THE POLITICS OF EXPEDIENCY QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT IN THE EIGHTEEN-NINETIES by Jacqueline Mc0ormack University of Queensland, 197^1. Presented In fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts to the Department of History, University of Queensland. TABLE OP, CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION SECTION ONE; THE SUBSTANCE OP POLITICS CHAPTER 1. The Men of Politics 1 CHAPTER 2. Politics in the Eighties 21 CHAPTER 3. The Depression 62 CHAPTER 4. Railways 86 CHAPTER 5. Land, Labour & Immigration 102 CHAPTER 6 Separation and Federation 132 CHAPTER 7 The Queensland.National Bank 163 SECTION TWO: THE POLITICS OP REALIGNMENT CHAPTER 8. The General Election of 1888 182 CHAPTER 9. The Coalition of 1890 204 CHAPTER 10. Party Organization 224 CHAPTER 11. The Retreat of Liberalism 239 CHAPTER 12. The 1893 Election 263 SECTION THREE: THE POLITICS.OF EXPEDIENCY CHAPTER 13. The First Nelson Government 283 CHAPTER Ik. The General Election of I896 310 CHAPTER 15. For Want of an Opposition 350 CHAPTER 16. The 1899 Election 350 CHAPTER 17. The Morgan-Browne Coalition 362 CONCLUSION 389 APPENDICES 394 BIBLIOGRAPHY 422 PREFACE The "Nifi^ties" Ms always" exercised a fascination for Australian historians. The decade saw a flowering of Australian literature. It saw tremendous social and economic changes. Partly as a result of these changes, these years saw the rise of a new force in Australian politics - the labour movement. In some colonies, this development was overshadowed by the consolidation of a colonial liberal tradition reaching its culmination in the Deakinite liberalism of the early years of the tlommdhwealth. Developments in Queensland differed from those in the southern colonies. The labour movement was more militant, but less influential during the Nineties. The liberalism best exemplified by Sir Samuel Walker Griffith did not survive the tumultuous events of the decade which began with a bitter strike and culminated in Federation. In between. Queenslanders endured the most severe depression they had yet known. It is not surprising then, that the period is rich in political incident, and represents a fertile field of study. Writing the political history of a decade presents peculiar 'difficulties, both ih raiethodology and selection. The thesis is conceived as a study of the Parliament, and of the elections which determined its composition and 11. character- So much of that which is called "politics" occurs outside Parliament and elections, but rigid selection is necessary in determining priorities. Consequently, there is scant attention paid to public opinion, and to the social mores which give rise to that opinion. Indirectly, one can gauge the state of the public mind from election results, which are covered in Sections Two and Three of this thesis. Sections Two and Three are roughly chronological. Section One attempts to introduce and analyse the problems and Issues reaching their culmination in the Nineties. A purely chronological approach was found to involve tedious repetition, and also to cloud an analysis of the parliamentary scene. Thus, Section One discusses the various decisions and problems which confronted Queensland governments during the Nineties without analysing their parliamentary and electoral repercussions. Sections Two and Three analyse just these repercussions. There are many people I would like to thank for their help and encouragement. In particular, I am Indebted to my supervisor, R.M.S. Hamilton, and to the Head of my Departtient, Professor Gordon Greenwood, who has shown such admirable patienc©. I must also thank my typist. Merle Grinly for an excellent Job, completed under considerable difficulty. May I also thank Peggy Burke for her truly magnificent proof reading. INTRODUCTION Queensland has not been well served by political historians and, for the most part, general histories are rare and of questionable quality. C.A. Bernays' Queensland Politics during Sixty Years 1859-1919 is a narrative account of Queensland Parliaments with little interpretative value and a considerable amount of bias. There are some regional histories of great value such as D.B. Waterson's Darling Downs study. Squatter, Selector and Storekeeper, and G.C. 2 Bolton's A Thousand Miles Away, a general history of North Queensland. And as Waterson remarks, too often has Queensland been relegated to the footnotes of histories of New South Wales and Victoria.-^ Edited by D. Murphy, R. Joyce and C. Hughes, Prelude to Power is an attempt to partly remedy this deficiency. It is a study of the rise of the Labour Party from I885 to 1915. The years between I890 and 19OO naturally receive much attention, but primarily as a crucial 1. Bernays, C, Queensland Politics during Sixty Years 1859-1919 (Govt. Printer, Brisbane^/<?/?) a,: Waterson, D.B., Squatter, Selector and Storekeeper (Sydney Univ. Press, 1958). Bolton, G.C, A.Thousand Miles Away: A Brief History of North Queensland to 1920 i^^i.^^^^,^J^^,> 1963). 3. Waterson, D.B., op.cit., p.l. 4 Murphy, D,, Joyce, R.B, & Hughes, C.A., Prelude to Power (Jacaranda, Brisbane, 1970). 11. decade for the labour movement. Indeed, this decade is usually seen as a period where the main political theme •is the rise of the Labour Party throughout the eastern colonies. In Queensland, this picture is only partially valid, for what gave the decade its especial.significance was the decline of the Liberal Party, and the complete dominance of a political philosophy based on property, rather than the rise of a labour movement dedicated:to the philosophy of "socialism".^ Queensland held a unique place in the political history of Eastern Australia. During the Eighties, the Parliament had shown a relatively clear cut bi-partisan division, so unlike the factionalism of New South Wales. During the Nineties, there was no evidence of the Lib-Lab coalition which characterized southern.developments. While Victoria experimented with liberal legislation, Queensland remained, sunk, it seemed forever, in the mire of conservatism and |» The historical debate surrounding the question of Labour's socialism is too well known to need repeating here. For the "orthodox" view of earlier years, see Lloyd Ross, William Lane and the.Australian Labour Movement (Sydney, N.D.); V.G. Childe, How Labour Governs (2nd Ed., M.U.P , 1964). For more recent Interpretations, D.W. Rawson's "Labour, Socialism.and the Working Class" (A.J.P.H., VII, I, p.77), and.Labor in Vain? (Melbourne, 1966) and Dalton, J.B., "An InterpreMve Survey", in Murphy, Joyce and. Hughes, op.cit., p.3. fi» Loveday, P. & Martin, A.W., Parliament, Pactions and Parties (M.U.P., 1966). 111. reaction. This thesis then is partly an attempt to explain the nature of Queensland polities- during'this very controversial decade. While the two-party alignment of the Eighties showed considerable stability, it was not supported by any extra- parliamentary or. intra-party organization. Were they then, simply two giant factions, revolving around two powerful leaders, Samuel Griffith and Thomas Mellwraith? Perhaps they may, more properly, be described as cohesive groups, 7 sharing a similar social and political outlook. Fundamental differences between Liberal and Conservative did exist, but they shared a common vision, the economic advancement of the colony. Where they diverged was in the practical application of this vision. In as much as either side could be said to possess a philosophy it was a philosophy of material progress from which social progress would almost inevitably follow. Liberals, however, did tend towards the belief that with a little "engineering'*, the benefits of economic progress could be more equitably diffused. This attitude, for the most part paternalistic in the extreme, was not shared by their opponents, who tended to pin their faith on 7. "Parties" are defined on p.v. iv. free enterprise, at least as far as it was compatible with the economic realities of Queensland's climate and distances. Liberals worked upon.ithe*,.assumption that if the State provided greater opportunities to acquire land, to exercise the franchise, and to enjoy equitable labour conditions, all citizens would be able to advance their aims. This entailed an enormous amount of intricate legislation,- involving the ^tate in the promotion of economic progress, but not' in the protection of those.unable to partake of this progress. The oldj poor and Intsirm continued to remain firmly outside the largesse of the iSftate. In the boom conditions of the Eighties, such policies had proved relatively successful, but the Depression of the Nineties had vastly increased the number of people enmeshed in the net of economic hardship, and Liberal rejection of, and by, the working population. The Nineties thus saw the demise of what had been known as the Liberal Party. In I89O, the electorate was stunned by the coalition between Griffith and .Mellwraith, This threw the old political order into chaos; the old divisions disappeared to be replaced by an agglomeration of individuals, led mostly by the old conservatives. If we could not call the well-disciplined groups of the Eighties "parties", how are we to describe this new development? V. Parties may be defined as groups possessing a coherent leadership, a cohesive philosophy, machinery for the selection of candidates and.machinery'for the conduct of elections. The Ministerialists of the Nineties exhibited all these characteristics, but to only a limited extent. Throughout the decade, Robert Buleock and R.P. Adams, formerly organizers for the Liberal Party, strove to build up the organization of the Ministerallsts, both within the "party" and for electoral purposes. The Queensland Patriotic League and its successor, the Queensland Political Association, were quite effective in the engineering and scrutiny of electoral rolls. Their attempts, to define common policy objectives, and to pre-seleet candidates often were met with considerable hostility. Moreover, branches were rarely in contact with the central offices, and most parliamentarians objected to attempts to curtail their freedom of action.