Item #144221 Official Record of the Proceedings and Debates of the Australasian Federation Conference, 1890, held in the Parliament House, Melbourne. Australian Federation.

[Australian Federation]

Official Record of the Proceedings and Debates of the Australasian Federation Conference, 1890, held in the Parliament House, Melbourne

Melbourne, Robert S. Brain, Government Printer, 1890 (Reprinted by Charles Potter, Government Printer, Sydney).

Octavo, [vi], x, [3]-464 pages plus a frontispiece group portrait.

Maroon stippled cloth lettered and decorated in gilt on the spine, and ruled in blind on the sides; cloth flecked, and a little rubbed and marked; front hinge expertly stabilised; minimal signs of age and use; a very good copy.

The front free endpaper is inscribed to 'the Hon Mr Justice Boucaut with kind regards. S.J. Way 20th May 1890'. Sir James Penn Boucaut (1831-1916) was Premier of South Australia on three occasions (1866 to 1867, 1875 to 1876, and 1877 to 1878); he left politics in 1878 when he was appointed a puisne judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia.

Sir Samuel James Way (1836-1916), South Australian chief justice and lieutenant-governor: in June 1875 he 'became attorney-general in (Sir) James Boucaut's ministry; when Chief Justice Sir Richard Hanson died suddenly next year, Way replaced him' ('Australian Dictionary of Biography'). Boucaut was a longtime federationist; Way took 'no official part in the Federation movement'.