H. B. Higgins

Henry Bournes Higgins
Justice of the High Court of Australia
In office
13 October 1906 – 13 January 1929
Nominated byAlfred Deakin
Appointed byLord Northcote
Preceded bynone (new seat)
Succeeded bySir Owen Dixon
Attorney-General of Australia
In office
27 April 1904 – 17 August 1904
Prime MinisterChris Watson
Preceded byJames Drake
Succeeded byJosiah Symon
Member of the Australian Parliament for Northern Melbourne
In office
30 March 1901 – 12 October 1906
Preceded bySeat Created
Succeeded bySeat Abolished
Personal details
Born(1851-06-30)30 June 1851
Newtownards, County Down, Ireland
Died13 January 1929(1929-01-13) (aged 77)
Dromana, Victoria, Australia
Political partyProtectionist
Spouse
Mary Alice Morrison
(m. 1885)
RelationsIna Higgins (sister)
Nettie Palmer (niece)
Esmonde Higgins (nephew)
George Ernest Morrison (brother-in-law)

Henry Bournes Higgins KC (30 June 1851 – 13 January 1929) was an Australian lawyer, politician, and judge. He served on the High Court of Australia from 1906 until his death in 1929, after briefly serving as Attorney-General of Australia in 1904.

Higgins was born in what is now Northern Ireland. He and his family emigrated to Australia when he was 18, and he found work as a schoolteacher while studying law part-time at the University of Melbourne. He was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1876, and built up a substantial practice specialising in equity law. Higgins came to public attention as a prominent supporter of Irish Home Rule. He was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1894, and represented Victoria at the Australasian Federal Convention, where he helped draft the new federal constitution. He nonetheless opposed the final draft, making him one of only two delegates to the convention to campaign against federation.

In 1901, Higgins was elected to the new federal parliament as a member of the Protectionist Party. He was sympathetic to the labour movement, and in 1904 briefly served as Attorney-General in the Labor Party minority government led by Chris Watson. In 1906, Prime Minister Alfred Deakin decided to expand the High Court bench from three to five members, nominating Higgins and Isaac Isaacs to the court. Higgins was usually in the minority in his early years on the court, but in later years the composition of the court changed and he was more often in the majority. He also served as president of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration from 1907 to 1921. In that capacity, he wrote the decision in the influential Harvester case, holding that a legislative provision for a "fair and reasonable" wage effectively required a living wage.

Early life and education

He was born in Newtownards, County Down, Ireland, the son of The Rev. John Higgins,[1] a Methodist minister, and Anne Bournes, daughter of Henry Bournes of Crossmolina. Ina Higgins, an early feminist, was his sister and Nettie Palmer, poet, essayist and literary critic, was a niece. The Rev. Higgins and his family emigrated to Australia in 1870.

H. B. Higgins was educated at Wesley College in central Dublin, Ireland, and at the University of Melbourne, where he graduated in law. He practised at the Melbourne bar from 1876, eventually becoming one of the city's leading barristers (a KC in 1903) and a wealthy man. He was active in liberal, radical, and Irish nationalist politics, as well as in many civic organisations. He was also a noted classical scholar.

Colonial politics

In 1894, Higgins was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as MLA for Geelong. He was a supporter of George Turner's liberal government, but frequently criticised it from a left-wing point of view. He supported advanced liberal positions, such as greater protection for workers, government investment in industry, and votes for women. In 1897, he was elected as one of Victoria's delegates to the convention which drew up the Australian Constitution, coming tenth of the ten successful candidates. At the convention, he successfully argued that the constitution should forbid the establishment of any religion, or the imposition of religious tests for the holding of government office. After being defeated at the Sydney and Adelaide sessions, he successfully moved at the Melbourne session the federal government be given the power to make laws for the conciliation and arbitration of industrial disputes 'extending beyond the limits of any one State'.

Henry Bournes Higgins at the 1898 Australasian Federal Convention.

Despite these successes, he opposed the draft constitution produced by the convention as overly federalist, favouring instead unification, without a 'ridiculous' Senate. He also disdained the protectionist motive which he detected in the agitation for federation: the Victorian 'manufacturing classes', he wrote 'expected to exploit the markets of New South Wales, protected against the formidable competition of English and European goods'.[2] He campaigned, unsuccessfully, to have the draft federal constitution defeated at the 1898 and 1899 Australian constitutional referendums. In November 1899 he supported the successful leadership challenge of Allan Maclean, a staunch anti-Federationist, to the premier, George Turner. These stances alienated him from most of his liberal colleagues, and also from the influential Melbourne newspaper, The Age. Higgins also opposed Australian involvement in the Second Boer War, a very unpopular stand at the time, and as a result, he lost his seat at the 1900 Victorian election.

Federal politics

In 1901, when federation under the new constitution came into effect, Higgins was elected to the first House of Representatives for the working-class electorate of Northern Melbourne. He stood as a Protectionist, but the Labor Party did not oppose him, regarding him as a supporter of the labour movement. The Labor Party's confidence in him was shown in 1904, when Chris Watson formed the first federal Labor government. Since the party did not have a suitably qualified lawyer, Watson offered the post of Attorney-General to Higgins. He is the only person to have held office in a federal Labor government without being a member of the Labor Party.

Robert Garran, the Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department, found Higgins difficult to work with, stating that "for the first week or two I could not induce him to sign even the most routine and trivial paper until after a full explanation [...] the slowing-up of the machine was often embarrassing".[3] Higgins also received criticism for his failure to regularly attend parliament, which left Watson and Billy Hughes having to explain his ministerial actions. The Melbourne Argus remarked that he "attends sometimes for prayers and retires spiritually refreshed".[4] He was also attacked by The Bulletin, which observed that he "has had an unparalleled opportunity to demonstrate his worth as legal ally of the Government, and all the demonstration that he has effected in the House could be contained in a paper bag".[5] According to Ross McMullin, Higgins "approved of the Labor Party and its objectives [...] but he remained outside the party and did not identify himself with it".[6] However, his contributions to cabinet discussions were appreciated by his colleagues, and Watson was happy to defend him against the attacks from the media.[7]

High Court

Henry Bournes Higgins

Higgins was an awkward colleague for the Protectionist leadership, and in 1906 Deakin appointed him as a Justice of the High Court of Australia as a means of getting him out of politics, although he was undoubtedly qualified for the post. In 1907, he was also appointed President of the newly created Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, created to arbitrate disputes between trades unions and employers, something Higgins had long advocated. In this role, he continued to support the labour movement, although he was strongly opposed to militant unions who abused the strike weapon and ignored his rulings.

Higgins was one of only eight justices of the High Court to have served in the Parliament of Australia prior to his appointment to the Court; the others were Edmund Barton, Richard O'Connor, Isaac Isaacs, Edward McTiernan, John Latham, Garfield Barwick, and Lionel Murphy. He was also one of two justices to have served in the Parliament of Victoria, along with Isaac Isaacs.

Harvester case

In 1907, Higgins delivered a judgement which became famous in Australian history, known as the "Harvester Judgement". The case involved one of Australia's largest employers, Hugh McKay, a manufacturer of agricultural machinery. Higgins ruled that McKay was obliged to pay his employees a wage that guaranteed them a standard of living that was reasonable for "a human being in a civilised community", regardless of his capacity to pay. This gave rise to the legal requirement for a basic wage, which dominated Australian economic life for the next 80 years.[8]

World War I

During World War I, Higgins increasingly came into conflict with the Nationalist Prime Minister Billy Hughes, whom he saw as using the wartime emergency to erode civil liberties. Although Higgins initially supported the war, he opposed the extension of government power that came with it, and also opposed Hughes' attempt to introduce conscription for the war. In 1916, his only son Mervyn was killed in action in Egypt, a tragedy which made Higgins turn increasingly against the war.

Final years

The postwar years saw a series of bitter industrial confrontations, some of them fomented by militant unions influenced by the Industrial Workers of the World or the Communist Party of Australia. Higgins defended the principles of arbitration against both the Hughes government and militant unions, although he found this increasingly difficult. Postwar governments appointed conservative justices to the High Court, leaving Higgins increasingly more isolated. In 1920, he resigned from the Arbitration Court in frustration, but remained on the High Court bench until his death in 1929. In 1922, he published A New Province for Law and Order, a defence of his views and record on arbitration.

Personal life

Higgins and his wife Mary (née Morrison)

On 19 December 1885, Higgins married Mary Alice Morrison, the daughter of George Morrison, headmaster of Geelong College, and the sister of the journalist George Ernest Morrison. Their only child, Mervyn Bournes Higgins, was born in 1887, and was killed in action in Egypt in 1916.[9]

After his son Mervyn's death, Higgins effectively adopted his nephew Esmonde Higgins,[10] and his niece Nettie Palmer,[11] paying for their education at universities in Europe. He was pained by Esmonde's conversion to Communism in 1920 and his rejection of the liberal values associated with the Higgins name.

Aside from politics, he was president of the Carlton Football Club in 1904.

Legacy

Higgins was remembered for many years as a great friend of the labour movement, of the Irish-Australian community and of liberal and progressive causes generally. He was well-served by his first biographer, his niece Nettie Palmer, whose Henry Bournes Higgins: A Memoir (1931) created an enduring Higgins mythology. John Rickard's 1984 H. B. Higgins: The Rebel as Judge partly demolished this myth, but was a generally sympathetic biography.[12] The H.B. Higgins Chambers in Sydney, founded by radical industrial lawyers, is named for him.

Further, Higgins is commemorated by the federal electorate of Higgins in Melbourne, and by the Canberra suburb of Higgins, Australian Capital Territory.

References

  1. ^ Irish Independent, 8 February 1906. p. 7.
  2. ^ William Coleman,Their Fiery Cross of Union. A Retelling of the Creation of the Australian Federation, 1889-1914, Connor Court, Queensland, 2021, p. 125 .
  3. ^ McMullin, Ross (2004). So Monstrous a Travesty: Chris Watson and the World's First National Labour Government. Scribe Publications. p. 98. ISBN 9781920769130.
  4. ^ McMullin (2004), p. 99.
  5. ^ "Attorney-General Higgins as seen from the press gallery". The Bulletin. Vol. 25, no. 1277. 4 August 1904. ISSN 0007-4039. Retrieved 7 March 2021 – via Trove.
  6. ^ McMullin (2004), p. 101.
  7. ^ McMullin (2004), p. 102.
  8. ^ T.J. Kearney, The life and times of Henry Bournes Higgins, politician and judge (1851-1929), Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society, 11 (1989), 33-43.
  9. ^ Rickard, John (1983). "Higgins, Henry Bournes (1851–1929)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  10. ^ Roe, Michael (1996). "Higgins, Esmonde Macdonald (1897–1960)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  11. ^ Jordan, D J (1988). "Palmer, Janet Gertrude (Nettie) (1885–1964)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  12. ^ Rickard, John (1984). H. B. Higgins, the Rebel as Judge. Sydney: Allen and Unwin. ISBN 0-86861-681-8.

 

Political offices
Preceded by Attorney-General of Australia
1904
Succeeded by
Parliament of Australia
New division Member for Northern Melbourne
1901–1906
Division abolished

Read other articles:

Duta Besar Ukraina untuk IndonesiaPetahanaVasyl Hamianinsejak 2021Situs webindonesia.mfa.gov.ua/en Berikut adalah daftar duta besar Ukraina untuk Republik Indonesia. Nama Kredensial Selesai tugas Ref. Ihor Antonovych Lytvyn 13 Mei 1997 [1] Volodymyr Pakhil 5 Juni 2012 [2] Vasyl Hamianin 25 Oktober 2021 Petahana [3] Lihat pula Daftar Duta Besar Indonesia untuk Ukraina Daftar duta besar untuk Indonesia Hubungan Indonesia dengan Ukraina Referensi ^ Inventaris Arsip T...

 

 

Artikel ini sebatang kara, artinya tidak ada artikel lain yang memiliki pranala balik ke halaman ini.Bantulah menambah pranala ke artikel ini dari artikel yang berhubungan atau coba peralatan pencari pranala.Tag ini diberikan pada November 2022. Biografi ini tidak memiliki sumber tepercaya sehingga isinya tidak dapat dipastikan. Bantu memperbaiki artikel ini dengan menambahkan sumber tepercaya. Materi kontroversial atau trivial yang sumbernya tidak memadai atau tidak bisa dipercaya harus sege...

 

 

العلاقات الوسط أفريقية الكوستاريكية جمهورية أفريقيا الوسطى كوستاريكا   جمهورية أفريقيا الوسطى   كوستاريكا تعديل مصدري - تعديل   العلاقات الوسط أفريقية الكوستاريكية هي العلاقات الثنائية التي تجمع بين جمهورية أفريقيا الوسطى وكوستاريكا.[1][2][3][4 ...

Approach to architecture Critical regionalism is an approach to architecture that strives to counter the placelessness and lack of identity of the International Style, but also rejects the whimsical individualism and ornamentation of Postmodern architecture. The stylings of critical regionalism seek to provide an architecture rooted in the modern tradition, but tied to geographical and cultural context. Critical regionalism is not simply regionalism in the sense of vernacular architecture. It...

 

 

International women's association football tournament Football tournamentUEFA Women's Nations LeagueOrganising bodyUEFAFounded2 November 2022; 17 months ago (2022-11-02)RegionEuropeNumber of teamsMaximum of 55Related competitionsUEFA Nations LeagueCurrent champions Spain (1st title)Most successful team(s) Spain (1 title) 2023–24 UEFA Women's Nations League The UEFA Women's Nations League is a biennial international women's football competition contested by the se...

 

 

У этого термина существуют и другие значения, см. Рим (значения). Запрос «Вечный Город» перенаправляется сюда; о термине «Вечный город» см. Вечный город. Столица ИталииРимитал. Roma Против часовой стрелки, начиная с верхнего правого угла: собор Святого Петра, Колизей, Па...

Logo TVRI Berikut ini adalah daftar penyiar TVRI. Penyiar saat ini Khusus Klik Indonesia TVRI Adi Priyatmoko Andin Wijaya (mantan penyiar TVRI Jawa Barat juga membawakan acara majalah olahraga) Anggi Dwi Jaya (mantan penyiar TVRI Sumatera Selatan juga membawakan acara majalah dan siaran langsung pertandingan olahraga) Anisa Larasati (mantan penyiar TVRI Jakarta) Ardianto Wijaya (mantan penyiar TVRI Jawa Barat) Akbar Syam (mantan penyiar TVRI Sulawesi Selatan) Brigita Kwee (juga membawakan aca...

 

 

Village in Tehran, IranMoradabad مرادابادvillageMoradabadCoordinates: 35°34′33″N 51°19′47″E / 35.57583°N 51.32972°E / 35.57583; 51.32972Country IranProvinceTehranCountyTehranBakhshAftabRural DistrictKhalazirPopulation (2006) • Total29Time zoneUTC+3:30 (IRST) • Summer (DST)UTC+4:30 (IRDT) Moradabad (Persian: مراداباد, also Romanized as Morādābād)[1] is a village in Khalazir Rural District, Aftab Di...

 

 

5e cérémonie des Critics' Choice Television Awards Critics' Choice Television Awards Organisée par la Broadcast Television Journalists Association Détails Date 31 mai 2015 Lieu The Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills États-Unis Présentateur Cat Deeley Diffusé sur A&E Site web http://www.criticschoice.com/television-awards/ Résumé Meilleure série dramatique The Americans Meilleure série comique Silicon Valley Meilleure mini-série Olive Kitteridge Chronologie 4e cérémonie...

  提示:此条目页的主题不是中華人民共和國最高領導人。 中华人民共和国 中华人民共和国政府与政治系列条目 执政党 中国共产党 党章、党旗党徽 主要负责人、领导核心 领导集体、民主集中制 意识形态、组织 以习近平同志为核心的党中央 两个维护、两个确立 全国代表大会 (二十大) 中央委员会 (二十届) 总书记:习近平 中央政治局 常务委员会 中央书记处 �...

 

 

Chronologies Données clés 1782 1783 1784  1785  1786 1787 1788Décennies :1750 1760 1770  1780  1790 1800 1810Siècles :XVIe XVIIe  XVIIIe  XIXe XXeMillénaires :-Ier Ier  IIe  IIIe Chronologies géographiques Afrique Afrique du Sud, Algérie, Angola, Bénin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroun, Cap-Vert, République centrafricaine, Comores, République du Congo, République démocratique du Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Égyp...

 

 

Part of an association football pitch The penalty area with penalty box marking and the penalty arc in parallel to the goal. The smaller box is often called the 6-yard box Penalty area (1898) Penalty arc. The penalty area or 18-yard box (also known less formally as the penalty box or simply box) is an area of an association football pitch. It is rectangular and extends 18 yd (16 m) to each side of the goal and 18 yd (16 m) in front of it. If any part of the ball is over an...

中華人民共和国 重慶直轄市 北碚区 縉雲山・獅子峰縉雲山・獅子峰 重慶市中の北碚区の位置重慶市中の北碚区の位置 簡体字 北碚区 繁体字 北碚區 拼音 Běibèi Qū カタカナ転写 ベイベイ 国家 中華人民共和国 直轄市 重慶 行政級別 市轄区 建置 1952年 改称 1955年 面積 総面積 755 km² 人口 総人口(2004) 65 万人 経済 電話番号 023 郵便番号 400700 行政区画代碼 500109 公式ウェ�...

 

 

See also: UCI Mountain Bike World Championships See also: UCI Urban Cycling World Championships A trials rider competing in the 26-inch category of the 2010 UCI Trials World Championships in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec The UCI Trials World Championships are the world championship events in trials organised by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the governing body of world cycling.[1] The first three finishers in each category are awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals. The winner o...

 

 

Stylistic device commonly used in sci-fi, superhero and fantasy comicsFantastic Four #72 (March 1968). Cover art by Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott. The pseudo-fractal nature of the red light comes from the negative space created by the Kirby dots. The Kirby Krackle (also known as Kirby Dots)[1] is an artistic convention in superhero and science fiction comic books and similar illustrations, in which a field of black is used to represent negative space around unspecified kinds of energy.&#...

Computing a robot's end-effector position from joint values and kinematic equations An articulated six DOF robotic arm uses forward kinematics to position the gripper. The forward kinematics equations define the trajectory of the end-effector of a PUMA robot reaching for parts. In robot kinematics, forward kinematics refers to the use of the kinematic equations of a robot to compute the position of the end-effector from specified values for the joint parameters.[1] The kinematics equa...

 

 

Pour les articles homonymes, voir Auvergnat (homonymie). Auvergnats Populations importantes par région Auvergne (région administrative) 1 362 367 (2014)[Note 1] Paris 212 400 (1932)[1] Autres Régions d’origine Auvergne Langues auvergnat, français Ethnies liées Arvernes modifier Les Auvergnats sont les habitants et une population originaire d'Auvergne[2],[3] formant l'une des plus anciennes et plus fortes unités régionales de France[4],[5] et caractérisée par une cul...

 

 

Sostanza grigiaMicrografia mostra la materia grigia, con i caratteristici corpi cellulari neuronali (tonalità più scure del rosa) e la sostanza bianca con il suo aspetto caratteristico a maglie finiAnatomia del Gray(EN) Pagina 180 Nome latinosubstantia grisea SistemaSistema nervoso centrale IdentificatoriMeSHA08.186.211.168 e A08.186.854.348 TAA14.1.00.002, A14.1.02.020, A14.1.04.201, A14.1.05.201, A14.1.05.401 e A14.1.06.301 FMA67242 Modifica dati su Wikidata · Manuale Per sostanza o...

2017 film This article is about the 2017 film. For other uses, see Kodachrome (disambiguation). KodachromeFilm posterDirected byMark RasoWritten byJonathan TropperBased onFor Kodachrome Fans, Road Ends at Photo Lab in Kansasby A.G. SulzbergerProduced by Ellen Goldsmith-Vein Eric Robinson Jonathan Tropper Shawn Levy Dan Levine Leon Clarence Starring Ed Harris Jason Sudeikis Elizabeth Olsen Bruce Greenwood Wendy Crewson Dennis Haysbert CinematographyAlan PoonEdited byGeoff AshenhurstMusic byAga...

 

 

2022 public holiday in New Zealand Part of a series of articleson theDeath and state funeralof Elizabeth II Events Reactions Operation London Bridge The Queue List of state funeral dignitaries Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day Demise Honours Compositions Like as the hart Who shall separate us? Sleep, Dearie, Sleep Succession Charles III Proclamation of accession Coronation vte Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day was a one-off public holiday that occurred in New Zealand on 26 September 2022. It was ...