History of West Australia/Henry Briggs

by Warren Bert Kimberly

HENRY BRIGGS, J.P., M.L.C.

ACCORDING to Carlyle, a dominant force in every civilisation is the teaching class—priests and schoolmasters. The great mass of people in a nation must be taught those useful lessons which stimulate reason, and separate modern individuals from the primitive and hazy understanding of old time worshippers of mythology. The latter wandered idly over the face of the country, and knew not of the natural laws which caused the sky to cloud and open in great peals of thunder and dazzling lines of instantaneous light. They observed streams flow from the mountain sides, cereals spring into beneficent fruit, a great ball daily rise in the light east and set some hours later in the dark west, floods roar in resistless anger; and unseen winds passed them from the distant unknown, going to their homes in the equally dim yon, making trees to groan and creak, catching up rustling leaves, and tearing, and rolling, and lifting them hither and thither into the unseen. All these things betokened in their sight voices of the gods, some of divine anger, some of omnipotent approval. They were ignorant of all nature's eternal forces, and hence imputed them to greater beings or spirits which, inhabiting the air about them, constantly watched their every action. Did they pray for propitiation of their chief god, sometimes he acquiesced, and sometimes "their unavailing prayer great Jove refused, and tossed in empty air. The "red comet,"

"A fatal sign to armies on the plain,
Or trembling sailors on the wintry main;
With sweeping glories glides along in air,
And shakes the sparkles from its blazing hair."

was to them an indication of retribution which gods in council had decided to mete out to their poor ignorant selves.

Even now, when we consider ourselves so widely wise, "we wretched mortals! lest in doubts below, but guess by rumour, and but boast we know," and therefore are as little children entering into youth with everything to learn. But our ancestors have learnt something, and our priests and schoolmasters impart that little to us. They prepare us with the information which places us on some equality with our fellows, and enables us to do battle with them in our daily routine.

Western Australia during its short history has felt the influence of the teaching class. Her sons, judging by their success in public affairs, have learnt lessons of wisdom from their masters, which have fitted them to cope with the general requirements of civilisation. Priests and schoolmasters have formed no inconsiderable force in her peoples, and their insinuating influence has been ever present. Mr. Henry Briggs, J.P., M.L.C., has for many years been quietly and effectively engaged in this colony in impressing on the receptive, mobile brain of youth sweet incipient knowledge. Recently he carried his useful work farther into the heart of the colony's interests in that gathering of senators—the Legislative Council.

Henry Briggs is a native of Kettering, Northamptonshire, England, and was born in 1844. His youthful studies were carried on at Leicester, under Canon Fry, and at the age of nineteen years he gained the Queen's Scholarship which entitled him to go to St. Mark's College, Chelsea. Graduating from the pupil stage he became head master of the College of Model Schools, and conducted those duties for three years. Thereupon he removed to that old endowed school, the Mottram Grammar School, of which he was head master for twelve years. For some time also he was a science lecturer in mathematics and theoretical mechanics at South Kensington.

When in the prime of manhood, in 1882, he came to Western Australia and established at Fremantle the Fremantle Grammar School, since become one o the chief educational institutions the colony possesses. His original complement of scholars numbered 29, but at present he has 120 under him, including 25 boarders. There he has been enabled to tutor many promising young colonials, and his curriculum falls little short of that at the best schools in England. By this means our youth have the undoubted advantage of an education similar to that given to their cousins in the old country. The experience gained by Mr. Briggs in the different and onerous positions he held previous to taking up his residence here makes him a citizen of uncommon recommendations.

In June, 1896, a writ was issued to fill a vacancy in the West Province of the Legislative Council caused by the resignation of Mr. E. W. Davies. A well-contested election was held on the 30th June, when prominent local candidates opposed each other. Mr. Briggs was among the number, and his election speeches made a strong impression on electors, as well for the common sense ideas he enunciated as their apparent suitability to the general requirements of the colony. On polling day Mr. Briggs was found to have a majority of 200 votes over the second candidate. At the 1896 session of Parliament, Mr. Briggs opened his Parliamentary career by moving the address in reply to the Governor's Speech, and has since, quietly but sedulously, made his influence felt on all momentous questions, and something is anticipated from his political career. Mr. Briggs was created a Justice of the Peace in 1895. He is a member of the Examining Board of the Education Department; and when the Chamber of Commerce was resuscitated in 1883 he became its first secretary. He occupied that important position until 1895. With Freemasonry Mr. Briggs has had an extended connection, He is a P.M. and P.Z. of the Fremantle Lodge 1033, E.C., and about 1885 took the preliminary steps in the creation of the Royal Arch Chapter of Freemasonry in Western Australia.

The foregoing is sufficient to show what position Mr. H. Briggs, M.L.C., holds among the teaching class of this colony. That he has made his individuality strongly felt in Western Australia goes without saying, and throughout Fremantle, where he is best known, he holds the confidence of all citizens. Light-hearted, and yet didactic, by nature, and of a generous temperament, he has the qualities which tend to make a man popular.