The Honourable Joseph William Kirton
Joseph William Kirton MLA
In office 1 April 1889 – 21 December 1921
Preceded by	Charles Jones
Succeeded by	William Collard Smith
Member of the Victorian Parliament for Ballarat West
In office 1 November 1894 – 1 May 1904
Preceded by	William Collard Smith
Succeeded by	Harry Bennett
In office 1 July 1907 – 1 December 1908
Preceded by	Harry Bennett
Succeeded by	Andrew McKissock
Personal details
Born	(1861-11-23)23 November 1861 Ballarat East, Victoria, Australia
Died	12 October 1935(1935-10-12) (aged 73) Balwyn, Australia
Political party	unalligned (1889–94) (1894–1904) (1907–08)
Spouse	Violette Finnis
Occupation	Auctioneer and Commission Agent

Joseph William Kirton (1861-1935) was an Australian politician, who after primary school was apprenticed to a trade, worked in the Victorian Post and Telegraph Department, with continued studies he became an Auctioneer and Commission Agent. He served thee terms in the Victorian Parliament and became a Director and the Chief President of the Australian Natives' Association.

Early life

Kirton was born in 1861 in Ballarat East, the son of boot-maker Emanuel Kirton and his wife Jane Milburn, both from Cumberland, England. After a primary education in Oldham's National School and its successor, the Dana Street State School in Ballarat he was apprenticed to a trade and then worked in the Post and Telegraph Department. He continued his studies with a tutor from the School of Mines, and became an Auctioneer and Commission Agent.^[1]

Family

In 1893 he married Annie Elder Thomas, who died in 1897. In 1899 he married again, Violette Finnis.^[2]

His brother, Alfred Kirton, was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly representing Mornington 1932-1947.^[2]

Beliefs

Kirton was a man of strong beliefs that were ‘matured within three powerful Ballarat institutions, the Lydiard Street Wesleyan Church Mutual Improvement Association, the Australian Natives’ Association, and the South Street Debating Society’. ‘A teetotaller and Sabbatarian, Kirton also expressed the concern of goldfields society for social justice and economic opportunity’.^[1]

Politics

Kirton represented Ballarat West in the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1889 to 1904, and from 1907 to 1908. In parliament he condemned privilege and fought against the abuse of free railway passes. He pioneered old age pensions and supported income tax, abolition of plural voting, and votes for women. He championed village settlement schemes and openly supported the right to strike. But his biographer comments that ‘as a minister ... he seemed to forget lifelong principles and by calling the rail strike of May 1903 a rebellion he so alienated ... his working-class support that he lost his seat’.^[1] There are no records of his parliamentary speeches.^[2]

He was Chairman of the 1897-98 Royal Commission on old age pensions, was a member of the Royal Commissions on gold mining (1889–91) and was a member of the Royal Commission into the factories and shops laws (1900–02)^[1]

Kirton was Chairman of the Ballarat Water Commission in 1903.^[2]

Australian Natives Association

Joseph Kirton was a long-term member of the Ballarat ANA and its president in 1890.^[3]

Becoming a director in 1892 and Chief President of the ANA in 1895, Kirton worked to achieve a democratic form of federation for Australia, with universal suffrage and limitation of the powers of the Senate. He actively supported the "Yes" campaign for Federation.^[4]

Later years

In 1911 Kirton moved to Melbourne, where he set up an estate agency and became secretary of Victorian Master Baker's Association, working with that organisation until 1921.^[1]

He died in Balwyn in 1935 survived by his second wife, two daughters and a son.^[5]

References