Henry Parkes

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Sir Henry Parkes

Sir Henry Parkes KCMG (born May 27, 1815 in Stoneleigh , Warwickshire , England , † April 27, 1896 in Sydney , Australia ) was an Australian poet and politician from England , who is not only considered the father of the Australian Confederation of 1901 , but was also five-time Prime Minister of New South Wales .

Life

Origin and first public office in Australia

Parkes came from a humble background, received only elementary school education and had to earn a living as a worker at an early age. After he failed to find better living conditions in England, he emigrated to Australia in 1839 and after some time settled in Sydney as an ivory turner . Convinced of his own possibilities, he tried to improve his education and developed a great passion for literature . For his first own poems he won the approval of the well-known poet Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson . In 1842 he published his first volume of poetry entitled Stolen Moments .

Parkes soon afterwards also began to get involved in politics and soon earned a reputation as a sharp, writing leader and influential public speaker. He played an influential role in the movement against the deportation of prisoners to Van Diemens Land , today's Tasmania , and founded the daily newspaper The Empire in 1849 . This he used as a mouthpiece for his opinion while even the British crown against loyal remained. The newspaper did not fail in its opinion, but had to cease publication in 1858 due to financial difficulties.

One of Parkes' main concerns was the establishment of full Responsible Government and he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council for the Sydney constituency under old electoral rules. After the establishment of a legislative assembly in 1856, he was elected in this in the first general election in 1859 as a member for the constituency of East Sydney , although he had to interrupt his political career twice because of financial difficulties.

In 1861 he was posted to Great Britain as a commissioner for the promotion of immigration. During this extended stay, he described his impressions there in several letters in The Sydney Morning Herald , some of which were reprinted in 1869 under the title Australian Views of England .

After his return to Australia in 1863 he was again a member of the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales and was also Colonial Minister in the government of Prime Minister James Martin from January 1866 to October 1868 . In this role he was also responsible for the adoption of the law on schools under public ownership ( Public Schools Act ), a powerful system of primary education was introduced in the colony with the first time. At the same time, with the support of Florence Nightingale, he founded the first educational institutions for health and nursing in New South Wales.

Five-time Prime Minister of New South Wales

Portrait of Sir Henry Parkes on a $ 5 bill (2001)

His great chance came in May 1872 when the Martin government resigned to Queen Victoria over the question of the amount to be paid for border protection . For years he had been an advocate of a free trade policy and free imports as a solution to the colony's financial problems.

On May 14, 1872 he became Prime Minister of New South Wales for the first time and at the same time took over the office of Colonial Minister, allowing free trade in the colony as such and holding these offices until February 8, 1875.

After the end of the reign of John Robertson , he was again Prime Minister and Colonial Minister of New South Wales between March 22 and August 16, 1877 and was knighted as Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in late 1877 , so that from then on he had the suffix "Sir".

After he realized that the state of the parties did not permit a permanent and stable government, he formed a coalition with Sir John Robertson at the clever instigation of the then Governor of New South Wales Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead, and was thereby from December 21, 1878 to on January 4, 1883 Prime Minister and Colonial Minister for the third time. After a first long stay in England in 1882, he stayed again for a longer period in the United Kingdom between 1883 and 1884, where he gained the reputation of an outstanding Australian statesman who also maintained proximity to the Empire .

On the other hand, this meant that he was partially isolated in Australia. However, the protection policy of his predecessors led him to become Prime Minister of New South Wales again on January 25, 1887 as leader of the Free Trade Party founded in 1880 . Not only was the free trade policy pursued by him successful again, but also other measures of his government such as the reform of the civil service , the ban on immigration of Han Chinese and the laws on the railroad in New South Wales as well as public works.

Although he lost his office as Prime Minister on January 16, 1889, he became Prime Minister and Colonial Minister of New South Wales for the fifth time on March 8, 1889, and held these offices until October 23, 1891.

His lifelong most important political goal was the creation of an Australian Confederation, the necessity of which he underlined in his famous Tenderfield Oration in 1889. He was the driving force behind the implementation of the Federal Convention ( Federal Convention ) in Melbourne in 1890 , which took place because of his Tenderfield speech. In 1891 he was President of the Federal Convention in Sydney and was instrumental in drafting the Australian Constitution, which was revised there .

In October 1891, however, he suffered an electoral defeat after refusing to accept an eight-hour day for miners . Until the end of his life he remained in the opposition and saw in his advocacy for free trade the basis for the way into the Australian Confederation.

After collecting his speeches under the title Federal Government of Australia (1890), he published his memoirs in 1892 under the title Fifty Years in the Making of Australian History .

At the end of his life, Parkes, who was married three times and had 18 children, became impoverished. The result of his efforts, the founding of the Australian Confederation on January 1, 1901, he could no longer experience. Nevertheless, he is seen as the father of this covenant.

To mark the centenary of the founding of the Australian Confederation in 2001, he was honored with a special banknote of the Australian dollar : Together with the writer Catherine Helen Spence , his portrait appeared on a five dollar bill.

Web links and sources

personal data
SURNAME Parkes, Henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Parkes, Sir Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian politician, poet and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Stoneleigh , Warwickshire , England
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 1896
Place of death Sydney , Australia