Page:History of West Australia.djvu/428

18 qualify for the Presidency of the Legislative Council, Mr. Parker was appointed to the vacant office and to lead the Upper House. Mr. Parker resigned his seat in the Assembly, and was nominated a member of the Council. For the two succeeding years he successfully performed all the duties appertaining to the Colonial Secretaryship. In 1894 he represented the Government at a Postal Conference in New Zealand.

The Constitution Act provided that the Legislative Council should be wholly elective when the population of Western Australia reckoned 60,000 persons. In 1894 this total was reached, and a redistribution of seats took place. The Hon. S.H. Parker was elected for Perth. At the end of the same year Mr. Parker resigned his portfolio after rendering valuable assistance to the colony and his particular department. Since that date he has remained a private member.

In one way and another Mr. Parker has materially assisted in the making of wise laws for the proper government of Western Australia. Among the measures which he as a private member personally introduced, and which became law, is the Married Woman's Property Act. This measure is similar to the English Act, and sets out the rights and claims of married women to retain property. He also carried a bill through Parliament abolishing primogenitory succession, and placing real property left by a deceased on the same lines as personal property. The Companies Act, which safeguards the public interested in companies, was also introduced to the legislature by Mr. Parker. Both as a private member and a member of the Government he has helped considerably in the drafting and amendment of bills. While a member of the Forrest Cabinet Mr. Parker acted as Attorney-General when Mr. S. Burt was absent from Perth through ill-health.

To the new and rapidly expanding mining industry Mr. Parker has rendered some assistance. He has invested capital in mines and is a director of the London and Perth Exploration Company, Limited. He is also a local director of the noted firm of Dalgety and Company, and the Mutual Life Assurance Society. On July 27, 1872, Mr. Parker married Amey Katherine, daughter of the late Hon. George Walpole Leake, Q.C., M.L.C. His residence is "Karrakatta Mea," in St. George's Terrace, Perth.

Soon after the granting of autonomy to Western Australia the colony expanded beyond all anticipation, Every industry has since found a new life, and population has more than trebled itself. For his services in securing this boon Mr. Parker will long be remembered. He has given Western Australia of his best talents. Should long life be granted him much useful work may yet be confidently expected from him. With his faculty for hard work, and making the best of all past experience: he is admirably suited to assist in guiding the destinies of this young colony.

[In May, 1897, Mr. Parker resigned his seat in the Legislative Council in order to contest the Perth electorate in the Legislative Assembly. He was defeated by a narrow majority.—]

 

INCE times immemorial the lawyer has been recognised a prominent member of communities. His work was not at first particularly onerous or complex. He decided between disagreeing parties and upheld the cause of those who were mentally unable to advocate their own rights. He was the exponent of the laws of his day.

But as civilisation advanced and public institutions and laws for the government of peoples multiplied, the attainments and duties of the lawyer increased in unison. To-day it is almost impossible for one person to master all the legal enactments of his country. He must have a comprehensive and powerful mind who can even be termed a clever lawyer. But with his law books around him, his ingenious mind grappling with imagination to help his forensic skill before judges and juries, his gifts of repartee, his cleverness in cross-examination, the lawyer is a power and a rock to stay drifts. His profession naturally leads him into public life; in Parliament and out he is indispensable. While we have laws, and while we have ignorant and clever people disagreeing with each other, we shall probably have lawyers. Although perhaps not so ancient as that of the "medicine man," his profession has equal standing.

Among the chief members of this profession in Western Australia is Mr. R.S. Haynes, M.L.C. Perhaps as a criminal lawyer he stands above his local brethren, and as a bright and sharp pleader and an ingenious advocate he has few equals. Nor has Mr. Haynes confined his attainments to legal matters. He has worked most energetically in the interests of municipal matters, and is the pioneer of quite a number of improvements in the influence and