Charles Henry Pearson - Political Career

Political Career

The newly-founded National Reform and Protection League of the period felt that here might be a valuable recruit and pressed Pearson to stand for parliament. He was afraid his health would not stand the strain, but accepted nomination for the difficult seat of Boroondara and was narrowly defeated. In May 1877 the Graham Berry government commissioned him to inquire into the state of education in the colony and the means of improving it. The report for which he received a fee of £1000 was completed in 1878. It was a valuable document, especially as he was the first to advocate the establishing of high schools to make a ladder for able children from the primary schools to the university. This found little favour at the time, and 30 years and more passed before this part of his scheme was fully developed. Another valuable part of the report dealt with technical education and foreshadowed the many technical schools since established in the state of Victoria.

On 7 June 1878 Pearson was returned as one of the members for Castlemaine in the Victorian Legislative Assembly and thus began his political career. Almost immediately he was plunged into the quarrel between the Assembly and the Legislative Council which had arisen over Premier Berry's appropriation bill. The government determined to try to obtain the consent of the home authorities to the limiting of the rights of the Council. In December 1878 Pearson was appointed a commissioner to proceed to London with the Berry. The mission was not successful, the feeling being in that it was the business of both houses to settle questions of this kind themselves. In August 1880 Pearson became minister without salary or portfolio. On 4 July 1881 he declined the offer of agent-general in London believing that the administration was doomed, and on 9 July the cabinet resigned.

Pearson remained a private member until 18 February 1886 when he became minister of public instruction in the Gillies-Deakin coalition ministry, and in 1889 succeeded in passing an education act which introduced important changes, but did not proceed far in the direction of technical education. It did, however, introduce the kindergarten system, and 200 scholarships of from £10 to £40 a year were established to help clever boys and girls to proceed from the primary schools to the grammar schools. He was able to implement one of the recommendations of his 1878 report, the building of a teachers college near the university. In November 1890 the Gillies-Deakin government resigned and Pearson again became a private member. He took some interest in federation, but realizing its difficulties adopted a cautious attitude.