MS 366
Papers of Lyndhurst F. Giblin (1872-1951)
- Papers
- 1885-1965
- 85 cm (5 boxes)
- Available for reference
This collection was brought together from a number of sources between
1952 and 1967. Mrs Eilean M. Giblin deposited some of the papers herself.
Various friends and associates deposited either original papers, or copies
of papers in the possession of other members of the Giblin family. Among
those who made substantial contributions in this way were J.M. Garland,
Sidney Crawford and Sir Roland Wilson.
Included in the collection are letters to his wife, to his sisters Aella
and Edith (Mrs Hall), and to his brother Alan between the years 1885-1950,
Mrs Giblin's diaries relating to life in Canberra during 1941-1943;
manuscripts and typescripts, papers on the basic wage, standard hours,
land values and other economic subjects; his "Letters to John Smith"
and "More letters to John Smith"; the "Response to Poetry"
and a pocket diary with some notes written by Giblin during the last month
of his life.
Lyndhurst Falkiner Giblin in Hobart on 29th November 1872, son of
William R. Giblin, former Premier of Tasmania. Educated at Hutchins
School, Hobart, University College, London and King's College, Cambridge,
he graduated as a Master of Arts, with Honours in mathematics. He excelled
at Rugby football, and represented England at that game. In 1898 Giblin
went to northern British Columbia to try his luck at mining, but
he was unsuccessful. After this, he became in turn a teamster,
lumberman, sailor and schoolteacher. His years of travel and adventure
extended until 1905, and included a visit to the Solomon Islands.
Giblin returned to Tasmania in 1906 and took up farming and fruit
growing. He developed an interest in local politics and from 1912 to 1915
was a member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. He joined the A.I.F. in
1916, served in France, finishing with the rank of Major and won the
Distinguished Service Order and the Military Cross. In 1918 L.F. Giblin
married Eilean Mary Burton. On 1st December 1919 he was appointed
Government Statistician of Tasmania and held that position until 1928. He
was made Ritchie Professor of Economics at the University of Melbourne in
1929, devoting himself to the study of such problems as State and Federal
financial relations and the concept of taxable capacity, the measurement
of tariff costs and their distribution. He occupied the chair until 1940.
During the Depression of 1928-32, Giblin undertook the task of explaining
to the general public, in a series of press articles entitled "Letters
to John Smith, the causes of the crisis." In 1931, the Commonwealth
Government led by J.A. Lyons appointed him as a financial adviser and have
him the office of Commonwealth Statistician. His advice to the Lyons
Government was to some extent responsible for Australia's rapid recovery.
Between 1922 and 1936, Giblin was a member of the Commonwealth Grants
Commission. When the Second World War broke out, Giblin came to Canberra
where he remained until the war ended. For seven years, from 1939 to 1946,
he was Chairman of the Commonwealth Financial and Economic Committee.
Giblin came to economics through other studies. His original interests
were mathematics and statistics, and he probably never regarded himself as
having mastered the techniques of theoretical economics. His chief work as
a writer on economic subjects lay in his contribution to the Economic
Record and in his Growth of a Central Bank (1951), the latter
arising out of his experience from 1935 to 1942, as director of the
Commonwealth Bank.
L.F. Giblin died in Tasmania on 1st March 1951. King's College,
Cambridge, of which he had been made a A Supernumerary Fellow in 1937,
established in his memory a Giblin studentship, open to an Australian
graduate.
References:
- The Australian Encyclopedia, Vol. IV, Angus & Robertson,
Sydney, 1958.
- Who's Who in Australia, 1950
- Economic Record, June 1951
- The Australian Quarterly, June 1951
- The Economic Record, Nov. 1952
- Copland, Douglas, ed. Giblin, the Scholar and the man,
Cheshire, Melbourne, 1960 (with a complete bibliography of Giblin's
writings, pp. 223-228).
| 1 |
Letters from Giblin to his wife 1-1685 |
| 2 |
Letters from Giblin to his sister Aella 1-150 |
| 3 |
Letters from Giblin to his sister Edith (Mrs Hall) 1-205 |
| 4 |
Letters from Giblin to his brother Alan 1-149 |
| 5 |
General correspondence 1-342 |
| 6 |
Mrs Giblin's war time diaries 1-2 |
| 7 |
Basic wage and standard hours 1-189 |
| 8 |
Land values 1-107 |
| 9 |
Other economic papers 1-345 |
| 10 |
Letters to John Smith 1-209 |
| 11 |
Response to poetry 1-177 |
| 12 |
Biographical and miscellaneous papers 1-58 |
| Series 1 |
Letters from Giblin to his wife |
|
This series contains 419 letters written by Giblin to his wife from
1917 to 1950; they are arranged in chronological order. |
| Series 2 |
Letters from Giblin to his sister Aella |
|
Contains letters to his sister Aella from 1890-1938; type script
copies are also included. |
| Series 3 |
Letters from Giblin to his sister Edith (Mrs Hall) |
|
Typescript copies of letters to his sister Edith between the years
1885-1951. |
| Series 4 |
Letters from Giblin to his brother Alan |
|
Small number of letters to his brother Alan, from 1916-1918. |
| Series 5 |
General correspondence |
|
This series contains general correspondence to and from Giblin
between the years 1896 and 1950. There are also letters from Mrs
Giblin to Sidney Crawford and some letters of sympathy to her after
her husbands death. Some correspondence between Mrs Hall and L.
Crawford and between John Garland and R. Schieder. These letters refer
to Giblin's association with Martin Grainger in British Colombia.
Other correspondents include; E.G. Theodore, J.A. Lyons, A.G.B.
Fisher, Sir Douglas B. Copland, Sir Otto Niemeyer, E. Dyason, W.B.
Reddaway, W.B. Duffy, Sir Walter Massy-Greene and Sir Charles Wickens.
|
| Series 6 |
Mrs Giblin's war time diaries |
|
The diaries are in two volumes, 1940-41 and 1941-43; they were
deposited by Mrs Giblin in 1952 and 1953 and relate to life in
Canberra during the war years. |
| Series 7 |
Basic wage and standard hours |
|
Printed and typescript material on wages, prices and economic
effects of a 40 hours week in Australia. The Standards Fours
Enquiry by A..J. Tyrer and the Standard Hours Case by H.P.
Brown are also in this series |
| Series 8 |
Land values |
|
This series includes typescript material on land values, land sales
control, the valuation of land under an incremental tax, the
stabilisation of rural land values, the land valuation policy in New
Zealand and the report on land valuation by Justice Uthwatt. |
| Series 9 |
Other economic papers |
|
Placed in this series are manuscripts and typescripts on various
economic topics; a complete list is to be found in Appendix 1. |
| Series 10 |
Letters to John Smith |
|
These letters were written in simple language by Giblin to "John
Smith" and published in the Herald (Melbourne) during the
Depression (1930). Their object was to persuade the people to accept a
reduction in the basic wage awarded by the Arbitration Court. More
letters to John Smith are also included in this series. |
| Series 11 |
Response to poetry |
|
Contains typescript notes by Giblin, (24 January 1945) on "The
response to poetry" and a copy of an article on the same subject
written by the magazine Prometheus (25 September 1945). |
| Series 12 |
Biographical and miscellaneous papers |
|
Contains a diary that records briefly the last month of Giblin's
life, press cuttings, Stand-to, August to September 1952, the
future of the Botanical Gardens (Melbourne). A day in Cambridge, Port
Arthur in the seventies, some notes from Mrs Hall (Dec. 1951),
biographical notes and 2 photographs of Giblin. |
Manuscripts and typescripts on various economic topics, held in Series 9.
| Manuscripts |
|
|
| Folder |
|
| 1 |
Australia agoniste |
| 2 |
Employment and unemployment in Australia, Nov. 1930 |
| 3 |
A note on road expenditure |
| 4 |
Valuation of imports for duty |
| 5 |
Federal income tax |
| 6 |
Suggestions for income tax |
| 7 |
The just step to economic recovery |
| 8 |
Public finance |
| 9 |
A tax on tea |
| 10 |
Gold bonus |
| 11 |
Retail prices |
| Typescripts |
|
|
| Folder |
|
| 1 |
Australia in the shadows |
| 2 |
The taxable capacity of Australian States |
| 3 |
The Australian balance of payments |
| 4 |
Estimated total female breadwinners |
| 5 |
Estimated total male breadwinners |
| 6 |
Estimated costs of raising women's wages in certain industries |
| 7 |
The Premiers' plan myth |
| 8 |
Australia, 1940 |
| 9 |
The future of Australia |
| 10 |
The National income, 1924-31 |
| 11 |
Nationalisation of credit |
| 12 |
Export farmers |
| 13 |
Export farmers' income |
| 14 |
Addendum to evidence by Prof. Wadham |
| 15 |
Memorandum for the Treasurer, 7 Sep. 1942 |
| 16 |
Surplus rural export income |
| 17 |
The surplus of rural income |
| 18 |
Unemployment index, N.S.W. |
| 19 |
Notes on band board appointment |
| 20 |
White alien immigration |
| 21 |
The crisis in democracy |
| 22 |
Notes on Republic of Solitaria |
| Bibliography
|
|
A complete bibliography of Giblin's writings is to be found in
Copland, Douglas, ed. Giblin, the scholar and the man.
Melbourne, Cheshire, 1960, pp. 223-228 |
| Name
Index to Correspondence
|
|
All correspondence in the papers has been indexed, the numbers below
being underlined to indicate authorship, non-underlined indicates
receipt of a letter. The number preceding the backslash indicates the
series, numbers after the backslash indicate the item, eg. 5/249,
Since the bulk of the correspondence is with Giblin, letters to him
have been indexed only under the writer's name, and not under Giblin. |
|
|
| Bennett, Samuel |
5/324 |
| Brigden, James Bristock |
5/338 |
| Clausen, Francis Felix |
7/32, 7/42 |
| Copland, Sir Douglas
Berry |
5/64-6, 5/252, 5/255 |
| Crawford, Sidney |
5/256-9, 5/260, 5/261-2, 5/263-6, 5/267,
5/269-70, 5/271, 5/272, 5/273-4, 5/275-6,
5/277, 5/278-9, 5/280-1, 5/282, 5/342 |
| Davidson, Sir Alfred
Charles |
5/336-7 |
| Duffy, William B. |
5/242-5 |
| Dyason, Edward Clarence |
5/8-9 |
| Earp, Frank Russell |
5/249 |
| Exley, Harold James |
5/311-2 |
| Firth, Gerald G. |
8/25, 8/40, 11/25 |
| Fisher, Allan George Barnard
|
5/2, 5/10 |
| Garland, John M. |
5/283-5, 5/287-8, 8/46, 8/47 |
| Gepp, Sir Herbert
William |
5/334 |
| Giblin, Aella |
2/1-150 |
| Giblin, Alan |
4/1-149 |
| Giblin, Desmond |
5/290 |
|
Giblin, Edith
(see Hall, Mrs Edith) |
|
| Giblin, Mrs Eilean
L.F. |
1/1-1685, 5/250, 5/252, 5/253, 5/271,
5/272, 5/273-4, 5/275-6, 5/277, 5/278-9a,
5/280-1 |
| Giblin, Emily Jean Mrs |
5/1 |
| Giblin, Lyndhurst F. |
1/1685, 2/1-150, 3/1-205, 4/1-149, 5/1,
5/2, 5/3-6, 5/10, 5/11-9, 5/20-38,
5/39-40, 5/41-43, 5/44, 5/45-46, 5/47-50,
5/51-9, 5/60-63, 5/72, 5/81-83, 5/86-8,
5/89-94, 5/95-8, 5/99-115, 5/116-122, 5/123-30,
5/131-6, 5/137-45, 5/46-52, 5/153-62, 5/163-92,
5/193-220, 5/242-5 |
| Gibson, Alexander Boyce |
5/250 |
| Gifford, John Liddle King
|
5/338 |
| Hall, Mrs Edith M. |
3/1-205, 5/256-9, 5/260, 5/261-2, 5/263-6,
5/267-8, 5/269-70, 5/342 |
| Hytten, Torleiv |
5/338 |
| Johnston, Walter Lindsay
|
5/316 |
| Lyons, Joseph Aloysius |
5/20-38 |
| McMinn, Jas. C. |
5/84-85 |
| Massy-Greene, Sir Walter
|
5/68-71 |
| Niemeyer, Sir Otto
|
5/45-6, 5/75-6 |
| Pitt, George Henry |
5/282 |
| Reddaway, William Brian |
5/221-41 |
| Richardson, Martin |
5/325 |
| Schieder, Dr Rupert
M. |
5/283-5, 5/286, 5/289, 5/287-8 |
| Shann, Edward Owen |
5/60-3, 5/338 |
| Sheppard, John |
5/248, 5/249 |
| Simpson, George |
11/25 |
| Theodore, Edward G. |
5/3-6, 5/7, 5/41-3, 5/44, 5/73-4, 5/77,
5/78, 5/80 |
| Wadham, Samuel McMahon |
5/246-7, 9/283 |
| Walker, Edward Ronald |
5/81-3, 5/338 |
| Wickens, Sir Charles
|
5/291-6, 5/97-9, 5/302-5, 5/306-10, 5/338 |
| Wilson, Sir Roland
|
5/253 |
| Wood, Gordon Leslie |
5/79, 5/80 |
|
Series |
Box |
|
1 |
1-2 |
|
2-5 |
3 |
|
6-7 |
4 |
|
8-12 |
5 |
|