John Scaddan
Encyclopedia
John Scaddan, CMG
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....

 (4 August 1876 – 21 November 1934), popularly known as "Happy Jack", was Premier of Western Australia
Premier of Western Australia
The Premier of Western Australia is the head of the executive government in the Australian State of Western Australia. The Premier has similar functions in Western Australia to those performed by the Prime Minister of Australia at the national level, subject to the different Constitutions...

 from 7 October 1911 until 27 July 1916.

Biography

John Scaddan was born in Moonta, South Australia
Moonta, South Australia
Moonta is a town located on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia, 165 kilometres north-northwest of the state capital of Adelaide. It is one of three towns known as the Copper Coast or "Little Cornwall" for their shared copper mining history....

, into a Cornish Australian
Cornish Australian
Cornish Australians are citizens of Australia whose ancestry originates in Cornwall, United Kingdom, one of the six Celtic Nations. They form part of the worldwide Cornish diaspora which also includes large numbers of people in the US, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico and many Latin...

 family. He was educated at the state schools in Woodside
Woodside, Victoria
Woodside is a village in Victoria, Australia. At the 2006 census, Woodside and the surrounding area had a population of 267. Near Woodside there is the tallest construction of the southern hemisphere, the aerial mast of the VLF Transmitter Woodside...

 and Eaglehawk
Eaglehawk, Victoria
Eaglehawk is a former gold-mining town in Victoria, Australia and a suburb within the City of Greater Bendigo.The town is situated to the north-west of Bendigo on the Loddon Valley Highway. The highway is known locally as High Street until the intersection with Sailors Gully Road and as Peg Leg...

 in Victoria. From the age of thirteen he worked in the mines at Eaglehawk, while continuing his schooling parttime at the Bendigo School of Mines
Bendigo School of Mines
Bendigo School of Mines is located in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia and was established in 1873.-Notable past students:* John Scaddan, c.1889-1895, later Premier of Western Australia* Edward Heitmann c.1896, later Australian M.P....

. He worked in the area until 1896, when he came to Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

, probably as part of the gold rush
Gold rush
A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...

 to the Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Kalgoorlie, known as Kalgoorlie-Boulder, is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, and is located east-northeast of state capital Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway...

 goldfields. Scaddan initially worked underground as a miner, but after gaining his engine-driver's certificate, he operated a stationary engine at the pit head. In 1900, Scaddan married Elizabeth Fauckner (or Fawkner) in Boulder
Boulder, Western Australia
Boulder was a town in the Western Australian goldfields east of Perth and bordering onto the town of Kalgoorlie in the Eastern Goldfields region. Until 1989 it was part of its own municipality. In 1989 the towns of Kalgoorlie and Boulder were merged to form the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder...

, who died from Bright's disease
Bright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. The term is no longer used, as diseases are now classified according to their more fully understood causes....

 on 21 September 1902, and in 1904 he married Henrietta Edwards.

Scaddan became a keen unionist, and on 28 June 1904 he contested the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
Western Australian Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Perth....

 seat of Ivanhoe
Electoral district of Ivanhoe (Western Australia)
The Electoral district of Ivanhoe was a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. It was named for a local settlement, and covered part of the Goldfields city of Boulder, near Kalgoorlie. It was created at the 1904 redistribution and was merged in 1911 with the neighbouring...

, partly because he was having difficulty securing continuous employment, and partly also because of an interest in economic affairs. He easily won the seat for the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

, but was not invited to be a minister in Henry Daglish
Henry Daglish
Henry Daglish was the sixth Premier of Western Australia and the state's first Labor Premier.Henry Daglish was born in Ballarat West, Victoria on 18 November 1866. He was educated in Geelong, and attended Melbourne University...

's 1904-05 government. This would later be to his advantage, as a number of his rivals within the Labor party suffered from their association with the unsuccessful Daglish ministry
Daglish ministry
The Daglish Ministry was the 7th Ministry of the Government of Western Australia and was led by Labor Premier Henry Daglish. It succeeded the James Ministry on 10 August 1904 after the 1904 election boosted Labor's seat count from 8 to 22 in the 50-seat Legislative Assembly...

.

Scaddan was re-elected unopposed in the election of October 1905, and for the next four years served as party secretary. On the retirement of party leader Thomas Bath in August 1910, Scaddan became leader of the Labor Party, and thus also Leader of the Opposition
Leader of the Opposition (Western Australia)
The Leader of the Opposition in Western Australia is the leader of the largest minority political party or coalition of parties in the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Western Australia. By convention, he or she is generally a member of the Legislative Assembly...

. In the election of October 1911, Labor campaigned on a wide-ranging and radical platform. Scaddan easily won his seat, which had been renamed Brown Hill-Ivanhoe
Electoral district of Brown Hill-Ivanhoe
The Electoral district of Brown Hill-Ivanhoe was a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. It covered part of the Goldfields city of Boulder, near Kalgoorlie, and neighbouring mining areas...

 after a redistribution. The Labor party won an overwhelming majority, and on 7 October 1911 Scaddan became Premier of Western Australia
Premier of Western Australia
The Premier of Western Australia is the head of the executive government in the Australian State of Western Australia. The Premier has similar functions in Western Australia to those performed by the Prime Minister of Australia at the national level, subject to the different Constitutions...

. At just 35 years of age, he remains the youngest ever premier of Western Australia.

Scaddan led a vigorous, radical, reforming government. In 1911, it passed the Workers' Homes Act, which made it easier for lowly paid workers to own their homes. In 1912, the jurisdiction of the Arbitration Court was expanded; Thomas Walker
Thomas Walker (Australian politician)
Thomas Walker was an Australian politician, a member of two different state parliaments.Walker was born in Preston, Lancashire, England, the son of corn miller and merchant Thomas Walker, and Ellen née Eccles. He was educated at Leyland Grammar School, then worked as a schoolteacher at Preston for...

 was Minister for Justice and Education, and Attorney General. Workers' compensation
Workers' compensation
Workers' compensation is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence...

 provisions were greatly extended. There were also some reform of the education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 system and administration of justice
Justice
Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...

. The government also spent heavily on development of the Wheatbelt, especially in the construction of railways.

Scaddan's government is perhaps most remembered for its policy of setting up state owned enterprises, termed state socialism by Scaddan, although it was not really state socialism
State socialism
State socialism is an economic system with limited socialist characteristics, such as public ownership of major industries, remedial measures to benefit the working class, and a gradual process of developing socialism through government policy...

. Scaddan's government became involved in numerous industries: it established a state shipping service; started a dairy
Dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting of animal milk—mostly from cows or goats, but also from buffalo, sheep, horses or camels —for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a dedicated dairy farm or section of a multi-purpose farm that is concerned...

 farm at Claremont
Claremont, Western Australia
Claremont is a western suburb of Perth, Western Australia on the north bank of the Swan River.-History:Prior to European settlement, the Noongar people used the area as a source of water, for fishing and for catching waterfowl. In 1830, John Butler, a settler, set up an inn at Freshwater Bay to...

 and a sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....

 at Manjimup
Manjimup, Western Australia
Manjimup is a town in Western Australia, south of the state capital, Perth. The town of Manjimup is a regional centre for the largest shire in the South West of Western Australia. At the 2006 census, Manjimup had a population of 4,239.-History:...

; reopened a quarry
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...

 at Boya
Boya, Western Australia
Boya is a locality on the Darling Scarp, in the Shire of Mundaring, Western Australia. On the south side of Greenmount Hill, and just west of Darlington....

; set up a brickworks
Brickworks
A brickworks also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock often with a quarry for clay on site....

 and an agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 implement works; took over the South Perth
South Perth, Western Australia
South Perth is a residential suburb 3 kilometres south of the central business district of Perth, the capital of Western Australia, which adjoins the southern shore of Perth Water on the Swan River...

 ferries
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...

 and Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

's tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

s; started up abattoirs; and even purchased hotels.

To help finance its policies, Scaddan's government introduced an income tax
Income tax
An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...

 in 1912, and this was greatly increased after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 broke out. It also borrowed heavily, and state debt
Debt
A debt is an obligation owed by one party to a second party, the creditor; usually this refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but the term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.A debt is created when a...

 increased as much in Scaddan's five years as it had in the previous 13 years.

Scaddan's many reforms were achieved despite constant obstruction from the Legislative Council
Western Australian Legislative Council
The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the Legislative Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state...

. The government won only a third of all divisions in the Legislative Council, and this is in stark contrast to treatment of the Wilson governments before and after Scaddan's government, who never lost a single bill in the upper house.

Scaddan's government was returned in the election of 1914, but with a majority of only two. This small majority, along with the outbreak of war in 1914 and the onset of one of the worst drought
Drought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...

s ever to hit Western Australia, severely restricted Scaddan's policy in his second term. The government's position was made even more unstable when, in January 1915, the Labor MLA for Roebourne
Electoral district of Roebourne
The Electoral district of Roebourne was a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. It was named for the town of Roebourne and was created in 1890, being one of the original 30 seats contested at the 1890 state election....

, Joseph Gardiner
Joseph Gardiner
Joseph Peter Gardiner was the Australian Labor Party member for the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Roebourne from 1911 to 1915...

, walked out of Parliament House, and did not return. He subsequently left the state altogether, and in September 1915 his seat was declared vacant for non-attendance. Labor lost the resulting by-election in November, leaving it with exactly half of the seats in parliament. Meanwhile, Bertie Johnston, Labor's only member for a farming seat, had voted with the opposition several times in reaction to Scaddan's failure to fulfill a promise to reduce the price of crown land. Eventually, Johnston resigned from the party and from parliament over the Nevanas affair
Nevanas affair
The Nevanas affair was a political scandal in Western Australia that was partly responsible for the downfall of John Scaddan's Labor government....

, and was subsequently re-elected as an independent in January 1916. This left the Labor government with a minority of seats, and in July 1916 the Liberal and Country parties cooperated to defeat the government. Scaddan then asked the Governor Sir Harry Barron
Harry Barron
Major General Sir Harry Barron KCMG, CVO was Governor of Tasmania from 1909 to 1913, and Governor of Western Australia from 1913 to 1917....

 for a dissolution of parliament, but was refused. Scaddan resigned as premier on 27 July 1916, and Liberal leader Frank Wilson took office.

Scaddan remained Labor leader after his defeat. On 8 August 1916, he resigned his seat of Brown Hill-Ivanhoe to contest the seat of Canning
Electoral district of Canning
The Electoral district of Canning was an electorate in the state of Western Australia. The electorate, which was named for the Canning River which ran through the electorate, was first contested at the 1897 elections and was abolished in the 1988 redistribution...

 at a ministerial by-election. He failed to win the seat, but the Labor member who had won Brown Hill-Ivanhoe, John Lutey
John Lutey
John Thomas Lutey was the Australian Labor Party member for the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Brownhill-Ivanhoe from 1917 to 1932....

, resigned it before being sworn in, and Scaddan was re-elected to Brown Hill-Ivanhoe on 7 October 1916.

On regaining his seat, Scaddan resumed as Leader of the Opposition
Leader of the Opposition (Western Australia)
The Leader of the Opposition in Western Australia is the leader of the largest minority political party or coalition of parties in the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Western Australia. By convention, he or she is generally a member of the Legislative Assembly...

. However in 1916 the federal Labor party had split over the issue of conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

, and it was inevitable that this would eventually affect the Western Australian branch. The federal Labor Party had expelled all supporters of conscription from the party, including Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...

 Billy Hughes
Billy Hughes
William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923....

, and Hughes had responded by forming a Nationalist
Nationalist Party of Australia
The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...

 government. As a conscriptionist, Scaddan had supported Hughes. With the May 1917 elections approaching, Scaddan found himself in the untenable position of supporting the non-Labor Prime Minister Hughes instead of the Labor Party leader Frank Tudor
Frank Tudor
Francis Gwynne "Frank" Tudor was an Australian-born felt hatter and politician. He was the leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1916 till his death.-Early life:...

. On about 10 April 1917, Scaddan resigned from the Australian Labor Party.

In the meantime, Wilson's government had been having difficulty maintaining parliamentary support. Hughes' Nationalist government had won a landslide victory at the federal level, and Wilson found himself under pressure to form a Nationalist government at the state level. A Nationalist Party was eventually formed, but Wilson was overlooked in favour of Henry Lefroy
Henry Lefroy
Sir Henry Bruce Lefroy KCMG was the eleventh Premier of Western Australia.-Biography:Lefroy was born in Perth, Western Australia on 24 March 1854. His father was Anthony O'Grady Lefroy, Colonial Treasurer of Western Australia for over 30 years...

. Scaddan was appointed Minister for Mines and Railways in Lefroy's Nationalist government on 28 June 1917, but Lutey defeated him in the ministerial by-election. In September 1917, Scaddan contested Albany
Albany, Western Australia
Albany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, some 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. As of 2009, Albany's population was estimated at 33,600, making it the 6th-largest city in the state....

 as the National Labor candidate, but was again defeated.

On 17 May 1919, Scaddan was appointed Colonial Secretary and Minister for Railways in James Mitchell
James Mitchell (Australian politician)
Sir James Mitchell GCMG was the 13th Premier of Western Australia, serving on two occasions, the Lieutenant-Governor of Western Australia for 15 years and the 22nd Governor of Western Australia....

's government, despite not being a member of either house of parliament. Two weeks later he won the Legislative Assembly seat of Albany
Electoral district of Albany
The Electoral district of Albany is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. Albany is named for the port and regional city of Western Australia which falls within its borders. It is one of the oldest electorates in Western Australia, with its first member having been...

 as a Nationalist. On 25 June 1919, Mitchell reshuffled his government's portfolios, and Scaddan was appointed Minister for Mines, Industries, Forests and Police; and Minister for Railways. He held these portfolios until the general election of March 1924, which he did not contest. He was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1923.

Scaddan unsuccessfully contested the seat of Leederville
Electoral district of Leederville
The Electoral district of Leederville was a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. The district was named for the inner northern Perth suburb of Leederville, which fell within its borders...

 in the general elections of March 1927. He won the seat of Maylands
Electoral district of Maylands
Maylands is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. Maylands is named for the inner northeastern Perth suburb of Maylands which falls within its borders....

 in the election of May 1930, upon which he was appointed Minister for Railways, Mines, Police, Forests and Industry in the Mitchell government. In the April 1933 general elections, Scaddan lost his seat and the Mitchell government was defeated.

From 1927 on, Scaddan worked as a stock, farm and estate agent. He was a member of the Perth Roads Board from 1926, and its chairman from 1931 to 1934. He died suddenly on 21 November 1934, and was buried at Karrakatta Cemetery
Karrakatta Cemetery
Karrakatta Cemetery is a metropolitan cemetery in the suburb of Karrakatta in Perth, Western Australia. Karrakatta Cemetery first opened for burials in 1899, with Robert Creighton. Currently managed by the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board, the cemetery attracts more than one million visitors each...

.

Locality names

The town of Scaddan
Scaddan, Western Australia
Scaddan is a small town in Western Australia located east of Perth situated just off the Coolgardie-Esperance Highway between Norseman and Esperance in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia....

 located along the Esperance Branch Railway
Esperance Branch Railway
The Esperance Branch Railway is a railway from Kalgoorlie to the port of Esperance in Western Australia.It was lobbied for by Esperance residents to be linked into the WAGR railway network to provide land transport to their region - Gauge and Route :...

 in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia is named after John Scaddan.
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