Domestic policy and administration, 1915-c.1925

Component identifier:

Subseries 16-1

Content Summary:

This subseries has been subdivided by form. It begins with correspondence, arranged in date order, and, with the exception of one or two drafts of replies, consists of letters, telegrams and memoranda to Hughes. Correspondents refer to such things as W. A. Watt's trip to London in 1920 and subsequent resignation in June, the Uniform Railway Gauge Commission, the Holman Government, the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1920, Sir Samuel Griffith's successor as Chief Justice of the High Court, the Commonwealth Oil Refineries Ltd and the Anglo Persian Oil Company Ltd, Australia's population, the administration of Papua, the development of Northern Australia, the procedure for calling meetings of the Executive Council, the implications of the 1922 election results, and negotiations with the Country Party early in 1923.

The subseries includes many of the 'Personal and confidential' letters to Hughes from the two Governors-General of the period, Sir Ronald Munro-Ferguson (later Viscount Novar), and Lord Forster. The majority are from the former, and reveal the extent to which the man interested himself in the policies and day-to-day administration of the Hughes Government. Some of the other correspondents are S. M. Bruce, Earle Page, J. H. Carruthers, Littleton Groom, J. C. Watson, John Thompson, Sir George Knibbs, George Pearce, W. G. Higgs, W. Massey-Green, the Prince of Wales, Dr J. A. Gilruth, W. A. Watt, J. H. P. Murray, Sir Robert Garran, Patrick McMahon Glynn, William Webster, W. Warren Kerr, Andrew Barton, Sir Adrian Knox, and Lord Forrest.

The second grouping within this subseries consists of handwritten notes of cabinet meetings, 1917-1918 and 1920-1922. They record those who attended and Cabinet decisions, and several have typed copies of submissions attached. The notes appear not to be a complete record of entire meetings and are certainly not a complete coverage of all of the meetings held while Hughes was Prime Minister. Many are in his own hand, and others can be identified as the work of Hector Lamond, Senator E. D. Millen, and Arthur S. Rodgers.

A group of miscellaneous papers, printed items, documents and cuttings completes the subseries. There are notes for speeches on Frank Tudor, the Brisbane Conference of the Australian Labor Party (1922) and the One Big Union, and other papers on Oswald T. Ermonde, the Nitrogen Products and Carbide Company Ltd, forestry, the Postmaster-General's Department, agricultural implements, the uniform railway gauge, the deportation of Father Jerger, a deputation from the Returned Soldiers' Association, and the 1919 referendum. The printed material includes a cypher book (1916), parliamentary papers on W. A. Watt's resignation (1920), and on the Premiers' Conference (Nov. 1915), copies of Britannia and J. G. Richert's 'The subterranean waters of Australia' (1916).

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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