James Jefferis and John Cox Bray early South Australian advocates in the 1870s/80s for an Australian federation
South Australian Congregational church minister James Jefferis (left) was called the "prophet of federation" for his advocacy going back to the 1870s. Former premier John Cox Bray chaired a national conference he called in 1888 for the Australian Natives’ Association to consider the best scheme for a federal government and parliament.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia
In 1888, John Cox Bray, former South Australian premier and the president of the province’s branch of the Australian Natives’ Association, persuaded branches in other colonies to hold an Australian conference to consider the best scheme for a federal government and parliament.
This led to a national conference (chaired by Bray) on the possible contents of a federal constitution. This important step was taken 11 months before Henry Parkes – called the “father of federation” – made a similar first move in New South Wales.
South Australian Congregational church minister James Jefferis has been called the “prophet of federation” in arguing for it in the 1870s in leading articles in The Advertiser newspaper in Adelaide. Jefferis saw Australia destined to be a nobler nation spreading Christianity, civilisation and liberty throughout the southern seas. Although an idealist, his study of constitutional law and America and Canada federal history equipped him for the practical issues.
In a lecture at Adelaide Town Hall in 1880, published as Australia Confederated, Jefferis rejected Parkes's 1879 proposal for a legislative union and advocated the Canadian constitution as the “safest” example. He repeated the lecture in Sydney in 1883. Back in Adelaide, Jefferis supported the federal movement with more lectures and sermons and enlisted the support of the South Australian council of churches, that he had helped form in 1896, in the 1898 campaign for a yes vote.
South Australia continued to be the major player in the notion of a nation becoming concrete in the federating of all Australian colonies in 1901. All South Australian delegates support the final resolutions of the 1897-98 federation convention. Although they disagreed about some details they wanted in the federal constitution, politicians from both sides of South Australian politics supported federation.
With this political leadership, South Australia’s populace strongly supported federation in the two referendums. In 1898 and the great referendum of 1899, almost 80% of enfranchised South Australians voted yes for the draft constitution of an Australian commonwealth. South Australia became a state of Australia on January 1, 1901.
