Queensland Country
Life, Monday 1 August 1904, p. 1
LATE HON JOHN
DOUGLAS, C.M.G.
The death of the Hon. John Douglas, C.M.G., severs another of the links
that connect the present with the dim past. Mr. Douglas was closely connected
with the establishment of Queensland as a colony, he having represented Darling
Downs more than forty-five years ago in the New South Wales Parliament. He
afterwards sat for nearly twenty years as a member of one or other House of the
Queensland Legislature. He also occupied the position of Agent-General for
about two years. It is just a quarter of a century since he disappeared from
our Legislature, and entered the civil service as Government Resident at New
Guinea. With a short exception, during which he was engaged in pastoral
pursuits," Mr. Douglas spent the whole of his fifty-three years of
Australian life in the public service. As a politician he was perhaps least
successful, for, although the most scholarly member who ever sat in our
Legislature, he was not a good party man, his mind being of too judicial a cast
to enable him to win the reputation of a fighting politician. Mr. Douglas was
always connected with the Liberal party in politics, and drew down upon himself
violent animadversion from members of the old squatting party. In his earlier
days he was a charming speaker, and was always a perfect gentleman in public
life. After taking up his residence at- Thursday Island Mr. Douglas took a
great interest in New Guinea, and was strongly in favour of the provisional
annexation resolved upon by Sir Thomas Mcllwraith, which was unfortunately not
approved of by the Colonial Office, the result being the subsequent annexation
by Germany of a great part of an island the whole of which should have been an
Australian dependency. Mr. Douglas was a scholarly writer, and for many years
was a regular contributor of leading articles to the Brisbane Courier.
Altogether he was a fine specimen of a man and his death will be much regretted
by a great number or friends who, while not always agreeing with his political
opinions, all recognised his sterling integrity and public spirit.
