Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society September 1978 [antikvár]

Vol. 64 SEPTEMBER 1978 Pt 2 Sir Josiah Syrnon, Federation and the High Court D. I. WRIGHT At the turn of the century, few men in Adelaide would have cared to dispute the intellectual and cultural pre-eminence of Josiah Henry Symon, K.C.M.G., Q.C., in their society. Those notable international visitors, the Webbs, described Mm as 'the most considerable person in Adelaide from an intellectual standpoint' and, even more significantly, as 'the only man we have met in Australia who can lay elaim to the indescribable quality of "distinction" as understood by a. fastidious society'.1 Of Scottish origin, Symon had come to South Australia at the age of twenty, studied for the Bar and beeame its leader, entered the colonial Parliament as Attorney-General, refused a judgeship and the ofí'iee of Premier and had then been defeated beeause he was a freetrader in a community which was moving to protection. Apart from his extensive (and lucrative) legal practice, he established an enviable reputation as a Shakespeare scholar, a vigneron and a public speaker—the memory of his eloquent address entitled 'Tis Sixty Years Since', on the occasion of Queen Victoria's jubilee, lived long in Adelaide. Later he was to be known as something of a philanthropist with his gifts to the Adelaide and Sydney Universities, the Northcote Rest Home at Glenelg, the Elizabeth Symon Nursdng Home at Innaminka, and his pioneer work for the Minda Homes. Yet if Symon deserves to be remembered—and un-doubtedly he does—it is primarily beeause of his work for federation, and especially that relating to the creation of the new nation's judicial system. If his contribution to the federal canse was less than that of Deakin, Barton or Kingston, it is beeause, unlike the first two, he came from a smaller colony and one which was largely favourable to the cause and, unlike the latter, he worked as a priváté individual and not as Premier. His sense of Australia's destiny was no less than Barton's and his vision of the possibility of combining nationalism with imperialism was very similar to Deakin's for he wished that 'Australians might live and magnify their own land and yet live and die sons and danghters of the Empire'.2