OBITUARY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIX, Issue 14681, 12 May 1908, Page 8

OBITUARY.

ME C. C. KINGSTON. Halted Press. Association—s/ Elwtris Telegraph—Copyright. / ADELAIDE, May 11. Mr C. C. Kingston, ex-Federal Minister of Customs, is dead.

By the death of the Right Honourable Charles Cameron Kingston Australian public life has been deprived of one of the most dominant personalities which the Commonwealth has produced, a, man endowed with great force of character and administrative ability. His outstanding characteristic, however, was his whole-souled Radicalism, and there can be no doubt that his efforts have resulted in doing much to ameliorate tire condition of the masses. The late statesman was the youngest eon of the late Sir George Strickland Kingston, one of the pioneers who came to South Australia in 1836, and who afterwards became Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in that State. He was born in Adelaide in October, 1850, and was educated at the Adelaide Educational Institution, where he highly distinguished himself. On leaving school, lie was articled to Mr S. J. Way (now Chief Justice of the State and Lieutenant-Governor), and was admitted to the Bar in 1873, and in 1880 the dignity of Queen’s Counsel was conferred on him. Ho remained with; Mr Way till that gentleman was appointed to the Bench in 1876, when lie commenced practice on his own account as barrister and solicitor. He entered public life in 1881, when lie became a member of the State House of Assembly, for West Adelaide, where he was horn, and lived all his life. He represented the same

constituency continuously till he entered a larger sphere of public life, in ( 1900, as member of tbo Commonwealth ' House of Representatives. As a politician, Mr Kingston consistently advocated protection and payment of members, and closely identified himself with all social reforms having for their object the bettering of the condition of the working classes. He held office as Attorney-General in. Sir John Coiton’s Government from June, 1884, to June, 1885, and held the same portfolio in Mr Thomas Playford’s Administration from June, 1.887, to Juno, 1889. Whilst a member of the Colton Government he drafted the Bill for the imposition of land and income taxes, which was passed by Parliament, and is still the law of the land. As Attorney-General in the same Administration, he introduced and carried: an Employers Liarbility Bill, which is equal in liberality to any measure in force in Australia. He also proposed and carried a Bill to amend the laws of inheritance, securing to the children of married women dy- / ing intestate'a share in tho estate of their mother. Whilst a member of

the Playford Government he rendered

valuable assistance in securing tho adoption of a protective tariff and payment of members. He was a strong op-

ponent of Chinese immigration, and, with Mr Playford, represented South Australia at an Australasian Conference on the subject hold at the instance of South Australia in Sydney, in 1888, when he drafted the Bill for the regulation of the matter, which was agreed to by all the colonies represented, with the exception only of Tasmania. He subsequently took a leading part in securing the adoption of the Bill by the South Australian Parliament.

In 1888, as Attorney-General in the Playford Government, he took charge of the Bill providing for the entry of South Australia- into the Federal Council, and, after a severe struggle, secured its adoption. With Mr Playford he represented South Australia at tho session of the Federal Council held at Hobart in 1889, and. his colleague being elected president, ho undertook the moving of resolutions for enlarging the membership of the Council, to give effect to the wishes which were generally expressed in South Australia when .the Adopting Bill was under discussion. These resolutions were successfully carried, and were approved by the South Australian House of Assembly and by the Legislatures of all the federated colonies, but the hostility of a small majority in the South Australian Legislative Council prevented the final acloj>tion of the measure. On the fall of Mr Playford’s Government in June, 1889, Mr Kingston became a prominent member of the Opposition to tho Cockburn Ministry, and on its overthrow in 1890, he was asked by his old leader to take Iris former portfolio, but, in accordance with a resolution previously expressed, he declined the offer, but consistently. supported the Playford Administration until he joined it as Oo-

h nial Secretary in succession to Sir John Bray, in January, 1892. He was Acting-Promier of the colony during Mr Playford’s absence in India from January to Alay of that year, and went out of office with his colleagues when they were defeated on Mr Holder’s want-of-confidence motion in Juno.

During the session of 1891 die prepared and introduced a Bill designed for the settlement of industrial dis-

putes by means of Boards of Conciliation. This measure was admittedly more complete than any proposed legislation which had up to that time been introduced to the notice of any legislature. Mr Kingston was practically! unanimously elected by the members of the South Australian House of Assembly as one of the State's delegates to the Sydney Federation Convention. From tbo earliest period when the question of Federation was first mooted, Mr Kingston was one of its most consistent supporters, advocating the Federal .Union of the States on national grounds. In 1889, in recognition, of his public services, lie was permitted to retain the title of Honourable, hut although he was several times during his public career offered Knighthood, ho could never he persuaded to accept a title. At the Sydney Convention in 1891 he was'one of the three draftsmen who assisted Sir Samuel Griffith in the preparation of the Bill for constituting the Commonwealth. In Juno, 1893, he succeeded to the Premiership of his native State on the downfall of Sir John Downer’s Government, and retained office till December, 1, 1899—hv far the longest-lived Ministry in the history of South Australia. Mr Kingston headed the poll in South Australia, at the Federal election in 1897, and was chosen President of the Australasian, National Convention, which hold its (sittings in Adelaide in April of that year. He was also present at the adjourned sessions in Sydney and Melbourne, and represented his.colony at the final Premiers’ Conference in January, 1899. Mr Kingston went to London in 1897 to be present at the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, and was appointed a member of tho Privy Council. On the constitution, of the Commonwealth Government iri 1900, Mr Kingston accepted office under Sir Edmund Barton as) Minister of Trade and Customs, and continued to occupy that position till July, 1903, when he resigned in consequence of the refusal of his colleagues to extoiul tho jurisdiction of the proposed Arbitration Court to tho crews of oversea vessels trading on the Australian coast. That was the last time on which the late statesman was a Minister of the Crown. Soon after his retirement from office, his health began to fail, and during'the last few vears he lias been littlo more than, an invalid, being able to take only intermittent part in public affairs. Mr Kingston was a strong and consistent Liberal, and his constituency

has often been spoken of as the stronghold of democracy. Whilst insisting on the fullest rights of self-government for the oolonies, his attachment to the Mother Country was unquestionable, and he originated the expression of Australasian sympathy with Great Britain which was cabled from Now South Wales on behalf of all the colonies at the time of tho rumoured threatened German interference'in the affairs of the Transvaal. He always took the most lively interest in all that appertained to tho welfare of the industrial classes, and was most affectionately regarded by tho workers in whose interests he never spared himself. He was one of tho most accomplished of Australian Parliamentary draftsmen. The reforms which were effected by his Government are too numerous to specify. Many are most important. Chief among these may be numbered the extension of the franchise to women, tho establishment of the State Bank of South Australia, factory legislation, and tho passing of . a scheme of industrial conciliation, of which Mr Kingston was the pioneer in Australia. Mr Kingston’s Government also introduced the progressive system into land and income taxation, and did much to develop the resources of the country by State aid and encouragement to producers, and by the liberalisation of agricultural, pastoral and mining laws. As one of the delegation sent to London, in 1900 to assist in passing tho Commonwealth •till, he took up a very prominent position in connection with the endeavour to have the measure amended. Indeed, it is no' secret that he was the most strenuous of the delegation im, insisting on the retention, in its entirety, of clause 74, limiting the right of appeal to the Privv Council. He was an earnest speaker,"a forceful debater and was uncompromising in his advocacy of the Liberal cause.