James Baker

Ballarat School of Mines Council Agenda, 1871,University of Ballarat Historical Collection (Cat. No. 502-14 )

History

James Baker was the secretary for the Horn of Plenty Co., a gold mining firm, in 1860. He was elected President of the Ballarat Mining Board on 27 February 1858 and became the first Secretary of the Ballarat School of Mines in 1870.

Legacy

One of the first major moves in Ballarat to promote technical education was taken by a small group of people who established the Mechanics’ Institute in Ballarat. A general meeting of interested persons too place in the Fire Engine House in Barkly Street on 15 April 1859 “for the purpose of inaugurating the Institute” and or “receiving the report of the provisional committee” etc. A meeting of the Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute was held on Wednesday evening 20 April 1859 at the Council Chambers in Sturt Street, under the Chairmanship of Mr James Baker who was the Chairman of the Ballarat Mining Board, …

Newsworthy

The first Ballarat Mining Board was elected on the 27th February, 1858, and Messrs James Baker, John Yates, Alfred Arthur O'Connor (for Ballarat Proper), William Frazor, Robert Lamb (for Buninyong), Duncan Gillies, Robert Critchley (for Smythesdale), Joseph Reed (for Creswick), — Martin (for Blackwood), and William Butcher (for Slieglitz) were the members, James Baker being chosen chairman. Mr Harrie Wood was appointed clerk, and he has held the office ever since. The first meeting of the board was on the 9th March, 1858. The Local Court members were remunerated by the fees paid in the cases brought before the courts in their judicial capacity. The Mining Boards receive each a Government subsidy of £500 a-year. The courts were more intensely local bodies than are the boards. The boards preside over and legislate for large districts, but the courts had very small areas of jurisdiction, nearly every mining centre, small or large, having its own court and its own regulations.

In looking at the mixed powers of the Local Courts and their great number, we see the cause of their abolition. The conjunction, of the legislative and judicial functions did not work satisfactorily, and the multiplicity of courts being followed by a multitude of varying regulations, another element of dissatisfaction was found to quicken the desire for further reform. Hence arose the present-Mining Boards and Courts of Mines, the former legislating for districts in which previously, per chance, half a score of Local Courts had exercised their anomalous union of jurisdictions, and the latter exercising judicial functions over areas coterminous with the mining board districts.

See also

Ballarat Mining Board

Ballarat Mining Institute

Ballarat School of Mines

External links

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--Beth Kicinski 12:49, 18 January 2013 (EST)