Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/276

 250 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY sir j. a. cockbum office for three and a half years, being re-elected no less than four times in succession ; and his administration of the municipal affairs of Jamestown was marked by the enduringly beneficial plantation of the streets and reserves with shade-giving trees. In 1881 he was appointed a Commissioner of the North Midland Road Board ; and while in the district he interested himself in the X'^olunteer Force, becoming a Vice-President of the Ritle Volunteers, as well as Captain of the local company. He began his political career in 1884, being returned to the House of Assembly by the Burra electorate at the head of the poll. He moved the adoption of the Address-in- Reply, acquitting himself so ably that on all sides high Parliamentary distinction was predicted for him. He soon showed that this effort was no mere flash in the pan, and speedily began to make his way towards an influential position in the House, chiefly by means of his mastery of a copious and cultured eloquence. His principal achievement as a young member of Parliament was in promoting the Bill for Payment of Members, which was carried mainly through the agency of his strenuous, persistent, and eloquent advocacy. He became a member of the Downer Cabinet in 1885, as Minister of Education and Agriculture ; and while holding this position he introduced to Parliament several important progressive measures in connection with the departments under his charge, notably the parcels post and postal notes regulations. He continued his Ministerial duties until 1887, when, at the general election in that year, he was defeated for the Burra. The Mount Barker electors, however, immediately came to the rescue, returning him at the head of the poll ; and he continued to represent that constituency until his appointment as Agent-General in 1898. In June, 1889, he succeeded in carrying a vote of want of confidence jn the Administration headed by the Hon. Thomas Playford, which gave him the Premiership ; and he held the first Parliamentary position in the Province for 14 months. On the defeat of Sir John Downer's Government in June, 1893, Dr. Cockburn resumed Ministerial charge of the Education Department, the Hon. C. C. Kingston being the head of the new Administration. In 1897 he was chosen one of the ten representatives of South Australia at the Federal Conference which opened in Melbourne, and the deliberations of which led up to the framing of the Australian Commonwealth Bill. In May, 1898, he left the Province to take up the duties of Agent-General in London ; and this ofifice he has continued ably to fill up to the time of writing this memoir. When, on January i, 1900, he received from the Queen, as a New Year's honor, the title of K.C.M.G., it was generally felt that the reward was a well merited recognition of his public services. He is rightly looked upon as the parliamentary pioneer of the liberal movement in the politics of South Australia, which has been .so marked a feature of the past decade so far as the Province is concerned, and has been watched with keen interest by other countries. He was ever a vigorous supporter of Adult Suffrage, Reform of the Upper House, Technical and Industrial Education, and Voting by Referendum — to name only some of the progressive measures with the advocacy of which he identified him.self freely and fearlessly. While representing the Province across the seas, he is in the habit of delivering public addresses on various subjects which are highly appreciated, and serve to popularise South Australia in his own person. He distinguished himself conspicuously in this way at the great Commercial Congress at Philadelphia, which he attended on behalf of the Province.