The Australian Library Journal

Funding communal culture: opportunism and standardisation of funding for mechanics' institutes in colonial Victoria

Donald Barker

Manuscript received May 2002

This is a [double-blind] refereed article

An interesting feature of the colonisation of Victoria, or the Port Phillip District as it was known in the earliest days, was the alacrity with which mechanics' institutes were established as settlement expanded. Their parsimonious beginnings are little understood, nor are the surprising variations in the ways that funds were raised. This article discusses the ways in which limited government assistance encouraged the growth and later direction of mechanics' institutes in Victoria. They were essentially an imported cultural institution planted in a foreign environment, in a reassuring transfer of cultural baggage. Nevertheless, the evidence suggests that without special grants, both of land and of money, most of the early institutes would have quickly failed. As it was, the precarious means of funding and the de facto fiduciary relationship which developed between the fund providers and the community recipients determined the early character of the institutes.

Moreover, variable patterns of funding reveal conflicts between citizens active in their local institute and differing levels of community governance. After 1860, a more formal system of grants was introduced, an important policy decision that put the institutes on a more secure financial footing, and contributed to a change in their role in the later nineteenth century. However the distribution of funds was applied haphazardly and evidence of fiscal inequities are not hard to find. The reasons for these changes in funding patterns are explored in the context of relationships between local communities and the central government.

The earliest settlements in the Port Phillip District were established at Portland in 1834, Melbourne in 1835 and later at Geelong in 1837, Belfast (Port Fairy) by 1840 and Warrnambool in 1844. The main stimulus for the initial settlement of these districts lay in high prices for wool and consequently for sheep (Garden 1984, p40). Smaller settlements were founded on the overland route from New South Wales at Benalla (1839) and Kilmore (1841) as more migrants and overlanders were attracted.

After the discovery of gold in 1851 the population of the Colony of Victoria increased rapidly, from 76 000 in 1850 to almost 300 000 in 1854. The major discoveries of gold were at Ballarat and Sandhurst (Bendigo) and the wide arc between them: lesser discoveries were made at other places. The discovery of gold altered the pattern of settlement in Victoria: towns were established wherever gold was discovered and further settlement of inland areas took place in later years as liberal selection acts were passed, and railways opened up land for pastoral and agricultural activity (Serle 1977, p229-248).

The dispersal of mechanics' institutes closely followed the pattern of settlement outlined above. The first was founded at Melbourne in 1839, another followed at Portland in 1843 and Geelong gained its mechanics' institute in 1846. After the discovery of gold in 1851, institutes were established at Maldon Beechworth, Kyneton, and Sandhurst in 1854, Castlemaine and Eldorado in 1855 and at Ballarat and Creswick in 1859. The increasing numbers of mechanics' institutes in Victoria was a consequence of the expansion of settlement rather than from meeting any specific cultural, educational or recreational need that their nominal purpose might imply.

A brief summary of the origins of the mechanics' institute movement in Britain provides an overview of the motivation which inspired the British conception of the institutes, and thus the expectations and attitudes of the inheritors of the ideal, in this case the immigrants in Victoria. The first mechanics' institute was established in Glasgow in 1799 when George Birkbeck, a Professor of Natural Philosophy at Anderson's Institute, offered a series of lectures on scientific topics to the mechanics who constructed his scientific apparatus. At this time the term 'mechanic' broadly meant a worker with some mechanical skills such as a craftsman or a machine operative. Mechanics' institutes proved to be popular, spreading rapidly throughout England and Scotland - by 1826 there were more than 100 - but the initial concept of education in technical subjects for skilled workers was soon under threat.

Arguments raged between those who saw the institutes solely as a means of self-improvement for artisans and those who saw them as a vehicle for political and economic reform. A more extreme group expected the institutes to entrench prevailing social rank, privilege, laws and property. The extended debate was won by the original self-improvers, however lectures on esoteric technical and scientific topics did not prove to be particularly attractive to workmen who essentially saw them as an extension of their onerous working day. By the late 1820s, formal lectures on scientific topics had essentially been abandoned in favour of a new program of elementary classes, popular lectures and social functions (Altick 1957; Kelly 1962, pp112-199). The ideal had been undermined by pragmatism.

Thus by the time of the accretion of a sufficient cultural mass required for their spread in the colony, mechanics' institutes in their original manifestation in Great Britain had failed to live up to their aims. The Australian colonies were in no sense an industrial society in the way that Britain was - the 1861 Victorian census showed only five per cent of the working population engaged in manufacturing activities. Why then did the rapid spread of mechanics' institutes in Victoria occur? In early days the establishment of these institutes was a community event to celebrate, accompanied by great fanfare and rhetoric extolling the virtue of education. Typical of this rhetoric was speech at the opening of the Sandhurst Mechanics' Institute in 1856 when Dr Owens, MLC, enlarged on his belief that education was 'the palliative for all the ills besetting the toiling classes and of the benefit it would bring to all those anxious to release themselves from the disgrace and embarrassment of ignorance' (Cusack 1973, p13).

The obeisance to British origins seems to have been more honoured in the breach than the observance because the institutes in fact served a growing and aspiring colonial middle class eager to elevate symbols of civic pride alongside cultural stimulation. There were few members of the toiling classes who bothered to attend the infrequent lectures on scientific topics (Petrow 1998; Nadel 1957, pp111-124). In Victoria, as in other parts of Australia, the term mechanics' institute was a misnomer. It came to symbolise a hybrid form of cultural institution offering intellectual recreation in the form of popular lectures and classes, book readings, a library and social entertainments (Wesson 1971; Anderson 1962).

In spite of the rapid spread of mechanics' institutes in Victoria, a continuing feature of their existence was financial difficulty. They seldom appealed to a population sufficient to permit membership subscriptions to provide supportive income to cover all building expenses, salaries and library acquisitions and maintenance. In order for them to prosper they needed other sources of income and these included the sale of tickets for popular lectures, book readings, and social functions which would attract paying members of the public. From the start it was obvious that grants from colonial and municipal government would play an important role in the finances of the institutes. The principle of government assistance to mechanics' institutes in Australia was established from the earliest days. The Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts - founded in 1833 - was granted a subsidy of £100 in 1835 and £200 in 1836 which continued as an annual subsidy (Nadel 1957, p117). In 1838 Governor Sir John Franklin promised to vote £100 per annum to the Van Diemen's Land Mechanics' Institute. The first grant was received in 1841 and the amount remained as an annual grant until 1863 (Petrow 1998).

Not surprising then, one of the first actions of the fledgling Melbourne Mechanics' Institute was to make a request to Governor Latrobe to represent its case (for a grant of land and a subsidy) to the Governor of New South Wales, Sir George Gipps. The need for such financial assistance becomes apparent from a brief review of the financial position of the institute prior to the granting of an annual subsidy of £150 which was first received in 1845. In 1844 the annual report of the institute revealed that members of the institute paid the relatively high cost of £1 for the privilege of joining and an annual subscription of the same amount. In that year the income from membership subscriptions was given as £125 and that from the rental of rooms as £129. The expenses of the institute in that year included the salary of the secretary at £52 per annum, the interest on the building loan as £144 per annum and expenditure on books periodicals and newspapers as £59. The income of the institute in 1844 was therefore £254 and expenses £255, leaving little over for other expenses such as heating, lighting and miscellaneous costs. The institute was not going to survive on the income it received from membership subscriptions and was heavily reliant on the buoyancy of the property market. In 1845 the income from rentals dropped to £87 and in 1846 to £83 but by then it was receiving the £150 grant and memberships had increased.

The Melbourne committee was initially confident that a grant of land would be made: however Governor Gipps offered only a gratuity of £300, conditional on the completion of a building, an offer which was seen as an insult by the committee and consequently rejected. It should be remembered that at this time relationships between Port Phillip and the colonial government in Sydney were somewhat strained over the failure of Sydney to return taxation revenue raised in the district (Wright 1992, p4). Tension between the distant government in Sydney and the institute was further inflamed when the Secretary, the Rev Thomas Hamilton Osborne, purchased a block of land in Collins Street - the site of the current Melbourne Athenaeum - at a sale by auction of Crown lands for the sum of £285. A portion of this land was subsequently sold for £1142. This windfall allowed for the construction of a permanent building which was completed in 1842 and it also allowed for further income in the form of rentals.

The membership base of the institute was still unable to sustain it financially and a further appeal was made to Governor Gipps for a grant of £1600 which was refused. However the repeated appeals for assistance finally bore fruit in 1844 when an annual grant of £150 was instituted and in 1851, with the colony now independent from New South Wales, a further grant of £500 was received for the erection of a lecture hall. In 1857 the annual grant was withdrawn because of opposition from the government led by the Chief Secretary Mr Haines, who was of the view that 'it was not the role of government to support such institutes and that they should be supported from local funds' (VPD, 26 February 1857, p526). It should be noted that the Municipal Establishment Act of 1854 gave municipal councils the power to enact by-laws for the establishment of libraries amongst other public facilities.

In the first twenty years of its existence the Melbourne Mechanics' Institute received £2000 from government sources and this assistance enabled it to survive some difficult periods. Although constantly faced with financial pressures, its experience was relatively easy compared to the experience of other institutes established in the colony (Wilmot 1939; Eastwood 1994).

Following an earlier abortive attempt in 1844, a mechanics' institute was established in Geelong in 1846. In what was to become a well-established pattern, the institute faced almost continuous financial difficulties. The membership of 106 who paid an annual subscription of £1 was clearly insufficient to meet the costs of running the institute. Survival came through the donation of books, fund raising from social functions and in 1849 Governor Gipps saw his way clear to provide a grant of £200. However by 1851 membership had fallen to 61 and lack of interest and financial insolvency led to the disbanding of Geelong Mechanics' Institute in 1853. The rush for gold had depleted Geelong's population.

The institute was revived in November of 1854 and a number of fortuitous circumstances combined to ensure its continued survival. The Legislative Assembly had placed on the estimates an offer of £1500 conditional on a similar amount being raised locally. The institute amalgamated with the rival Geelong Literary and Scientific Society and an experienced librarian, Benjamin Wheatland, who was previously secretary of the Borough Road institute in Southwark, London, was employed and his expertise contributed much to the revival. In the aftermath of the gold rush Geelong experienced increased mercantile activity and professional and clerical occupations now represented some ten per cent of the workforce. These changes returned prosperity to the town and contributed to an increase in the membership of the revived institute from an initial 127 when reformed, to 342 in 1856 and 502 in 1858.

In February of 1857, Alexander Fyfe, MLA for Geelong - previously MLC for Geelong and past-president of the Mechanics' Institute - proposed that a further sum of £750 be placed on the estimates for 1857 towards erection and completion of the Geelong Mechanics Institution. The previous grant of £1500 had allowed for the erection of a building but the institute was now £800 in debt. Mr Fyfe thought that the government was bound to support these institutions 'as they were a national blessing which improved the mental and social condition of the community.' Opposition to the motion was led by the chief secretary William Haines, who repeated his view that it was the role of local authorities to support these institutions and in any case:

...he knew from experience, for a long time the Geelong Mechanics' Institute had afforded little benefit, and throughout the country these institutes had degenerated into a mere newspaper reading rooms...

The key issue in the debate revolved around the principle of whether or not it was the role of the government to support these institutions. Eventually a compromise was reached and the amount to be granted was amended to £500 and the motion passed (VPD, 26 February 1857, p527).

A telling indication of the fragile existence of the Geelong Mechanics' Institute is that by the late 1850s, membership contributions made up only twenty-five per cent of its income with forty per cent coming from the rental of halls and rooms and the remainder from the government grant - some £4,000 had been granted by that time - and private donations. These grants of money allowed it to establish proper rooms which in turn provided further income and which placed the institute on a sounder financial footing in later years (Askew 1994; Carey 1991). In 1867 it could boast of being the largest institute in the Australian colonies (Brownhill 1955, p498).

The necessity of obtaining income from alternative sources was also the experience of the Castlemaine Mechanics' Institute. In 1855 a handful of enthusiastic residents were driven by mixed motives - an urgent need to elevate the moral and intellectual development of the district, and a hope that the local crime rate would reduce - to call for the establishment of a mechanics' institute. They rented some rooms, established a rudimentary collection of books and magazines and began to conduct popular lectures. In line with what was now common practice, a request for government assistance was made for a grant of land and also for a grant to erect a permanent building for the institute. The grant for a block of land and the sum of £500 was finally received in late 1856 with the usual condition attached of a similar amount being raised locally.

A building large enough to have the potential for future rental income was designed and another request made to the government for the sum of £1000 for the purchase of books and furniture and to the council for a grant of £500. Both requests were denied although the council did finally make a grant of £150 which allowed for the construction of the building to be completed in August 1857. The first function in the partly completed hall was held on 15 June 1857 at which the secretary, Mr G Rickersby called upon working men to give the institute their best support so as to become 'better mechanics and better men' and to use their leisure to advance in 'a literary point of view'.

Even with the granting of this financial assistance the institute still found itself in debt to the tune of £600. The requirement to service this debt meant that the institute was obliged to concentrate its activities on fundraising rather than a good library and lectures. Moreover, the government was applying pressure for the conditions of the grant to be met or the land would be resumed and the building used for government offices. The crisis jolted the committee into action. With haste, a grant from the council of £300 materialised followed by a later grant in 1859 of £50 for the purchase of books.

Throughout its history, the institute struggled with the parsimoniousness of the local council, established in the same year as the institute itself. Ill feeling revolved around money always; relationships were 'never better than grudging and frequently pugnacious'. Increased attention to fund-raising activities including social entertainments and the rental of rooms for public meetings and church services along with the first regular government grant allowed the institute by 1861 to retire its debt. Benign economic conditions throughout the 1860s contributed to the revival of the institute and by 1868 there were 249 subscribers. The subsequent increased income from membership coupled with continuing grants from the government helped to place the institute on a sustainable financial footing (Annear & Ballinger 1996; Baragwanath 2000, pp102-103).

The grants given prior to 1860 were made as a result of representations to the government of the day by the individual institutes or by their political representatives. It follows that the most stable institutes were those which were the most effective lobbyists. Grants were made in an ad hoc manner with attendant jealousies and competition between various institutes. After 1860 the grants were based on a range of criteria which were designed to provide a degree of predictability. From that time the amounts granted, and the number of participating institutes, increased. With some changes to the conditions applicable, the grants continued until the 1890s economic depression led to their abrupt reduction and subsequent, albeit temporary, cessation.

Colonial parliaments in the nineteenth century did not have the strict party discipline that we associate with parliaments today. Members formed factions and groups based more on political advantage and protecting self-interest than ideological considerations or constant policy over time. Moreover, an early property franchise for candidates and electors - although property qualifications for the lower house were abolished in 1857 - as well as the peculiarities of the electoral boundaries, ensued that pastoral, rural and wealthy interests were over-represented to the disadvantage of those of Melbourne in particular, and urban residents in general. In the first parliament elected in 1856, forty-five out of sixty Legislative Assembly seats represented non-metropolitan localities, and in the Legislative Council, Melbourne, with one-quarter of the population was represented by just one-sixth of the legislative councillors (Wright 1992, p35).

The opposition of the conservative Haines government to grants-in-aid to mechanics' institutes has been noted, and the defeat of that government in March 1858 and the later election of the Nicholson ministry in October 1859 allowed the issue to be raised once again. Essentially the new ministry was of a more liberal disposition than previous governments and was more sympathetic to the principle of state intervention for the purpose of social improvement. The background to these changes and the ensuing parliamentary debate has been discussed in some detail (Hubber 1994). The outcome can be summarised as an acceptance of the principle of state aid for libraries and a reflection of the electoral dominance of country members. In the supply debate of 24 January 1860, the Treasurer, James McCulloch (MLA East Melbourne) moved that:

...the sum of £2,000 be voted in aid of the purchase of books in free libraries, which are or may be established in the interior during 1860; grants to be made in equal proportion to sums collected by private subscription or local rates; no grant exceeding £300 to be paid to any one library.

After a lengthy debate the final amended motion read:

In aid of the purchase of books for mechanics' institutes or other public libraries already established or that may be hereafter established in country districts; grants to be made in equal proportion to sums already collected, or to be collected by private subscriptions or local rates, no grant exceeding £200 to be paid to any one library now established or that may be established within ten miles of Melbourne' (VPD, 24 January 1860, p397).

Consequently, the vote for the Chief Secretary's Department in the estimates for 1861 included Item No 4 - a grant of £2,000 in aid of the purchase of books for mechanics' institutes or other public libraries (Victorian Parliamentary Papers 1860/61 A8). Thirty-six institutes shared the grant; the larger institutes, Ballarat (population 22 194), Beechworth (population 2317), Castlemaine (population 9683), Geelong (population 16 613) and Sandhurst (population 13 020), receiving £150 each while others received lesser amounts ranging down to £20 for Whroo (population 285) and £10 for Rodborough (rural) The conditions laid down in the initial grant were therefore met, however the rapid expansion in the number of institutes eligible to receive the grant after 1860 placed pressure on the government to increase the amount allocated but also meant that any increase to individual institutes was minimal - the condition that the grant not exceed £200 (later increased to £300) was rarely breached in the next thirty years.

The incentive provided by the government grant contributed to the extension of mechanics' institutes to every settled area of the colony. Local government entities at the time consisted of incorporated towns, municipal boroughs, shires and road districts. In 1867 there were 146 of these entities of which thirty-four had a mechanic's institute. The corresponding figures for 1872 were 170 local government areas and 210 mechanics' institutes and in 1885, 183 local government areas and 256 mechanics' institutes. In the ensuing years substantial increases were made in the total amount granted; in 1867, thirty-one institutes shared £3000, in 1872, 200 institutes shared £6000 and £10 000 was distributed to 256 institutes in 1885. The peak amount granted was in 1890 when £20 000 was shared between 380 institutes, an average grant of £52, although the amounts received by individual institutes varied because of the application of conditions regarding eligibility for the grant. The amounts granted to individual institutes increased only slowly because although the total grant increased substantially, the number of institutes sharing the available funds also increased as noted above.

With the principle established that grants would be made to mechanics' institutes and free libraries on a conditional basis, the supply debate each year provided an opportunity for members to press for increases in the total amount granted, the variation of conditions attached to the grant and to plead for special treatment for institutes in the districts they represented. Inequities in the treatment of free libraries and mechanics' institutes also provided the basis for much parliamentary debate. These debates revolved around the eligibility of free libraries for their share of the grant and the conditions attached to users of mechanics institutes which had become free libraries.

The distinction between mechanics institutes and free libraries needs to be treated with some care. Mechanics' institutes often attached the sub-title 'free library' to their name and this practice appears to have been more common after the mid-1870s. This may have been to meet a requirement of the government grant: however other returns from the period show institutions with the simple name of 'mechanics' institute' still receiving a grant. Moreover, many institutions which were established after the grant was introduced called themselves 'free libraries' or 'public libraries' even though they also relied on membership subscriptions as a source of income. It appears on the surface that there were in fact few 'free libraries' meaning those that did not receive subscriptions from members and were supported solely from public donations and local councils. In any case the parliamentary debates were essentially about public access to the institutions which did receive a government grant.

In 1867 Charles Jones and Charles Dyte, the members for East Ballarat, pointed out that free libraries relied upon voluntary contributions for their income whilst mechanics' institutes could draw on income from subscriptions and rental income thus providing them with a greater claim on the government grant (VPD, 10 April, p819). The issue resurfaced in 1885 when Lt Col William Collard Smith (MLA West Ballarat) moved the second reading of the Free Libraries Loan Bill. The stated purpose of this bill was to allow trustees of mechanics' institutes to lease portions of their lands which they did not require and to borrow money on the security of the rents of such lands but it also had the specific purpose of allowing for an extension to the Ballarat East Free Library (VPD, 15 July 1885 pp378-383).

In August 1886 Dr James Rose (MLA North Melbourne) moved that: 'all libraries receiving assistance from the government should be open to the public as free circulating libraries'. Opposition to this motion come from William McLellan (MLA Ararat) and John Madden (MLA Belfast) who argued the case that those who previously subscribed to mechanics' institutes would cease to do so as they could receive the service for free and this would burden the state with the total cost of providing these libraries (VPD, 18 August 1886 p1145). The absurd resolution to this condition on the part of smaller mechanics' institutes was the provision of one room for the subscribers to the institute and a separate room for members of the public. Larger institutes such as Ballarat and Geelong with many subscribers chose to forego the grant rather than accept this condition (VPD, 13 October 1887 p1629).

The rapid increase in the number of institutions receiving the grant and the consequent diminution of the amounts received by individual institutes was another issue for concerned local members. George Sands (MLA Dalhousie) noted that:

...the amount received by each free library was such a drop in the bucket that great difficulty was experienced in carrying on such institutions in small country communities and he trusted that the vote would be increased (VPD, 7 October 1886 p1811).

Similarly, James Freemason (MLA Ovens) mentioned that:

...the library committee from his local shire had stated that unless the grant of £40-50 was increased to £100-120 the [Beechworth] institute would be closed which would be a public misfortune, as it stood about fifth in importance among the free libraries of the colony (VPD, 12 September 1889 p1371).

These concerns from local members were recognised. A closer examination of returns from individual institutes in The Statistical Register for the Colony of Victoria permits a colony-wide view. It reveals that in 1875, £4275 in total was spent on the grant for mechanics' institutes and free libraries, compared with a vote of £3000 while £15 485 was spent in 1886 on a vote of £10 000. Moreover, the grants made to individual institutes were often widely disparate. In 1875 the Sandhurst Mechanics' Institute received a grant of £292 based on membership subscriptions received of £628. In the same year the Hamilton Mechanics' Institute received a grant of £34 on a subscription income of £126 while the Prahran Mechanics' Institute received only £17 on an income from the membership of £198. The available statistics for each year show similar discrepancies and demonstrates that political influences - the grants were made by the chief secretary who apparently was able to place special sums on the estimates for individual institutes - played a role in determining the amounts granted (VPD, 22 November 1870 p265).

This was admitted by Alfred Deakin, the new chief secretary, who noted in 1889 that money was allocated almost at random and that a number of startling abuses had been remedied (VPD, 12 September 1889 p371). Deakin here has hinted at accounting irregularities to which no complete explanation can be found. Further research may reveal answers to these unexplained variations in the funding formula. The conditions attached to the grant varied over the years. The initial condition which limited the grant to institutes outside a ten mile radius of Melbourne was altered in 1864 to allow institutes within this radius to receive the grant, with the limitation that only one-sixth of the entire amount would be available to them. In 1888, the definition of what constituted locally raised sums was amended to exclude amounts raised from bazaars, concerts and other entertainment's and to only include amounts raised by membership subscription. This issue was raised by William Shiels (MLA Normanby) who noted that income from those sources was the only means by which non-members of an institute or library could be encouraged to contribute to a service which they were entitled to make use of (VPD, 27 September 1888, p1297).

In summary, the arguments outlined above reflect elements of ideological disposition and crude political advantage. They also represent an attempt to reconcile the public interest - grants of money conditional on public access to library collections - with the essentially private nature of most of the institutions represented as they were by a subscription paying membership.

This article has attempted to provide an explanation for the rapid growth in the number of mechanics' institutes in the colony of Victoria during the latter half of the 19th century and has placed that explanation in the political and social context of the day. The desire of local communities for forms of cultural recreation was the initial reason for their establishment but it has been shown that the stimulus of various forms of government assistance allowed the institutions to mature. The initial phase of opportunistic funding with its attendant inequalities was followed after 1860 by a more standardised formula but one still with irregularities. It is clear that the explosion in the number of institutes founded after 1860, especially in the country areas, was a direct result of the grants which were made available. Moreover, the conditions attached to the grant - for the purchase of books and for public access - was influential in making the library the main activity of the institutes.

The government between 1860 and 1895 expended increasing amounts on these institutions - some £220 000 was spent between 1860 and 1892 and these grants allowed many Victorians in the late 19th century to enjoy access to a reasonable library service.

The amount granted dropped precipitously after 1892, to £5000 in 1893 and to £2500 in 1894 as the economic depression worsened. No grant was made in 1898 and it was never restored to its previous levels in ensuing years. A reflection of this decline in funding was the poor condition of public library services in Victoria in the first part of the 20^th century - an aspect of Victorian library history which requires further research.

References

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Biographical information

Donald Barker is a PhD candidate in the School of Information Management and Systems, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University. His current research interests include public policy and public libraries. The author wishes to acknowledge the guidance and assistance given by John Arnold and Graeme Johanson of Monash University.