- William Higgs
William Guy Higgs (
18 January 1862 -11 June 1951 ) was anAustralia n politician.Higgs' political life began in the
Parliament of Queensland , representing the electorate of Fortitude Valley from11 March 1899 until17 July 1901 .After Federation of the Australian states, he became a Senator for
Queensland from 30 March 1901 until 31 December 1906.He was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1910 general election as the member for the
Division of Capricornia , Queensland. He was the first former Senator to be elected to the House of Representatives. He served there till his defeat in the 1922 election. He initially represented theAustralian Labor Party , became an Independent in 1920, then served in theNationalist Party of Australia until 1922.He served as Treasurer in the ministry of
Billy Hughes from 27 October 1915, until his resignation from the ministry on 27 October 1916. His resignation came about through a difference of opinion over Hughes' support of conscription duringWorld War I .Life after politics
Higgs later became a campainer for the plight of the mentally ill and was the Honarary president of the Society for the Welfare of the Mentally Afflicted. He wrote books on the subject; petitioned the
Government of Victoria to improve conditions in Victorian Mental Hospitals and proposed changes to the Victorian Lunacy Act. [Higgs, W. G. (1931) "A Plea for Better Treatment of the Mentally Afflicted: What can happen to a man." (2nd ed). Society for the Welfare of the Mentally Afflicted, Kew. ]References
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