F. K. CROWLEY

Sir THE STATESMAN

Sir John Forrest-surveyor, explorer and politician-was prominent in Australian public life for more than forty years. As a young man he led three expeditions which contributed significantly to the geographical and botanical knowledge of the inland desert country of . As a public servant, he established and ex­ tended trigonometrical land surveying in his colony, and devised land laws to suit the needs of both pastoralists and farmers. In middle age, as the first premier of Western Australia, he carried out an integrated policy of public works and land settlement which met both the short-term needs of gold-miners and the long-term needs of agriculturists. In his last years of public service, as a minister in several national Australian governments, he was one of the first politicians to wrestle with the complexities of federal-state financial relations. He also took part in the negoti­ ations which established the two-party political system in federal politics, and in the nation-wide controversy over military conscription for overseas service. Forrest was the first professional politician in Western Australia, and also the most successful and influential public man in his home state during the whole of his career. He spent eighteen years in colonial politics (1883-1901), all in executive office, and eighteen years in national politics (1901-18), almost half of those as a cabinet minister. As a surveyor and civil servant he was never denied a promotion, and as a state and federal politician he never lost his seat at an election. He was well rewarded by public esteem, titular and other honours and awards, high official salaries, and by business opportunities which made him a wealthy man. When asked to name his most significant contributions to Western Australia's development, he liked to mention his Homestead Act and Agricultural Bank and the construction of the Coolgardie Water Scheme, Harbour, and the east-west Trans­ continental Railway. Had he been asked to name his failures and disappointments, he would reluctantly have mentioned that his efforts on their behalf were not ade­ quately appreciated by the Eastern Goldfields' population of the 1890s; that too many of his federal electors were ungrateful for his previous efforts as their state premier; that his colleagues in the federal Liberal Party did not elect him their

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80 WESTRALIAN PORTRAITS

leader, and thereby enable him to become prime minister of Australia; and that he had no sons or daughters. Nor had he received, before his death, the official docu­ ment which would have legally confirmed the recommendation that he be made a peer of the United Kingdom. By then, however, it was 1918, and the administrative style and personal-loyalty politics which had done so much to bring him success and public acclaim were no longer suited to the new political conditions. When he died, he was one of the last surviving heroes of Australian exploration, and one of the last of the founding fathers of Australian federation. John Forrest was born on 22 August 1847 at Preston Point, Bunbury, on the south-west coast of Western Australia. He was the fourth child and third son of the ten children of William and . William Forrest was a millwright and engineer from Bernie, near Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Scotland; Margaret For­ rest came from a Dundee shopkeeping family that was related to the Black Camp­ bells of Ayrshire. They had emigrated to Western Australia in December 1842 as servants to Dr John Ferguson, a medical practitioner who took part in the abortive Australind Settlement. In 1846 William Forrest completed his engagement and settled at Picton in the Bunbury district as a farmer and millwright, where he and his family shared in the general improvement of the colony following the importation of nearly 10 000 British convicts in the years 1850-68. As John Forrest and his eight brothers grew up, they were taught to help with the household and other tasks of a self-contained mixed farm, and John early became a splendid rider. In due course, the boys were enrolled at the government school in Bunbury, and in 1860 John followed his eldest brother William to Bishop Hale's School in . This was a select little private school which offered a secondary educatioc with a strong Anglican flavour and which, before it closed in 1876, had created the core of the Establishment which dominated the public life of Western Australia during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. John did well at school, particularly in arithmetic, and in November 1863, at the age of sixteen, was apprenticed to T. C. Carey, the assistant surveyor at Bunbury. He successfully completed his training in December 1865 and was appointed a temporary government surveyor. Thereafter, until 1890, he was on the staff of the Surveyor-General's Office. John Forrest worked as a road and land surveyor in most parts of the south­ western districts, and in March 1869 was offered appointment as second-in­ command and navigator to the eminent Melbourne botanist, Dr , who was preparing to lead an expedition from Perth in search of clues to the fate of the long-lost Leichhardt expedition. When von Mueller could not manage the trip, Forrest was chosen to succeed him. From 15 April 1869 until 6 August 1869 he successfully led a party of six men and sixteen horses over a distance of 3200 km, mostly through the uncharted and unknown wilderness in the vicinity of Lake Moore and Lake Barlee, and inland almost as far as what was to be the site of Laver­ ton. He found no trace of Leichhardt, and no good pastoral land. Hmvever, he had systematically surveyed his route using the most up-to-date methods of stellar obser­ vation, and he had brought back interesting specimens for botanists and geologists. Late in the same year the governor of Western Australia, , decided SIR JOHN FORREST 81 that an expedition should be mounted to make a proper survey of the route between Western Australia and South Australia taken thirty years earlier by , who had made a hasty trip on foot along the coast from the Head of the Great Australian Bight to Albany on King George Sound. Since then, nobody had come to Western Australia overland. John Forrest was appointed leader of the party, which consisted of six men and sixteen horses; they left Perth on 30 March 1870 and reached on 27 August 1870. The tangible results of this expedition were not great, but it was the first west-to-east crossing of Western Australia by land, and it showed that a telegraph-line could readily be erected along the coastline. This was done, and the line, completed in December 1877, put Perth into telegraphic contact with London. But Forrest and his companions found only one new pastoral region, in the vicinity of the Hampton Range, which was far distant from civilization and practically waterless. However, the expedition brought widespread publicity to its leader and to his brother Alexander, and also confirmed John Forrest's own con­ fidence in his ability, and in his style of command. His objectives were boldly con­ ceived, but cautiously executed. He was rarely compelled to advance without any knowledge of what lay ahead, or to advance only because it was impossible to retreat. As a surveyor skilled in terrestrial navigation, he could not get lost, and his occasional gamble in the daily search for drinking-water and feed for his horses was always calculated well in advance. He never indulged in the spectacular or tragic gambles that brought fame, but seldom success, to other Australian explorers. In 1871 the newly appointed surveyor-general, Malcolm Fraser, reorganized the Survey Department, and appointed John Forrest government surveyor for the nor­ thern district. During the next three years Forrest made trigonometrical surveys which fixed boundaries and opened up new areas for pastoral settlement. He was then nominated to lead an expedition from Champion Bay eastwards across the cen­ tral desert country and after carrying out the necessary preparations set out from with six men and twenty horses on 1 April 1874. Moving by careful stages from water-hole to water-hole, he made a methodical, step-by-step crossing of the western interior, arriving at Peake Hill on the north-south Overland Telegraph Line on 30 September 1874. They had experienced several hairbreadth escapes from death by thirst, and some violent encounters with hostile Aborigines. They had walked half the 1880 km from the west coast because of the lack of green food and poor condition of the horses. Only four horses survived. Adelaide was reached on 3 November 1874 and having arrived there for the second time overland, they were given a public reception resembling a Roman triumph. Forrest had led the first west­ to-east expedition through the western centre of Australia. But he readily confessed that the practical results of this journey, too, had not been great, for most of the country traversed was never likely to be settled. Forrest's reputation spread rapidly throughcJt Australia along the telegraph-lines erected during the previous ten years, and press accounts of his courage and en­ durance attracted the attention of politicians and scientists in Britain. In 1875 he obtained leave to visit London, and was acclaimed as 'The Young Explorer' by a generation that fed on the glories of Antarctic, Arctic and African exploration. He 82 WESTRALIAN PORTRAITS made a good impression; his leave was extended, and he was allowed to select a free grant of 2025 ha of crown land when he got home. He gave several public lectures in London, and arranged for the publication of his exploration journals in book form, entitled Explorations in Australia. He visited the birthplace of his parents in Scotland, and arranged for his family to be registered with a coat of arms and a motto Vivunt dum vivent (They live while they flourish). In 1876 Forrest was promoted to the position of deputy surveyor-general, and received the Founders' Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society of London. He also married Margaret Elvire Hamersley, the eldest daughter of Edward Hamersley of Guildford, who stood in the front rank of Western Australia's terri­ torial and social elite. Margaret Forrest was a petite and vivacious woman, then thirty-one years of age. She was a talented water-colourist, and her social aplomb was as important an asset to the marriage as the financial security she inherited from her father. There were no children of the marriage. During the next four years Forrest was involved in four large-scale trigonometrical surveys, and in 1878, at the age of thirty, served for a while as acting surveyor-general and commissioner of crown lands with a seat in the Executive Council. This was the first occasion on which a colonial-born Western Australian had been admitted to the highest council in the government of the colony. From May 1880 until August 1881 he served as acting superintendent of convicts, and in May 1882 was awarded the Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. The position of colonial secretary, next in rank to the governor, then became vacant, and Governor W. C. F. Robinson recommended that the surveyor-general, Malcolm Fraser, be promoted to the position, and that Forrest succeed him as surveyor­ general. Both recommendations were approved in London. John Forrest held the position of surveyor-general and commissioner of crown lands, with a seat in the Executive and Legislative councils, from January 1883 until December 1890. His appointment marked a watershed in his career. At thirty-five, by perseverance and leadership, he had overcome a triumvirate of disadvantages­ he was colonial-born, rough-hewn, and lacked family connections 'at home' in Britain. As an administrator, he had a clear personal pattern of approach, which ensured him success in his new position. He was strong, thorough and punctilious. He made sure that the constant flow of settlers' inquiries and requests was attended to expeditiously, and often answered difficult inquiries personally. He carefully watched expenses, and his bureaucratic competence in handling official business was a rare asset in an Australian colony in the second half of the nineteenth century. His style of writing in minutes, memoranda and letters was direct, straightforward and lucid. He was always sensitive if his authority or decisions were called into question by the governor or the colonial secretary, and he was quick to reply in detail to anything which he regarded as a slight or an aspersion. His characteristic mood was to write while he thought, and he was at his best when instructing his field staff on surveying techniques, or assessing the cost of various proposals, or explaining a complicated land transaction. In short, he carried over into his day-to-day admini­ stration of the Lands and Survey Department all those habits of thought, expression SIR JOHN FORREST 83 and command which he had developed as a field surveyor and inland explorer dur­ ing the previous twenty years. After 1883 Forrest became involved in the higher levels of the colony's ad­ ministration and politics, and he developed a strongly adverse opinion on the existing system of government, and the dictatorial manner in which he believed it was being managed by the newly arrived governor, F. Napier Broome. As time passed, Forrest and the other top officials frequently quarrelled among themselves, and they were not much given to compromise, or to the temperate statement of their opinions. In this situation, which resembled a parish vestry, it was difficult to keep the peace because all of them were appointed by, and only removable by, the minister in charge of the colonies in London. Indeed, in the years 1884-86, the pro­ ceedings of the Executive Council came to resemble a 'bear garden'-the colonial secretary's phrase-and it was surprising that colonial government was able to func­ tion at all. The climax came in September 1887 when the governor suspended the chief justice from duty, and the consequent imbroglio wasted an enormous amount of time and energy. In 1883 Forrest organized the first large-scale survey of the Kimberley district, which had first been explored by his brother in 1879, and ac­ companied the party for several months. It was his last experience of field survey work. In 1884 he published a small booklet entitled Notes on Western Australia, with Statistics for the Year 1883, which, after several issues, was replaced by the Western Australian Year Book. In the same year he visited the eastern colonies. In 1885 he was involved in a lengthy investigation into crown land regulations and in 1886 toured the newly discovered Kimberley goldfield and selected the site of the port of Wyndham. In the same year he successfully piloted through the Legislative Council a new set of land regulations designed to do equal justice to the pastoral tenants of the government as well as to 'a bold peasantry' whose arrival the colony was hopefully awaiting: residence and improvement were made a precondition of alienation from the crown. In 1887 he visited London to represent the colony at the first Colonial Conference and at 's Jubilee Celebrations, and the following year arranged for the administration of the Pilbara and Yilgarn goldfields. He also drew up a report on a proposed government railway route from Perth to Bunbury. At that time the government had lines between Fremantle, Toodyay, Beverley and Northam, and also one between Walkaway and Northamp­ ton. Private companies under the land-grant system ran the two trunk lines-the Great Southern Railway from Beverley to Albany, opened in 1889, and the Midland Railway from Midland Junction to Walkaway, completed in 1894 after the govern­ ment had guaranteed its London-raised loans. As he was a government officer, Forrest did not take a very active part in the public discussions about responsible government which agitated the colony in the late 1880s, but he strongly supported the proposal to establish a local parliamentary system in place of crown colony government administrated by governors appointed from London. However, he took part in the Legislative Council debates on the new constitution, and was disappointed that he was not selected as one of the delegates to 84 WESTRALIAN PORTRAITS

go to London to look after the colony's interests while the constitution was being considered by the Imperial Parliament. From the outset he had privately seen himself as the prime contender for appointment as first premier, being the only member of the old Executive Council who wished to continue in public life after the introduction of the new system; and his manoeuvring successfully frightened away the only possible contender, Stephen Henry Parker. He was elected unopposed as the member for the Legislative Assembly electorate of Bunbury in the new parlia­ ment, and on 29 December 1890 was sworn in by Governor Robinson as colonial treasurer of Western Australia: the title 'Premier' which he assumed was a courtesy title conferred by usage, not by the constitution. At that time, nobody else in Western Australia had such personal support, length of experience, and ad­ ministrative ability as Forrest. Forrest was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in May 1891, the first local-born to be so honoured, and held office as premier and treasurer until 15 January 1901, which established a record for longevity in Australian colonial politics. He also jointly held the office of colonial secretary from December 1894 until April 1898. During these ten years his original cabinet of five ministers increased to six, and its personnel changed completely except for its chair­ man. Next to Sir John Forrest, the most influential member was the attorney­ general, , who held office until 1897, and was Forrest's chief adviser and confidant. None of the others achieved the same influence. Indeed, Stephen Parker resigned in 1894 when he found that cabinet resembled a one-man band, and Harry Venn was dismissed in 1896 when he disagreed with the premier in public and refused to resign. When Forrest formed his first cabinet at the age of forty-three, he was head and shoulders above the others by force of personality-and also physic­ ally, for he stood over 180 cm in height, and weighed almost 101 kg. While he was not a good parliamentary speaker or debater, lacking repartee, subtlety and blandishment, Forrest relied on being taken for what he was, a man of forthright rectitude, robust commonsense, and homely hardheadedness. He never had any doubt that he knew what was best for his audience, whether they were his supporters or his critics, and he modelled his policies and his language on what he deemed to be the practical way to solve a practical problem. As a public speaker, he had an earnest persuasiveness founded on a command of the situation as a whole, and he tended to view politics in much the same way as he had for so long surveyed the Australian bush from horseback or from an elevated trig station. After spending twenty years in the field with compass and theodolite, he also tended to think that political solutions were easily discovered if the correct levels had been taken and the right angles had been measured. If things turned out the wrong way, then he started again. He was especially sensitive to public opinion when he believed that it had been fully expressed on an important issue. He never lagged far behind it, but allowed it to ripen, so as to enable him to give effect to its demands in a deliberate and calculated fashion, thereby forestalling opposition in parliament and enabling him to claim that he was governing on behalf of the whole community. When convinced of the soundness or urgency of a proposal, he expected unwavering support from his SIR JOHN FORREST 85

colleagues, and public appreciation of his efforts to implement it. For ten years, he mostly received them. At no time during the 1890s was Forrest challenged for the position of premier, and he never had an heir-apparent. His government was never close to dismissal by parliament, and he was always careful not to press any issue too close to a situation of no-confidence in himself, unless absolutely certain that he had the numbers: he survived numerous defeats on individual measures or withdrew items when the situ­ ation was not promising. He and his ministerial colleagues won a majority of sup­ porters at the Legislative Assembly elections held in 1894 and 1897. With the increase in the number of metropolitan and goldfields electorates and voters, however, their control over the legislative programme became less firm, and Forrest had to put more effort into ensuring that his supporters were voting the right way when the House divided. To some extent, Forrest had himself created these situ­ ations by abolishing the property qualification for electors of the Assembly in 1893, and by adding three new goldfields electorates in 1893, and six in 1896. However, electors had to live in the colony for a year and in an electorate for six months before voting, and this ensured that they were not merely 'birds of passage'. Throughout the 1890s the composition of parliament changed little. It represented only a small proportion of the total population, and greatly over-represented those who lived in the country districts. There was plural voting for freeholders, leaseholders and ratepayers, and electorates were very unequal in size. Forrest never created a political party, or extra-parliamentary organization; nor did he form a faction of his supporters within the parliament, in the fashion com­ mon in the eastern colonies in the 1870s and 1880s. From time to time he called together a 'caucus' when marshalling support for a particular 'patriotic' or 'national' proposal; but the social round centred on his wife and his home in Perth was much more important in securing the personal loyalties on which he depended. The FOITests had a legion of relatives by birth and by marriage, many of whom were influential in parliament and in business. John Forrest could also usually rely on support from his brother Alexander, who was a member of parliament and mayor of Perth for most of thel890s. He also got much support from Winthrop Hackett, editor of the colony's most influential newspaper, the West Australian. Nor was there ever a fully effective parliamentary opposition, even when a succession of leaders of the Opposition emerged after 1896: there was no Labor Party, and no party system until after 1900. Forrest had more difficulty disciplining his own sup­ porters and preventing them from breaking up into competing regional and interest groups. He also had some difficulty with the Legislative Council, both as a nominated house and, after 1893, as a house elected on a property franchise from an electoral system very heavily weighted to favour the agricultural districts. Forrest's main political difficulty occurred in the later 1890s because of friction between alluvial miners and mining companies. Under legislation of 1895 both were permitted to use the same ground, but when alluvial gold became scarce, the miners began sinking shafts, and there were several serious riots when police tried to pre­ vent them from doing it. In March 1898 Forrest was mobbed by unruly diggers at 86 WESTRALIAN PORTRAITS

Kalgoorlie who were protesting at the situation, and later that year the government abolished the dual title, but ensured that no leases would be granted unless they con­ tained only reef gold. The Forrest government's administration of the mining in­ dustry was never popular; but while mining members opposed the government in parliament, they never constituted a threat to the life of the government. Forrest proposed to provide Western Australia with those public works which were lacking because the previous unrepresentative government had not been able to pay for them. He expected that much new land would thereby be opened up for settlement; that the population (only 46 000 in 1890) would be increased by immigra­ tion; that ex-gold-miners would settle on farms or take jobs in shops, quarries and timber yards; and that the government would have money to spend for the good of the community at large. To achieve all this the Forrest government raised loans in London, and for as long as the population continued to increase, so did the colony's ability to pay the annual interest due on these. During the ten years of Forrest's premiership, the public debt rose from £1 400 000 to £12200 000. Forrest's political programme was complemented by an unsophisticated political style, which was to act as the broker who decided which public works would be given to which districts. This he did by receiving deputations at his office in Perth, or else by travelling during the parliamentary recesses to meet the people and hear about their needs. Nevertheless, he also had some overriding policies which modified his activities as a district broker. First and foremost he believed that there should be an apportionment between the needs of the metropolitan, agricultural, pastoral and mining regions, so that railways, water supplies, hospitals, harbours, police stations, court-houses and schools were provided with a view to long-term needs, by which time the goldfields would have declined in relative importance. He wanted to make the prosperity of the present pay for the hoped-for prosperity of the future; the noating population of the goldfields would thereby help those who had a permanent 'stake in the country'. This was, necessarily, not a policy which endeared Forrest to the gold-miners, who wanted all public services supplied as quickly as possible and were not interested in who should pay for them. Forrest's policy meant high freights on goldfields railways, and high tariffs on imported goods. The latter not only helped to pay the cost of government, but protected local food-growers, and raised the cost of living on the goldfields. The gold-miners were also angered because, although they got their own railways, they did not get the one they really wanted­ from to Esperance, on the south coast-while the government built lines in the farming districts' from places of no consequence to places of no existence'. This complaint illustrated the second major Forrest policy, which was to develop Perth as the colony's only major rail terminus and Fremantle its port, and also the port-of-call for all overseas mail and passenger services. Dredging for a new harbour on the mouth of the Swan was begun in 1892 and completed in 1898, and mail­ steamers on the England-Australia run began to call regularly in 1900. By the time Forrest resigned as premier, every major goldfield was connected by telegraph or railway to Perth, and every big town had been provided with essential community services. So, too, had the south-western farming districts and their local centres. SIR JOHN FORREST 87

The Forrest government was extraordinarily lucky. At a time when the eastern Australian colonies were suffering from droughts, depression, unemployment, financial crises and bank crashes, one new goldfield after another was discovered in Western Australia, especially after the discovery of Coolgardie (1892) and Kalgoorlie (1893). Hundreds of companies were formed in the eastern colonies and in London to exploit the gold deposits, and much capital flowed into the colony for investment in mines, business and property. There was a spectacular boom, which reached its peak in the years 1898-1903. The population rose from 59000 in 1892 to 101 000 in 1895 and to 180000 in 1900, with the greatest influxes coming from Vic­ toria, New South Wales and South Australia. Annual gold production rose to 46655 kg in 1900, and trade and commerce increased rapidly. The increased demand for foodstuffs on the goldfields greatly benefited the farmers and pastoralists. In fact, Forrest rode on the crest of the boom, and took the political credit for it. He also made several bold decisions, which in the long term greatly benefited the colony's development. By the Homestead Act of 1893, the Land Act of 1898, and the Agricultural Bank Act of 1894, he used the credit of the government to provide for the well-being of the next generation of farmers. His initiation of the Coolgardie Water Scheme, begun in 1895 and completed in 1903 by the engineering and ad­ ministrative skill of C. Y. O'Connor, not only provided water for the mines and short-term employment but also met the needs of the generation of farmers who pioneered a new wheat belt on the land between the western coastal districts and the eastern goldfields. And his government's purchase of the Great Southern Railway in 1896 quickly opened up much new farming land in the south-western districts, and illustrated his preference for government initiative rather than private enterprise to take responsibility for the main public utilities. The Forrest government also initiated some significant industrial, social and political reforms which brought Western Australia into line with the other colonies. Notable among these was a change in the law in 1892 which enabled married women to own personal and real property in their own right, and another which gave ser­ vants greater protection and independence from their employers. Workers' com­ pensation for injury was granted by law in 1894, trade unions were legalized in 1900, and an Act of 1900 established an Arbitration Court. Other industrial legislation of the late 1890s laid down rules for the hours and conditions of work to be observed in gold-mines, factories and in the Collie coal industry. It ensured that all workmen were paid the wages owing to them-and paid in money, not in goods-and it com­ pelled employment agencies to be registered. Hours of work in shops were limited, and there was to be no work in mines on Sundays, apart from maintenance. Female shop assistants and factory hands were to be provided with chairs and stools. State aid to religion and to church schools was abolished in 1895, and an Immigration Act established a dictation test so as to exclude Chinese; Forrest was proud that he had never allowed miners' rights to be issued to Asians, who were restricted to market­ gardening, carrying, cooking, and prostitution. Finally, women were given the vote in 1899, and in the following year members of parliament were to be paid for their services. 88 WESTRALIAN PORTRAITS

To many observers, Forrest appeared to be a reluctant federalist when, in 1899, New South Wales voters for the second time favoured the new federal constitution, thereby making Australian federation a reality. However, he was in a difficult posi­ tion, which required all his skills as a broker of competing interests. From the outset he had participated in all federal activities. He supported the idea at the first Science Congress in Sydney in 1888. He attended the meeting of the first federation conven­ tion in 1891, and, as premier, all meetings of the Federal Council of Australasia. He attended all three sessions of the conventions of 1897-98, and consistently followed the policy of supporting a political federation and the establishment of interstate free trade in principle, and trying to ensure a strong federal senate to protect state rights, where they would be equally represented. He also wanted to make quite sure that Western Australia would not suffer financially from joining the Federation. He was sympathetic yet cautious, an attitude which was mainly the product of his local parliamentary situation. The settled farming areas provided the core of his political support in the Legislative Assembly, yet they were most apprehensive of the finan­ cial and economic effects of federation, and they were especially worried about the likely high cost of machinery and other farm equipment. The Legislative Council was strongly opposed to federation in any form. Forrest's tactic was to resist being rushed into federation by the eastern goldfields population of newcomers-who then comprised one-third of the colony's population-and also to educate his political supporters in the coastal districts into accepting federation if the conditions of entry could be improved. In this situation Forrest received criticism from both sides. The Sandgropers ac­ cused him of selling out to T'othersiders. The goldfields accused him of nepotistic government supported by a gerrymandered electorate, and early in 1900 started a separation movement to make the eastern goldfields a separate colony which could then federate with the rest of Australia. Forrest tried very hard to secure last-minute concessions-in particular, the retention of the tariff for five years; the right to divide the colony into electorates for the election of senators; and a guarantee for the construction of an east-west railway. But the eastern politicians were not sym­ pathetic, and he secured none of these. He therefore persuaded his supporters to take what was offered, lest the terms should be even more unpalatable at a later date. Only in that sense was Forrest a reluctant federalist; he had, however, long since learned to make the best of a hard bargain. When the Legislative Council finally decided to allow the referendum to be held, Forrest led the YES vote, which was successful in the pastoral and metropolitan regions, as well as on the eastern goldfields. When the Commonwealth of Australia was inaugurated, Forrest was elected unopposed for the electorate of Swan in the House of Representatives. He was by then a big man in achievement, in reputation, and in personality. By this time too, he was even more massive in physique, weighing nearly 127 kg, with a 137 cm waist. He was also one of the wealthiest of the first generation of federal politicians, and when in Melbourne on ministerial and parliamentary duties, he hired a large suite of rooms in the Grand Hotel and entertained on a princely scale. He was successively SIR JOHN FORREST 89

postmaster-general (for a few weeks), minister for Defence (1901-03) and Home Affairs (1903-04), and served as treasurer in five federal cabinets (1905-07, 1909-10, 1913-14, 1917-18). A remark commonly heard in Perth during the fifty years after his death was that Forrest was a back number in federal politics. It was known that he had become a federal cabinet minister, but the view was widespread that his col­ leagues had either obscured him or else had never taken him seriously. This view was assiduously cultivated by Labor politicians who disliked him declaiming against 'caucus domination', and by Western Australians who were either ignorant of all events occurring east of Kalgoorlie, or who had a vested interest as secessionists in proving that Forrest was chiefly responsible for dragging Western Australia into the federation, and later was unable to rectify the alleged 'losses' which resulted. However, the federal parliament was required to create new national policies and in­ stitutions, rather than public works, and Forrest's achievements during his eighteen years in national politics cannot be measured by the miles of new roads and railways built, or by the number of new wharves, schools, hospitals and other public buildings completed. Nevertheless, they are impressive. From 1901 to 1903, as minister for Defence­ though almost by default, as he had previously shown no interest in defence-he successfully coped with Australia's involvement in the last stages of the Boer War of 1899-1902. He helped to raise the first Commonwealth overseas contingents, and was involved in the early plan of integrating the six colonial forces into a unified Commonwealth Military Force, and arranging for the continued presence of the British Naval Squadron in Australian waters. He also showed that, in matters of national and imperial policy and long-term planning, he had as responsible and as broad a view of Australia's future responsibilities as his chief military advisor, Major-General Sir Edward Hutton, though he was more of an imperialist than most of his nationalist-minded cabinet colleagues could wish. Being colonial-born, he was both imperial-minded and an Australian nationalist, and he saw no contradiction in the dualism of his loyalty to crown and country, to Mother Country and to birth­ place. At the Colonial Conferences of1887 and 1897, and when in London in 1902, he supported the view that Australian defence was ultimately a question of imperial strategy, not of colonial or dominion initiative. While serving as federal treasurer in the Deakin government from 1905-07, he successfully balanced the competing claims of Australia's seven treasuries under the tight federal book-keeping system, and initiated the discussions which led to the creation of a separate Australian currency, and the subsequent adoption of the per capita system of distributing federal revenue among the states. Under his ad­ ministration the original concept of limited federation was protected, and the states continued to be regarded as partners, though this caused his political opponents to accuse him, unjustly, of being a narrow states-righter. During this period, from March until June 1907, he also acted as prime minister and minister for External Affairs while Deakin was at a conference in London: this was the pinnacle of his career. Meanwhile, ever since he had declined a portfolio in the short-lived Reid-McLean 90 WESTRALIAN PORTRAITS government of 1904-05, he had worked hard to bring about a fusion of all members of the federal parliament opposed to the new Labor Party, resigning his seat in the Deakin cabinet in 1907 when unable to persuade Deakin to form and lead such a coalition. From the time of the inauguration of the Labor Party in Western Australia in 1901, he had no sympathy with the 'caucus socialists', who seemed to want to found a Utopia in Australia, and to give the spoils to those who had no real 'stake in the country'. Forrest believed that Labor members of parliament were en­ tirely subservient to outside organizations, and that men of honour and principle did not need a caucus-and-pledge system to keep them honest and make them look after their electorates. During the exciting times of 1908-09, when the first fully protective tariff was enacted, and when there was a short-lived Labor government, he played a leading role as a negotiator, emissary and spokesman for the Corner Group in the manoeuvres which led to the successful fusion of most non-Labor members of both houses of the federal parliament into a new party. By 1909 Forrest was back in office as treasurer, and held third place in the Deakin cabinet. When he brought down his thirteenth parliamentary budget in August 1909 he had the distinction of being the first federal treasurer to budget for a deficit. As treasurer in 1909-10, he paved the way for the financial arrangements between Commonwealth and states which lasted until 1927. Forrest and his 'Fusion' colleagues were out of office in 1910-13, when the Fisher Labor government made effective use of its majority in both houses of the federal parliament. However, the closely contested House of Representatives election of 1913 returned the Liberals to power with a one-seat majority, and Forrest was second in the cabinet led by , who had succeeded Deakin as party leader. Forrest's budget of 1913 continued Fisher's policy of presenting his successor with a substantial reserve. Then war broke out in Europe, and Forrest and his col­ leagues unhesitatingly offered all of Australia's resources to help the Mother Coun­ try in her hour of need. His last act as treasurer was to authorize the payment of money for the raising of the first Australian Imperial Force. Shortly afterwards his party was soundly defeated at the election of 1914, and Forrest returned once more to the back bench. Thereafter, the whole character of federal politics underwent profound changes, generated by the demands of the war and the controversy over overseas military con­ scription. In 1917, after the defeat of the first conscription referendum, there was a second fusion, this time between W. M. Hughes and his ex-Labor group and the Liberals. Forrest once more became treasurer, in a government led by Hughes and committed in principle to the introduction of compulsory overseas military service to reinforce the troops on the Western Front in Europe. But it is difficult to make a clear judgement on Forrest's fifteenth and last budget, which was designed for a nation at war with a vastly changed internal balance of power between federal and state authorities. The nation was also at odds with itself, for it had again narrowly rejected overseas military conscription at the referendum of 1917. However, in the same year Forrest gained great personal satisfaction from being a passenger in the first train to cross on the east-west Transcontinental Railway, a project which had SIR JOHN FORREST 91

formed an important plank in his first policy statement in 1890, and which had been part of his conversational repertoire ever since. Four times in his career in federal politics Forrest came close to being prime minister-once, in 1908, when the Labor party had brought down the second Deakin government, and a count of heads in the House of Representatives would probably have given Forrest a majority; once in 1913, when the Liberal caucus voted by a margin of 20 to 19 in favour of Cook rather than Forrest (Deakin made an ap­ pearance in order to support Cook); once early in 1917, when the second fusion of Liberals was being negotiated; and once in January 1918, during the discussions which followed the defeat of the second conscription referendum. By then, illness and old age were against him, and Forrest was sworn in as federal treasurer for the fifth time. Late in January 1918 he attended the Treasurers' Conference, and soon afterwards had a second operation for a cancerous growth on his temple. On 9 February 1918 it was announced in the press that he had been recommended for a barony, the first Australian-born to be so honoured. He was delighted, and thereafter signed only his surname, but was more than a little aggrieved that he was not also prime minister. In March 1918, much weakened by the operation, he resigned from the ministry, and late in May he left Melbourne with the intention of seeking further medical aid abroad, if and when war conditions would allow it. He had no intention of resigning from parliament as the member for Swan, though he was hoping that when the legal formalities had been completed, he might sit for a time in the as an elder statesman of the Empire. On 30 July he left Albany with his wife, and a nurse, in the troopship Marathon bound for London with A.I.F. reinforcements. He was very ill and suffering much pain when he celebrated his seventy-first birthday at sea on 22 August, while sailing up the west coast of Africa. When the ship was anchored off Sierra Leone, he died on 3 .

FURTHER READING Battye, J. S. Western Australia: A History from its Discovery to the Inauguration of the Commonwealth. Oxford: Oxford U.P., 1924. Bolton, G. C. Alexander Forrest. Melbourne: M.U.P.,1958. Crowley, F. K. Sir John Forrest. John Murtagh Macrossan Lecture, Brisbane, 1967. ---. Forrest: 1847-1918. Volume I, 1847-91: Apprenticeship to Premiership. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1971. ---. Western Australia's Lady Forrest: 1844-1829: A Memoir. Perth: W.A. Museum In­ formation Series, No.7, 1977. Forrest, J. Explorations in Australia. London: Low, 1875. de Garis, B. K. 'Western Australia'. In P. Loveday, A. W. Martin and R. S. Parker. The Emergence ofthe Australian Party System. Sydney: Syd. U.P., 1977. ---- and C. T. Stannage. 'From Responsible Government to Party Politics in Western Australia'. Australian Economic History Review, March 1968. Meaney, Neville, The Search for Security in the Pacific, 1901-14. Sydney: Syd. U.P., 1976. La Nauze, J. A. : A Biography. Vol. 2. Melbourne: M.U.P., 1965. Stannage, C. T. 'The composition of the Western Australian Parliament: 1890-1911'. University Studies in History IV, 4 (1966).