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Joseph Fisher (14 September 1834 – 26 September 1907) was a
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
n politician and newspaper proprietor born in
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,
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.Payne, G. B. and Cosh, E. ''History of Unley 1871-1971'' Corporation of the City of Unley


Early Days

He left for Adelaide with his parents in the ''Prestonjee Bonanjee'' and arrived on 4 October 1838. His father, Joshua Fisher (died 1841), opened a grocery store at the corner of Hindley and Morphett Streets. Joseph was educated at the Oddfellows School where James Wardlaw Disher (1819 – 1901) was Classics master. (Disher and his brother-in-law Sir William Milne were later to take over the wine shop of
Patrick Auld William Patrick Auld (27 May 1840 – 2 September 1912), usually known as W.P. Auld, Pat or Patrick, was an Adelaide, South Australian vigneron and wine merchant born in Stalybridge (near Manchester, England). He took part in John McDouall ...
.) In 1840 he started work as a clerk in the
Tavistock Street Tavistock Street is a street in the Covent Garden area of London which runs parallel to the Strand, London, Strand between Drury Lane and Southampton Street just south of the market piazza. History Initially, the street was a passageway between ...
office of the merchant Anthony Forster, who, on the death of Fisher's father in 1841 became his guardian.


Newspapers

In 1848 Forster bought a half share of John Stephens' (died November 1850) newspapers ''The
South Australian Register ''The Register'', originally the ''South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register'', and later ''South Australian Register,'' was South Australia's first newspaper. It was first published in London in June 1836, moved to Adelaide in 1837, and f ...
'' and ''The Observer'', and gave Fisher a job in the newspaper's office. In those days every employee was involved in other aspects of getting the newspaper out. For Fisher that meant working the press, folding and bundling the papers as well as keeping the books. After three months Forster took no part in the day-to-day business of the paper. In May 1853 (after a year in the goldfields) Fisher became part-owner and business manager. ''The Register'' was, under Stephens, a crusading paper, with a campaign against some injustice almost every week. This won respect for the paper, but cost it advertisers. On 30 September 1865 Fisher sold his share of the business to John Howard Clark.


Other Business

Fisher then concentrated on his activity as Adelaide agent of several businesses, notably that of
John Ridley John Ridley IV (born 1965) is an American screenwriter, television director, novelist, and showrunner, known for '' 12 Years a Slave'', for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also the creator and showrunner of the a ...
. Fisher was director of the
Bank of Adelaide The Bank of Adelaide was founded in 1865 in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It was incorporated by an act of the Parliament of South Australia. The original directors of the company were Henry Ayers, Thomas Greaves Waterhouse, Robert ...
for around 20 years, a director of the
South Australian Gas Company The South Australian Gas Company (later known as SAGASCO) was formed in 1861 twenty-five years after the colony of South Australia was first settled. The establishment of gasworks from 1863 provided not only industry and employment but also stree ...
and a director of the
South Australian Company The South Australian Company, also referred to as the South Australia Company, was formed in London on 9 October 1835, after the '' South Australia (Foundation) Act 1834'' had established the new British Province of South Australia, with the S ...
. Fisher was part-owner of the clipper ''Hesperus'' and had shares in two large sheep stations. Fisher was chairman of the Port Adelaide Dry Dock Company. and a director of Adelaide Marine and Fire Assurance. Fisher was a director of The Mortgage Company of S. A. Ltd. which went into receivership in 1905.


Other Interests

For nearly 25 years Fisher was vice-president of the South Australian Cricketing Association and trustee of the Sturt Cricket Club Fisher was known as a philanthropist, donating large sums to charitable and cultural organizations. This included £500 for the National Art Gallery and £1000 to the University of Adelaide, though these may have partly motivated by a need to avoid inheritance tax.


Politics

Joseph Fisher was elected to the
South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide. Overview The House of Assembly was creat ...
for the district of Sturt from April 1868 to March 1870. Fisher was elected to the
South Australian Legislative Council The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the House of Assembly. It sits in Parli ...
in 1873 and held his seat until 1881. He was a man of unyielding principles – the obituary in ''The Register'' said "... in his earlier political career he expressed himself as sternly opposed to many of the political ideals which have since found favour in certain quarters and refused to shirk what he deemed to be his duties and responsibilities to retain his seat. He was at all times plain spoken and was not the man to make compromises of principle for the sake of securing any private advantage." This may have referred to his opposition in 1880 to a parliamentary bill, which he labelled as "Un-Christian", to restrict freedoms of Chinese nationals. This opposition probably cost him his seat at the 1881 elections.


Private life

Fisher married Anne Wood Farrar (died 21 April 1915) on 10 March 1857 * son Henry (11 December 1857 – 2 December 1864) aged 7 years of diphtheria * son Francis Joseph, born 24 August 1859, married the daughter of merchant Robert Sellar * daughter Helen Elizabeth (20 March 1861 – 9 January 1865) aged 3 years of diphtheria * daughter Annie Katherine (28 January 1863 – 27 January 1865) aged 2 years * daughter Gertrude (15 October 1865 – 20 March 1952) married William Culross 12 November 1887 * son Harold (13 May 1867 – 7 July 1929 aged 62) married Alice Russell Maude Smyth 7 May 1890 * son Norman (4 October 1868 – 6 September 1871) aged 2 years For all their married life they lived in "Woodfield" at what is now 78 Fisher Street Fullarton. The original house was built around 1853 by J. C. Verco and P. Santo, schoolmates from J. L. Young's
Adelaide Educational Institution Adelaide Educational Institution was a privately run non-sectarian academy for boys in Adelaide founded in 1852 by John Lorenzo Young.B. K. Hyams'Young, John Lorenzo (1826–1881)' ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 6, Melbourne Unive ...
, both of whom were to become South Australian parliamentarians. He bought it at the time of his marriage in 1857 and extended it significantly in 1883. A prominent feature is a square three-storey tower from which Fisher could watch shipping movements. In his last twenty years Fisher suffered from gout and diabetes. His death at home, after a bout of influenza, was reported in the major newspapers. Curiously there was no death notice and his cremation was only reported after the event.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, Joseph (Australian politician) Australian newspaper editors Australian mass media owners Members of the South Australian House of Assembly Politicians from Adelaide 1834 births 1907 deaths Members of the South Australian Legislative Council 19th-century Australian businesspeople 20th-century Australian businesspeople 19th-century Australian politicians English emigrants to colonial Australia