With his experience, personal charm and the authority of the British Government, His Excellency was in a position to
exercise considerable personal influence in the early days of
1. C.O. 418/8/28560, folio 463. Minute by Anderson.
2. Federal Executive Council Minute Book, 1 January 1901. Prime Minister's Department, Correspondence File CP 451, series 1, p. 1. C.A.O.
3. As a young and newly arrived Governor he had been present at the banquet in Melbourne during 1890 when Parkes had invoked the 'crimson thread of kinship' in support of federation. Age, 7 February 1890.
the Commonwealth Government. On one occasion Lyne came to him complaining that the 'Victorian combination' in the Cabinet
'disregard him and treat him with contempt'. The Governor- General listened sympathetically to his problems, and later informed Barton: 'I smoothed him over
It was important that the relationship of Governor- General with his Executive Council be close and cooperative. Even more crucial was the association of Governor-General with his Prime Minister. If His Excellency were to exercise any personal influence in the Commonwealth this association was of the greatest significance. Not only was Barton his chief
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adviser but he was also Minister for External Affairs. As all relations with the mother country were conducted through the office of Governor-General there needed to be sympathy and understanding between the Representative of the Crown and the Prime Minister. Yet, at the beginning, it is likely that
there was a little coolness between them. Barton had expected to be offered the first chance to choose a Cabinet; his
friends had encouraged him to hope so and the Australian press had anticipated it. Hopetoun's action in overlooking him in
favour of a man who had been a consistent opponent of federation had injured Barton's dignity and sense of justice. But
1. Hopetoun to Barton, undated by the writer but endorsed '8 May '02' probably by Barton. This seems likely to be the correct date since the letter is written on
Government House, Adelaide notepaper and Barton has noted in pencil that it was received 'on the eve of my departure for England/Imperial Conference & Coronation of King
Edward VII'. Barton papers, MS 51/503. A.N.L.
2. He had taken the External Affairs portfolio on Deakin's recommendation. See La Nauze, Alfred Deakin, 1, p. 262.
Hopetoun's personal charm and urbanity was particularly appropriate for dealing with someone of Barton's
temperament and fondness for high living.^ The Governor- General's attentiveness and Barton's natural respect for a British nobleman soon established a friendly working
relationship.
A celebratory Banquet in Sydney Town Hall was planned to complete the Inauguration Day ceremonies but Hopetoun was too exhausted to attend. His expression of regret was genuine, for such functions were, he realized, seminal to the role of Governor-General in Australia. He later wrote: 'My job may not require extreme cleverness but it does want a reasonably
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sound stomach & lots of energy'. Attendance at Executive Council meetings provided, at the very most, knowledge of the details of the Australian administration but presented little opportunity for the Queen's Representative to influence events or policies. A more likely avenue of influence was in
personal contact outside the Council with the leading public men. Banquets and public functions enabled the Governor-
General to meet and converse casually with prominent men in Australia while small private dinners at Government House
provided opportunities for more serious conversation. Hopetoun made use of these avenues of contact early in his tenure of
1. For a sympathetic biography of Barton see John Reynolds, Edmund Barton (Sydney, 1948). Barton's fondness for high living was notorious, George Cockerill, Scribblers and Statesmen (Melbourne, 1944), p. 97 comments upon this, while the Bulletin constantly referred to him as
'Toby Tosspot'.
2. Hopetoun to Barton, 27 July 1901. Barton papers, MS 51/414.
office. Reid, as well as Barton was a popular figure at Government House while Hopetoun stayed in Sydney. The Prime Minister held office only until the election in April and there was every possibility that the Australian public might prefer another man. Dinners and banquets ensured that the Governor-General was in touch with the leading political figures whether in or out of office.
In the first weeks of the Commonwealth His Excellency came almost daily to the closed-in verandah of one of the State
Government Departments in Sydney where the Prime Minister had his office. In this informal atmosphere they discussed
affairs.^- While Barton had little experience of government office Hopetoun had presided at Melbourne during the disturbed times of the depression when Victorian Ministries had been short-lived. The experienced Representative of the Crown was a sympathetic counsellor removed from the strains of party
and personal allegencies. Barton had many problems in handling a cabinet of colleagues who were used to exacting obedience rather than offering it. Hopetoun's expressed intent of
'lubricating' the machinery of the new Commonwealth was evident in his close and sympathetic relationship with the first, perhaps the weakest, of Australia's Prime Ministers.
The weeks after the Inaugural festivities were occupied with establishing the departmental machinery of the new
Commonwealth. One department not mentioned in the Constitution, though its existence was assumed, had already been set up. The
1. Atlee Hunt,'Federal Memories' in Argus, 5 December 1931. See too, Reynolds, Edmund Barton, p. 173. Hunt was
Barton's Private Secretary, 1901, and Secretary of the Department of External Affairs 1901-1917.
Office of the Governor-General was to be the Australian Government's channel of communication with Britain and, consequently, with other nations. The ultimate
responsibility for this correspondence was the Governor- General's, but the man with direct control was his Private Secretary, Captain Edward W. Wallington.'*'
Wallington was a discreet, experienced Englishman who had hovered around on the periphery of public affairs for fifteen years. As Private Secretary to Carrington and Jersey in New South Wales, Hopetoun and Brassey in Victoria and
Tennyson in South Australia, he had acquired an invaluable acquaintance with most of the public men in Australia and one of Hopetoun's early actions as Governor-General had been to secure his services. Deferential and tactful, Wallington had earned the nickname 'Mr Better-Not' for his tendency to dissuade newly arrived Governors from engaging in over-
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ambitious schemes. His experience in the formal and
ceremonial elements of colonial government was unsurpassed and his knowledge of the conduct of correspondence with the Colonial Office expert. As Hopetoun's Secretary he was
responsible for both private correspondence and the drafting, de-coding and encoding of official despatches. When, after a
few weeks, the temporary clerk to the Federal Executive Council returned to his position in New South Wales, Wallington took
1. Later Sir Edward Wallington. See Who Was Who, 1929-1940,
pp. 1407-1408. ---
2. On being told how 'a certain Australian Governor had run amok' Carrington was said to have commented: 'He
wouldn't have run off the track if Wallington had been driving'. Daily Telegraph, 13 May 1901.
took over his duties as Acting Secretary.^
The situation posed problems for the future. It was inappropriate that the Governor-General's Private Secretary, an officer with no responsibility to the Australian Parliament, should be in charge of the public business of the Commonwealth. The situation was allowed to arise through the inexperience of Barton. Wallington's quiet efficiency and the graceful
condescension of Hopetoun in sparing his secretary concealed the parliamentary pitfalls in the situation. Another problem was payment. Primarily Wallington was employed by Hopetoun
and received a salary in that capacity. However he was also carrying out public duties for which the Commonwealth might be expected to pay. The question of an allowance for the Governor-General had been left disconcertingly vague.
Wallington's salary became involved in the difficult problem of providing for the official expenses of the Representative of the Crown in the Commonwealth. For the time being an
allowance of £150 per annum was provided to pay for his duties 2
as Secretary to the Federal Executive Council.
By early February the Governor-General's Office had been organized sufficiently for Ho p e t o u n 's attention to have been drawn to a matter which was disturbing the smooth efficiency
1. For an excellent, brief administrative history of the office of the Secretary to the Federal Executive Council and Official Secretary to the Governor-General see A.I. Diamond, History of the office of the Governor-General and of the Federal Executive Council. Inventory No. 4. C.A.O.
of Wellington's unofficial department. On 9 February Hopetoun wrote to the Governors of South Australia and Queensland
requesting that they comply with an instruction of the Secretary of State, which required them to supply the
Governor-General with copies of their correspondence with the Imperial Government.'*- This request aroused a hornet's nest, reviving a controversy which was to cause difficulties for successive Governors-General.
In the Draft Constitution of 1891 there had been a
clause providing that the Governor-General should be the sole channel of communication between the States and the Imperial Government. Although both Deakin and Barton urged its
retention, the clause was ommited both from the 1897 Draft, and the final Constitution. Nevertheless, Chamberlain
decided in September 1900 that, for the Governor-General to be in a position to discharge his duties satisfactorily, he should be aware of correspondence passing between the State Governors and the Colonial Office. An instruction was drafted requiring State Governors to 'supply the Governor-General with copies of all despatches addressed to the Secretary of State'. This direction was conveyed to Hopetoun before he left London
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