James Munro (Australian politician)

James Munro ( born January 7, 1832 in Glen Dubh, Sutherlandshire, Scotland, † February 25, 1908 at home in Armadale, Victoria ( Australia) ) was a skilled printer, Australian colonial politician and the 15th Prime Minister of the State of Victoria.

Life

He was the son of Donald Munro and his wife Georgina. After visiting a village school Munro went to Edinburgh and worked in a printing house. In December 1853 he married Jane Macdonald, with whom he had four sons and three daughters.

In 1858 he emigrated with his family in the Australian state of Victoria, where he opened a print shop. In the 1860s he moved into banking and also has real estate agents. In 1865 he founded the " Victorian Permanent Building Society ", which he headed for 17 years. In the 1870s, he was a very wealthy man and began like many in the beginning of the boom in the real estate business to speculate. In addition, he worked as a lawyer and was active in the Presbyterian Church.

In 1874, Munro was elected for the constituency of North Melbourne in the Legislative Assembly of the State of Victoria, 1877, he moved for the constituency Carlton (Victoria ), then again from 1881 to 1883 for North Melbourne. In 1886, he was elected in the constituency of Geelong and held this seat in parliament until 1892.

On November 5, 1890, he was the successor of Duncan Gillies ( 1834-1903 ) as the 15th Prime Minister and was replaced only 1 ½ years later, on 16 February 1892 by William Shiels ( 1848-1904 ).

For now, his company had significantly speculation in the real estate transactions and came in December 1891 in the ruin. In February 1892 the now heavily indebted Munro asked, therefore resign as prime minister from office and may be Victoria's Agent -General in London, which was granted him. Munro left the country immediately, whereupon in his numerous creditors, who had lost their money in Munro's company, started a storm of indignation. His successor, William Shiels called him out again immediately for London. Munro was declared after his voluntary return for bankrupt, leaving behind personal debt in the amount of 97,000 pounds. His company had 600,000 pounds of debt.

Munro went down in the history of the country as the most corrupt politicians of Victoria. His business practices were quite dubious, but they were never clarified whether Munro was personally to blame for the collapse of his real companies. After his bankruptcy he was the following years in Armadale as a real estate broker.