
Charles Cameron
Kingston photograph neg.5520 National Library of
Australia
|
THE NATIONAL
LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA'S FEDERATION
GATEWAY
KINGSTON, CHARLES CAMERON (1850-1908)
As South Australias Premier,
Kingston brought the vote to women in his State and was a radical
federationist, solicitous of the public welfare, if erratic in his personal
life.
Politician and son of Sir George Strickland, Kingston was born in
Adelaide on 22 October 1850. He was admitted to the South Australian Bar in
1873 and in 1881 elected to the House of Assembly.
Kingston was
Attorney-General in the first Playford Ministry from June 1887 to June 1889,
and played an important part in the introduction of legislation for the
protective tariff and payment of members of parliament. He was Premier of South
Australia from 1893-99, and his far-reaching legislation included women's
franchise, generous factory laws, industrial conciliation, and the
establishment of a State bank; he drafted most of his own
legislation.
He took part in the Premiers' Conference which drafted the
Federal Constitution, and in 1901 became Minister for Trade and Customs in the
first Federal Government. Kingston resigned over dissent caused by his
Arbitration Bill, which would have extended Federal control over the States'
railways.
He died in Adelaide on 11 May 1908. Sir Edmund Barton said of
him, 'His labours were not concluded by the setting of the sun
but the
hour of exhaustion.'
Books of interest
The
National Library of Australia has a newspaper clippings file for
Charles Kingston as well as some manuscript material (MS 281;
MS 962). |