Politics and unions, 1890-1929

Component identifier:

Series 15

Content Summary:

In his early parliamentary career, Hughes represented the Lang Division in the New South Wales Parliament from 1894 to Federation, and in federal politics was Minister for External Affairs in the Watson Government (1904) and Attorney-General in the three governments of Andrew Fisher (1908-1909, 1910-1913, 1914-1915). In the years before his Prime Ministership Hughes was also chairman of several commissions and one of Australia's representatives at the 1907 Imperial Conference on Navigation. Hughes was also associated with several Sydney transport and waterfront unions, and was founding president of the Waterside Workers Federation.

Unfortunately the collection covers only a small portion of the events and activities with which Hughes was associated between 1894 and 1915. With the exception of a small group of papers on the 1913 General Election (in Series 28), political and union material from the period is in Series 15. It begins with a group of letters covering subjects such as the 1907 Imperial Conference on Navigation, the 1909 coal strikes, defence, land taxes, the uniform railway gauge, the International Congress on Labour Legislation (1912), the prosecution of the Coal Vend (1913), the Royal Commission on the Sugar Industry (1911), the 1911 Imperial Conference, wire telegraphy, the coal combine (1912), tables of statistics on tax payers and land values, and the appointment of A. B. Piddington to the High Court. The main correspondents are Lord Dudley, Lord Denman, Justice Higgins, Andrew Fisher, E. L. Batchelor, G. A. McKay, Jethro Brown, J. H. Gordon, B. R. Wise, Sir John Gordon, Charles Powers, A. B. Piddington, and R. R. Garran.

The remainder of the series consists of miscellaneous papers, newscuttings and printed material. It includes information on the Postmaster-General's Department, New South Wales parliamentary papers (1894-1900), some legal briefs and agreements involving the Trolley Draymen's and Carters' Union of Sydney and Suburbs and the Sydney Wharf Labourers Union, a paper by Chas Wickens on old age pensions, newscuttings on the Coal Vend, the 1913 referendum and the sugar industry, and printed items on meetings of the Committee on Imperial Defence (1911), Sir Reginald Henderson's recommendations on the Australian Navy (1911) and a printed Cabinet Minute on the political situation in May 1909. Some Letters Patent and illuminated addresses are also included.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The W. M. Hughes Papers were presented to the National Library of Australia by Dame Mary Hughes in 1953. The collection was received in two consignments. One consisted of papers taken from the Perpetual Trustee Company comprising material from Hughes' Lindfield home and from his office rooms at the Commonwealth Offices, Sydney; the other came directly from Lindfield. Lists of the contents of both consignments are held in the Library's Manuscript Branch. With the agreement of the executors and the Library, much of the collection, was for a time, held at the Australian National University by Fitzhardinge. He was permitted sole access to the collection while writing the biography Hughes commissioned in 1951. Fitzhardinge's own papers documenting the writing of the biography are also held by the Library (MS 5400). The papers transferred to the Library in 1953 are by no means the total collection of Hughes' personal papers, although it is impossible to say what proportion has survived. (see Fitzhardinge, p.936).

Names:

Hughes, W. M. (1862-1952)

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