Henry Miller
To the Right Worshipful the Mayor of Melbourne... [from] the undersigned Inhabitants of Melbourne considering the Unsettled State of a portion of the Diggings, and the necessity measures for the Better PROTECTION OF THE CITY, and upholding the cause of Law and Order, hereby request your Worship to convene A PUBLIC MEETING... John Ferress, Government Printer, 05 December 1854. State Library of Victoria Collection (H141396).
Background
Henry Miller's father. Henry Miller Snr. was a veteran on the Battle of Waterloo.[1] Henry Miller was a pastoralist and money Lender, and became a member of the Legislative Assembly.
- HON. HENRY MILLER, M.L.C.
- THE Hon. Henry Miller is unquestionably the capitalist of this colony. Emerging from an humble situation in a subordinate brunch of the Civil Service, Mr Miller has passed the grades of the speculator and the man of fortune into the possession of wealth that gives him the status of a millionaire. His natural genius and the ideal of his whole life has been the acquisition of money. Mr Miller is, we believe, of Irish extraction. His father, about thirty years ago, arrived in Tasmania. He was then a lieutenant in the army, and, soon after settling in that colony, he received his promotion to the rank of captain. He shortly afterwards sold out, and he has remained resident there in the capacity of a civilian. Mr Miller himself acquired an appointment under the Government when he was about twenty years of age, in the store keeper's department, which he relinquished on leaving for Victoria. At this early period of Mr Miller's career the 'ruling passion' was in unceasing activity, and he never lost the opportunity of turning a penny. It was his custom to lend money to persons outside and in side of the gubernatorial circle, and he inflexibly. enforced the usurious conditions of the money lender. Mr Miller, however, only found his true vocation when he reached this colony He. did not need to go through any form of natu ralisation to trade in others' embarrassments. As far back as 1841, lie occupied a small office in Latrobe place, Flinders lane, and then launched out as a money-lender. In those times such a branch of business necessarily had only limited scope, but Mr Miller's abilities were not the kind to slumber. He was already dis-tinguished for the high rates he exacted from his victims. The 'money-lender' betrays no squeamish tenderness. He is a marked variety of the human family. He has been described — as "a harpy of the longest claws; he has no more heart than a drum j no more blood than a cricket." Mr Miller displayed no ostentatious attention to public business in the earlier period of our growth. The ' bubble reputation' of popularity did not for a moment disengage his mind from more intrinsic pursuits. He had the faculty of looking after the 'dust in the balance.' Our earlier remembrances of Mr Miller are of his being connected with the formation of money societies ; and it is certainly due to him to mention that he has not only originated yery valuable institutions, but he secured them profit able and satisfactory management under his own astute and sagacious direction. Mr Miller was the chairman of the first Union Building Society. He shortly afterwards launched the first Victoria Building Society — being also their chairman — and both speculations were carried out successfully. The money lender now reached the higher stage of life, that transforms the "poor forked animal" into the select class of capital ists, and Mr Miller's next enterprise was the establishment of the Bank of Victoria—another great success. He was made the chairman of the first body of directors, and remains still in the same position. Mr Miller's own personal business habits, as a matter of course, have con tributed very materially to the bank's pros-perity. It is not the place to trace the connec tion between Mr Miller and the railway con-tractors, Messrs. Cornish and Bruce. The result of their negotiations, at all events, placed their affairs in the hands of the Bank of Victoria and others, to whom Mr Bruce became ilittle else than an agent. Subsequently Mr Miller started a second Union Building Society, followed by another Victorian Building Society. Of these establishments he was also chairman, and the attention bestowed by him on their direction is confirmed by the fact that both societies are now going on well. Following the starting of these public bodies in chronological order, we notice the Victoria Fire and Marine Insurance Company, and the Victorian Life and General Insurance Company, both institutions being originated and being particularly under his superintendence, now occupying an excellent position in public con fidence. At the present time Mr Miller holds 2000 shares in the Bank of Victoria, the greater por tion of the shares in the Victoria Fire and Marine Insurance Company — namely, 2300 out of 4000 shares; while he holds, also, half the shares in the Victoria Life and General Insurance Company;, amounting to no less than 20,000 out of 40,000 shares, constituting that body. Mr Miller is besides a very large proprietor in household and landed property ; and as an illustration of his enormous revenue, he received from the several companies with which ho is connected, out of the dividends declared in 1861, an in-come not much short of £50,000. Mr Miller was also fortunate in his marriage with Miss Mattison — the daughter of Captain Mattison, a succcssful whaler. This gentleman having been out on a cruise for two or three years, with his two daughters on board, sharing his perils and privations, returned to Hobart Town, where he sold his ship and converted his capital into property in that neighborhood. Mr Miller's father, Captain Henry Miller, is still living in Hobart Town, where a few years' since he married a second time. On the formation of the present Legislative Council, Mr Miller made his first appearance in the political arena, being returned as a repre sentative member for South Bourke in 1852. His career in that chamber is marked by great aptitude for public business, and he took an active part in the interesting debates at that period. On the new Constitution coming into operation, Mr Miller presented himself as a candidate for the Central Province. He retained his seat until the second O'Shanassy Administration came into office — when, in consequence of his acceptance of the appointment of Commissioner of Customs, he had to reappear before his constituents. A vacancy occurring in the representation of the Western Province, through the resignation of Mr A. R. Cruikshank, Mr Miller also presented himself to that constituency. On the meeting of Parliament, therefore, he deter-mined to sit for the Western Province, and he continues to represent that province in the Council. As a member of the O'Shannassy Ministry, he shared the opprobrium with which they were regarded by the country, and the suspicion that he himself made use of his posi tion to facilitate profitable financial operations in connection with the railway expenditure, brought upon him considerable unpopularity. As a member of the Legislature from the first session in the old Council, his abilities gave him great personal influence — but it is as a capitalist that he is best known and appreciated. His genius would have saved the South Sea Bubble. In his personal appearance he is quiet and inostentatious, and he seems immoveable by the storms of human passion or the sensibilities of human feelings. He has the "eye of the capi talist"—clear and firm, but mild and quick. It is, however, "in the parlour" of the bank that he is pre-eminently distinguished, and his mastery of the rates of interest makes the field his own. At this moment, Mr Miller has taken under his special care the introduction ot the Land Act, with the keen-sighted confidence of the money-lender. Possibly he thinks . of a barony for himself — if so he could desire nothing more likely to serve his object; he would secure the finances of the people in his own pocket. To the "money grubber, nothing comes amiss, so money comes withall." As a colonist, nevertheless, Mr Miller is a remarkable man and is found to be both the strength and weakness of the political party he espouses. As an old colonist, intimately con-nected with the prosperity of the colony, our circumstances are largely interwoven with his, and in some measure in his keeping. In his place in the Legislature, he is well informed, and speaks ably on the leading questions. He legislates with palpable and scarcely disguised intentions, not for the people, but for Henry Miller. The Council Chamber is for him a great workshop for the fabrication of coupons, debentures, and interest tables. In his hands all he touches is converted into gold.[2]
Family
1.
2. Albert Miller (d. May 1915)
3. Septimus Miller
4. daughter (d. c1895. M. Lieut.-Gen. William Charles Bancroft)
