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Samuel Walker Griffith: a Biographer and His Problems

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Samuel Walker Griffith: a Biographer and His Problems Samuel Walker Griffith: A Biographer and his problems by the late Professor R.B. Joyce Presented at a Meeting of the Society 25 October 1984* I express my gratitude to the Royal Historical Society of Queens­ land for this opportunity of speaking, once again,' on Sir Samuel Walker Griffith. It is particularly fitting that I should be speaking in Brisbane for although Griffith was bom in Wales in 1845, this city was his adopted home. His parents who had migrated as zealous missionaries from Britain moved to Brisbane from Maitland in 1860. From then onwards Samuel spent most of his life in Brisbane. Even during his sixteen years as Chief Justice of Austraha (1903 to 1919) when he had to Uve in Sydney, then the centre of the High Court, he maintained his palatial home 'Merthyr' in New Farm, retuming to it as often as possible. When he finally retired, broken in health, he spent his last year in his beloved riverside home where he died on 9 August 1920. Griffith and Brisbane have been important to my life for a very long time. I first heard of the city through my mother's memories, of which more later; these went back to the 1880s. I wiU be retiring in a few months after 32 years of university teaching, 22 years of which were spent at Queensland University. It was here that I initially became interested in trying to understand Griffith, although I knew of him before. The prime acquaintance was with his judgements while I was studying law at Sydney University late in the 1940s. Then while at Cambridge (1950-53) working on the early history of British New Guinea I became aware of Griffith's important role as premier of Queensland in devising and facilitating the complicated system of British and Australian mle, and in ensuring funds for the infant colony. More significantly to me Griffith was a close friend of the first 'Professor Roger Joyce was Professor of History, La Trobe Uni­ versity, Bundoora, Victoria 3083. He died suddenly on 30 October 1984 just before his intended retirement. 17Q British administrator. Sir William MacGregor. I began writing a biography of MacGregor while at Queensland University, and as long ago as the 1950s I used the Griffith papers in the Mitchell and Dixson Libraries in Sydney. It was tiien that I began wondering why a Scottish doctor should have become so friendly with a Welsh lawyer. They were to correspond from their initial meeting in 1886 through to MacGregor's death in 1919. Both seemed lonely men: MacGregor a Scot constantly quarrelling with English public servants; Griffith, an intellectual dissatisfied with the standards of Queensland's political and cultural life. It was an early insight into the private life of both men, beginning a long search for ways of relating the private and public lives of historical figures. Before my biography of MacGregor was published in 197 PI had begun work on my next subject, Griffith. In the next thirteen years he was increasingly to dominate my life. The wealth of records he had left necessitated many hours in libraries. An Archivist in this building was pessimistic: she believed it would take more than a lifetime to read all the relevant papers held by the Queensland State Archives alone.^ Griffith spent twenty-three years in Queensland politics (1872-93) leaving his mark as Attomey-General, Minister for Public In­ struction, Minister for Public Works, and as Treasurer, not to mention his two terms as Premier. He was always a conscientious minister writing many minutes - often lengthy - on numerous files. Then there are voluminous legal records: he was Queensland's Chief Justice for a decade and his judge's notebooks, recording details of every case he heard, are all held in the Archives.'' These supplement the printed volumes of reported cases, where his appearances as barrister and later judgements as Chief Justice, are all recorded. Sometimes more interesting, and often more tantalising, are his private papers. Besides the series of letters from MacGregor, he was in contact with many personalities throughout Australia, England and the United States of America. These are kept in chronological order in the Dixson Library, and added another dimension to his political and legal life. For instance few seem to have realised that while he was, m 1891, the leading figure in the drafting of the AustraUan constitution, he was deeply involved in the Queensland shearers' strike. After a day of debating constitutional clauses he would send telegrams to Brisbane - usually urging actions^ milder than those recommended by his Queensland cabinet colleagues. Likewise few know that he was in deep personal agony from July 1900 to December 1901: his elder son, Llewellyn, was dying from meningitis. Yet in this period he continued as chief justice, was working closely with the govemor for whom he had acted, and kept up 171 Samual Walker Griffith. (R.H.S.Q. Collection) other involvements. He was chairman of the tmstees for Brisbane Grammar School (the records of which I have used) and a meeting of these had to be intermpted when the doctor beUeved Llewellyn would not survive. He was at Government House earlier in the evening of the day on which Llewellyn finally died,'' The catalogue of relevant records often seemed never ending to myself and my various research assistants, Nigel Sabine, in par­ ticular, spent three years in searching for important references: and, 172 Uke Ross Johnston and me, he knows well that much remains undiscovered both in the richness of the State archives and elsewhere. I found analysing Griffith's judgements, in both High Courts one of the most onerous tasks. After studying the ten years of the Queens­ land court where Griffith had manifold responsibilities, I had to tum to his 950 High Court cases, which needed sorting and selecting. These cases ranged over many fields of law. Only a small proportion are constitutional cases, which at least have been analysed by various legal writers, the rest have largely been neglected. I believed all had to be read for clues to his character. Leads to help interpretation came from various sources: his associate A.D. Graham'' left reminiscenses in his important Macrossan lectures (including Griffith's philosophy, comparing judgements to an isosceles triangle, and his insistance on punctuality). It was fascinating to discover that Steele Rudd (of'Dad and Dave' fame) then an officer of the Supreme Court, had championed Griffith. His praise of Griffith's knowledge of bush life is a high accolade: "to persons bred and bom of the bush his knowledge of the methods and guile of horsemen and cattlemen was a matter of wonder. .",^ Such an opinion stresses how important were Griffith's early years in the outskirts of Ipswich and in West Maitland in shaping his ideas. The catalogue of records relevant to Griffith was large. I have outlined sufficient to suggest their importance, and my certainty that I have not read all. I do not believe that any account of any man can be definitive. John Le Nauze reacted similarly after spending a com­ parably long period with Alfred Deakin - and he was citing his subject: no man knows himself thoroughly, or anyone else, more than superficially except by accident or inspiration.' I do not claim that my biography of Griffith is more than a biography - not die biography. Otiier interpretations are possible and would be welcomed by me. It is certainly selective: my preface explains some of the problems in reducing tiie text: of cutting a manuscript tiiat had reached 780,000 words to 200,000; of wonder­ ing how to determine relevance and importance. Behind all these remain positive beliefs. The value both of history generally, and more specifically the value of accurate, unbiased analyses of important individuals. At this time, when some educators are decrying the value of studying history as such, these beliefs need re-stressing. I am convinced that the study of the past is an essential part of human understanding: Griffith's life is a part of the fabric of Queensland society and of AustraUan law: neither their pasts nor presents can be fully understood witiiout appreciating his and others' contributions. 173 I have mentioned Griffith's private life several times. Another positive belief of mine is that private lives are relevant to the study of history. This is a far cry from those who seek only social or economic forces, or those who see individuals more as helpless pawns than as influential pieces. I believe Griffith's public actions whether as politician, govemor, barrister or judge, were influenced by his private priorities, indeed that it is impossible to separate the two spheres. After my MacGregor was published a critic complained that I had made "no ventures into psycohistory"'". During the ten years I have been at La Trobe University I have been involved in honours courses studying the growing literature in this field, and I have tried to apply theories to interpret Griffith. I have not regretted the insights given, whether by the Georges on Woodrow Wilson, Erickson on Martin Luther or Jim Walter on Gough Whitlam." I do not believe that a general theory should dictate: trying to twist or ignore discordant elements of an individual's life into a set pattem can be disastrous. Perhaps this belief prevented me from finding any theory that adequately explained the whole of the complex personality of Samuel Griffith: those theories that helped have remained in footnotes. Thus my first note: "I argue implicitly that . [Griffith] had some compulsive characteristics, which even approached the neurotic behaviour of an arrogant-vindictive type".'^ I am applying K.
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