Henry Parkes

Sir Henry Parkes KCMG ( born May 27, 1815 in Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, England; † April 27, 1896 in Sydney, Australia) was a native of England, Australian poet and politician who is known as the father of Australia from 1901, but also a five-time premier of New South Wales was.

Life

Origin and first public office in Australia

Parkes came from a humble background, received only a basic education and already had to earn early as laborers for a living. After he failed to find better living conditions in England, he emigrated to Australia in 1839 and settled after some time in Sydney as an ivory turner down. Convinced of his own ways, he tried his education to improve and developed a great enthusiasm for literature. For his own first poems he won the acclaim of the famous poet Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson. In 1842 he published his first book of poems, entitled Stolen Moments.

Soon after, Parkes also began to engage in politics and soon acquired a reputation as a shrewd, writing leader and influential speaker. He took an influential role in the movement against the deportation of convicts to Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania, and also founded in 1849 the daily newspaper The Empire. This he used as a mouthpiece for his opinion, while he himself remained loyal to the British Crown. Although the newspaper failed in their opinion not the effect, however, had to cease publication due to financial difficulties in 1858.

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

In 1861 he was sent as an agent for the promotion of immigration to Britain. During this prolonged stay, he described his impressions there in several letters in The Sydney Morning Herald, and some of these letters in 1869 appeared in a reprint 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 at the same time from January 1866 to October 1868 Colonial Minister in the government of Prime Minister James Martin. In this role he was also responsible for the adoption of the Law on publicly funded schools ( Public Schools Act ), with a powerful system of primary education was introduced in the colony for the first time. At the same time he founded with the support of Florence Nightingale the first training institutions for health and medical care in New South Wales.

Five-time premier of New South Wales

His big chance came in May 1872 when the Martin government resigned over the issue on the sum to be paid for the Border Patrol to Queen Victoria. He was for many years an advocate of free trade policy and free imports as a solution to the financial problems of the colony.

On 14 May 1872 he was first Prime Minister of New South Wales and took over at the same time the office of the Colonial Secretary, admitted as such to free trade in the colony and retained this office until 8 February 1875.

After the end of the reign of John Robertson, he was again between March 22 and August 16, 1877 Prime Minister and Colonial Secretary of New South Wales and was raised late in 1877 as Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George to knighthood so that he henceforth the additional name "Sir" led.

Once he realized that the state of the parties did not allow for permanent and stable government, he made a skillful instigation of the then Governor of New South Wales Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead a coalition with Sir John Robertson and became 21 December 1878 to January 4, 1883, for the third time Prime Minister and colonial Secretary. After a first extended stay in England in 1882, he spent 1883-1884 again for a long time in the United Kingdom and won a reputation as an outstanding Australian statesman, who also used the proximity to the Empire there.

However, this did on the other hand to the fact that he was in Australia partially isolated. However, the policy of his predecessors meant that he Prime Minister of New South Wales was founded in 1880 again as leader of the Free Trade Party on January 25, 1887. It was not only operated by free trade policy continued to thrive, but also other measures his government such as the reform of the civil service, the ban on immigration of Han Chinese and the laws of the railway in New South Wales as well as public works.

Although he lost his position as Prime Minister on 16 January, 1889, but was already on March 8, 1889 for the fifth time Prime Minister and Colonial Secretary of New South Wales and held this office until October 23, 1891.

His life-long top political objective was the creation of a Commonwealth of Australia, the need for which he, in his famous speech Tender Field ( Tender Field Oration ) underscored 1889. He was the driving force for the implementation of the Federal Convention ( Federal Convention ) 1890 in Melbourne, which took place due to its Tender Field - speech. 1891 was President of the Federal Convention in Sydney and instrumental in the design of there refurbished Constitution of Australia.

However, in October 1891 he suffered an electoral defeat after he had refused to accept a eight-hour day for miners. By the end of his life he remained in opposition, and saw in his advocacy of free trade, the basis for the way in the Commonwealth of Australia.

After a collection of his speeches entitled 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 impoverished Parkes, who was married three times and had 18 children. However, the result of his efforts, the federation of Australia on 1 January 1901 he could not live with. Nevertheless, he is regarded as the father of this covenant.

For the centenary of the federation of Australia in 2001, he was honored by a special bill of the Australian Dollar: Together with the writer Catherine Helen Spence published his portrait on a five- dollar bill.

External links and sources

Henry Parkes at the Notable Names Database (English)
Meyers Lexicon Great people, Mannheim 1968, p 999
Chambers Biographical Dictionary, Edinburgh 2002, ISBN 0-550-10051-2, p 1168

Prime Minister (New South Wales)
Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
Journalist
Author
Literature (19th century)
Literature ( English )
Poetry
Australian
Born in 1815
Died in 1896
Man

Lyric poetry Anthology Nursing Rail transport in New South Wales George Reid (Australian politician) Jack Lang (Australian politician) Jack Renshaw Neville Wran John Fahey (politician) Bob Carr Nathan Rees Kristina Keneally Integrated Authority File

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