[PEAKE, Archibald Henry]

'Arrival of the Hon. A.H. Peake, the Premier of South Australia and Party at Manchester on 7th April 1913' [a vintage photograph]

Manchester, Mack & Co. [Photographers], 1913.

A gelatin silver photograph (image size 240 × 283 mm, on the original mount, external dimensions 375 × 455 mm); the caption is in white ink in a calligraphic hand below the image; the details of the photographic studio are printed below an embossed printed border. The mount is a little rubbed and worn at the extremities, with a small sealed crack to one margin; there is minor surface damage to the mount (well clear of the image and caption) where an old window mat has been removed; the image has a few tiny surface blemishes near the bottom edge, but overall it is in excellent condition.

At the time, Archibald Henry Peake (1859-1920) was the Premier of South Australia, a position he held on three occasions (1909-1910, 1912-1915 and 1917-1920). He died in office on 6 April 1920. In 1912, 'the Liberals won an eight-seat majority ... Peake again became premier, treasurer and minister of education. His government concentrated on constructing rural railway lines, often against expert advice. Most proved uneconomic, impoverishing the railways for years. In 1912 the government created the Industrial Arbitration Court; in return for the introduction by it of a minimum wage, workers lost the right to strike or to engage in any activity which might prolong a strike. Six o'clock closing of hotels was carried at a plebiscite simultaneously with the 1915 election, and remained for over fifty years. Peake's government liberalized the franchise for the Legislative Council. In London in 1913 Peake had an audience with King George V and recorded his experiences in "Notes from a Diary" (1914). The ministry's major achievement was its arrangement in 1914, with the Federal, New South Wales, and Victorian governments, for the locking of the Murray River: the River Murray Commission carried out the co-ordinating agreement' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography'). The nature of this item (and the fact that we purchased it with other photographs identified as such) suggest strongly that it was originally in the possession of Peake himself.

Item #114191

Price (AUD): $750.00
other currencies