Guide to the Papers of James Fowler

MS 2280

National Library of Australia


Date completed: 1978
Last updated: November 2002


Collection Summary

Creator: FOWLER, J.M. (James Mackinnon), 1865-1940
Title: Papers of James Fowler
Date Range: 1899-1940
Collection Number: MS 2280
Extent: 48 cm. (3 boxes)
Repository: National Library of Australia

Introduction

Scope and Content

The collection comprises correspondence, electoral material, papers on Royal Commissions and committees of inquiries, papers concerning Bert Thomas, literary papers, cuttings and printed material.

Access

The collection is available for reference.

Provenance

The collection was donated to the Library by Miss D. J. Fowler in 1969.

Copying and Publishing

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissable 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.

Preferred Citation

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of James Fowler, National Library of Australia, MS 2280, [series and/or folder number]'.

Biographical Note

James Mackinnon Fowler was born in Strathaven, Scotland, on 20th June 1865. The son of James Fowler and Mary Mackinnon, he was related on his mother's side to Lachlan Macquarie, the Governor of New South Wales. He was educated at the Free Church School in Strathaven, then at the Glasgow Athenaeum.

Before his emigration to Australia Fowler worked as a clerk in drapery warehouses in Glasgow and Manchester, and served with the 92nd Blackwatch Highlanders. Attracted to the goldfields, he arrived in Western Australia in 1891, where he spent several years mining and prospecting for gold. On leaving diggings he became a journalist. In 1898 he married Daisy Winifred Bastow.

Fowler's political involvement began when he became Honorary Organising Secretary and subsequently Honorary General Secretary to the Executive of the Federal League in Western Australia. He was elected Member of Perth in the first Federal Election of May 1901, and retained this seat in subsequent elections until his defeat in 1922, first as a Labor Party member until 1909, then as a Liberal and later as a Nationalist.

During his parliamentary career Fowler was a member of several committees and inquires. In 1901 he was a member of the Select Committee of the House of Representatives on Coinage, in 1904 a member of the Select Committee of the House of Representatives on Electoral Act Administration, and from 1904 to 1907 he was a member of the Royal Commission on the Commonwealth Tariff. He was Chairman of Committees from 1913 to the dissolution of Parliament in July 1914, and between 1914 and 1917 was a member of the Joint Committee on Public Accounts, becoming a member again and its chairman in 1920.

Concurrent with his participation in politics, but chiefly after he ceased to a Member of Parliament, Fowler wrote a number of novels, short stories, newspaper articles and a film synopsis. Occasionally these appeared under the authorship of Hamish Mackinnon and James Evandale. His novels were never published, but some of his short stories were accepted by newspapers, and three non-fiction works were published: Statesment or mountebank: an Australian war study (Melbourne, Australasian Authors Agency, 1919); Australia's perils, real and imaginary (Melbourne, Brown and Prior, 1926); False foundations of British history, published posthumously in Melbourne, 1943, under the editorship of his son, Richard Fowler.

James Fowler died in Melbourne on 3rd November 1940.

References

Commonwealth Parliamentary handbook, 1901-1920. Melbourne, Commonwealth Parliament. Library Committee 1921.

Australian Dictionary of biography, vol. 8, p. 564

Who's who in the Commonwealth of Australia. Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1922.

Obituary, The Age, 4th November 1940



Series Descriptions

Series 1 General correspondence

A small number of letters on non-political topics, dating from 1915 to 1940, form this series. They include comments on his letters to newspapers and rejection slips from publishers. Among the correspondents are Edward, Duke of Windsor and Keith Murdoch, Managing Editor of The Herald.

Letters on other topics are arranged chronologically within the appropriate series.

Series 2 Political papers

Series 2 has been arranged into five subseries.

(i) Electoral material, such as pamphlets, policy statements and correspondence about elections, make up the first group.

(ii) The second subseries comprises pages taken from Hansard which feature Fowler's speeches and debates as a member of the House of Representatives. Covering his career from 1901 to 1922, some were found to have been grouped and annotated according to topics. The rest are arranged chronologically.

(iii) Papers on Royal Commissions and committees of inquiry. They consist of:

a) Royal Commission on Customs and Excise Tariffs. Reports and recommendations.
b) Nawab Khan Inquiry, 1909. Fowler's investigations into the abduction of a ten-year-old Australian girl to India by her Afghan stepfather, Nawab Khan, resulted in his presentation in 1910 of a bill to amend the Immigration Restriction Act. This subseries contains, as well as correspondence on the topic, newspaper cuttings about this and related cases, part of the amendation to the Immigration Restriction Act, 1901-1908, and the Native Labour Ordinance, Papua, 1906
c) Royal Commission to inquire into certain charges against Henry Chinn, 1919. Henry Chinn, the Supervising Engineer on the construction of the western section of the Trans-Australia Railway was found not to have the appropriate qualifications by a Royal Commission set up in 1913. Contained in this subseries are Hansard excerpts, correspondence, newspaper cuttings, the Commission's report and memoranda in connection with the report.
d) Joint Committee of Public Account. Report.... upon the Commonwealth Naval Dockyard, Cockatoo Island, New South Wales. 1915.
e) Bert Thomas Case, 1915. Fowler sought the re-opening of the case of Bert Thomas of Perth, who was wrongfully sentenced for murder, and succeeded in obtaining his release. Correspondence and a newspaper item document this case.
f) Joint Committee of Public Accounts. Report ..upon sugar. 1922. Fowler was chairman of this committee, which investigated abnormalities in the high prices of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company. This group of papers includes Hansard excerpts, press cuttings, magazine articles, parliamentary reports and minutes of evidence

(iv) Political press cuttings Collected in this subseries are press cuttings on political topics, including articles and letters by and about Fowler.

(v) Political correspondence and miscellaneous papers make up this subseries, including notes by Fowler, Notices of Motion and Orders of the Day for the House of Representatives, letters of Sir John Forrest, Sir Phillip Gibbs and of Fowler himself.

Series 3 Literary papers

Fowler's creative works - novels, short stories and a film synopsis, many of them based on his experiences as a gold prospector - are represented in this series in manuscript from, together with any letters or press cuttings relating to them. There are many cuttings on the film industry in Britain and Australia, grouped with the film synopsis Desert gold of Australia. Also included are manuscripts of articles and a letter to The Age, 1921.

From about 1927 to 1937 some of Fowler's stories and articles appeared in Melbourne newspapers The Weekly Times, The Australasian, and The Age, often under the name James Evandale. These published items, plus articles in the National Review (London) and Police Journal (Melbourne) from another group in this series.

Series 4 Miscellaneous papers

This series includes general press cuttings, ten maps and directories of Australia, Asia and Britain, invitation, programs, greeting cards, Fowler's miner's rights for Victoria and Western Australia, the Yearbook of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Britannic Group, 1913, and a photograph of Fowler.

Name Index to Correspondence

All letters in this collection have been name-indexed. The number before the solidus (/) refers to the series, while the number after the solidus refers to the item itself. Underlining indicates authorship and non-underlining indicates receipt of a letter.

AGE 3/1074
ASQUITH, Anthony 3/423-4, 3/425
BAINS, E. 3/427
BAYLEY, James G. 2/585
BLAKE and RIGALL, Solicitors 2/476-7
BROWN, G. 3/444
BYASS, William C. 2/6
CALLAWAY, G.A. 2/447
CAMPBELL, F.W. 2/5, 2/10
CHAUVEL, Charles 3/431, 3/432, 3/433, 3/434, 3/442
CROUCH, R.A. 2/1
DE MILLE, Cecil B. 3/417-9
DENISON, Sir Hugh 3/443
DOCKING, G.H. 2/444
DYKES, William 3/429
FISHER, Andrew 2/483-92, 2/497, 2/498, 2/499, 2/500-1, 2/502, 2/504, 2/505, 2/506
FORREST, Sir John, 1st Baron 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 2/474, 2/481, 2/580-1
FORTNIGHTLY 3/1064
FOWLER, James M. 1/5, 2/445-6, 2/452-3, 2/454, 2/459, 2/460, 2/483-92, 2/497, 2/500-1, 2/502, 2/505, 2/506, 2/537-8, 2/539-41, 2/577, 2/584, 2/587, 2/588, 3/417-9, 3/421-2, 3/423-4, 3/429, 3/430, 3/431, 3/432, 3/433, 3/438-9, 3/440-1, 3/443, 3/547-8, 3/549, 3/940, 3/979, 3/1064, 3/1074
FOWLER, Richard H. 41/1
FREEMAN, J.W. 2/475, 2/476-7
GARRAN, Sir Robert R. 2/464
GEARY, D. 3/438-9
GIBBS, Sir Phillip 2/590
GRAHAM, George 2/493, 2/494
GREGORY, Henry 2/478
GROOM, Sir Littleton 2/445-6
GRUNDY, ? 2/586, 2/587, 2/588
HAMISH HAMILTON (Publishers) 3/547-8, 3/549
HUNT, Arthur Atlee 2/440, 2/441, 2/448, 2/456
HURST, William 3/939, 3/940
JOHNSON, Sir Elliot 2/583, 2/584
KHAN, Lillie 2/449-450, 2/453, 2/460
KNIEP, John 2/2
LATHAM, Sir John G. 2/589
LLOYD, I.G. 2/456
MACANDIE, G.L. 2/579
MACLAGAN, E.D. 2/458
MOORE, Byron H. 1/5
MOORE, R.J. 1/7
MORGAN, E.R. 2/474
MURDOCH, Keith (later Sir Keith) 1/8
MURRAY, J. 3/420
MOULE, Frederick A. 2/452-3
NINETEENTH CENTURY 3/979
PARKER, J. 2/494
PINKER (J.B.) and Son 3/430
POYNTON, Alexander 2/579
PRATT, L. 3/428
PRITCHARD, Arthur H. 2/466-71
RISLEY, Sir Herbert H. 2/458
SALTMARSH, Robina L. 1/6
SHEPHERD, W. 2/503
SHORT, F. 2/461
SINCLAIR, Hugh 2/495
SMITH, James 2/462-3
STARLING, J.H. 3/436
STEERE, Winifred L. 1/10-11
STORY, William H. 2/576, 2/577
SUNDAY TIMES 2/439, 2/455
THOMAS, Bert 2/542, 2/543
THRING, F.W. 3/421-2
TOUT, F.H. 3/440-1
TUDOR, Frank G. 2/507
WALKER, Thomas 2/537-8, 2/539-41
WEBB, John E. 2/7-9, 2/454
WILSON, Frank 2/479-80
WINDSOR, Edward, Duke 1/9
WODSON, Edward 4/1
WREFORD, A.T. 2/582
UNIDENTIFIED 1/2-3, 2/460