221 Arthur James Diamond: A Gentleman of Scarce Renown

Patricia Brown

This is an account of a very influential-yet quite forgotten-Western Australian. He is Arthur James Diamond, ignored in history books and victimised by obfuscation. So many notable early settlers arc celebrated in history books or by having streets or parks or suburbs or buildings named in their honour. But of Diamond, memories are few and dim, where they exist at all. He achieved so much for his adopted colony, and yet his deeds are passed over in history without mention. Some facts about his background are found among family memorabilia. He was born in Londonderry in Ulster in 1844. He emigrated to Victoria with his parents in 1862 and immediately found employment with Falk & Co. He remained with the Victorian Firm for six years, then moved to Adelaide in order to open a branch in that city. He married Ellen Goldney in South Australia in 1868. He came to Western Australia in 1886 to set up a Fremantle branch of Falk & Co. in Cliff Street. Ellen, it would seem, died in 1889, and whether or not Diamond remarried is not clear. Evidence suggests that he did as his funeral notice in 1906 offers sympathy to 'Mrs Diamond and her children'. Something can be seen of his physical appearance in his official photograph published when he was a Member of Parliament for South Fremantle. It shows that he is personable, wears a moustache and possibly has thinning hair. But that is his exterior. As to his nature, we have the words of his obituary to tell us that he was of strong radical opinions, and that he was 'a good public speaker, though hardly possessing a fluent delivery.' I It would also appear from this source that he was a man of fiery disposition. His fatal paralytic stroke seized him during a debate in the House of Parliament 'when he became very excited over some question connected with the Federal Navigation Commission'r' It is recorded, too, that Diamond was noted for his ability in mental arithmetic.' Ian Diamond writes of how his grandfather could multiply six figures by six figures in his head and find the square root of the answer. This was an exaggeration, no doubt, but Ian was told that such mental gymnastics would be performed to amuse his children or as a great party- piece.. 4 One concrete memorial that Diamond himself has left is a small book of which he is the author. Its title is Fremantle: the Golden Gate of Australia published in 1903.5 Its subject is Fremantle harbour. Another souvenir has newly come to light. This is a brass plate recently found and now polished up and displayed in the Western Australian Club in Perth. 222 Early Days 12:3 - P. Brown Arthur James Diamond 223 The plate commemorates seventeen founder members of the Commercial I And you'll find they'll all be there. Travellers' Club, established in Western Australia in 1896. Diamond is Chorus: inscribed on the plate as the Club's first president." Commercial travellers i So the lion's cubs are marching were 'men on the road.' In earlier times they were of vital importance to j In the fight to take a hand commerce in the sparsely settled state. They travelled to towns across the i And our bugles are a-calling country to display manufactured and imported samples of all kinds. To do For we're wanted on the Rand.9 so they would 'use the then available means of transport-railways, coastal shipping, horse and buggy and even shank's pony to reach the ever T?ere follows a further twenty verses, calling to each of the colonies. enlarging area. ,7 The Commercial Travellers' Club was founded as a DIamond was reckoned to be among the best English concertina Friendly Society for their advantage by benefactors such as Diamond. pl~yers in Australia. 10 His interest in music led him and his friend, Hugh Recently, anecdotal evidence suggests that there had been discussions DIxson, ow.ner of the Conqueror Tobacco Company, to found the as to whether a pavilion on the Fremantle Dockers Football Club territory Fremantle Liedertafel, or men's choir. I I might be named after Diamond, this gentleman of small renown. His name As ~ further contribution to cultural life in Fremantle, Diamond was a was to be considered because of his contribution to football in early com~lttee member of the Fremantle Literary Institute'< which in 1886 Fremantle. Such an honour depended on whether his record should be too~ III the forme~ Working Men's Association, previously the Mechanics' without blemish and show perfect probity. Although his character is Institute. The Literary Institute demanded time and dedication from without stain, nothing seems to have come of this project: this appears to ~om~ittee members. Its aim was self-help and self-improvement for be the way of Diamond's fortunes. I?telhgent and respectable working men, thus enabling them to better their Diamond was active at a time of great change in Western Australia. lives. Inst~uction ~as offered in English literature, music and drawing; it Transportation had ceased. Self-government became possible as ties to the also provided a library and presented occasional lectures. Examples of British Colonial Office weakened. It was thus a time of burgeoning such lectures are: 'Cottage Gardens by the Sea,' 'Confucius' and 'Sun and democracy, of Representative, then Responsible, Government and Sun Worship: its Place in Civilisation' .13 Usually these lectures were universal suffrage, which meant votes for women. Then followed poorly attended, it was noted, but perhaps with good reason. Such topics Federation, the Boer War, advances in transport and education; on the may have been more soporific than riveting to a mechanic after a hard debit side economic growth was slow until gold was discovered and the day's work. By 190 I the Ins.titute ~bandoned its focus on the poor working Fremantle harbour was built. Diamond was involved in all such change, lads, ~nd opened up to a wider clientele, It now provided reading rooms, for he was a politician and businessman. As well, he added to the fabric of ~ebatlng rooms, smoke rooms, chess and draughts competitions, and the his society as a sportsman and a man of culture. library was enlarged to hold 4 000 books. 14 We might well ask how a man of so many parts can be portrayed. One Thus Diamond, through the Institute, was one who proffered learning vignette shows him standing on the balcony of the Freemason's Hotel in to ~dults. He was also concerned with schooling for children. Old­ Fremantle one evening in 190 I. He is playing his concertina to accompany fashioned educators held that 'to raise a boy from the plough to the his singing of a song, the words and music of which he himself had woolsack would unsettle him and take him from the fields where he would composed. It was his farewell to the troops passing through Fremantle on be h~ppier with his friends.' 15 Diamond would not condone relegating a their way to embark for the Boer War. While Diamond's music is lost, his w?rklIlg-class boy to such laws of social determinism. He was a supporter words are preserved, for they were printed on the reverse side of his 190 I ot free secular education. 16 electoral manifesto." The title of this rousing marching song is The Bugles Diamond was also an accomplished sportsman. From Victoria and are a-Calling. South Australia he brought not only business, but also Australian Rules Football, the so-called bouncing game. Hark! The bugles are a-sounding For there's danger in the air It ~as noted that in the old days many immigrants arrived from And the British lion is growling Britain where several versions of football were played, and from They have roused him from his lair. these what was known as the "South Australian game" evolved. To the lion's cubs he's calling Befo.re 1878 this sport was played with a bar across the goal posts In the game to take their share and Its ,removal separated the Australian game from the English Where the lead like hail is falling game of Rugby. With the practice of kicking from the centre went the last link with that sport. 17 224 Early Days /2:3 - P. Brown Arthur James Diamond 225

manifesto of 1889, when he stood for South Frernantle, claims that he was Diamond had been Honorary Secretary and a founder member of the an Independent supporting the Ministerial government, a liberal, Norwood Football Club in South Australia from 1878, and became democratic and progressive candidate. When again he stood to represent President of the Fremantle Football Club in 1890. He was also much South Fremantle in 1896 his platform was that he supported free secular involved with the FremantIe Cricket Club and the Cricket Association of education, was determined to fight for old age pensions and was opposed Western Australia, was on the committees of the Fremantle Rowing Club to the importation of cheap Chinese labour. He was also against the and the Fremantle Sailing Club. As well, he sought to establish a racing introduction from abroad of servant girls who were ordered by the gentry club in the Fremantle area. IS classes through the Agent General in London with their passages paid by It is around football that some clouding occurs. The Young Australia the government. Such an electoral manifesto was, Labor Party supporters Football League was founded in FremantIe in 1896 with Diamond as declared, almost a Labor platform, but Diamond denied he was a Labor President. 19 However, all recollection of Diamond's presidency appears to man." His grandson proposes that in today's terms he would be a have been expunged. When interviewed by the author in 1994 the Democrat with the slogan of 'Keep the bastards patriouc!':" League's historian knew nothing of his involvement and was of the belief Diamond indeed had the workers' interests at heart. In 1894 there was a that the founders, in 1906, were J.J. Simons with help from Lionel Boas. strike of tobacco twisters in Fremantle. South Australia had sent to Simons is a name revered by the many associates of the League. He was Western Australia not only clubs and Australian Rules Football, but also an engaging fellow. He was six-foot-four in height, and had splendid businessmen. One such man was Hugh Dixson, owner of the Conqueror qualities of leadership." Apart from great deference bei~g give~ to t.he Tobacco Company. Dixson had served his apprenticeship in the tobacco memory of Simons, there is a further conceivable explanation of his claim trade in Edinburgh before bringing his skills in the manufacture of fine to be the League's founder. 1906 is the year in which Diamond died. In tobaccos to factories in Sydney and Adelaide, and then to the West. In that year the name of the League was changed to the Young Australia 1891 he set up the Conqueror Tobacco Company in Newman Street in League, and as well as leaving out football from the title, education Fremantle, on the site now occupied by the Myer Emporium. In 1894 the through travel was now a focus. Other sports, such as hockey, were tobacco twisters in Fremantle were infected by dissension that was included in the curriculum and girls were invited to join." Thus, in some brewing in Dixson's other factories in the east. He paid wages in his respects, Simons founded a new League. Fremantle factory, he claimed, that were higher than those paid by him to Diamond spread the doctrine of sport being a social building block as workers in Adelaide and Sydney. But when in July that year Dixson well as entertainment. With Doctor Hope, the Fremantle Medical Officer, announced that all wages were to be reduced his workers went on strike, he promoted sport as being beneficial to health. He advocated it too on making it one of the earliest labour disputes in Fremantle's industrial moral grounds as it supposedly instilled good behaviour. Footbal~ and history. cricket were seen to be uplifting, encouraging team spirit and manliness, His employment of youths in Fremantle contributed to the dispute over But to sustain such ideals, it was supposed, sport, particularly football, had wages. It was believed that, although professedly employed as apprentices, to be supervised by gentlemen, otherwise it could degenerate into youths were actually being exploited as a source of cheap labour, sacked horseplay, obscene conversation, fighting and general misconduc~2 when they had served their 'time'. Picket lines outside the factory Football could become a game not fit to be witnessed by decent people. distributed leaflets that warned parents not to apprentice boys to tobacco Diamond, it would seem, also perceived sport in a religious context, as twisting. The pamphlet warned that: part of the doctrine of 'Muscular Christianity'. Boys of the YAFL, under Diamond's presidency, were encouraged to attend lectures on geography, After he has served four years, at the only time of his life that he can politics, and physical health, foreshadowing its later.emphasis on learn a trade, he will be turned out, the same as they have done to us education. When in training, members attended church services, and were to make room for more boys. He will be too old then to learn any led in long walks across the hills to increase fitness and commune with other trade, and his life will be ruined?? nature." But sport and education were not Diamond's only concerns. He was The strikers appealed to Diamond, at that time the factory manager, to President of the Fremantle Lumpers' Union in 1899?4 This seems arbitrate. Diamond always sanctioned Union rates of pay. Now he assured remarkable as he was a member of a Fremantle elite, socially aloof from the men that 'Mr Dixson would "think twice about going against the Union", the lower orders. But Diamond was a new brand of politician. His political and Dixon would, he was sure, agree to restore wages if their case was laid before him.' In the meantime, he pleaded with them to go back to work until 226 Early Days 12:3 - P. Brown Arthur James Diamond 227 he could negotiate on their behalf. They agreed." However, Diamond was them. The plans included a mole harbour, a channel through the rock bar wrong. Dixson, his friend, did not relent and told his workers he would do across the mouth of the Swan River, docks and a breakwater. Removal of without them if they remained recalcurant." the rocky bar blocking ships from passing up the River to Perth was Diamond could thus, in 1905, remind electors of how, over the years, essential for trade, but attempts at getting rid of it failed due to lack of he had upheld the doctrine of a fair day's wage for a fair day's work, and a money, lack of political foresight and lack of expertise. The government, basic wage of eight shillings a day. He reminded them of how he had after some pressure, at last made one concession. In 1877 it sought advice moved in the Legislative Assembly to increase fettlers' wages from seven from the eastern colonies and requested plans to be drawn up by Sir John shillings to eight shillings." In supporting the fettlers he made an enemy Coode, a prominent and expensive civil engineer. It was hoped he could of Henry Piesse, Member for Williams and Minister for Railways. In this do the impossible and accomplish for Fremantle what he had done for lies the seed for the animosity which dogged him.Piesse never forgave river ports in Melbourne, NSW And Queensland. Indeed, the harbour he him for his efforts on behalf of the railway lumpers, or, later, for his had designed for Townsville was a jewel in his crown as Townsville was efforts to have Fremantle, rather than Albany, designated Australia's first now Queensland's leading port." and last port of call." But alas for Fremantle, which he did not visit, he had no such visions. In this we come to one of Diamond's outstanding and overlooked His several designs were bizarre, comprising channels cut through sand successes. In order to recount this it is necessary to discuss Fremantle's banks south of the city and two offshore breakwaters linked to Fremantle position as a port city. The port, being twelve miles from its capital, and a by causeways. Worse, his viaducts and breakwaters would still not city in its own right, makes Perth unique in that it is the only capital city in accommodate the longed-for mail steamers. He rejected removing the Australia that is not also a port city. Fremantle, with only an anchorage of rocky bar because, he argued, even if it could be removed the small tides sorts in Gage Roads, was nevertheless busy, much used as it was by at Fremantle would mean there was insufficient scour to keep the passage coastal shipping and overseas shipping. But by 1852 it was languishing open and sand drift would defeat all efforts at dredging." Sir John seemed because the British Post Office designated Albany as Western Australia's to be Fremantle's best, or only, option but by the 1880s Fremantle official mail port when regular services between Britain and Australia merchants were beginning to despair. They wanted their ships safe, their began. Albany was an attractive choice, of course, as King George Sound cargoes landed in good order, and freights to arrive without damage. By at Albany was a natural deep-water harbour. Even so, the British 1890 they insisted the time had come for serious progress. Gold, government, while disdaining Frernantle, was yet beguiled by the imperial discovered in the Yilgarn in the 1880s, was now making improvement vision of empire, seeing the Indian Ocean as a vast British lake defined by imperative. Minerals had to be safely exported and mining and transport Fremantle, Colombo, Aden, Durban Cape Town and Singapore. machinery brought in as well as food and goods for a burgeoning Fremantle's 'harbour' was a long jetty which was most unsatisfactory. population. But money wasn't yet flowing into the economy and, anyway, Describing its horrors in 1882, a certain Captain Shaw wrote to his the government had paid for Sir John. employers in America: Then CY O'Connor was appointed by the government as Chief I entered and fought against putting the vessel alongside the jetty to Engineer. Little was expected of him where Sir John had seemingly failed, discharge. It is a terrible place, no place to put a vessel, no shelter, but O'Connor studied the problem and without being rude and unethical whatsoever. It is blowing a gale From the South-west and takes us all enough to contradict a fellow professional, he diplomatically challenged our time to hold her. She has done considerable damage to herself, the theory of sand drift. Backed by local knowledge he argued that it did my after bitts are sheered off level with the deck, my stern chocks are not exist. He was confident that with the construction of breakwaters pulled out and about ten feet of the rail including two stanchions. It is outside the River and clearance of the rocky bar at the mouth with certainly the worst place I or anybody else ever saw, no place to send dynamite and dredging, even the largest ships could safely enter a harbour a ship this size. Any man who would come a second time is a damned thus created, even in the wildest weather." After a Royal Commission ass. Still blowing a heavy gale, I was never so sick of a place in my heard evidence, O'Connor's plans for a harbour were allowed to proceed, life and may the curse of Christ rest on Fremantle and every son-of-a­ bitch in it, God damn them all.~2 and were begun with a ceremonial tipping of the first stone into the sea at Rous Head in November 1892. By 1897 the first stage of the harbour was Contemporary citizens of Fremantle could appreciate Captain Shaw's open to shipping. difficulties. They were eager for change but although schemes and designs On the face of it, the harbour seemed to be a magnificent success, for a satisfactory harbour were presented over the years, nothing came of although it was noted in the press that masters of the P & 0 liners, [ 228 Early Days /2:3 - P. Brown Arthur James Diamond 229 flagships of the British government, still 'lost their heads at the thought of completely exonerated him, but it all took a toll on his health. In 1906, coming into Fremantle and would resign rather than do it.,36 These, and during a parliamentary debate on this matter he suffered a massive stroke members of the Australian Steamship Owners Association who wished to from which he did not recover. 43 preserve their shipping trade along the Western Australian coast, gave Why did he evoke such enmity? He was described in his obituary as a Fremantle 'a bad press'. genial gentleman, and he must have had powers of persuasion as witnessed Diamond now came to the rescue. In 1897 he travelled to Bremen, at by his persuasion of German ships to call at FremanLle. Perhaps he was too his own expense, it was emphasised, and negotiated with the owners of the forthright, too confronting. Who now knows? North German Lloyd shipping line. He persuaded the Company to make Flags in Fremantle flew at half-mast on the day of his burial. The last Fremantle the first port of call for their liners." His efforts resulted in the episode of his indefatigable career would have been that of his coffin, born German steamship Prinzregent Lieutpold anchoring inside the breakwater on the shoulders of the Premier, James Moore, and members of the in February 1898. That night, 23 February 1898, the West Australian Government and Fremantle dignitaries, passing through the streets of his reported, a celebratory tempting array of viands was spread out in the adopted city on its way to the Church of England section of Fremantle supper room at the Fremantle Town Hall. But there was another twist in Cemetery. Showers of rain persisted throughout that day. the tale. Captain Walter, Master, told the assembled notables that he had Vale Arthur James Diamond! not dared enter the inner harbour as all round the world Fremantle had the reputation of being a very dangerous port" But on 9 August that year, at 6 pm, Gera, another Germanship, (5 005 Endnotes gross tons carrying 2 000 passengers) was seen in the offing." Within an hour a huge crowd had gathered to watch it enter the new harbour and I Fremantle Evening Mail, (hereafter FEM) 28 June, 1906. berth at the quay.l" It seemed like a victory. The German Company 2 Funeral Notice, FEM, 28.6.1905. undertook to put four large steamers, all calling at Fremantle, on the 3 Truthful Thomas, Through the Spy Glass: Short Sketches ofWell-Known Australian run. They did so until 1914. In that year, the outbreak of World Westralians As Others See Them, Perth, 1905. War I, the Griefswald sailed into the harbour and was seized as a prize. 4 Letter to author from Ian Diamond, 29 August, 1994. Diamond, in bringing the German mail ships to Fremantle, could now 5 A J Diamond, Fremantle: The Golden Gate ofAustralia: The First and Last take credit for forcing the British mail ships to concede that the harbour at Calling Place ofthe Great Mail Steamers & Western Terminal ofthe Projected Fremantle was capable of allowing berthing and turning of ships of great Transcontinental Railway, Bristol, 1903. size. In 190 I the dye was cast, and the Post Master General in Britain 6 Information from the present Secretary. 7 R Reynolds, Man on the Road: /00 years ofCommercial Travelling in Western designated Fremantle as an official mail port." Australia 1896-1996, Crystal Print: 1997, p. 5. But Diamond's invaluable efforts for the people of Fremantle cost him 8 Pamphlet in memorabilia in the possession of Ian Diamond, grandson. dearly in that it made him enemies. Not only had he roused the ire of 9 ibid. Henry Piesse, but he also fell foul of members of the Fremantle Chamber 10 FEM, 28 June, 1906. of Commerce. He had accused some Fremantle merchants of being strike­ 11 Herald, (Fremantle) 27 September, 1885. breakers in the 1899 strike on the waterfront, and of employing scab 12 The West Australian, (hereafter WA), 2 May, 1899. labour. In 190 I he was summoned to attend a special meeting of the 13 ibid. Chamber in which he was to be asked to withdraw his allegations. He 14 PM Brown, The Merchant Princes ofFremantle: the Rise and Decline ofa refused to attend the Chamber meeting, so making it clear he had not Colonial Elite, 1870-1900, UWA Press: 1996, p.138. 15 WA, 10 May 1894, intention of withdrawing allegations. Press reports of the furore had 16 Brown, p. 124. included 'insulting suggestions' about him made by a certain Cyril Walker 17 'The Jubilee of Football: Australia's National Gam', Adelaide Advertiser, I for which he demanded an apology.V One such suggestion was that he March, 1928. used perfume. He resigned from the Chamber, perhaps forestalling 18 B. Stoddart, 'Sport and Society; in C.T. Stannage, ed, A New History of expulsion. Western Australia, UWAP, 1981, p. 671. His enemies persisted. In 1904 he was accused of using his position as 19 FEM, 23 June, 1906. Chairman of the Select Committee on Ocean Freights to exploit 20 Letter to author from M Theophi Ius, daughter of C Jeffrey, League Secretary information received to his own financial advantage. An inquiry into this circa 1912-19/4, 12July, 1996. 21 See Boomerang, the League's journal. 230 Early Days 12:3 - P. Brown

22 WA, 270clober, 1897. 23 Brown, p. 148. 24 Stoddard, p. 671. 25 WA, 10 October, 1896. 26 ibid. 27 Department of sub-Inspectors Office, Fremantle. No. 201, 1894. Held in Battye Library. 28 WA, 13 July, 1894. 29 Brown, pp. 84-86. 30 WA, II July, 1901. 31 Brown, p. 125. 32 Letters from Captain CB Shaw, Master of the Saramac, to the ship's owners in New York, dated 21st October and 18th November, 1892. Battye Library. 33 F. Broeze, Island Nation: a History ofAustralians and the Sea, Allen & Unwin, 1998, chapter 4. 34 Brown, pp. 28-29. 35 Parliamentary Papers, 1891-92, v. 2, Session 2. Report of the Select Committee on the Question of Harbour Works at Fremantle. 36 Morning Herald, Perth, I I February, 1892. 37 Diamond, np. 38 WA, 23.2.1898, np. 39 N R P Bosnor, Atlantic Seaway, v. 2, nd. p. 555. 40 WA, 9 August, 1898. 41 Broeze, p.149. 42 WA, 12and 13July, 1901. 43 FEM, 28 June, 1906.