"De-skilling" the 1891 censuses in New South Wales and Tasmania

Australian Journal of Politics and History

Volumn 53, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 505-518

  Maddison, Ben ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG   (Australia)

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EID: 36549027890     PISSN: 00049522     EISSN: 14678497     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8497.2007.00471.x     Document Type: Article

References (101)

1. See the following censuses: R. Mansfield, Analytical View of the Census of New South Wales for the Year 1841; With Tables Showing the Progress of the Population during the previous Twenty Years (Sydney, 1841), pp. 19-20;
2. R. Mansfield, An Analytical View of the Census of New South Wales for the Year of 1846 (Sydney, 1847), p. 111;
3. Christopher Rolleston, "1856 Census. Report to the Honourable Henry Watson Parker, Colonial Secretary", New South Wales Government Gazette, Vol. 41 (1857), p. xxvii;
4. Census of the Colony of New South Wales, taken on the 7th April, 1861 (Sydney, 1862), "Classification of Occupations", Appendix;
5. Census of 1871. Report for Registrar General (Sydney, 1873), Tables 46, 47 and 48;
6. Census of 1881, compiled by John Byron (Sydney, 1884), Table 57, p. lxx.
7. See T.A. Coghlan, The Statistician's Report on the Eleventh Census of New South Wales (Sydney, First Instalment, 1893, Second Instalment, 1894), "CLASS IV-INDUSTRIAL. Order XX", p. 275.
8. For the classification of female occupations before 1871 see Mansfield, Analytical View of the Census, 1841;
9. Mansfield, Analytical View of the Census, 1846, p. 111;
10. Rolleston, 1856 Census Report, p. xxvii;
11. 1861 Census Report, Appendix.
12. For the move towards re-classification in terms of skill see Census of 1871, p. xxvii. In this census the Registrar General, E.G. Ward, noted that "In the classification of labour amongst females the importance of dividing the skilled from the unskilled was kept in view". In the 1881 Census, Ward noted that the preceding placing of needlewomen in nonskilled categories was "obviously wrong"
13. Census of 1881, p. xliv.
14. Notably Desley Deacon, "Political Arithmetic: The Nineteenth Century Australian Census and the Construction of the Dependent Woman", Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 11, 1 (Autumn 1985).
15. For an example see the comments in Eric Fry, "The Condition of the Urban Wage Earning Class in Australia in the 1880s", PhD, Australian National University, 1956, pp. 372, 328. For a critique of the "common-sense" understanding of the evolution of the categories of skill see Ben Maddison, "Skill, Maurice Godelier and labour history" in Terry Irving, ed., Challenges to Labour History (Kensington, NSW, 1994), pp. 117-8.
16. Ray Markey, "The Aristocracy of Labour and Productive Re-organisation in NSW, c.1880-1900", Australian Economic History Review, Vol. XXVII, 1 (March 1988).
17. A key reference here is Maurice Godelier, "Work and Its Representations: a Research Proposal", History Workshop Journal, Vol. 10 (Autumn 1980).
18. See Joan Scott, "Statistical Representations of Work: The Politics of the Chamber of Commerce's Statistique de l'Industrie à Paris, 1847-48" in Stephen L. Kaplan and Cynthia J. Koepp, eds, Work in France: Representations, Meaning, Organization and Practice (London, 1986);
19. Tony Endres, "Designing Unemployment Statistics in New Zealand. A Case History of Political Arithmetic 1860-1960", Australian Economic History Review, Vol. XXII, 2 (September 1982).
20. Skill itself has been only tangentially considered. An early discussion on the complexities of using the categories of skill within censuses can be found in Gareth Stedman Jones, Outcast London. A Study in the Relationship Between Classes in Victorian Society (London, 1971), Appendix 1.
21. See also the suggestion made by Crossick that "The role of census classifications in shaping social perceptions, as well as responding to them, would warrant closer study";
22. Geoff Crossick, "From Gentleman to the Residuum: languages of social description in Victorian Britain" in Penelope J. Corfield, ed., Language, History and Class (Oxford, 1991), p. 166.
23. The gender dimension of statistical productions has been a particular focus. See for example, Catherine Hakim, "Census Reports as Documentary Evidence: The Census commentaries 1801-1951", and C. Davies, "Making Sense of the Census in Britain and the U.S.A.: The Changing Classification and the Position of Nurses", both in Sociological Review, New Series Vol. 28, 3 (1980);
24. Katrina Alford, "Colonial Women's Employment As Seen By Nineteenth-Century Statisticians and Twentieth-Century Economic Historians", Labour History, No. 51 (November 1986)
25. and "On Polemics and Patriarchy: A Rejoinder", Labour History, No. 52 (May 1987);
26. Deacon, "Political Arithmetic"; E. Higgs, "Women, Occupations and Work in the Nineteenth Century Censuses", History Workshop Journal, Vol. 23 (Spring 1987);
27. Nancy Folbre, "The Unproductive Housewife: Her Evolution in Nineteenth Century Economic Thought", Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 16, 3 (1991).
28. For the racialising impact see for example A. Megged, "The rise of Creole identity in early colonial Guatemala: differential patterns in town and country side", Social History, Vol. 17, 3 (October 1992), pp. 421-4.
29. For the implications for caste see B.S. Cohn, "The Census, Social Structure and Objectification in South Asia" in B.S. Cohn, An Anthropologist among the Historians and Other Essays (Delhi, Fourth Impression, 1996).
30. The dimensions of ethnicity and class are briefly raised in Beverley Kingston, The Oxford University History of Australia Vol. 3: Glad Confident Morning 1860-1900 (Melbourne, 1993), pp. 108-9 and pp. 282-7 respectively.
31. For a much more detailed discussion see Ben Maddison, "Skill and the commodification of labour in New South Wales, 1840-1915", PhD Thesis, University of Wollongong, 1995, Chs 2, 5 and 6.
32. Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, ed. E. Cannan (London, 1961);
33. Charles Babbage, "On the Economy of Manufactures" in M. Campbell-Kelly, ed., The Works of Charles Babbage (London, 1989).
34. See generally Chapter XIX, "On the Division of Labour", and specifically pp. 124-5.
35. Maddison, "Skill and the commodification of labour", Chs 2, 5 and 6.
36. T.A. Coghlan, The Wealth and Progress of New South Wales 1887-8 (Sydney, 1888), p. 412. The wage rate of 8s. per day for "skilled labourers" indicates that Coghlan was here referring to labourers, as distinct from tradesmen.
37. "Conference of Statists. Report", Journal of Printed Papers of the Parliament of Tasmania, Vol. XXI (1890), Paper No. 146, Appendix D.
38. R.M. Johnston, "Observations On Current Social and Economic Problems", Proceedings of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, Second Meeting, 1890, p. 124 and p. 126.
39. Ibid., pp.132-5.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid., p. 130.
42. R.M. Johnston, "Consumable Wealth", Proceedings of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science, Seventh Meeting, 1898, p. 876.
43. R.M. Johnston, "Social and Economic Problems", Johnston Memorial Volume, pp. 252-3. The paper was presented in 1898.
44. Conference of Statists, Report, Journal of Printed Papers of the Parliament of Tasmania, Vol. XXI, 1890, Paper No. 146, Appendix D.
45. F.L. Jones "Occupational Statistics Revisited: The Female Labour Force in Early British and Australian Censuses" in Australian Economic History Review, Vol. XXVII, 2 (September 1987), pp. 58-9.
46. Coghlan, Report on the Eleventh Census, p. 102.
47. Ibid., p. 103.
48. R.M. Johnston, Census of Tasmania, 1891, General Report (Hobart, 1891), p.1.
49. Coghlan, Report on the Eleventh Census, pp. 270-1.
50. Ibid.
51. Coghlan, Wealth and Progress, 1886-7, 1888-9;
52. R.M. Johnston, Handbook of Tasmania, 1889 (Hobart, 1890).
53. Ibid., "Preface to First Annual Publication".
54. Coghlan, Report on the Eleventh Census, p. 6.
55. R.M. Johnston, "Covering Letter Accompanying Report of Conference of Statists, Held at the Parliamentary Buildings, Hobart, March 3rd to 18th, 1890", Journals and Printed Papers of the Parliament of Tasmania, Vol XXI (1890), Paper No. 146.
56. Coghlan, Wealth and Progress 1886-87, pp. 488-90;
57. Coghlan, Wealth and Progress 1888-89, pp. 452-455;
58. Coghlan, Wealth and Progress 1890-91, pp. 709-19.
59. Coghlan, Report on the Eleventh Census, pp. 270-3.
60. See for example the portrait of Coghlan in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 8;
61. Foster, Australian Official Statistics 1855-1900, pp. 33-5
62. and E. Fry, "Labour and Industry in Australia", Historical Studies, Vol. 14, 55 (October 1970), pp. 432-3, 438-9 contain vestiges of this view.
63. It can also be found in Australians 1888, pp. 34-5 and p. 38. Recent accounts place Coghlan and his abilities more firmly in his social context.
64. See in particular Desley Deacon, Managing Gender. The State, the New Middle Class and Women Workers 1830-1930 (Melbourne, 1989), pp. 108-19;
65. Peter Groenewegen and Bruce McFarlane, A History of Australian Economic Thought (London, 1990), pp. 103-7;
66. Neville Hicks, "This Sin and Scandal": Australias Population Debate 1891-1911 (Canberra, 1978), pp. 139-46.
67. Aspects of Johnston's biography are covered in R.M. Johnston, The R.M. Johnston Memorial Volume (Hobart, 1921), pp. 9-15.
68. His economic and statistical significance is considered in Groenewegen and McFarlane, A History of Australian Economic Thought, pp. 100-2.
69. Johnston Memorial Volume, p. 14. The work "demonstrated outstanding scientific skills", according to Wettenhall, "R.M.Johnston(e)"
70. Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 9, p. 502.
71. R.M. Johnston, "General Observations Regarding the Classification of the Upper Palaeozoic and Mesozoic Rocks of Tasmania, Together with a Full Description of All the Known Tasmanian Coal Plants, Including a Considerable Number of New Species", Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1885 (Royal Society of Tasmania, Hobart, 1886).
72. R.M. Johnston, "Observations with Respect to the Nature and Classification of the Tertiary Rocks of Australasia", Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1887 (Royal Society of Tasmania, Hobart, 1888), pp. 135-45.
73. For Johnston's comments re Petterd see Johnston, "Critical Observations on Recent Contributions to our Knowledge of the Fresh Water Shells of Tasmania.", and in particular the section "CLASSIFICATION", pp. 87-90.
74. R.M. Johnston, "Results of the Various Attempts to Acclimatize Salmo Salar", Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1888 (Hobart, 1889). In particular see the discussion on pp. 36-8.
75. Coghlan, Report on the Eleventh Census, 1893, p. 1 notes the importance of Linnaeus.
76. Coghlan was a member of the 1882 expedition to Lord Howe Island to observe the transit of Venus; see Deacon, Managing Gender, p. 111.
77. Knibbs lectured at the University of Sydney between 1889 and 1905 in astronomy, geodesy and hydraulics - Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 9, pp. 620-1.
78. Tasmanian Official Record, 1891 (Hobart, 1891), Preface.
79. R.M. Johnston, "Observations On Current Social and Economic Problems", Proceedings of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, Second Meeting (Melbourne, 1890), p. 129.
80. R.M. Johnston, "Observations Regarding the Production and Distribution of 'Consumable Wealth' and 'Economic Capital' with an Enquiry into the Probable Effect of Arbitrary Regulation of 'Minimum Wage' Standards upon the Cost of Living", Proceedings of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science, Fourteenth Meeting (Melbourne, 1913), p. 455.
81. For an analysis of Coghlan's outrageous self-referencing, see Ben Maddison, '"The Day of the Just Reasoen': T.A.Coghlan and the Labour Public Sphere in Late Nineteenth Century Australia", Labour History, No 77 (1999), pp. 11-26, 16.
82. Coghlan, Report on the Eleventh Census, pp. 271-2.
83. Ibid., p. 271.
84. Ibid., p. 273.
85. Johnston, "Observations On Current Social and Economic Problems", p. 127.
86. Johnston, "Consumable Wealth", p. 877.
87. Johnston, "Observations On Current Social and Economic Problems", p. 126.
88. Johnston elsewhere adopted a similar procedure when confronted with classificatory ambiguity. See his discussion of the terms "capital" and "wages" in "Observations, 1913", p. 459.
89. G. Davison, and S. Constantine, eds, Out of Work Again. The Autobiographical Narrative of Thomas Dobeson 1885-1891, Monash Publications in History, No. 6 (Victoria, 1990), pp. 70-3.
90. Accolades came from international statists and social commentators such as Mulhall, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, and Lombroso. See Coghlan Papers, MS6335, National Library of Australia.
91. For the use of the scheme in Australia see: Census of Australasia, 1901, Conference of Statisticians, Report (Sydney, 1900), p. 3, p. 7 and Appendix D;
92. G.H. Knibbs, The First Commonwealth Census, 3rd April, 1911. Notes (Melbourne, 1911).
93. Sandra Stanley Holton, "T.A. Coghlan's Labour and Industry in Australia: An Enigma in Australian Historiography", Historical Studies, Vol. 22, 88 (April 1987), pp. 336-51, 345-6.
94. For the role of this image of solidification in portraying class relations post-1890, see Stuart Macintyre, The Oxford History of Australia Vol. 4, 1901-1942: The Succeeding Age (Melbourne, 1986), pp. 45, 303;
95. and Stuart Macintyre, A Colonial Liberalism: The Lost World of Three Victorian Visionaries (Melbourne, 1991), p. 186.
96. Macintyre is the most recent exponent of the "hardening" image. For an earlier example see Brian Fitzpatrick, A Short History of the Australian Labor Movement, Second Edition (Melbourne, 1944), p. 14.
97. Tim Rowse, Australian Liberalism and National Character (Melbourne, 1978), Introduction and Chapter 1.
98. A perspective elaborated in Stuart Macintyre, "Labour, capital and arbitration, 1890-1920" in Brian Head, ed., State and Economy in Australia (Melbourne, 1989).
99. See Ben Maddison, '"The skilful unskilled labourer': the decline of artisanal discourses of skill in the New South Wales Arbitration Court, 1905-1915", forthcoming in Labour History, No. 91, November 2007.
100. For a contemporary assessment see the comments in G. Anderson, "Industrial Tribunals and Standards of Living", in F.W. Eggleston et al., Australian Standards of Living (Carlton, Victoria, 1939), pp. 75-6.
101. Pat Grimshaw, et. al., Creating A Nation (Melbourne, 1994), p. 200.