(1851-1929)
Born
in Ireland just two years before the foundation of the University of
Melbourne, Henry Bournes Higgins arrived in Australia in 1870. He graduated
in Law in 1874 and took his MA two years later.
Elected to the Australasian Federal Convention of 1897-99, he was influential
on the framing of the Constitution, despite his opposition to Federation,
and notable for his support of Irish Home Rule and opposition to Australia’s
involvement in the Boer War. After a brief and controversial career
as Member of Parliament, Higgins was appointed a justice of the High
Court in October 1906, remaining on the Bench until his death in 1929.
Higgins is best remembered for his judgement in 1907, in his first
case as President of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration
in the Harvester case, in which he ruled for the first time on what
constituted a fair minimum wage, establishing that a worker ‘as a human
being in a civilized community’ supporting a family of about five persons,
was entitled to a daily wage of no less than seven shillings.
Higgins served on the University of Melbourne Council from 1887 to
1923, during which time he supported the full admission of women and
a university extension system (the forerunner of today’s Community Access
Program). In 1904, he donated £1000 for a scholarship for the study
of poetry, which bears his name. The exhibition in Greek part I was
also named after him, in recognition of a £500 contribution. He was
awarded a D.Litt. from the University in 1922 for A New Province for
Law and Order.
Devastated by the death in 1916 of his only son, Higgins maintained
a close relationship with his niece and later biographer, the writer
Nettie Palmer. He was a strong supporter of
the Bulletin and, in Deakin’s words, ‘one of the parents; if not the
chief parent’ of the Commonwealth Literary Fund.
