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Harris spent the next six years in New South Wales studying for the Anglican ministry and serving a curacy at
Pitt Town. He was ordained priest on 5 June 1954. He later became a Canon.
In March 1958 Harris and his wife returned to the north, starting his ministry there as adviser at Umbakumba,
which the CMS had just taken over from Gray. After a few months there he was transferred to Angurugu for
a short time and then on to Oenpelli. In December 1958 the CMS appointed him Senior Missionary and CMS
representative in the Northern Territory. In effect he was now superintendent of the Society’s five missions in
Arnhem Land. In September 1959 he was transferred to Angurugu to iron out the problems that had arisen there.
He returned to Oenpelli about a year later where he and his wife continued to work with great acceptance until
October 1963.
Harris and his wife spent their last tour of service from early 1964 until the end of 1965 at Oenpelli, where he
was Chaplain. They then returned south, so ending 31 years’ outstanding service to the CMS. In 1966 he was made
a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) ‘in recognition of his valuable service to Aborigines.’
Harris was a tough Christian character, occasionally resorting to physical violence to achieve his ends. Yet he
was also a gentle person, caring for the sick, the aged and little children. He was fiercely jealous of his family and a
person with simple childlike faith. He was an extremely hard worker. He is ranked as one of the most outstanding
among the CMS missionaries to have worked among the Aborigines of Arnhem Land.
Harris died on 24 April 1985.
K Cole, Dick Harris, 1980, A History of Oenpelli, 1975, Groote Eylandt Mission, 1971; Church Missionary Society Records, Melbourne and
Sydney.
KEITH COLE, Vol 2.HARRIS, NORMA CATHERINE: see PITCHENEDER, NORMA CATHERINE (BILLIE)HARVEY, OLIVE: see O’KEEFFE, OLIVEHASLUCK, (Sir) PAUL MEERNAA CAEDWALLA (1905– ), journalist, historian, public servant, politician
and Governor General, was born on 1 April 1905 at Fremantle, Western Australia, son of E’thel M C Hasluck,
a Salvation Army officer, and his wife Patience Eliza, nee Wooler. He was educated at the Perth Modern School
and the University of Western Australia, where he graduated Master of Arts in History. Until the Second World War
he worked as a journalist in Western Australia and developed a special interest in the plight of the state’s Aborigines
which was reflected his books Our Southern Half-Castes (1938) and the widely acclaimed Black Australians
(1942). In 1941 he joined the Commonwealth Department of External Affairs, serving in senior positions both
in Australia and overseas. Resigning in 1947, in 1948 he became Reader in History at the University of Western
Australia and started work on two volumes of the Australian Official War History, The Government and the People
1939–1945 (1951 and 1970). On 14 April 1932 he married Alexandra Margaret Martin, daughter of J Darker of
Ipswich, Queensland. They had two sons.
In the 1949 federal elections Hasluck was elected Liberal Member of the House of Representatives for the
Perth seat of Curtin, which he held until his retirement from politics in 1969. On 11 May 1951 the Prime Minister,
Robert Menzies, appointed him Minister for Territories. He retained the portfolio until 18 December 1963, being
in charge of the administration of the Northern Territory for the entire period. He thus became the longest serving
minister responsible for the Territory.
Despite his later observation that the portfolio was ‘not highly esteemed’, he took his duties seriously. He fought
hard for increased Commonwealth funding and visited the Territory regularly, travelling to its most remote areas.
It was at least partly as a consequence of his efforts that the Territory’s economy developed quite markedly and
its population grew. He tried to make the Territory a place where ‘ordinary’ Australians wanted to live and was
critical of those, such as the author Douglas Lockwood, who perpetuated what he saw as the outmoded notion of
the region as a ‘last frontier’.
Hasluck’s ministerial style was highly interventionist. He ensured that the Administrator should communicate
with him directly and that the original submissions of his Northern Territory government officers on any matter
at all go before him. He insisted that he should be accessible to those Territorians who had matters of importance
they wished to raise with him. Even so, members of the Territory’s Legislative Council continued to complain that
the Canberra bureaucracy was too dominant. Hasluck also attracted criticism on the grounds that he was overly
conservative. Some felt that while he was intelligent and conscientious, he should recognise forces of change and
anticipate their consequences.
One example of such caution was his attitude to the functions of the Territory’s Legislative Council. He directed
‘official’ Council members to support government policies and opposed the wishes of those elected Councillors
who wanted greater financial and political powers. His attitude to Northern Territory self-government was
straightforward. The Territory population, he felt, was too small to justify greater political autonomy and was unable
to raise sufficient revenue to meet the costs of necessary public services. In 1959, however, the federal government
allowed the Territory Member on the House of Representatives to have the right to vote on all Territory matters and
established an Administrator’s Council. He also approved an increase in the size of the Legislative Council, which
gave elected members a stronger role. But the ultimate acceptance or rejection of ordinances remained with the
government. Elected Councillors continued their battle with Hasluck for the remainder of his period as minister.
Another area where he attracted criticism was Aboriginal affairs. He strongly supported the policy of assimilation,
believing it was the best way of securing real Aboriginal advancement. He insisted that budgets for Aboriginal