AN AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIST

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29270, 30 July 1960, Page 3

AN AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIST

Giblin. The Scholar and the Man. Edited by Douglas Copland. F. V 7. Cheshire. 236 pp. Professor L.F. Giblin was one of the really great Australians of this century. This book of papers written in memory of Giblin by a number of leading Australian economists and men of affairs, a Canadian Commissioner of the North-west Territories, and two or three Englishmen, is edited by Sir Douglas Copland, a well-known economist and diplomatic representative of Australia. The papers are of varying length and quality, but they combine admirably to show what substantial contributions Giblin made to Australian economic policy at the highest level and to the life and work of the Commonwealth Bank and of the various institutions in which he worked. They also show that Giblin was much more than tin economist.

Born in 1879, the son of the first native-born Premier of Tasmania, L. F. Giblin made his mark as a scholar, an athlete, a soldier, a member of Parliament, a counsellor of Prime Ministers and as a fearless independent thinker. Physically big and strong—Professor Earp, late emeritus professor of classics at Queen Mary College, London—records that he was the strongest man he ever knew—Giblin won his cap in an all-England international Rugby team while still at King’s College, Cambridge. On the Rugby field he was credited with being “like an elephant, but with incredible velocity” and, on one occasion when he couldn’t shake off a would-be tackler, with picking up the man, running on with the ball under one arm and the man under the other and scoring a try. He tried his luck unsuccessfully on the Klondike, where he had several adventures before helping to bring a sailing vessel from Vancouver to Melbourne', where he sailed it through the Rip without a pilot. At the first World War, he served on the Western Front, rose to the rank Of Major and was awarded the D.S.O. and M.C. His entry in an early “Who’s Who” described him as “miner, boatman, teamster, sailor, cook, lumberman, schoolmaster, fruit-grower, labour agitator, soldier, member of Parliament.” After the war, he became noted as a statistician and a government adviser in economics. Although he had never considered himself a , professional economist and was not an applicant for the Chair, he was in 1929 appointed the first Ritchie Professor of Economics in the University of Melbourne. As an economist, he influenced theory and practice alike. His discussion of the problem of the multiplier was taken up by his friend, Maynard Keynes, and he undoubtedly played an important role in the solution of Australia’s depression problems. As Commonwealth Statistician and adviser to the Commonwealth Treasury, he exercised considerable influence on financial policy. In addition, as one of the writers of a biographical essay puts it,

this colourful character “had a strong sense of history, a deep love of the classics, a mathematical precision of' mind, a full and varied life, sympathy with people, and humility.” This book falls into three parts: first, there is a series of biographical essays contributed by prominent people who knew Giblin well at various stages of his career or in some of his many activities; secondly, a section of nearly 80 pages gives significant extracts from his published writings and private letters; and, thirdly, under the heading "Contributions to Basic Economic Policy,” former students and others influenced by Giblin bring out the ways in which Giblin made an impact on them and their subject or business. Most readers wiU find the biographical section the most interesting and may feel inclined to leave the others to professional economists. This would be a mistake because, although some pages are devoted to advanced theory, Giblin himself wrote “Letters to John Smith” which was intended to make the ordinary man aware of his responsibilities in a modern democracy. In so far as economic problems could be analysed ifi language which was both simple and clear, Giblin managed to get across to John Smith what he wanted him to appreciate. Seventeen people, in addition to the editor, have contributed to this book. "Giblin” is a splendid book of its kind. It has two faults. There is too much repetition. Some of this was no doubt unavoidable in view of the number and wide dispersion of the contributors, blit the editor might well have seen to it that the duplication of the long quotation on page 79 and page 165 was avoided. The inclusion of an index would also have been an advantage. But those who take the trouble to read this book will be well rewarded: they will have the pleasure that‘comes from contact with a good scholar and a great man. *©©©©©©&©«©«! The concluding essay in this book is written by J. M. Garland, Economic Adviser to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Therein, he suggests that Giblin revealed only one segment of himself to each group of friends and very few could fit all the segments together to see him in the complete round. "But we were certain of his intellectual quality. His mind was capacious, sinewy, critical, rigorous and generalisation, but suspicious of abstraction, curious about meanings and quantities, fertile in ideas and expedients but with a hard core of commonsense. He had a reach and grasp of mind which would have made him distinguished in any generation. But with all his distinction he never lost the common touch, his sense of fellowship and bis zest for experience.” [Footnote: King’s College, Cambridge, honoured Giblin by founding the Giblin Studentship for a young Australian graduate on the same lines as the Orford Studentship which provides a permanent place for a New Zealander. The Orford also commemorates J. R. Orford, the Kingsman who started the Waihi School near Winchester, as a preparatory school for Christ’s College.)