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From: "Lyndall" <>
Subject: Fw: [A.G.R. ] Fw: James Munro Premier Vic
Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2001 22:28:40 +1000


The following was posted to an Australian list and might well be of interest
to someone here:

| from Grolier Encyclopaedia under heading MUNRO
|
| James (1832-1908) Premier of Victoria, was born in a village in
| Sutherlandshire, Scotland on 7.1.1832. At the age of 16 he obtained
| employment as a printer and he followed the same trade after
| emigrating to Melbourne in 1858. Seven years later he founded the
| Victorian Permanent Building Society of which he was manager for 17
| years.
| In 1874 he was elected to represent North Melbourne in the Leg.
| Assembly, and in the next year briefly held the office as Minister of
| Public Instruction. Subsequently he founded two banks and in the boom
| year of 1888 he was reputed to have been a millionaire. In 1890 he
| visited England and raised a large amount of capital for is various
| companies. On the strength of his reputation as a financier he ousted
| the GILLES Gov. and in November 1890 he became Premier and Treasurer.
| Two years later he resigned to become Agent-General for Victoria in
| London. As a result of the banking crisis he was recalled in 1893,
| and replaced by GILLES. Of his varied foundations, only the Victorian
| Permanent Building Society survived the crises. He found himself
| financially ruined and retired from public life.
| Munro rep. Victoria at the Federal Convention of 1891, but otherwise
| did not take a leading part in the Federation campaign. He always
| showed interest in the temperance movement and was a force in the
| Caledonian Society of Melbourne, of which he was president in 1884 and
| 1886-7. He died on 25th Feb. 1908. He married in 1853 Jane
| Macdonald, and had a family of four sons and three daughters.
|
| VICTORIAN MINISTRIES
| No. 24 - J. MUNRO 5th Nov. 1890 to 16th Feb 1892.
|

and from another posting on the same subject:

> the Victorian Govt "The Story of the Century 1851-1951" edited by
> E.A. Doyle
> and in appendix II
>
> James Munro 5th Nov 1890 to 16 Feb 1892.
>
> In a chapter on "The rise of labour" page 194, James Munro is mentioned
and
> there is a portrait of him on the same page
> "It is noteworthy that Mr James Munro, leader of the Opposition in the
> Legislative Assembly, early in 1890, and ambitious for office, was
avowedly
> sympathetic to industrial unionism."
>
>
>
> if you can get "Victoria A History" by Don Garden where there are several
> references to Munro, eg
> " Munro was a Scottish-born Presbyterian, a temperance advocate and
> sabbatarian wowser. He was also one of the largest land boomers, numbering
> among his companies the Federal Bank, the Federal Building Society..."
>
> With that description,you will need to look at the daring "Land Boomers"
by
> Michael Cannon, where Munro has many page references.
>
.....................................

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