Henry Parkes

Sir Henry Parkes, GCMG (27 May 1815 – 27 April 1896) was a colonial Australian politician and the longest-serving premier of the Colony of New South Wales. He has been called the "Father of Federation" due to his early promotion for the federation of the six colonies of Australia. He was an early critic of British convict transportation and a proponent of the expansion of the Australian continental rail network.

Quotes

• Parkes said of himself and another member that they were alike in that they consistently lived above their means. He was as much an admirer of the fair sex, so that when once on a specially dashing woman appearing in the gallery of the New South Wales Assembly, and Parkes being asked who she was, replied in sardonic style: "Well I don't know myself. I've asked George Reid and Wise, and they don't know, from which I conclude that she must be a woman of good reputation."
  • Quoted in Alfred Deakin, The Federal Story (1944)

• Sir Henry Parkes, several times premier of New South Wales, became a father—not for the first time—in his eightieth year. Friends offered their felicitations.
  ‘Congratulations, Sir Henry, on the birth of your last child,’ said one of them.
  The old knight snorted. ‘Don’t say my last, you damned fool! Say my latest.’
  • Quoted in Randolph Bedford, Naught to Thirty-three (1944)