end of 1839. The family lived in a tent near Adelaide, some cows were bought, and the milk was sold to the townspeople. Her father was then appointed town clerk at £150 a year, but in a little while the position was temporarily done away with. At 17 years of age Miss Spence became a daily governess at sixpence an hour, and spent several years in teaching. She refused one offer of marriage on account of the Calvinistic creed of her admirer. Her own views were recorded in her volume, An Agnostic's Progress, published anonymously many years afterwards. She also began to take an interest in politics and took part in the controversy on "State Aid to Religion". Her brother, John Brodie Spence, was the Adelaide correspondent of the Melbourne Argus, and Miss Spence began her journalistic career by writing his letters for him. In 1854 her first novel, Clara Morison, was published, which was followed by Tender and True (1856), Mr Hogarth's Will (1865), and The Author's Daughter (1867). These volumes, like other early Australian books, are practically unprocurable. There are probably not more than two or three complete sets of them in existence. Another novel, Gathered In, appeared in the Adelaide Observer, but was never published in book form. Her novels are sincere, well-written stories but only one attained much circulation, and their author appears to have received little more than £100 from the four of them. Miss Spence, however, took no little comfort from the fact that the reading of Mr Hogarth's Will by Edward Wilson (q.v.) suggested the founding of the great Edward Wilson trust that has meant so much to the charities of Melbourne. The greatest interest in the life of Miss Spence came to her in 1859 when she read an article by John Stuart Mill which appeared in Fraser's Magazine supporting Thomas Hare's system of proportional representation. She wrote a pamphlet on it, Plea for Pure Democracy, published in 1861, which received the approval of Hare, Mill, Rowland Hill and Professor Craik, who considered it to be the best argument on the popular side that had appeared. Until near the end of her life she continued to fight for this system.

By the kindness of a friend Miss Spence was able to visit Europe in 1865. In England she met Mill and Hare and revisited the scenes of her childhood. Returning at the end of 1866 she began to take an interest in the question of destitute children and the gradual development of the boarding-out system, doing much work on the committee of the Boarding-out Society. In 1871 she began public speaking with a lecture on the Brownings, the first of many she was to deliver, and in 1878 became a regular contributor to the South Australian Register. For a period of 15 years she wrote many social and political articles for its columns. Miss Spence also wrote many reviews for the Sydney Morning Herald, and articles for the Melbourne Review, the Victorian Review, and the Cornhill Magazine. She began writing sermons and delivered many in Unitarian churches at Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. She had an excellent voice and her evident sincerity had a great effect. In 1880 Miss Spence published a little volume for schoolchildren, The Laws We Live Under; she had been the first woman appointed on a board of advice by the South Australian education department and realized the necessity for children learning something about civics. Many years later she was much interested in the kindergarten movement. She was making a good income as a journalist but a great deal was spent in charity, not always wisely as she herself said. In the early eighteen-nineties she found herself able to give much time to lecturing on proportional representation, and in 1893 visited the United States as a government commissioner and delegate to the great World's Fair congresses at Chicago. A visit to Europe followed, and soon after her return to Adelaide at the end of 1894 she welcomed the success of the women's suffrage movement.

In 1895 Miss Spence became first president of a league formed for the furtherance of effective voting, and fought hard without success for its inclusion in the Australian constitution. She was also a candidate for the federal convention of 1897 but was not elected. She paid a visit to Sydney in her seventy-fifth year and then went on to Melbourne, giving addresses in both cities, and a year later in 1901 became president of the South Australian Co-operative Clothing Company, formed for the benefit of operatives in the shirtmaking and clothing trades. In 1903 Miss Spence had the first serious illness of her life, but recovered and continued her many activities. Her State Children in Australia; A History of Boarding-out and its Developments was published in 1907. She died on 3 April 1910.

Miss Spence was short, in later life stout, and homely in appearance. She brought a thoroughly reasonable, wise and acute mind to the social problems of her day, and in private life was full of the kindliest human nature, with a charity that enabled her "to help lame dogs over stiles" all her life. Proportional representation, the dearest wish of her life, has been adopted to some extent in Tasmania, Western Australia and New South Wales, and the system of preferential voting now generally in force in Australia may be regarded as a step towards the effective voting she so ardently fought for. A great public-spirited citizen she spent her life in working for her country. After her death a fund was raised by public subscription so that her portrait could be painted and presented to the national gallery at Adelaide, and the government founded the Catherine Helen Spence scholarship in her memory. This scholarship is awarded every four years, and one of the conditions is that the winner shall spend two years abroad in the study of social science.

Catherine Helen Spence, An Autobiography; Jeanne F. Young, Catherine Helen Spence; South Australian Register, 4 April 1910.

SPENCE, PERCY FREDERICK SEATON (1868-1933), artist,

was born at Sydney in 1868. He became a contributor to the Bulletin and also exhibited at the Royal Art Society. He went to Europe in 1895 and illustrations by him appeared in Black and White, the Graphic, and other well-known publications of the time. He had two pictures in the Royal Academy exhibition of 1899 and his work was also accepted in the three following years. In 1901 he was responsible for the illustrations to Britain's Austral Empire, mostly portraits of the leading Australian politicians of that period. In 1905 he was back in Sydney and held a one man show of his work, and in 1910 he provided 75 illustrations for the volume Australia, in Black's colour series. These are frankly illustrative, but they show Spence to have been an artist of ability and variety. He died in London in August 1933. He is represented in the national gallery and the Mitchell library at Sydney. Pencil sketches of R. L. Stevenson and Phil May are in the national portrait gallery, London, and other portraits are at Sydney university and at the high court, Sydney. The Australian fleet 1913, and. a portrait of Rear-Admiral Patey are at Buckingham Palace.

W. Moore, The Story of Australian Art; The Studio, 1906; A. Graves, The Royal Academy Exhibitors.

SPENCE, WILLIAM GUTHRIE (1846-1926), Labour leader and politician,

was born in the Orkney Islands in 1846, and was brought to Victoria in 1853. His family went to the country and at an early age Spence was helping to earn his living. At 12 years of age he was with a co-operative party of miners, and at 17 he was employed as a butcher. In later years he worked in the mines at Ballarat, and in 1878 was one of the organizers and secretary of a miners' union at Creswick. He was engaged in organizing miners' unions throughout Australia for some years, and in 1882 became general secretary of the Amalgamated Miners' Association. In 1886 an attempt by station owners to reduce the amount paid for shearing sheep from £1 to 17/6 a hundred led to the organization of the Amalgamated Shearers' Union. Spence became treasurer of the new movement and insisted that the union must ignore all political boundaries. Organizers were sent out and in 1887 the struggle began between the owners and the shearers which was to last many years. Spence afterwards claimed that the policy of the union from its inception was conciliation. Certainly the circular sent to the station owners in February 1888, could hardly have been more reasonable. It was asked that a conference should be held between representatives of the union and of the owners, but very few of the latter took any notice of the circular and none attended the proposed conference. The struggle went on with varying fortunes but at a conference held with the New South Wales owners in August 1891 the shearers practically succeeded in obtaining their terms.

In the maritime strike of 1890 and the Queensland shearers' strike of 1891 Spence was a prominent figure, and though the financial depression which followed increased the difficulties of the unions on account of the large number of unemployed, some progress was made. He was president of the Australian Workers' Union for many years, and in 1898 was elected a member of the New South Wales legislative assembly for Cobar. In 1901 he was elected for Darling in the federal house of representatives and held the seat until 1917. He was a member of the select committee on shipping services in 1905, was postmaster-general in the third Fisher (q.v.) ministry from September 1914 to October 1915, and vice-president of the executive council in W. M. Hughes's ministry from November 1916 to February 1917. With Hughes and others he was ejected from the Labour party in 1916 on the conscription issue. He was a Nationalist candidate at the 1917 general election and was defeated, but came in for Darwin, Tasmania, at a by-election in the following June. He retired from that seat in 1919, and stood for Batman, Victoria, but was defeated. He died at Terang, Victoria, on 13 December 1926. He married and was survived by his wife and several children. He was the author of two books, Australia's Awakening--Thirty Years in the Life of an Australian Agitator (1909), and History of the A.W.U. (1911). Both give an interesting, but somewhat one-sided view of social conditions in Australia at the end of the nineteenth century.

Spence has been called the "mildest-mannered man that ever ran a strike". It was ironical that one who had worked so hard and done so much for the Labour movement should have been cast out of it, but Spence was comparatively philosophical because he considered that the battle had practically been won.

The Argus and The Age, Melbourne, 14 December 1926; The Bulletin, 16 December 1926. W. G. Spence, History of the A.W.U., and Australia's Awakening; Commonwealth Parliamentary Handbook, 1926.

SPENCER, THOMAS EDWARD (1845-1911), humorous writer,

was born at London on 30 December 1845. He came to Australia when 18 years of age, but soon afterwards returned to England and worked at his trade of stone mason. At the age of 24 he was elected vice-president of the Stonemasons' Society of London, and had some experience in the settlement of industrial disputes. He went to Australia again in 1875 and became a successful builder and contractor. He contributed verse and prose sketches to the Bulletin and other journals, and one set of verses "How McDougall topped the Score", included in the Bulletin Reciter, published in 1901, became very popular. A collection of his work, How McDougall Topped the Score and other Verses and Sketches, was published in 1906. This was followed by Budgeree Ballads in 1908, reprinted under the title How Doherty Died in 1910, and four volumes of prose humorous sketches, The Surprising Adventures of Mrs Bridget McSweeney (1906), A Spring Cleaning and Other Stories (1908), The Haunted Shanty and other Stories (1910), and That Droll Lady (1911). Bindawalla: An Australian Story (1912), is in a more serious vein. During the last years of his life Spencer spent much of his time as an arbitrator in industrial disputes. Between 1907 and 1911 he presided over many wages boards, and his experience and sense of justice enabled him to do very valuable work. He died at Sydney on 6 May 1911, leaving a widow, three sons and two daughters.

Spencer was a genial man full of kindliness and wit. The humour of his books is very much on the surface, but it was popular and he had a large audience. All his books were published at a shilling in the Bookstall series, and many thousands of each were sold. The 10th edition, 44th thousand, of That Droll Lady was published in 1923, and other volumes continued to be sold for many years after the author's death.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 May 1911; The Bulletin, 25 May 1911; E. Morris Miller,. Australian Literature.

SPENCER, SIR WALTER BALDWIN (1860-1929), biologist and anthropologist,

the second son of Reuben Spencer and his wife, originally a Miss Circuit, was born at Stretford, Lancashire, on 23 June 1860. His father who had come from Derbyshire in his youth obtained a position with Rylands and Sons, cotton manufacturers, and rose to be chairman of its board of directors when Rylands, became a company. His son was educated at Old Trafford school, and on leaving entered the Manchester school of art. He stayed only one year but never forgot his training in drawing; his power of illustrating his university lectures with rapid sketches in later years often arousing the admiration of his students. After leaving the school of arts Spencer went to Owens College and, fortunate in finding an enthusiastic teacher, Milnes Marshall, to guide him in his study of biology, gained a scholarship at Exeter College, Oxford. Before going to Oxford he won the Dalton prize in natural history

Spencer began his studies at Oxford in 1881 and worked hard, resisting the temptation to spend too much time with friends and in sport. In June 1884 he qualified for his B.A. degree obtaining first-class honours in natural science. In 1885 he became assistant to Professor Moseley and shortly afterwards had valuable experience helping him and Professor Tylor to remove the Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers collection from South Kensington to Oxford. His association with these distinguished men in this task no doubt largely helped to develop his interest in anthropology and museum work. In January 1886 he obtained a fellowship at Lincoln College. He had already contributed various papers to scientific journals, one of which, on the Pineal eye in lizards, had aroused much interest, and having applied for the professorship of biology at Melbourne in June 1886 was elected to that chair in January 1887. A few days later he was married to Mary Elizabeth Bowman and left for Australia where he arrived in March. He immediately set about organizing his new school, the chair had just been founded, and succeeded in getting a grant of £8000 to begin building his lecture rooms and laboratories. He showed much capability as a lecturer and organizer, and also took a full part in the general activities of the university. But his interests were not confined to his university duties, he took a leading part in the proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, the Field Naturalists' Club, and the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, and did valuable work for those bodies.

In 1894 a new field was opened up for Spencer when he joined the W.A. Horn scientific expedition which left Adelaide in May 1894 to explore Central Australia. In July he met F. J. Gillen (q.v.) at Alice Springs with whom he was to be so much associated in the study of the aborigines. The expedition covered some 2000 miles in about three months and on his return Spencer busied himself with editing the report to which he also largely contributed. it was published in 1896. At this time Spencer must have been a very busy man but he was never too busy to be unable to give time to a worthy student. In 1896 Grafton Elliot Smith (q.v.), then only known as a brilliant student from Sydney university, passing through Melbourne on his way to England, spent a day with Spencer and afterwards spoke of his charm, enthusiasm, modesty and generosity. In November 1896 Spencer was again at Alice Springs beginning the work with Gillen which resulted in the Native Tribes of Central Australia, published in 1899. Gillen was a remarkable man who had won the confidence of the natives by his kindly understanding of their point of view. He had learned their language, and the blacks had faith in him. Spencer too was gifted with patience, understanding and kindliness, and soon gained their confidence also. He continued this work with Gillen during the vacations of the two following years, encouraged by Professor Tylor and (Sir) James Frazer. An immense amount of material relating to tribal customs was accumulated, and the book, with the names of both Gillen and Spencer on the title page, was seen through the press by Dr Frazer. It created a great sensation in the scientific world, and although it could not be expected that there would be general agreement as to the conclusions to be drawn from it, all could agree that here was a sound and remarkable piece of research work.

Spencer had been appointed a trustee of the public library in 1895. When Sir Frederick McCoy (q.v.) died in May 1899 he became honorary director of the national museum. He was to do an enormous amount of work in the following years, and to present to the museum many valuable collections of sacred and ceremonial aboriginal objects collected during his journeys. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, London, in 1900 and in 1901 spent 12 months in the field with Gillen going from Oodnadatta to Powell Creek and then eastward to Borraloola on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Their experiences and studies formed the basis of the next book, The Northern Tribes of Central Australia, which appeared in 1904, dedicated to David Syme, who had given £1000 towards the cost of the expedition. In this year Spencer became president of the professorial board, an office he was to hold for seven years. There was then no paid vice-chancellor at Melbourne university and much administrative work fell on Spencer's shoulders. He carried it competently and without complaint and even found time to take an interest in the sporting activities of the undergraduates. In 1911 at the request of the Commonwealth government he led an expedition in the Northern Territory sent to make inquiries into conditions there, and in the following year he published his Across Australia and also accepted the position of special commissioner and chief protector of aborigines. He explored much little-known territory and got in touch with new tribes. The story of this will be found in Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia (1914).

In 1914 Spencer was honorary secretary for the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held in Melbourne. He was also contriving to do a great deal of work at the national museum. In 1916 at the request of the Felton bequest's committee he went to England to obtain an art adviser for the Felton bequest. He was also taking an interest in Australian artists and incidentally getting together a remarkable collection of Australian pictures. He had been made C.M.G. in 1904 and in 1916 he was created a K.C.M.G. In 1919 he resigned his professorship and in 1920 became vice-president of the trustees of the public library of Victoria. He paid two more visits to the centre of Australia, one in 1923 with Dr Leonard Keith Ward, the government geologist of South Australia, and the Other in 1926. These visits enabled Spencer to revise his earlier researches and consider on the spot various opposing theories that had been brought forward. His The Arunta: a Study of a Stone Age People (1927), confirms the view that his earlier conclusions were in essentials correct. Wanderings in Wild Australia, published a year later and slightly more popular in form, completes the list of his more important books; a list of his other published writings will be found in Spencers Last Journey. Spencer went to London in 1927 to see these books through the press. Ten years before he had said that he realized he was not getting younger and must regard his field work as finished. But his eager spirit would not allow him to rest. In February 1929, in his sixty-ninth year, he travelled in a cargo boat to Magallanes and then went in a little schooner to Ushuaia at the south of Terra del Fuego trying to get in touch with the few remaining Indians. In June he went to Hoste Island seeking an old Yaghan woman who was reputed to know a little English. There he became ill and died of heart failure on 14 July 1929. Lady Spencer and two daughters survived him.

Spencer was a man of medium height, spare in form, the embodiment of energy. Never neglecting his university or his scientific work he yet found time to sit on the councils of such widely different bodies as the Royal Humane Society, the Victorian Artists' Society and the Victorian Football League of which he was president for some time. As an ethnologist he showed great patience, he could understand that the brain of a primitive man might easily tire, and the thoroughness of his scientific work helped to give him the first place in Australia in his own field. His sense of justice insisted that full credit should be given to his co-workers. When The Arunta: A Study of a Stone Age People appeared in 1927 Gillen's name as joint author appeared on the title-page though he had died 15 years before. Many degrees and honours came to Spencer, he was very pleased when his old college, Exeter, elected him an honorary fellow. A stained glass window in Exeter College hall which commemorates some of the great men of that college includes Spencer's name. Close by is his portrait by W. B. McInnes (q.v.), and another portrait by this artist will also be found at Melbourne university. A vivid presentation of Spencer by G. W. Lambert, A.R.A. (q.v.) is at the national museum, Melbourne. The unrivalled collection of implements and specimens of aboriginal art which he presented to the national museum are another memorial to him. "His writings will long survive him for the enlightenment of a distant posterity and for a monument, more lasting than bronze or marble to his fame" (Sir James Frazer, Spencer's Last Journey, p. 13.)

Ed. by R. R. Marett and T. K. Penniman, Spencer's Last Journey; E. La T. Armstrong and R. D. Boys, The Book of the Public Library of Victoria, 1906-31; Sir Grafton Elliot Smith by his Colleagues; personal knowledge.

SPOFFORTH, FREDERICK ROBERT (1853-1926), cricketer,

was born at Balmain, Sydney, on 9 September 1853, the son of a banker. He was educated at Eglinton College, Sydney, and was afterwards employed in the Bank of New South Wales. He came into notice as a member of the New South Wales eighteen in January 1874 when he took two wickets for 16 in a match against Grace's English eleven. He was a regular representative in the New South Wales team in intercolonial matches and in the December 1877 game went in second wicket down and made 25, the highest score in either innings in a low-scoring match. But though he batted comparatively well during the 1878 and 1880 Australian tours in England he henceforth concentrated on his bowling and established a great reputation. In 1878 he took 109 wickets at a cost of less than 12 runs a wicket, but was less successful in 1880, being kept out of several games by an injury. In 1882 he got 188 wickets for an average of just over 12 and had his most remarkable achievement in the 1882 test match at Lords, when for the first time England was beaten by Australia. England was set 85 runs to win, lost two wickets for 50, and the match appeared to be over. But Spofforth in the last 11 overs bowled 10 maidens, took four wickets for two runs, and the Australians won by seven runs. Altogether he took 14 wickets for 90 runs in this match. He was also very successful in the 1884 and 1886 tours. He represented New South Wales from 1874 to 1885 and Victoria from 1885 to 1887. In 1888 he settled in England, played for Derbyshire in 1889 and 1890, and in 1896 playing for M.C.C., though in his forty-third year, took eight wickets for 74 against Yorkshire. He played club cricket for Hampstead for some years after 1890 and secured a large number of wickets at a low cost. In England he went into business as a tea-merchant and was very successful. He revisited Australia on more than one occasion and retained his interest in the game to the end. He died at Surbiton, Surrey, on 4 June 1926. He was survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters.

Spofforth was well over six feet in height, lean, and very strong. He began as a fast bowler though he did not have a very long run, and gradually quietened down to fast medium-pace with an occasional extra fast ball. He had a sharp break from the off and was able to disguise changes of pace. His bowling averages in first-class matches when the comparatively low scoring of the period is taken into account, do not suggest that he stood out from his fellows, but Lord Hawke who played first-class cricket for a great many years considered him to be the most difficult bowler he had ever played against. He is generally considered to have been the greatest bowler of his time, and it is difficult to select a bowler of any other time to place before him.

The Times, 5 June 1926; The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 June 1926; J. Wisden, Cricketer's Almanack, 1927; P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.

^Top of page [and links to other parts]

• Looking for glass in Sydney? -- Glass Sydney -- VALIANT GLASS
• Rental Agreements DIY Australia
• Fresh Flowers and Gifts
• Florist Sydney