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Samuel Mauger

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The Honourable
Samuel Mauger
Mauger, 1910s
Postmaster-General of Australia
In office
30 July 1907 – 13 November 1908
Prime MinisterAlfred Deakin
Preceded byAustin Chapman
Succeeded byJosiah Thomas
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Maribyrnong
In office
12 December 1906 – 13 April 1910
Preceded byNew seat
Succeeded byJames Fenton
Member of the Australian Parliament
for Melbourne Ports
In office
29 March 1901 – 12 December 1906
Preceded byNew seat
Succeeded byJames Mathews
Personal details
Born(1857-11-12)12 November 1857
Geelong, Victoria, Australia
Died26 June 1936(1936-06-26) (aged 78)
Elsternwick, Victoria, Australia
Political partyProtectionist (1901–09)
Liberal (1909–10)
Spouse
Hanna Rice
​
(m. 1880)​
OccupationHat manufacturer

Samuel Mauger (pronounced "major"; 12 November 1857 – 26 June 1936)[1] was an Australian social reformer and politician. He served in the Victorian Legislative Assembly (1900–1901) and the Australian House of Representatives (1901–1910), including as Postmaster-General in the Deakin government (1907–1908). He championed a number of political causes, including workers' rights, protectionism and temperance.

Early life

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Mauger was born in Geelong, Victoria, son of immigrants from Guernsey, Channel Islands, Samuel Mauger Senior and Caroline née Liz[1] who migrated to Australia in the 1850s. Mauger junior was educated at the Geelong National School, but left school early to become an errand boy for a hat maker when his father contracted rheumatic fever.[1] Mauger later owned the hat manufacturing business. Mauger was a Bible class teacher at St Mark's Church of England in Fitzroy. He later became the Sunday-school superintendent at St Paul's Congregational Church in North Fitzroy. On 13 May 1880, Mauger married Hanna Rice, whom he had met at St Mark's; they eventually had four sons and four daughters.[1]

Career

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Mauger held various memberships to various organisations. He was a superintendent in the Fire Brigades' Association of Victoria and four times president of the Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board.[1] Mauger was one of the founders and secretary of the National Anti-Sweating League from 1895. Mauger was on the Board enquiry for unemployment in 1899 and involved in the royal commission of Victorian factories and shops law in 1900.

Being a devout Christian of the Australian Church, Mauger was president of YMCA and president of the Melbourne Total Abstinence Society.

Victorian politics

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Mauger attempted to run for politics in various State electorates before becoming a Member of Parliament. He stood for the seat of Fitzroy in 1892, South Melbourne in 1896 and Portland in 1897. In 1899 he was a firefighter in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond.[2] In 1900, Mauger was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly seat of Footscray. He held the seat of Footscray until May 1901, where he resigned from State politics and ran for Federal politics.[3]

Federal politics

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Studio portrait by Swiss Studios

Mauger served as the member for Melbourne Ports from 1901 to 1906. At the 1906 federal election, Mauger contested the newly created seat of Maribyrnong and became the electorate's first Federal Member of Parliament. He was a Minister without a Portfolio from 1906 until 1907 and then Postmaster-General until 1908. Mauger lost his seat of Maribyrnong to ALP candidate James Fenton in 1910.

Mauger ran for the Senate in 1913 and 1914, but failed to get elected.[1][4] He was an ardent protectionist and was for some time honorary secretary of the protectionists' association of Victoria; he was for a time president of the Melbourne Total Abstinence Society, and chairman of the Indeterminate Sentences Board; and he presumably found some time for his business as a hatter and mercer. For about 50 years in every movement in Melbourne intended to better the conditions of the mass of the people, Mauger was to be found working incessantly and showing much organizing ability.

Legacy

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In 1934 Mauger wrote a brochure on The Rise and Progress of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, Victoria, Australia, on page 29 some verses relating to the success of the staff fund illustrate his philosophy of life. Basically it was that if anything is brought forward for the good of humanity, difficulties will vanish if the problem is tackled with sufficient courage.[5] Mauger died in Elsternwick, Victoria and is buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery. At his funeral, he was given a fire guard honour.[1] Mauger was survived by his wife, two sons and four daughters.[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Lack, John (1986). "Mauger, Samuel (1857–1936)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. pp. 451–453. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  2. ^ Birch, Adrian. "Samuel Mauger firefighter". State Library of Victoria. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  3. ^ "Samuel Mauger". Re-Member: a database of all Victorian MPs since 1851. Parliament of Victoria. Archived from the original on 23 April 2023. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  4. ^ Australian Federal Political Candidates (Surname beginning with letter "M")
  5. ^ a b Serle, Percival (1949). "Mauger, Samuel". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. Retrieved 5 October 2009.

 

Victorian Legislative Assembly
Preceded by Member for Footscray
1900–1901 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Postmaster-General
1907–1908 		Succeeded by
Australian House of Representatives
Preceded by
New Seat
 Member for Melbourne Ports
1901–1906 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
New Seat
 Member for Maribyrnong
1906–1910 		Succeeded by
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