James Newton Haxton Hume Cook CMG (23 September 1866 – 8 August 1942) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

from 1901 to 1910, after previously serving in the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presidin ...

from 1894 to 1900. He was a member of the anti-socialist parties and served as a minister without portfolio under Alfred Deakin.

Early life

Hume Cook was born in Kihikihi,

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. He was the eldest of the nine children of James Cook, a private in the Waikato Militia and later a failed farmer, originally from Walsall, England, and his wife Janet Mair, from Rutherglen, Scotland. Hume Cook’s schooling was limited by his family’s poverty; in his teens in Melbourne he worked with his father, a semi-skilled tradesman, then set out on his own selling

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

in 1887. He also soon became active in the

Australian Natives' Association The Australian Natives' Association (ANA) was a mutual society founded in Melbourne, Australia in April 1871. It was founded by and for the benefit of native-born white Australians and membership was restricted exclusively to that group. The A ...

. In 1893, he was elected to Brunswick Town Council and in 1896 became mayor. In 1902, he married Nellie Maine.

Australian Natives' Association

James Hume Cook joined the Brunswick branch of the ANA in the late 1880s and rose rapidly through the ranks; at his first meeting he was appointed branch auditor, within fifteen months he was branch president. In 1894 he joined the board of directors and in 1896 was elected Chief President. As the ANA was for native born Australians, his birth place may have been unknown to the Brunswich Branch. In his reminiscences Hume Cook declared that he owed ‘almost everything’ to the ANA, and certainly the association gave him an education in both practical and ideological politics. Through its lectures and debates he learnt the radical version of liberalism: adult suffrage and one man one vote; an eight-hour day and a minimum wage; a tax on unimproved land values, an absentee tax, and a graduated income tax; local option; and the exclusion of Chinese and Asiatic labour. He became an accomplished if somewhat verbose lecturer, much in demand in both city and country branches; thus in ‘a crowded meeting’ in Castlemaine he ‘for an hour and a half riveted the attention of the audience’ He also gained fame as a singer of sentimental songs. His most important work for the ANA, as Chief President in 1996 and afterwards, was an advocate for Federation.

Parliamentary career

In 1893 Hume Cook won a seat on the Brunswick Town Council at his fourth attempt, becoming mayor in 1896. He was elected to the seat of East Bourke Boroughs in the

in 1894, winning East Bourke Boroughs with strong support from Trades Hall voters. In parliament he worked alongside Labor members without ever joining the party, supporting electoral, educational and land reform, and state intervention into wage-fixing and working conditions. He supported to federation of Australia 1897, but came only 19th in the vote for the Victorian delegates to the 1897 Australasian Federal Convention. He supported liberal causes, such as protection and state intervention into wage-fixing and working conditions, but lost his seat in 1900. Hume Cook won the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members o ...

seat of Bourke at the first federal election in 1901 as a

Protectionist Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...

and a supporter of Alfred Deakin,. He joined the fusion in 1909 in an attempt to hold on to his seat, although its creation ran against his political principles. ‘Between 1905 and 1908 he was party whip, cabinet secretary and honorary minister ... experiences he thought much less interesting than his rescue by the police from an armed lunatic who had invaded his parliamentary office’. From January 1908 to the defeat of the government in 1908, he was a minister without portfolios in the Deakin ministry. He chaired a Royal Commission on

postal services The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal syst ...

from June to December 1908. The Labor Party campaigned actively against him at the 1910 election and he was defeated by Frank Anstey. He ran unsuccessfully for Maribyrnong at the 1913 election.

Later life

Hume Cook was involved with Billy Hughes in the establishment of the Nationalist Party in 1916 and the

Australian Party The Australian Party was a political party founded and led by Billy Hughes after his expulsion from the Nationalist Party. The party was formed in 1929, and at its peak had four members of federal parliament. It was merged into the new Unite ...

in 1929 and 1930. He was also secretary of the Australian Industries Protection League from 1922 until his death and represented Australian industry at the

British Empire Economic Conference The British Empire Economic Conference (also known as the Imperial Economic Conference or Ottawa Conference) was a 1932 conference of British colonies and dominions held to discuss the Great Depression. It was held between 21 July and 20 Augus ...

in Ottawa in 1932. He was also involved in orchard-growing, mining and insurance companies and charitable organisations. He published a book of Australian fairytales and wrote hundreds of political pamphlets, patriotic poetry, and several versions of reminiscences.In 1941, he was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG). He died in the Melbourne suburb of

Brighton, Victoria Brighton is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 11 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Bayside local government area. Brighton recorded a population of 23,252 at the 2021 census. ...

in 1942, survived by his wife, a daughter and two sons.

Books

James Hume Cook published the following books: * ''Australian Fairy Tales,'' (1925) * ''A Win to Wireless'' (1941) * ''Australian Natives' Association: Its genesis and history'' (1931) * ''Victoria: A pageant of the years 1834-1934'' (1934) * ''"The new tariff."'' (1936) * ''The Australian Industries Protection League: A historical review'' (1938) The following books were intended as gifts and clearly said they were not for sale: * ''Tales of the Dandenongs.'' by James Hume-Cook. - First series / 53 pages 1935. (Badger's Creek; Belgrave; Sassafras; Monbulk; Wandin; Belgrave.) * ''Tales of the Dandenongs''. by James Hume-Cook. - Second series / 31 pages 1938 (Gembrook; Olinda.) * ''Tales of the Dandenongs.'' by James Hume-Cook. - Third series / 52 pages 1939 (The Singer; Two Letters; Kalorama) * ''Tales of the Dandenongs.'' by James Hume-Cook. - Fourth series / 48 pages 1940 (Ferny Creek; Warburton; Upper Beaconsfield.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hume Cook, James Newton Haxton Protectionist Party members of the Parliament of Australia Commonwealth Liberal Party members of the Parliament of Australia Victoria (Australia) state politicians Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Bourke Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Cabinet of Australia 1866 births 1942 deaths Australian Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George People from Kihikihi 20th-century Australian politicians New Zealand emigrants to Australia Australian people of English descent Australian people of Scottish descent 19th-century Australian politicians Mayors of places in Victoria (Australia) Victoria (Australia) local councillors 20th-century Australian writers Writers from Melbourne Politicians from Melbourne