Robert Garran
Encyclopedia
Sir Robert Randolph Garran GCMG
KC
(10 February 1867 – 11 January 1957) was an Australian lawyer and public servant, an early leading expert in Australian constitutional law
, the first employee of the Government of Australia
and the first Solicitor-General of Australia
. Garran spent thirty-one years as permanent head of the Attorney-General's Department
, providing advice to ten different Prime Ministers
(from Barton
to Lyons
). He played a significant behind-the-scenes role in the Australian federation movement
, as adviser to Edmund Barton
and chair of the Drafting Committee at the 1897–1898 Constitutional Convention
.
In addition to his professional work, Garran was also an important figure in the development of the city of Canberra
during its early years. He founded several important cultural associations, organised the creation of the Canberra University College
, and later contributed to the establishment of the Australian National University
. Garran published at least eight books and many journal articles throughout his lifetime, covering such topics as constitutional law, the history of federalism
in Australia, and German language
poetry.
, New South Wales
, the only son (among seven children) of journalist and politician Andrew Garran
and his wife Mary Isham. His parents were committed to social justice
, Mary campaigning for issues such as the promotion of education for women, and Andrew advocating Federation
and covering reformist movements as editor of The Sydney Morning Herald
and later promoting them as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council
.
The family lived in Phillip Street
in central Sydney. Garran's mother "had a deep distrust, well justified in those days, of milkman's milk" and so she kept a cow in the backyard, which would walk on its own to The Domain
each day to graze and return twice a day to be milked. The Garrans later lived in the suburb of Darlinghurst
, just to the east of the centre of the city.
Garran attended Sydney Grammar School
from the age of ten, starting in 1877. He was a successful student, and became School Captain
in 1884. He then studied arts and law at the University of Sydney
, where he was awarded scholarship
s for classics, mathematics and general academic ability. Garran graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree with first-class honours in 1888, winning the University's Medal in Philosophy, and a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1889.
After graduating, Garran began to study for the Bar examination. He was employed for a year with a firm of Sydney solicitor
s, and the next year served as associate to Justice William Charles Windeyer
of the Supreme Court of New South Wales
. Windeyer had a reputation for being a harsh and inflexible judge, particularly in criminal cases, where he was said to have "a rigorous and unrelenting sense of the retribution that he believed criminal justice demanded, [and] a sympathy verging on the emotional for the victims of crime." Garran however offered a different view, saying that "those who knew him well knew that under a brusque exterior he was the kindest of men", and his reputation had to some degree been created by misrepresentation. In 1891, Garran was admitted to the New South Wales Bar, where he commenced practice as a barrister
, primarily working in equity.
Garran, like his father, was strongly involved in the Australian Federation movement
, the movement which sought to unite the British colonies in Australia (and, in early proposals, New Zealand) into one federated
country
. The first Constitutional Convention
was held in 1891 in the chamber of the Legislative Council of New South Wales in Macquarie Street, Sydney
, around the corner from Garran's chambers in Phillip Street; Garran regularly attended and sat in the public gallery to see "history... in the making under my very eyes." Garran would later recall with approval that the 1891 convention was the first with the courage to face the "lion in the path", the issue of customs
duties and tariff
s, which had previously divided states such as Victoria
, who were in favour of protectionism
, and states such as New South Wales
, who were in favour of free trade
. In Garran's view a clause proposed at the convention, which allowed for tariffs against international trade while ensuring free trade domestically (the predecessor to the final section 92 of the Australian Constitution), "expressed the terms on which New South Wales was prepared to face the lion."
Garran became involved with the work of Edmund Barton
, who would later be the first Prime Minister of Australia
but at the time was the de facto
leader of the federation movement in New South Wales as Sir Henry Parkes
declined into poor health. Garran, along with others such as Atlee Hunt, worked essentially as secretaries to Barton's federation campaign, drafting correspondence and planning meetings. At one late night meeting, planning a speech Barton was to give in the Sydney suburb of Ashfield
, Barton coined the phrase "For the first time, we have a nation for a continent, and a continent for a nation"; Garran recalled that the now famous phrase "would have been unrecorded if I had not happened to jot it down."
In June 1893, when the Australasian Federal League was formed at a meeting in the Sydney Town Hall
, Garran joined immediately and was made a member of the executive committee. He was one of the League's four delegates to the 1893 Corowa Conference
and a League delegate to the 1896 Bathurst Conference, informal conferences held between members of the League (primarily based in Sydney), the Australian Natives Association
(mainly Victorian) and other pro-federation groups. At Corowa he was part of an impromptu group organised by John Quick
which drafted a resolution, passed at the Conference, calling on the colonial parliaments to hold a directly elected Constitutional Convention
to be charged with drafting the Bill for the Constitution of Australia
. The proposal, which came to be known as the Corowa Plan, was later accepted at the 1895 Premiers' Conference and formed the basis for the federation process over the following five years.
In 1897, Garran published The Coming Commonwealth, an influential book on the history of the Federation movement and the debate over the 1891 draft of the Constitution of Australia. The book was based on material he prepared for a course on federalism
and federal systems of government, which he had planned to give at the University of Sydney, but which failed to attract a sufficient number of students. Nevertheless, the book was both unique and popular, as one of the few books on the topic at the time, with the first edition quickly selling out. Soon after its publication the Premier of New South Wales George Reid
, who had been elected as a New South Wales delegate to the 1897–1898 Constitutional Convention, invited Garran to be his secretary. At the Convention, Reid appointed him secretary of the Drafting Committee, at Barton's request; he was also a member of the Press Committee.
Garran recorded in a letter to his family during the convention's Melbourne
sitting that:
Garran joked that the long work of the drafting committee breached the Factory Acts
, the group (primarily Barton, Richard O'Connor
, John Downer
and Garran) often working late into the night preparing drafts for the convention to consider and debate the next morning. On the evening before the convention's last day, Barton had gone to bed exhausted in the small hours, Garran and Charles Gavan Duffy
finishing the final schedule of amendments at breakfast time. The convention concluded successfully, approving a final draft which would ultimately, aside from a small amendment arranged at the last minute in London
, become the Constitution of Australia.
Throughout 1898, following the completion of the proposed Constitution, Garran participated in the campaign promoting Federation leading up to the referendums at which the people of the colonies voted whether or not to approve the Constitution. He contributed a daily column to the Evening News, and had humorous poems critiquing opponents of federation published in The Bulletin
. The following year, he began working with Quick on the Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth, a reference work on the Constitution including a history, and detailed discussion of each section analysing its meaning and its development at the Conventions. Published in 1901, the Annotated Constitution, commonly referred to simply as "Quick & Garran", soon became the standard work on the Constitution and is still regarded as one of the most important works on the subject.
(CMG), and was appointed secretary and Permanent Head of the Attorney-General's Department
by the first Attorney-General of Australia
, Alfred Deakin
. Garran was the first, and for a time the only, public servant employed by the Government of Australia
. Garran later said of this time that:
In this role, Garran was responsible for organising the first federal election in March 1901, and for organising the transfer of various government departments from the states
to the federal government, including the Department of Defence
, the postal
and telegraphic services (now part of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts
) and the Department of Trade and Customs (now part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
). As parliamentary drafter, Garran also developed legislation to administer those new departments and other important legislation.
Garran and his fellow staff aimed for a simple style of legislative drafting, a goal enabled by the fact that there was no pre-existing federal legislation on which their work would have to be based. In Garran's opinion the approach, which was put into practice many years before the similarly principled plain English
movement became popular in government in the 1970s, was intended "to set an example of clear, straightforward language, free from technical jargon
." Subsequent parliamentary drafters have noted that Garran was unusual in this respect for deliberately setting out to achieve and improve a particular drafting style, and that it was not until the early 1980s that such discipline among drafters re-emerged.
However, Garran himself admitted that his drafting could be overly simplistic, citing the first customs and excise legislation (the Customs Act 1901 and the Excise Act 1901), developed with the Minister for Trade and Customs Charles Kingston
, as an example of the style taken to excess. The style was also once parodied
by foundation High Court
Justice Richard O'Connor
as follows:
In 1902, Garran married Hilda Robson. Together they would have four sons, Richard (born 1903), John (1905), Andrew (1906) and Isham Peter (1910). At this time the family lived in Melbourne
, and the boys all attended Melbourne Grammar School
and later studied at the University of Melbourne
, attending Trinity College
there.
The Attorney-General's Department also managed litigation on behalf of the government. Initially the department contracted private law firm
s to actually conduct the litigation, but in 1903 the office of the Commonwealth Crown Solicitor was established, with Charles Powers
the first to hold the job. The other Crown Solicitors that Garran worked with included Gordon Castle
(with whom he had also worked as a drafter) and William Sharwood.
Garran worked with several Attorneys-General as Permanent Head of the Department. Garran regarded the first Attorney-General, Alfred Deakin, as an excellent thinker and a natural lawyer, and on occasion "[spoke] of Deakin as the Balfour
of Australian politics." He was also very much impressed with the fifth Attorney-General, Isaac Isaacs
, who was an extremely diligent worker, and two time Attorney-General Littleton Groom
, who was "probably one of the most useful Ministers the Commonwealth has had."
In 1912, Garran was considered as a possible appointee to the High Court, following the expansion of the bench from five seats to seven and the death of Richard O'Connor. Billy Hughes
, Attorney-General in the Fisher
government at the time, later said Garran would have been appointed "but for the fact that he is too valuable a man for us to lose. We cannot spare him."
(the office was then known as Commonwealth Solicitor-General) by Billy Hughes, who had since become Prime Minister. The creation of the office and Garran's appointment to it was to some degree recognition of his existing role as Permanent Head of the Attorney-General's Department, in which Garran gave legal advice to several successive governments, but it also represented a formal delegation of many of the powers and functions formerly exercised by the Attorney-General.
Garran developed a strong relationship with Hughes, giving him legal advice on the World War I
conscription plebiscites and on the range of regulation
s which were made under the War Precautions Act 1914
. The War Precautions Regulations had a broad scope, and were generally supported by the High Court, which adopted a much more flexible approach to the reach of the Commonwealth's defence power
during wartime. A substantial amount of Garran's work during the war involved preparing and carrying out the regulations. Many of them were directed at maximising the economic aspect of the war effort and ensuring supplies of goods to Australian troops; others were directed at controlling citizens or former citizens of the enemy Central Powers
living in Australia. On one occasion, when Hughes had been informed that at a party hosted by a German
man, the band had played "Das Lied der Deutschen
", Hughes asked Garran "By the way, what is this tune?" to which Garran replied that it was Haydn
's melody to "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser
", and as it was used as the tune to several hymn
s "it was probably sung in half a dozen churches in Sydney last Sunday." Hughes then said "Good Heavens! I have played that thing with one finger hundreds of times."
The partnership between Garran and Hughes is regarded by some as unusual, given that Garran was "tall, gentlemanly, wise and scholarly", and patient with his staff, whereas Hughes was "short of stature [and] renowned for bursts of temper." Nevertheless, the partnership was a successful one, with Hughes recognising the importance of Garran's constitutional expertise, remarking once about the World War I period that "the best way to govern Australia was to have Sir Robert Garran at [my] elbow, with a fountain pen and a blank sheet of paper, and the War Precautions Act." Likewise, Garran respected Hughes' strong leadership style, which had been important in guiding the country through the war, although in describing the Nationalist Party
's loss in the 1922 federal election
, Garran later said that "Hughes also overestimated his own hold on Parliament [although] his hold on the people was probably undiminished."
Garran accompanied Hughes and Joseph Cook
(then the Minister for the Navy) to the 1917 and 1918 meetings of the Imperial War Cabinet
in London
, United Kingdom, and was also part of the British Empire
delegation to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference
in Paris
, France. There he was on several of the treaty drafting committees, and contributed to many provisions, notably the portions of the League of Nations
Covenant relating to League of Nations mandate
s. Though focusing mainly on League of Nations matters, Garran and John Latham
(the head of Australian Naval Intelligence) had the status of technical advisers to Hughes and Cook, and so could attend the main conference and any of the associated councils. Observing the proceedings, Garran admired the "moral and physical courage" of French premier Georges Clemenceau
, whom he regarded as determined to protect France from Germany but in a measured and temperate way; in Garran's words, Clemenceau "always withstood the excessive demands of the French chauvinists, of the French army, and of Foch
himself." Garran viewed some similarities between British Prime Minister
David Lloyd George
and United States President
Woodrow Wilson
where others saw only differences, since Lloyd George "also had a strong vein of idealism in his character", and Wilson could be pragmatic when the situation called for it, such as in discussions relating to American interests. Garran also met other political and military leaders at the conference, including T. E. Lawrence
, "an Oxford
youth of 29 – he looks 18", who was modest and "without any affectation... in a company of two or three [he] could talk very interestingly, but at a larger gathering he was apt to be dumb."
Following the war, Garran worked with Professor Harrison Moore of the University of Melbourne and South Australia
n judge Professor Jethro Brown on a report about proposed constitutional amendments which ultimately became the referendum questions put forward in the 1919 referendum
. Garran had been made a Knight Bachelor
in 1917 and was appointed as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1920. Garran attended two Imperial Conferences, accompanying Prime Minister Stanley Bruce
in 1923 and in 1930 joining Prime Minister James Scullin
and Attorney-General Frank Brennan
, chair of the Drafting Committee which prepared drafts of agreements on various topics, such as merchant shipping. He also attended the eleventh League of Nations conference that year with them in Geneva
, Switzerland
. At the Royal Commission on the Constitution in 1927, Garran was invited to give evidence by Prime Minister Bruce, where he discussed the history and origins of the Constitution and the evolution of the institutions established under it.
Through the 1920s and early 1930s, Garran prepared annual summaries of legislative developments in Australia, highlighting important individual pieces of legislation for the Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law (now known as the International and Comparative Law Quarterly) published by Oxford University Press
.
Towards the end of his time as Solicitor-General, Garran's work included the preparation of the Debt Conversion Agreement between the Government of Australia and the governments of the states
, which involved the federal government taking over and managing the debts of the individual states, following the 1928 referendum
.
In 1927, Garran had moved from his home in Melbourne
, Victoria
to the newly established capital Canberra
, one of the first public officials to do so (many government departments and their public servants did not move to Canberra until after World War II
). He also worked within the Government to facilitate housing in Canberra for officials moving from other cities, and was involved in establishing cultural organisations in the city. In 1928 he was the inaugural President of the Canberra Rotary Club
. In 1929, he formed the Canberra University Association in order to promote the formation of a university in Canberra, and in 1930 organised the establishment of Canberra University College
(essentially a campus of the University of Melbourne
) which taught undergraduate courses, chairing its council for its first twenty-three years. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Garran "consistently advocated the establishment of what he prophetically called 'a National University at Canberra' ", which would be primarily for specialist research and postgraduate study, in areas particularly relating to Australia, such as foreign relations with Asia and the Pacific region. This vision was evidently influential on the establishment of the Australian National University
(ANU) in 1946, the only research-only university in the country (although in 1960 it amalgamated with Canberra University College to offer undergraduate courses).
, William Somerville
and David Gilbert
, he formed a committee which prepared The Case for Union, the Government of Australia
's official reply to the secessionist movement
in the state of Western Australia
.
Garran was also involved with the arts; he was the vice-president of the Canberra Musical Society, where he sang and played the clarinet
, and in 1946 won a national song competition run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
. Garran also published translations of Heinrich Heine
's 1827 work Buch der Lieder ("Book of Songs") in 1924, and of the works of Franz Schubert
and Robert Schumann
in 1946.
In 1937, Garran was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG), the third time he had been knighted. Shortly after the establishment of the ANU in 1946, Garran became its first graduate when he was awarded an honorary doctorate
of laws. He had already been awarded such an honorary doctorate from the University of Melbourne in 1937 and later receiving one from his alma mater
, the University of Sydney in 1952. Garran served on ANU's council from 1946 until 1951. Garran's influence on Canberra is remembered by the naming of the suburb of Garran, Australian Capital Territory
, and his link with ANU is remembered by the naming of a chair
in the university's School of Law, by the naming of the hall of residence Burton & Garran Hall
and by the naming of Garran house at Canberra Grammar School
for his work with that school.
Garran died in 1957 in Canberra. He was granted a state funeral
, the first given to a public servant of the Government of Australia. He was survived by his four sons; his wife Hilda had died in 1936. His memoir
s, Prosper the Commonwealth, were published posthumously in 1958, having been completed shortly before his death.
Former Prime Minister John Howard
, in describing Garran, said:
Garran's friend Charles Daley, a long time civic administrator of the Australian Capital Territory
, emphasised Garran's contribution to the early development of the city of Canberra, particularly its cultural life, remarking at a celebratory dinner for Garran in 1954 that:
However Garran is perhaps best remembered as an expert on constitutional law, more so than for his other contributions to public service. On his experience of Federation and the Constitution, Garran was always enthusiastic:
suburb of Garran
, established in 1966, was named after him.
In 1983, the former Patent Office building - now occupied by the Federal Attorney General's Department - was renamed Robert Garran Offices. The art deco
building is within the Parliamentary Triangle of Canberra, and was constructed in 1932 at the corner of Kings Avenue
and National Circuit, in Parkes, Australian Capital Territory
.
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....
KC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
(10 February 1867 – 11 January 1957) was an Australian lawyer and public servant, an early leading expert in Australian constitutional law
Australian constitutional law
Australian constitutional law is the area of the law of Australia relating to the interpretation and application of the Constitution of Australia. Several major doctrines of Australian constitutional law have developed....
, the first employee of the Government of Australia
Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states...
and the first Solicitor-General of Australia
Solicitor-General of Australia
The Solicitor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is the Second Law Officer to the Attorney-General of Australia. The holders of this office are not members of parliament....
. Garran spent thirty-one years as permanent head of the Attorney-General's Department
Attorney-General's Department (Australia)
The Attorney-General's Department is an Australian Government Department. Its role is to serve the people of Australia by providing essential expert support to the Government in the maintenance and improvement of Australia's system of law and justice...
, providing advice to ten different Prime Ministers
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...
(from Barton
Edmund Barton
Sir Edmund Barton, GCMG, KC , Australian politician and judge, was the first Prime Minister of Australia and a founding justice of the High Court of Australia....
to Lyons
Joseph Lyons
Joseph Aloysius Lyons, CH was an Australian politician. He was Labor Premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928 and a Minister in the James Scullin government from 1929 until his resignation from the Labor Party in March 1931...
). He played a significant behind-the-scenes role in the Australian federation movement
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...
, as adviser to Edmund Barton
Edmund Barton
Sir Edmund Barton, GCMG, KC , Australian politician and judge, was the first Prime Minister of Australia and a founding justice of the High Court of Australia....
and chair of the Drafting Committee at the 1897–1898 Constitutional Convention
Constitutional Convention (Australia)
In Australian history, the term Constitutional Convention refers to four distinct gatherings.-1891 convention:The 1891 Constitutional Convention was held in Sydney in March 1891 to consider a draft Constitution for the proposed federation of the British colonies in Australia and New Zealand. There...
.
In addition to his professional work, Garran was also an important figure in the development of the city of Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
during its early years. He founded several important cultural associations, organised the creation of the Canberra University College
Canberra University College
Canberra University College was a tertiary education institution established in Canberra by the Australian government and the University of Melbourne in 1930...
, and later contributed to the establishment of the Australian National University
Australian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
. Garran published at least eight books and many journal articles throughout his lifetime, covering such topics as constitutional law, the history of federalism
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
in Australia, and German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
poetry.
Early life
Garran was born in SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, the only son (among seven children) of journalist and politician Andrew Garran
Andrew Garran
Andrew Garran , English-Australian journalist and politician, was the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald from 1873 to 1885....
and his wife Mary Isham. His parents were committed to social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
, Mary campaigning for issues such as the promotion of education for women, and Andrew advocating Federation
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...
and covering reformist movements as editor of The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
and later promoting them as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council
New South Wales Legislative Council
The New South Wales Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of New South Wales in Australia. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney. The Assembly is referred to as the lower house and the Council as...
.
The family lived in Phillip Street
Phillip Street, Sydney
Phillip Street is a street in the central business district of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. While the street runs from King Street in the south to Circular Quay in the north, the present street is effectively in two sections, separated by Chifley Square...
in central Sydney. Garran's mother "had a deep distrust, well justified in those days, of milkman's milk" and so she kept a cow in the backyard, which would walk on its own to The Domain
The Domain, Sydney
The Domain is 34 hectares of open space in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the eastern edge of the Sydney central business district, near Woolloomooloo. The Domain adjoins the Royal Botanic Gardens and is managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens Trust, a division of the New South...
each day to graze and return twice a day to be milked. The Garrans later lived in the suburb of Darlinghurst
Darlinghurst, New South Wales
Darlinghurst is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Darlinghurst is located immediately east of the Sydney central business district and Hyde Park, within the local government area of the City of Sydney...
, just to the east of the centre of the city.
Garran attended Sydney Grammar School
Sydney Grammar School
Sydney Grammar School is an independent, non-denominational, selective, day school for boys, located in Darlinghurst, Edgecliff and St Ives, all suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
from the age of ten, starting in 1877. He was a successful student, and became School Captain
School Captain
School Captain is a student appointed or elected to represent the school.This student, usually in the senior year, in their final year of attending that school...
in 1884. He then studied arts and law at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
, where he was awarded scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
s for classics, mathematics and general academic ability. Garran graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree with first-class honours in 1888, winning the University's Medal in Philosophy, and a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1889.
After graduating, Garran began to study for the Bar examination. He was employed for a year with a firm of Sydney solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
s, and the next year served as associate to Justice William Charles Windeyer
William Charles Windeyer
Sir William Charles Windeyer was an Australian politician and judge.As a New South Wales politician he was responsible for the creation of Belmore Park , Lang Park , Observatory Park Sir William Charles Windeyer (29 September 1834 – 11 September 1897) was an Australian politician and judge.As a...
of the Supreme Court of New South Wales
Supreme Court of New South Wales
The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian State of New South Wales...
. Windeyer had a reputation for being a harsh and inflexible judge, particularly in criminal cases, where he was said to have "a rigorous and unrelenting sense of the retribution that he believed criminal justice demanded, [and] a sympathy verging on the emotional for the victims of crime." Garran however offered a different view, saying that "those who knew him well knew that under a brusque exterior he was the kindest of men", and his reputation had to some degree been created by misrepresentation. In 1891, Garran was admitted to the New South Wales Bar, where he commenced practice as a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
, primarily working in equity.
Federation movement
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...
, the movement which sought to unite the British colonies in Australia (and, in early proposals, New Zealand) into one federated
Federation
A federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...
country
Country
A country is a region legally identified as a distinct entity in political geography. A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, or a geographic region associated with a previously...
. The first Constitutional Convention
Constitutional Convention (Australia)
In Australian history, the term Constitutional Convention refers to four distinct gatherings.-1891 convention:The 1891 Constitutional Convention was held in Sydney in March 1891 to consider a draft Constitution for the proposed federation of the British colonies in Australia and New Zealand. There...
was held in 1891 in the chamber of the Legislative Council of New South Wales in Macquarie Street, Sydney
Macquarie Street, Sydney
Macquarie Street is the easternmost street of Sydney's central business district. Macquarie Street extends from Hyde Park at its southern end to the Sydney Opera House at its north.-Description:...
, around the corner from Garran's chambers in Phillip Street; Garran regularly attended and sat in the public gallery to see "history... in the making under my very eyes." Garran would later recall with approval that the 1891 convention was the first with the courage to face the "lion in the path", the issue of customs
Customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...
duties and tariff
Tariff
A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....
s, which had previously divided states such as Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, who were in favour of protectionism
Protectionism
Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...
, and states such as New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, who were in favour of free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
. In Garran's view a clause proposed at the convention, which allowed for tariffs against international trade while ensuring free trade domestically (the predecessor to the final section 92 of the Australian Constitution), "expressed the terms on which New South Wales was prepared to face the lion."
Garran became involved with the work of Edmund Barton
Edmund Barton
Sir Edmund Barton, GCMG, KC , Australian politician and judge, was the first Prime Minister of Australia and a founding justice of the High Court of Australia....
, who would later be the first Prime Minister of Australia
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...
but at the time was the de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
leader of the federation movement in New South Wales as Sir Henry Parkes
Henry Parkes
Sir Henry Parkes, GCMG was an Australian statesman, the "Father of Federation." As the earliest advocate of a Federal Council of the colonies of Australia, a precursor to the Federation of Australia, he was the most prominent of the Australian Founding Fathers.Parkes was described during his...
declined into poor health. Garran, along with others such as Atlee Hunt, worked essentially as secretaries to Barton's federation campaign, drafting correspondence and planning meetings. At one late night meeting, planning a speech Barton was to give in the Sydney suburb of Ashfield
Ashfield, New South Wales
Ashfield is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Ashfield is about 9 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the Municipality of Ashfield.The official name for the...
, Barton coined the phrase "For the first time, we have a nation for a continent, and a continent for a nation"; Garran recalled that the now famous phrase "would have been unrecorded if I had not happened to jot it down."
In June 1893, when the Australasian Federal League was formed at a meeting in the Sydney Town Hall
Sydney Town Hall
The Sydney Town Hall is a landmark sandstone building located in the heart of Sydney. It stands opposite the Queen Victoria Building and alongside St Andrew's Cathedral...
, Garran joined immediately and was made a member of the executive committee. He was one of the League's four delegates to the 1893 Corowa Conference
Corowa Conference
The Corowa Conference was a political meeting held in the New South Wales border town of Corowa in 1893 to discuss a proposed federation of the Australian colonies....
and a League delegate to the 1896 Bathurst Conference, informal conferences held between members of the League (primarily based in Sydney), the Australian Natives Association
Australian Natives Association
The Australian Natives' Association , a mutual society was founded in Melbourne, Australia in April 1871. The Association played a leading role in the movement for Australian federation in the last 20 years of the 19th century. In 1900 it had a membership of 17,000, mainly in Victoria.The ANA...
(mainly Victorian) and other pro-federation groups. At Corowa he was part of an impromptu group organised by John Quick
John Quick (politician)
Sir John Quick , Australian politician and author, was the federal Member of Parliament for Bendigo from 1901 to 1913 and a leading delegate to the constitutional conventions of the 1890s.-Early life:...
which drafted a resolution, passed at the Conference, calling on the colonial parliaments to hold a directly elected Constitutional Convention
Constitutional Convention (Australia)
In Australian history, the term Constitutional Convention refers to four distinct gatherings.-1891 convention:The 1891 Constitutional Convention was held in Sydney in March 1891 to consider a draft Constitution for the proposed federation of the British colonies in Australia and New Zealand. There...
to be charged with drafting the Bill for the Constitution of Australia
Constitution of Australia
The Constitution of Australia is the supreme law under which the Australian Commonwealth Government operates. It consists of several documents. The most important is the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia...
. The proposal, which came to be known as the Corowa Plan, was later accepted at the 1895 Premiers' Conference and formed the basis for the federation process over the following five years.
In 1897, Garran published The Coming Commonwealth, an influential book on the history of the Federation movement and the debate over the 1891 draft of the Constitution of Australia. The book was based on material he prepared for a course on federalism
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
and federal systems of government, which he had planned to give at the University of Sydney, but which failed to attract a sufficient number of students. Nevertheless, the book was both unique and popular, as one of the few books on the topic at the time, with the first edition quickly selling out. Soon after its publication the Premier of New South Wales George Reid
George Reid (Australian politician)
Sir George Houstoun Reid, GCB, GCMG, KC was an Australian politician, Premier of New South Wales and the fourth Prime Minister of Australia....
, who had been elected as a New South Wales delegate to the 1897–1898 Constitutional Convention, invited Garran to be his secretary. At the Convention, Reid appointed him secretary of the Drafting Committee, at Barton's request; he was also a member of the Press Committee.
Garran recorded in a letter to his family during the convention's Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
sitting that:
"The committee professes to find me very useful in unravelling the conundrums sent down by the finance committee... The last two nights I have found the drafting committee fagged [tired] and despairing, and now they have pitched the conundrums at me and gone out for a smoke; and then I worked out algebraAlgebraAlgebra is the branch of mathematics concerning the study of the rules of operations and relations, and the constructions and concepts arising from them, including terms, polynomials, equations and algebraic structures...
ic formulas to clear the thing up, drafted clauses accordingly, and when the committee returned we had plain sailing."
Garran joked that the long work of the drafting committee breached the Factory Acts
Factory Acts
The Factory Acts were a series of Acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to limit the number of hours worked by women and children first in the textile industry, then later in all industries....
, the group (primarily Barton, Richard O'Connor
Richard O'Connor (Australian politician)
Richard Edward O'Connor, QC , Australian politician and judge, was a member of the first federal ministry.-Biography:...
, John Downer
John Downer
Sir John William Downer, KCMG was the Premier of South Australia from 16 June 1885 until 11 June 1887 and again from 1892 to 1893. He was the first of three Australian politicians from the Downer family dynasty.-Early life:...
and Garran) often working late into the night preparing drafts for the convention to consider and debate the next morning. On the evening before the convention's last day, Barton had gone to bed exhausted in the small hours, Garran and Charles Gavan Duffy
Charles Gavan Duffy
Additional Reading*, Allen & Unwin, 1973.*John Mitchel, A Cause Too Many, Aidan Hegarty, Camlane Press.*Thomas Davis, The Thinker and Teacher, Arthur Griffith, M.H. Gill & Son 1922....
finishing the final schedule of amendments at breakfast time. The convention concluded successfully, approving a final draft which would ultimately, aside from a small amendment arranged at the last minute in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, become the Constitution of Australia.
Throughout 1898, following the completion of the proposed Constitution, Garran participated in the campaign promoting Federation leading up to the referendums at which the people of the colonies voted whether or not to approve the Constitution. He contributed a daily column to the Evening News, and had humorous poems critiquing opponents of federation published in The Bulletin
The Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
. The following year, he began working with Quick on the Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth, a reference work on the Constitution including a history, and detailed discussion of each section analysing its meaning and its development at the Conventions. Published in 1901, the Annotated Constitution, commonly referred to simply as "Quick & Garran", soon became the standard work on the Constitution and is still regarded as one of the most important works on the subject.
Public service
On the day that Federation was completed and Australia created, 1 January 1901, Garran was made a Commander of the Order of St Michael and St GeorgeOrder 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....
(CMG), and was appointed secretary and Permanent Head of the Attorney-General's Department
Attorney-General's Department (Australia)
The Attorney-General's Department is an Australian Government Department. Its role is to serve the people of Australia by providing essential expert support to the Government in the maintenance and improvement of Australia's system of law and justice...
by the first Attorney-General of Australia
Attorney-General of Australia
The Attorney-General of Australia is the first law officer of the Crown, chief law officer of the Commonwealth of Australia and a minister of the Crown. The Attorney-General is usually a member of the Federal Cabinet, but there is no constitutional requirement that this be the case since the...
, Alfred Deakin
Alfred Deakin
Alfred Deakin , Australian politician, was a leader of the movement for Australian federation and later the second Prime Minister of Australia. In the last quarter of the 19th century, Deakin was a major contributor to the establishment of liberal reforms in the colony of Victoria, including the...
. Garran was the first, and for a time the only, public servant employed by the Government of Australia
Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states...
. Garran later said of this time that:
"I was not only the head [of the department], but the tail. I was my own clerk and messenger. My first duty was to write out with my own hand Commonwealth Gazette No. 1 proclaiming the establishment of the Commonwealth and the appointment of ministers of state, and to send myself down with it to the government printer."
In this role, Garran was responsible for organising the first federal election in March 1901, and for organising the transfer of various government departments from the states
States and territories of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a union of six states and various territories. The Australian mainland is made up of five states and three territories, with the sixth state of Tasmania being made up of islands. In addition there are six island territories, known as external territories, and a...
to the federal government, including the Department of Defence
Department of Defence (Australia)
The Australian Department of Defence is a Federal Government Department. It forms part of the Australian Defence Organisation along with the Australian Defence Force . The Defence mission is to defend Australia and its national interests...
, the postal
Mail
Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
and telegraphic services (now part of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts
Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (Australia)
The department's strategic policy areas include:* National Broadband Network* Postal and telecommunications policies and programs* Spectrum management* Broadcasting policy* Digital economy* Regional communications* Cybersafety and e-security...
) and the Department of Trade and Customs (now part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia)
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is a department of the government of Australia charged with advancing the interests of Australia and its citizens internationally...
). As parliamentary drafter, Garran also developed legislation to administer those new departments and other important legislation.
Garran and his fellow staff aimed for a simple style of legislative drafting, a goal enabled by the fact that there was no pre-existing federal legislation on which their work would have to be based. In Garran's opinion the approach, which was put into practice many years before the similarly principled plain English
Plain English
Plain English is a generic term for communication styles that emphasise clarity, brevity and the avoidance of technical language – particularly in relation to official government communication, including laws.The intention is to write in a manner that is easily understood by the target...
movement became popular in government in the 1970s, was intended "to set an example of clear, straightforward language, free from technical jargon
Jargon
Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
." Subsequent parliamentary drafters have noted that Garran was unusual in this respect for deliberately setting out to achieve and improve a particular drafting style, and that it was not until the early 1980s that such discipline among drafters re-emerged.
However, Garran himself admitted that his drafting could be overly simplistic, citing the first customs and excise legislation (the Customs Act 1901 and the Excise Act 1901), developed with the Minister for Trade and Customs Charles Kingston
Charles Kingston
Charles Cameron Kingston, Australian politician, was an early liberal Premier of South Australia serving from 1893 to 1899 with the support of Labor led by John McPherson from 1893 and Lee Batchelor from 1897 in the House of Assembly, winning the 1893, 1896, and 1899 state elections against the...
, as an example of the style taken to excess. The style was also once parodied
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
by foundation High Court
High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is the supreme court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, has the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the States, and...
Justice Richard O'Connor
Richard O'Connor (Australian politician)
Richard Edward O'Connor, QC , Australian politician and judge, was a member of the first federal ministry.-Biography:...
as follows:
"Every man shall wear –
(a) Coat
(b) Vest
(c) Trousers
Penalty: £100."
In 1902, Garran married Hilda Robson. Together they would have four sons, Richard (born 1903), John (1905), Andrew (1906) and Isham Peter (1910). At this time the family lived in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, and the boys all attended Melbourne Grammar School
Melbourne Grammar School
Melbourne Grammar School is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school predominantly for boys, located in South Yarra and Caulfield, suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
and later studied at the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
, attending Trinity College
Trinity College (University of Melbourne)
Trinity College is the oldest college of the University of Melbourne. Founded in 1872 on a site granted to the Church of England, Trinity is unique among Australian university colleges in its diverse education programs...
there.
The Attorney-General's Department also managed litigation on behalf of the government. Initially the department contracted private law firm
Law firm
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other...
s to actually conduct the litigation, but in 1903 the office of the Commonwealth Crown Solicitor was established, with Charles Powers
Charles Powers
Sir Charles Powers KCMG , Australian politician and judge, was a Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1913 to 1929....
the first to hold the job. The other Crown Solicitors that Garran worked with included Gordon Castle
Gordon Castle
Gordon Castle is located in Gight, near Fochabers in Moray, Scotland. Historically known as the Bog-of-Gight, it was the principal seat of the Dukes of Gordon...
(with whom he had also worked as a drafter) and William Sharwood.
Garran worked with several Attorneys-General as Permanent Head of the Department. Garran regarded the first Attorney-General, Alfred Deakin, as an excellent thinker and a natural lawyer, and on occasion "[spoke] of Deakin as the Balfour
Arthur Balfour
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...
of Australian politics." He was also very much impressed with the fifth Attorney-General, Isaac Isaacs
Isaac Isaacs
Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs GCB GCMG KC was an Australian judge and politician, was the third Chief Justice of Australia, ninth Governor-General of Australia and the first born in Australia to occupy that post. He is the only person ever to have held both positions of Chief Justice of Australia and...
, who was an extremely diligent worker, and two time Attorney-General Littleton Groom
Littleton Groom
Sir Littleton Ernest Groom, KCMG was an Australian Commonwealth Minister, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Australia's 17th longest serving federal Parliamentarian . He was a member of every non-Australian Labor Party ministry from 1905 to 1926...
, who was "probably one of the most useful Ministers the Commonwealth has had."
In 1912, Garran was considered as a possible appointee to the High Court, following the expansion of the bench from five seats to seven and the death of Richard O'Connor. Billy Hughes
Billy Hughes
William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923....
, Attorney-General in the Fisher
Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher was an Australian politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister on three separate occasions. Fisher's 1910-13 Labor ministry completed a vast legislative programme which made him, along with Protectionist Alfred Deakin, the founder of the statutory structure of the new nation...
government at the time, later said Garran would have been appointed "but for the fact that he is too valuable a man for us to lose. We cannot spare him."
Solicitor-General
In 1916, Garran was made the first Solicitor-General of AustraliaSolicitor-General of Australia
The Solicitor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is the Second Law Officer to the Attorney-General of Australia. The holders of this office are not members of parliament....
(the office was then known as Commonwealth Solicitor-General) by Billy Hughes, who had since become Prime Minister. The creation of the office and Garran's appointment to it was to some degree recognition of his existing role as Permanent Head of the Attorney-General's Department, in which Garran gave legal advice to several successive governments, but it also represented a formal delegation of many of the powers and functions formerly exercised by the Attorney-General.
Garran developed a strong relationship with Hughes, giving him legal advice on the 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...
conscription plebiscites and on the range of regulation
Regulation
Regulation is administrative legislation that constitutes or constrains rights and allocates responsibilities. It can be distinguished from primary legislation on the one hand and judge-made law on the other...
s which were made under the War Precautions Act 1914
War Precautions Act 1914
The War Precautions Act 1914 was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which gave the Government of Australia special powers for the duration of World War I and for six months afterwards.-Provisions:...
. The War Precautions Regulations had a broad scope, and were generally supported by the High Court, which adopted a much more flexible approach to the reach of the Commonwealth's defence power
Section 51(vi) of the Australian Constitution
Section 51 of the Australian Constitution, commonly called the defence power, is a subsection of Section 51 of the Australian Constitution that gives the Commonwealth Parliament the right to legislate with respect to "the naval and military defence of the Commonwealth and of the several States, and...
during wartime. A substantial amount of Garran's work during the war involved preparing and carrying out the regulations. Many of them were directed at maximising the economic aspect of the war effort and ensuring supplies of goods to Australian troops; others were directed at controlling citizens or former citizens of the enemy Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
living in Australia. On one occasion, when Hughes had been informed that at a party hosted by a German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
man, the band had played "Das Lied der Deutschen
Das Lied der Deutschen
The "'" , has been used wholly or partially as the national anthem of Germany since 1922. The music was written by Joseph Haydn in 1797 as an anthem for the birthday of the Austrian Emperor Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire...
", Hughes asked Garran "By the way, what is this tune?" to which Garran replied that it was Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
's melody to "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser
Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser
Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser was an anthem to Francis II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and later of Austria. Lorenz Leopold Haschka wrote the lyrics, and Joseph Haydn composed the melody...
", and as it was used as the tune to several hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
s "it was probably sung in half a dozen churches in Sydney last Sunday." Hughes then said "Good Heavens! I have played that thing with one finger hundreds of times."
The partnership between Garran and Hughes is regarded by some as unusual, given that Garran was "tall, gentlemanly, wise and scholarly", and patient with his staff, whereas Hughes was "short of stature [and] renowned for bursts of temper." Nevertheless, the partnership was a successful one, with Hughes recognising the importance of Garran's constitutional expertise, remarking once about the World War I period that "the best way to govern Australia was to have Sir Robert Garran at [my] elbow, with a fountain pen and a blank sheet of paper, and the War Precautions Act." Likewise, Garran respected Hughes' strong leadership style, which had been important in guiding the country through the war, although in describing the Nationalist Party
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...
's loss in the 1922 federal election
Australian federal election, 1922
Federal elections were held in Australia on 16 December 1922. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes lost its majority...
, Garran later said that "Hughes also overestimated his own hold on Parliament [although] his hold on the people was probably undiminished."
Garran accompanied Hughes and Joseph Cook
Joseph Cook
Sir Joseph Cook, GCMG was an Australian politician and the sixth Prime Minister of Australia. Born as Joseph Cooke and working in the coal mines of Silverdale, Staffordshire during his early life, he emigrated to Lithgow, New South Wales during the late 1880s, and became General-Secretary of the...
(then the Minister for the Navy) to the 1917 and 1918 meetings of the Imperial War Cabinet
Imperial War Cabinet
The Imperial War Cabinet was created by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George in the spring of 1917 as a means of co-ordinating the British Empire's military policy during the First World War...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, United Kingdom, and was also part of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
delegation to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France. There he was on several of the treaty drafting committees, and contributed to many provisions, notably the portions of the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
Covenant relating to League of Nations mandate
League of Nations mandate
A League of Nations mandate was a legal status for certain territories transferred from the control of one country to another following World War I, or the legal instruments that contained the internationally agreed-upon terms for administering the territory on behalf of the League...
s. Though focusing mainly on League of Nations matters, Garran and John Latham
John Latham (Australian jurist)
Sir John Greig Latham GCMG QC was an Australian judge and politician who served as fifth Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia for seventeen years, from 1935 to 1952.-Biography:...
(the head of Australian Naval Intelligence) had the status of technical advisers to Hughes and Cook, and so could attend the main conference and any of the associated councils. Observing the proceedings, Garran admired the "moral and physical courage" of French premier Georges Clemenceau
Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau was a French statesman, physician and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920. For nearly the final year of World War I he led France, and was one of the major voices behind the Treaty of Versailles at the...
, whom he regarded as determined to protect France from Germany but in a measured and temperate way; in Garran's words, Clemenceau "always withstood the excessive demands of the French chauvinists, of the French army, and of Foch
Ferdinand Foch
Ferdinand Foch , GCB, OM, DSO was a French soldier, war hero, military theorist, and writer credited with possessing "the most original and subtle mind in the French army" in the early 20th century. He served as general in the French army during World War I and was made Marshal of France in its...
himself." Garran viewed some similarities between British Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
and United States President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
where others saw only differences, since Lloyd George "also had a strong vein of idealism in his character", and Wilson could be pragmatic when the situation called for it, such as in discussions relating to American interests. Garran also met other political and military leaders at the conference, including T. E. Lawrence
T. E. Lawrence
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO , known professionally as T. E. Lawrence, was a British Army officer renowned especially for his liaison role during the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule of 1916–18...
, "an Oxford
Jesus College, Oxford
Jesus College is one of the colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship Street, Cornmarket Street and Market Street...
youth of 29 – he looks 18", who was modest and "without any affectation... in a company of two or three [he] could talk very interestingly, but at a larger gathering he was apt to be dumb."
Following the war, Garran worked with Professor Harrison Moore of the University of Melbourne and South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
n judge Professor Jethro Brown on a report about proposed constitutional amendments which ultimately became the referendum questions put forward in the 1919 referendum
Australian referendum, 1919
The 1919 Australian Referendum was held on 13 December 1919. It contained two referendum questions.* Legislative Powers * Nationalisation of Monopolies ...
. Garran had been made a Knight Bachelor
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
in 1917 and was appointed as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1920. Garran attended two Imperial Conferences, accompanying Prime Minister Stanley Bruce
Stanley Bruce
Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, CH, MC, FRS, PC , was an Australian politician and diplomat, and the eighth Prime Minister of Australia. He was the second Australian granted an hereditary peerage of the United Kingdom, but the first whose peerage was formally created...
in 1923 and in 1930 joining Prime Minister James Scullin
James Scullin
James Henry Scullin , Australian Labor politician and the ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Two days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurred, marking the beginning of the Great Depression and subsequent Great Depression in Australia.-Early life:Scullin was...
and Attorney-General Frank Brennan
Frank Brennan (Australian politician)
Francis Brennan was an Australian lawyer and Australian Labor Party politician.Brennan was born at Upper Emu Creek near Bendigo, Victoria and was a younger brother of Tom Brennan, later an assistant minister in the conservative Lyons government. He studied law at the University of Melbourne and...
, chair of the Drafting Committee which prepared drafts of agreements on various topics, such as merchant shipping. He also attended the eleventh League of Nations conference that year with them in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. At the Royal Commission on the Constitution in 1927, Garran was invited to give evidence by Prime Minister Bruce, where he discussed the history and origins of the Constitution and the evolution of the institutions established under it.
Through the 1920s and early 1930s, Garran prepared annual summaries of legislative developments in Australia, highlighting important individual pieces of legislation for the Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law (now known as the International and Comparative Law Quarterly) published by Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
.
Towards the end of his time as Solicitor-General, Garran's work included the preparation of the Debt Conversion Agreement between the Government of Australia and the governments of the states
States and territories of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a union of six states and various territories. The Australian mainland is made up of five states and three territories, with the sixth state of Tasmania being made up of islands. In addition there are six island territories, known as external territories, and a...
, which involved the federal government taking over and managing the debts of the individual states, following the 1928 referendum
Australian referendum, 1928
The referendum of the 17 November 1928 approved an amendment to the Australian constitution concerning financial relations between the Commonwealth of Australia and its states...
.
In 1927, Garran had moved from his home in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
to the newly established capital Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
, one of the first public officials to do so (many government departments and their public servants did not move to Canberra until after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
). He also worked within the Government to facilitate housing in Canberra for officials moving from other cities, and was involved in establishing cultural organisations in the city. In 1928 he was the inaugural President of the Canberra Rotary Club
Rotary International
Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help...
. In 1929, he formed the Canberra University Association in order to promote the formation of a university in Canberra, and in 1930 organised the establishment of Canberra University College
Canberra University College
Canberra University College was a tertiary education institution established in Canberra by the Australian government and the University of Melbourne in 1930...
(essentially a campus of the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
) which taught undergraduate courses, chairing its council for its first twenty-three years. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Garran "consistently advocated the establishment of what he prophetically called 'a National University at Canberra' ", which would be primarily for specialist research and postgraduate study, in areas particularly relating to Australia, such as foreign relations with Asia and the Pacific region. This vision was evidently influential on the establishment of the Australian National University
Australian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
(ANU) in 1946, the only research-only university in the country (although in 1960 it amalgamated with Canberra University College to offer undergraduate courses).
Retirement
Garran retired from his governmental positions on 9 February 1932, a fixed retirement date on the day before his sixty-fifth birthday. He soon returned to practise as a barrister, and within a month he was made a King's Counsel (KC). However, he occasionally carried out more prominent work. In 1932, he was selected on the advice of now Attorney-General John Latham to chair the Indian Defence Expenditure Tribunal, to advise on the dispute between India and the United Kingdom regarding the costs of the military defence of India. In 1934, along with John KeatingJohn Keating (Australian politician)
John Henry Keating was an Australian politician.Keating was born in Hobart and educated at Officer College, Hobart, Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview, Sydney and the University of Tasmania where he received a Bachelor of Laws in 1896...
, William Somerville
William Somerville
William Somerville may refer to:*William Somervile , English poet, also written as William Somerville*William E. Somerville a Scottish aircraft engineer*William Somerville...
and David Gilbert
David Gilbert
David Gilbert is an American radical leftist organizer and activist who is currently imprisoned at Auburn Correctional Facility. Gilbert was a founding member of Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society and member of the Weather Underground Organization...
, he formed a committee which prepared The Case for Union, the Government of Australia
Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states...
's official reply to the secessionist movement
Secessionism in Western Australia
Secessionism has been a recurring feature of Western Australia's political landscape since shortly after European settlement in 1829. The idea of self governance or secession has often been discussed through local newspaper articles and editorials and on a number of occasions has surfaced as very...
in the state of 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...
.
Garran was also involved with the arts; he was the vice-president of the Canberra Musical Society, where he sang and played the clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
, and in 1946 won a national song competition run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
. Garran also published translations of Heinrich Heine
Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
's 1827 work Buch der Lieder ("Book of Songs") in 1924, and of the works of Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
and Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
in 1946.
In 1937, Garran was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG), the third time he had been knighted. Shortly after the establishment of the ANU in 1946, Garran became its first graduate when he was awarded an honorary doctorate
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
of laws. He had already been awarded such an honorary doctorate from the University of Melbourne in 1937 and later receiving one from his alma mater
Alma mater
Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...
, the University of Sydney in 1952. Garran served on ANU's council from 1946 until 1951. Garran's influence on Canberra is remembered by the naming of the suburb of Garran, Australian Capital Territory
Garran, Australian Capital Territory
Garran is a suburb in the Woden district of Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory. Garran was named after Sir Robert Garran who made numerous contributions to the development of higher education in Canberra. The streets in Garran are named after Australian writers. On Census night 2006,...
, and his link with ANU is remembered by the naming of a chair
Chair (official)
The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chairman presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an...
in the university's School of Law, by the naming of the hall of residence Burton & Garran Hall
Burton & Garran Hall
Burton and Garran Hall is a residential college of the Australian National University, in Canberra, Australia. It houses approximately 500 students and consists of five blocks....
and by the naming of Garran house at Canberra Grammar School
Canberra Grammar School
Canberra Grammar School is an independent, day and boarding school for boys, located in Red Hill, a suburb of Canberra, the capital of Australia....
for his work with that school.
Garran died in 1957 in Canberra. He was granted a state funeral
State funeral
A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of protocol, held to honor heads of state or other important people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive elements of military tradition...
, the first given to a public servant of the Government of Australia. He was survived by his four sons; his wife Hilda had died in 1936. His memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
s, Prosper the Commonwealth, were published posthumously in 1958, having been completed shortly before his death.
Legacy
Garran's "personality, like his prose, was devoid of pedantry and pomposity and, though dignified, was laced with a quizzical turn of humour." His death "marked the end of a generation of public men for whom the cultural and the political were natural extensions of each other and who had the skills and talents to make such connections effortlessly." At his death, Garran was one of the last remaining of the people involved with the creation of the Constitution of Australia.Former Prime Minister John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
, in describing Garran, said:
"I wonder though if we sometimes underestimate the changes, excitements, disruptions and adjustments previous generations have experienced. Sir Robert Garran knew the promise and reality of federation. He was part of the establishment of a public service which, in many ways, is clearly recognisable today."
Garran's friend Charles Daley, a long time civic administrator of the Australian Capital Territory
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory...
, emphasised Garran's contribution to the early development of the city of Canberra, particularly its cultural life, remarking at a celebratory dinner for Garran in 1954 that:
"There has hardly been a cultural movement in this city with which Sir Robert has not been identified in loyal and inspiring support, as his constant aim has been that Canberra should be not only a great political centre but also a shrine to foster those things that stimulate and enrich our national life... his name will ever be inscribed in the annals, not only of Canberra, but of the Commonwealth as clarum et venerabile nomen gentibus.
However Garran is perhaps best remembered as an expert on constitutional law, more so than for his other contributions to public service. On his experience of Federation and the Constitution, Garran was always enthusiastic:
"I'm often asked 'has federation turned out as you expected?' Well yes and no. By and large the sort of thing we expected has happened but with differences. We knew the constitution was not perfect; it had to be a compromise with all the faults of a compromise... But, in spite of the unforeseen [sic] strains and stresses, the constitution has worked, on the whole, much as we thought it would. I think it now needs revision, to meet the needs of a changed world. But no-one could wish the work undone, who tries to imagine, what, in these stormy days, would have been the plight of six disunited Australian colonies."
Memorials
The CanberraCanberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
suburb of Garran
Garran, Australian Capital Territory
Garran is a suburb in the Woden district of Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory. Garran was named after Sir Robert Garran who made numerous contributions to the development of higher education in Canberra. The streets in Garran are named after Australian writers. On Census night 2006,...
, established in 1966, was named after him.
In 1983, the former Patent Office building - now occupied by the Federal Attorney General's Department - was renamed Robert Garran Offices. The art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
building is within the Parliamentary Triangle of Canberra, and was constructed in 1932 at the corner of Kings Avenue
Kings Avenue, Canberra
Kings Avenue is a road in Canberra which goes between New Parliament House , across Lake Burley Griffin at the Kings Avenue Bridge , to Russell near the Australian-American Monument ....
and National Circuit, in Parkes, Australian Capital Territory
Parkes, Australian Capital Territory
Parkes is an inner suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Located south of the Canberra CBD, Parkes contains the Parliamentary Triangle area. On Census night 2006, Parkes had a population of 4 people....
.