Page:History of West Australia.djvu/443

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S in England the Speaker is the "first Commoner" in the land, so in an Australian colony the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly has, comparatively, equal official recognition. The representatives of the people chosen for this high office are generally men of importance, who possess the confidence of every party and section of the House. They worthily uphold the traditional dignity of "first Commoner." For colonial Assemblies are more or less based on the principle of that noble pioneer of all parliaments, the House of Commons of the motherland.

In Australia the Speaker sits in his official robes presiding over the deliberations of the legislature of a country which may some day be a nation. The members are sowing the seed of what all hope shall develop a Tree whose branches shall scatter in many climes. They do not always recognise how privileged is their position in tending and guiding the growth of an incipient nation.

The first to hold this honourable office in the Legislative Assembly Western Australia was the Hon. Sir James George Lee-Steere, K.B., J.P., whose name will be found prominent in our history as working energetically in the colony's interests. Although not a native of Western Australia, Sir James Lee-Steere has spent nearly the whole of his manhood in this colony, and his good works helped very materially in the development of its early political history. Sir James, almost since the day he first landed on these shores, has laboured untiringly for the small community of which he is a member, and his career will ever be marked as prominent and honorable.

James George Lee-Steere comes of a much-respected and well-connected family in Surrey, England. He is the third son of the late Lee Steere, J.P., D.L., and M.P., and was born in 1830, at Hale House, Ockley, Surrey. His father was a leading magnate in Surrey and a large landed proprietor, a Justice of the Peace for both Surrey and Sussex, and in 1848 occupied the important office of Deputy Lieutenant and High Sheriff in his county. From 1870 to 1880 he represented West Surrey in the House of Commons. The groundings of Sir James Lee-Steere's education were imparted at a private school at Thames Ditton, of which Mr. Styles was principal. From thence he went to the Clapham Grammar School, and it was the intention of his father to give him a University career. But the boy, like so many of his countrymen, desired to go to sea, and allowing him to have his own way, his parents procured him a position as midshipman on a vessel named the Sea Park, trading in the merchant service. He remained at sea for fifteen years, and during that period voyaged to many parts of the globe and acquired a wide experience in the various countries be visited. The last four years of this portion of his career were passed as commander of the Devonshire, a well-known East Indiaman, owned by the firm of Money Wigram and Co. In 1859 he married Catherine Anne, the only daughter of the late Luke Leake, of Perth, and sister of Sir Luke Samuel Leake, M.L.C., of this colony.

Early in 1860 Sir James and Lady Lee-Steere left England for Western Australia. They landed in April of that year, and then began that useful career which has since been so beneficial to this colony. Sir James first acquired a lease of 100,000 acres of land on the Blackwood River, in the southern part of the colony. Giving to it the name of Jayes Station, after his father's estate at home, he there went to reside. Then followed fairly quiet years spent in pastoral pursuits, with variable results. It was a strange transformation in life—from the adventurous nature of his preceding career and his home on the old estate in Surrey. Too much stress cannot be placed on the value which the colonies have received from the settling here of men of such stamina and knowledge as Sir James Lee-Steere. Their earlier experiences are bound to prove of inestimable advantage to the young colonies, and with this and their capital they help very substantially in developing the latent resources of soil and woodland; in short, all the resources the continent possesses. Sir James proved an enterprising settler, and made valuable improvements on his station. On the station were large numbers of blacks, and it was necessary to exercise tact and judgment to live among them peacefully, and secure their support in the working of the property.

Every colonial experience was put to some use; and by carefully acquiring a grasp of public affairs, he was soon in a position to help in local government. The Governor and Executive Council of the day early paid him a compliment, for in the year of his taking up his residence in Western Australia they conferred on him the dignity of Justice of the Peace. This office he filled with conscientious dignity. Not one public movement was inaugurated but Sir James knew of it, and he made a special study of the methods of government under the Crown colony regime. He thus became closely acquainted with the trend of public affairs,