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Sir James McCulloch, (18 March 1819 – 31 January 1893),
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colonial politician, was the fifth
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.


Early life

McCulloch was born in
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, Lanarkshire, Scotland. He was the son of George McCulloch, a quarry master and contractor, and Jane Thomson, a farmer's daughter. He had only a primary education and as a young man worked in shops, eventually becoming a junior partner in a softgoods firm. On 11 May 1853 McCulloch arrived in
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aboard the ''Adelaide'' ( John Everard being a fellow passenger) to manage the mercantile firm of Dennistoun Brothers in Melbourne. Following closure of the Dennistoun office in 1861, James McCulloch started his own business McCulloch, Sellar and Company in partnership with fellow Scot Robert Sellar. In the boom conditions following the
Victorian Gold Rush The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony, and an influx of population growth and financial capita ...
, he soon became a wealthy man and a director of several banks and other companies. He was President of the Chamber of Commerce 1856–1857 and 1862–1863.


Political career

McCulloch was appointed a member of the Legislative Council on 1 August 1854, replacing Andrew Aldcorn. When
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, Seyche ...
gained
responsible government Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability, the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. Governments (the equivalent of the executive bra ...
in 1856, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly for
Wimmera The Wimmera is a region of the Australian state of Victoria. The district is located within parts of the Loddon Mallee and the Grampians regions; and covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Aust ...
, which he represented from November 1856 to around August 1859, when he shifted to
East Melbourne East Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. East Melbourne recorded a population of 4,896 at the 2021 c ...
from October 1859. He later represented Mornington from March 1862 to around March 1872 and
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from May 1874 to around May 1878. The historian Raymond Wright describes McCulloch as a "cautious liberal." He served as Commissioner for Trade and Customs 1857–58 under
William Haines Charles William Haines (January 2, 1900 – December 26, 1973) was an American actor and interior designer. Haines was discovered by a talent scout and signed with Goldwyn Pictures in 1922. His career gained momentum when he received favo ...
and as Treasurer 27 October 1859 to 26 November 1860 under William Nicholson. When
John O'Shanassy Sir John O'Shanassy, KCMG (18 February 1818 – 5 May 1883), was an Irish-Australian politician who served as the 2nd Premier of Victoria. O'Shanassy was born near Thurles in County Tipperary, Ireland, the son of a surveyor, and came to the P ...
's conservative government resigned in June 1863 McCulloch became Premier and Chief Secretary for the first time. He was also Postmaster-General of Victoria 9 May 1864 to 6 May 1868. McCulloch's liberal government was the strongest Victoria had yet seen and proved to be the longest-lived so far, surviving for nearly five years. Much of its reforming zeal came from the Attorney-General,
George Higinbotham George Higinbotham (19 April 1826 – 31 December 1892) was a politician and was a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, which is the highest ranking court in the Australian colony (and later, State) of Victoria. Early life George ...
, a crusading radical. The McCulloch government fought a series of battles with the conservative landowners who dominated the Legislative Council. The most important was over the
tariff A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and po ...
issue: McCulloch was 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. ...
while the Council was controlled by
free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold eco ...
rs. In 1865, the Council sought a confrontation with the Assembly by rejecting the government's tariff bill and then denying supply to McCulloch's government. McCulloch, who was a director of the London Bank, then took the extraordinary step of lending his own government 860,000 pounds to meet its debts and running expenses. After a conference between the two Houses broke down, McCulloch called an election in February 1866, at which his supporters won a large majority in the Assembly. When the Council again rejected his tariff bill, he resigned, leaving the Governor, Charles Darling, unable to find anyone else who could form a government. Finally, after prolonged negotiations, McCulloch agreed to resume office and the Council passed a modified tariff bill and granted supply. Both sides claimed victory, but most of the concessions were made by the Council. In 1867 another crisis blew up when the Council again rejected the government's budget because it contained a clause granting a pension to the retiring Governor Darling, which conservatives said was a payment for his collusion in McCulloch's unorthodox methods of financing the government. McCulloch called another election for February 1868, which he won comfortably. But in May word came that the Colonial Secretary in London, the
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, had instructed the new Governor, Sir John Manners-Sutton, to support the Council in blocking the grant to Darling. McCulloch at once resigned, and the Governor commissioned a conservative member of the Council, Charles Sladen, to form a government which did not have a majority in the Assembly. This negation of democracy provoked widespread protests and produced a dangerous situation, which was resolved only in July when the Colonial Office changed its mind about Darling's pension and the Council agreed to a moderate reform bill broadening its electoral base. McCulloch resumed office, but without Higinbotham, who disapproved of this compromise. McCulloch remained in office until September 1869, and was Premier again from 9 April 1870 to 19 June 1871 and from 20 October 1875 to 21 May 1877, but these periods in office were relatively uneventful. His main achievement in this period was to pass a bill abolishing all government funding to religious schools, a measure which was supported by all denominations except the
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
s since it freed church schools from government supervision. McCulloch's government also introduced a bill to create a system of free, secular government schools, but the Catholics and Anglicans joined forces to block it. McCulloch grew increasingly conservative after 1870 and in 1875 he had a political falling out with Higinbotham. Tired and disillusioned, he resigned from Parliament in 1878.


Late life and legacy

After politics, McCulloch focussed on business life, he had several directorships including the
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. McCulloch was knighted in 1870 and made KCMG in 1874. In 1886, he retired to England, and died in
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,
Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. W ...
on 31 January 1893; he is buried in the
Glasgow Necropolis The Glasgow Necropolis is a Victorian cemetery in Glasgow, Scotland. It is on a low but very prominent hill to the east of Glasgow Cathedral (St. Mungo's Cathedral). Fifty thousand individuals have been buried here. Typical for the period, only ...
. He married first Susan Renwick and second Margaret Boak Inglis, but had no children.


Family

A young cousin, George McCulloch, was manager of the Mount Gipps sheep run for McCulloch, Sellar and Co. This country was later the site of the fabulous silver mines of
Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It i ...
and Silverton, and by good fortune George was one of the original investors and became wealthy from its discovery.


See also

*
Colonial liberalism Colonial liberalism was the political movement that was active in the Australian colonies between the 1850s and the 1890s that combined liberalism with the demands of the Chartists. Colonial liberalism was a unique movement that was unlike anyth ...


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 *


References

  {{DEFAULTSORT:Mcculloch, James 1819 births 1893 deaths Australian Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Premiers of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Council Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Politicians from Glasgow Agents-General for Victoria 19th-century Australian politicians Burials at the Glasgow Necropolis Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia 19th-century Australian businesspeople