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William Haines (Australian politician)

Australian politician (1810–1866)

Summary

Australian politician (1810–1866)

Field	Value
nationality	Australian
order	1st Premier of Victoria
term_start	28 November 1855
term_end	11 March 1857
term_start2	29 April 1857
term_end2	10 March 1858
predecessor1	-
predecessor2	John O'Shanassy
successor1	John O'Shanassy
successor2	John O'Shanassy
image	williamhaines.jpg
birth_date	10 January 1810
birth_place	Hampstead, London, UK
death_date
death_place	South Yarra, Melbourne, Victoria
constituency	Nominee/
South Grant
spouse	Mary Dugard

the Victorian Premier

South Grant

William Clark Haines (10 January 1810 – 3 February 1866), Australian colonial politician, was the first Premier of Victoria.

Haines was born in London, the son of John Haines, a physician. He was educated at Charterhouse School and Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated in medicine; he later practiced surgery for several years. In 1835 he married Mary Dugard, with whom he had nine children.

Haines migrated to the Port Phillip District (later Victoria) in 1841 and settled in the Geelong area. He farmed in the area as well as practising as a surgeon. He was appointed a member of the Victorian Legislative Council (then a partly elected, partly appointive body) in 1851, and in 1853 he was elected for district of Grant. He served as colonial secretary 1854–55. Politically, he represented the small farmers against the squatters who owned most of Victoria's land.

When Victoria gained full responsible government in 1855, Haines was leader of the Government. |access-date=16 April 2013 He was commissioned as Victoria's first premier and chief secretary on 28 November 1855 and served until 11 March 1857. Haines was elected to the Legislative Assembly for South Grant in November 1856. Haines was again premier from April 1857 to March 1858. Haines then visited Europe for three years. In 1860 he moved to the seat of Portland which he represented until 1864. Haines served as treasurer from 14 November 1861 to 27 June 1863, in the third O'Shanassy government. He served again in the legislative council, representing Eastern Province, from August 1865 until his death in February 1866.

The historian Raymond Wright describes Haines as a bluff, plain "honest farmer" type, who was "much enjoyed for his appalling public speaking." His main concern as premier was to democratise the Constitution which had been drawn up for Victoria by colonial officials before self-government, mainly to protect the interests of the squatter class. A bill was introduced to enlarge the Assembly, redraw electoral boundaries and abolish the property qualification for both votes and candidates. But the unstable situation in the Assembly brought his ministry to an early end.

References

Further sources

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

John Myles }} William Highett Robert Turnbull Benjamin Williams}}

References

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{{cite Australasia. Haines, Hon. William Clarke

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

premiers-of-victoria 1810-births 1866-deaths politicians-from-geelong people-educated-at-charterhouse-school alumni-of-gonville-and-caius-college,-cambridge english-emigrants-to-colonial-australia victoria-(state)-state-politicians members-of-the-victorian-legislative-council members-of-the-victorian-legislative-assembly chief-secretaries-of-victoria treasurers-of-victoria 19th-century-australian-politicians australian-surgeons

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