James Munro (7 January 1832 – 25 February 1908) was a Scottish born
Australian
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal A ...
businessman and colonial
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
, and the 15th
Premier of Victoria
The premier of Victoria is the head of government in the Australian state of Victoria. The premier is appointed by the governor of Victoria, and is the leader of the political party able to secure a majority in the Victorian Legislative Assembly ...
.
He is best known as one of the leading figures in the land boom of the 1880s and especially the subsequent crash of the early 1890s, where his Christian morals were seen to clash with his business activities.
Early life
James Munro was born in
Armadale, Sutherland
Armadale ( gd, Armadal, sco, Airmadale) is a small village on the north coast of Scotland, in the council area of Highland. The village is part of the parish of Farr, in the county of Sutherland. Armadale is about west of the town of Thurso, of ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, to Donald Munro and his wife, Georgina.
James Munro's grandparents were an Alexander Munro of the family of Foulis,
Ross-shire
Ross-shire (; gd, Siorrachd Rois) is a historic county in the Scottish Highlands. The county borders Sutherland to the north and Inverness-shire to the south, as well as having a complex border with Cromartyshire – a county consisting of ...
and Barbara Mackay, a relative of the chief of
Clan Mackay
Clan Mackay ( ; gd, Clann Mhic Aoidh ) is an ancient and once-powerful Scottish Highlands, Highland Scottish clan from the far North of the Scottish Highlands, but with roots in the old Mormaer of Moray, Kingdom of Moray. They supported Robert I ...
.
After a primary education at a village school in Armadale, Sutherland he left home for
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
and joined a firm of publishers.
In December 1853, he married Jane MacDonald, and had a family of four sons and three daughters. In 1858, he emigrated to
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
where he set up a printing business.
In the 1860s, he expanded into banking and promoting building societies. In 1865, he founded the Victorian Permanent Building Society, of which he was manager for 17 years. By 1870, he was a very wealthy man, and he continued to engage in speculation, particularly in land, after entering politics, as was then the common practice. In 1881, he resigned from the Victorian Permanent Building Society to set up the twin institutions of the Federal Building Society and the
Federal Bank of Australia
The Federal Bank of Australia was established in Melbourne in 1881, and opened for business in April, 1882. Initially successful, the company expanded to New South Wales by absorbing the Sydney and Country Bank Limited in 1882. Banknotes were is ...
, mostly investing in land, in which he also invested.
He was also a leading
temperance
Temperance may refer to:
Moderation
*Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed
*Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion
Culture
*Temperance (group), Canadian danc ...
advocate and prominent in the
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
church. In the boom years of the 1880s, the idea of "temperance hotels", that provided accommodation, dining rooms etc., but did not serve alcohol, was taken up with gusto in Australia, where they were usually called
Coffee Palaces, and Munro was leading exponent. In 1886, he was a partner in a company that bought the recently built Grand Hotel (later to become the
Hotel Windsor) in Spring Street, and turned it into a coffee palace. It was more than doubled its size in 1888, and Munro had a major shareholding at least five other large coffee palaces.
Political career
Munro was elected to 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 presiding ...
as one of two members for
North Melbourne
North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at the ...
in 1874. In 1877 he was elected for the new seat of
Carlton
Carlton may refer to:
People
* Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname
* Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy
* Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...
, then for North Melbourne again in 1881, where he was defeated in 1883. In 1886, he was elected as one of the three members for
Geelong
Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...
, retaining his seat until he resigned in 1892.
Initially a liberal, Munro was Minister for Public Instruction in the first government of the radical leader
Graham Berry, but became increasingly conservative in the 1880s and did not hold office in Berry's later governments. He was also preoccupied with business in these years, since his companies, the
Federal Bank
Federal Bank Limited is an Indian private sector bank headquartered in Aluva, Kochi, Kerala. The bank has 1,336 branches spread across different states in India. It also has representative offices abroad in Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and ...
and the Federal Building Society, were leading players in the speculative Land Boom that gripped the colony. Unlike many of the Land Boomers, he had a reputation for stern Scots integrity, and as the Boom faded in 1890 he emerged as leader of the opposition to the government of
Duncan Gillies
Duncan Gillies (14 January 1834 – 12 September 1903), was an Australian colonial politician who served as the 14th Premier of Victoria.
Gillies was born at Overnewton near Glasgow, Scotland, where his father had a market garden. He was sent ...
. In November he moved a successful no-confidence motion in the Gillies government and became Premier — he was the third Scottish-born Premier in succession.
Munro's government was generally liberal, but was weakened by the absence of
Alfred Deakin
Alfred Deakin (3 August 1856 – 7 October 1919) was an Australian politician who served as the second Prime Minister of Australia. He was a leader of the movement for Federation, which occurred in 1901. During his three terms as prime ministe ...
, the leading Victorian liberal, who chose to concentrate on the campaign for
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia (which also governed what is now the Northern Territory), and Western A ...
. It was quite unable to cope with the accelerating financial collapse which began almost as soon as it took office. The crash climaxed in early 1893 with the failure of a number of banks. Munro's own companies were part of the problem as the bottom fell out of the land market, and in November 1892 the Federal Building Society went into voluntary liquidation, with the Federal Bank closing the doors on 30 January 1893.
Financial ruin
In February 1892 Munro, who was deeply in debt, asked his Cabinet to appoint him Victorian Agent-General in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. He then resigned as Premier and immediately took ship from
Port Melbourne
Port Melbourne is an inner-city List of Melbourne suburbs, suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the Cities of ...
. When the news broke there was a storm of protest, led by the many investors whose savings had been wiped out in Munro's companies. Eventually Munro's successor,
William Shiels
William Shiels (3 December 1848 – 17 December 1904) was an Australian colonial-era politician, serving as the 16th Premier of Victoria.
Biography
Shiels was born in Maghera, County Londonderry, a town in the centre of Ulster in the north of ...
, agreed to recall him from London. To his credit, he returned voluntarily to Victoria, where he was declared bankrupt in February 1893, with personal debts of £97,000. His companies left debts of over £600,000 – a staggering amount at that time. A few weeks later he was attacked and beaten unconscious in a
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
street by a man who had been ruined in the crash.
Legacy
Munro has gone down in history as the most notorious of the corrupt Victorian politicians of the Land Boom period. The fact that he was an evangelical Christian who loudly criticised the morals of others has seen him branded a hypocrite as well. In fact it was never proved that he was personally guilty of corruption – unlike the four members of Parliament who eventually went to jail, or the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly,
Sir Matthew Davies, who fled the colony in disgrace and narrowly escaped jail. His business practices were dubious, but usually within the very loose legal framework of business regulation of the time. After being discharged from bankruptcy he finished his days as an estate agent in
Armadale.
References
*Geoff Browne, ''A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament, 1900–84'', Government Printer, Melbourne, 1985
*Don Garden, ''Victoria: A History'', Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1984
*Kathleen Thompson and Geoffrey Serle, ''A Biographical Register of the Victorian Parliament, 1856–1900'', Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1972
* Raymond Wright, ''A People's Counsel. A History of the Parliament of Victoria, 1856–1990'', Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992
*
*
External links
James [email protected]Genealogy of James Munro
{{DEFAULTSORT:Munro, James
1832 births
1908 deaths
Premiers of Victoria
Victoria (Australia) state politicians
Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia
Agents-General for Victoria
Australian temperance activists
19th-century Australian politicians
19th-century Australian businesspeople
Australian printers
Australian_bankers