THE CHARTIST

James Service (1832-1899)

'Let our motto be Equal rights to all, Special privileges to none.'

James Service 1871

James Service is not buried in St Kilda Cemetery but deserves attention as a former resident of St Kilda. Like his father and uncle, he was a 'red-hot chartist radical' who rose to become one of the most influential democrats in Victorian and indeed Australian politics. In the view of some, he rivals Henry Parkes for the claim as the father of Australian federation.

On arriving from Scotland in 1853 he spent his first weeks in 'Canvas Town'. He soon became a prominent campaigner for the separation of Emerald Hill (later South Melbourne) from Melbourne Council and its first chairman or mayor. A crowd summoned by the fire-bell rung by John Nimmo saved his furniture from the bailiffs when he refused to pay rates on principle.

Elected to Parliament in 1857 he campaigned against the land monopoly of the squatters but was stymied by the Upper House. He was also a strong supporter of equality of opportunity, supporting trade unions, the eight-hour movement, early shop closing and was a founding chairman of the Alfred Hospital. A successful and fighting free trader, he helped found the Commercial Bank of Australia. James Service & Co., on the corner of Williams and Collins was an agent for Robur tea, Bryant & May and the Standard Oil Co. of New York.

As an articulate supporter of the separation of church and state he earned the wrath of Catholic voters. He argued to 'place our state education on a purely secular basis and let the words Protestant and Catholic be heard no more as watchwords of strife and dissension in our political assemblies' (Duffy, Mulquin)

He became treasurer in 1874 and premier in 1880 for a six-month period. In 1883, a second term as premier and treasurer, saw the implementation of far reaching legislation reforming the civil service and railways, implementing the Factories Act and legalising trade unions. He made a profound impression on a young MP, Alfred Deakin, who described him as a 'sturdy stiff-necked, indomitable and canny Scot'.

His second term also dragged the Australian colonies onto the international stage and originated the first sustained campaign for federal union. He fought with London for Australia's regional interests in the Pacific particularly in New Hebrides and New Guinea and largely created the Federal Council seeking ultimately the grand confederation of the Australian colonies. He was an ally of Deakin at the London Colonial conference in 1887. He resigned in 1885 though later occupied a seat in the Legislative Council as a popular senior statesman.

When he died in 1899 the funeral procession from his home in Balaclava Road to Melbourne General Cemetery stretched for one and a half miles. Service was enormously respected for his active and dominant role in Victorian and national affairs and enjoyed public confidence like few Victorian politicians since.