James Boucaut, South Australia premier in 1866-67 1875-76 1877-78, pushes for big spending on rail and other works

James Penn Boucaut went from being premier to a supreme court judge in 1878.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia
 

James Penn Boucaut (pronounced “Boco”), South Australian premier 1866-67 1875-76  and 1877-78, migrated to the colony in 1846 with his father and mother (a staunch Anglican who said she was related to the founder of Pennsylvania). After working as a stockman, Boucaut turned to the law and was admitted to the bar in 1855.

In 1861, Boucaut won a House of Assembly byelection for the City of Adelaide seat, supported by the working class Political Association, formed to oppose immigration at public expense.

As a radical in the House of Assembly, he strongly opposed plural votes for property owners. In the 1862 election, the return of prosperity and the Political Association’s collapse contributed to his narrow defeat.

In 1865, attempts by squatters to avoid surveyor-general George Goyder’s rent revaluations of pastoral leases led to Henry Ayers government’s dissolution. Boucaut topped the poll for West Adelaide with attacks on the political morals of “the silver-tongued gentleman of North Terrace” and support for a liberal land policy and moderate protection of native industries.

Severe northern drought convinced Boucaut of the need for relief for men on the land. With John Hart and John Baker, Boucaut defeated the Ayers government and in 1865 joined Hart’s ministry as attorney-general. Goyder was sent north and, after his report, parliament approved relief measures.

In 1866, John Hart resigned as premier and Boucaut formed his first ministry. With Judge Benjamin Boothby’s refusal to recognise the colony’s court of appeal, Boucaut persuaded parliament to petition the Queen to remove Boothby.

Boucaut resigned in 1867 to fight the Moonta mines case as legal adviser to the Mills syndicate who had challenged the mineral lease given to Walter Hughes.

In the 1868 election, Boucaut narrowly lost in East Adelaide but soon returned for the Burra, where his father-in-law, Alexander McCulloch, stood down in his favour.

The Mineral Leases Validating Act, passed by Henry Strangways’ government in 1868, removed technical objections to ownership of the Moonta mine. Boucaut was accused of backing Strangways in return to pass the act to secure his court costs. This damaged Boucaut who was badly defeated at Burra in 1869. In 1871, partly to answer accusers, Boucaut stood and won a by-election in West Torrens. A select committee exonerated him of “bartering his vote for pecuniary consideration”.

Appointed attorney-general in the sixth Henry Ayers ministry, James Boucaut wrote to Henry Parkes lamenting that “all political power is in the hands of a faction supported by the aristocrat club and the bank parlor”.  His elevation to Ayers’ cabinet was “a personal triumph but the intense hatred the old lot bears towards me is an index of how greatly they feel their defeat and mortification”.

In 1872-75, Boucaut was the government's chief critic. But by 1874 he began advocating big developments. He became a federalist free trader; believing “continued localism was a curse”. He looked to large public works and immigration at the public expense. In 1875, seeking an electorate less protectionist than West Torrens, he stood for Encounter Bay and won.

In 1875, Boucaut formed his second ministry, taking charge himself of crown lands and immigration. His policies marked an end to the 1860s caution.  He emphasised the opening country areas by better transport for wheat, wine, olive oil and other produce. He proposed to borrow £3,000,000 to build railways, including to the north and to the River Murray, and for other works including a breakwater at Victor Harbor. A new tax would pay the loan interest. Despite support in the House of Assembly, the press and petitions, the Legislative Council rejected the stamp duties bill six votes to five.

Boucaut’s ministry gave South Australia free, secular and compulsory education. A reformed Boucaut ministry was defeated in 1876 after the attorney-general Samuel Way was appointed chief justice. Boucaut's works plan, which brought breadth and fame to South Australian politics, was not lost entirely. The next ministry, under John Colton in 1876, started the railway programme and more progress was made when Boucaut, as treasurer, formed his third ministry in 1877.

In 1875, Boucaut was appointed a QC and in 1878 was made a puisne judge of the supreme court. In his 27 years on the court, Boucaut acted several times as deputy-governor and chief justice. He continued to support federation.