5th Parliament · 1st Session
The President took the chair at 3 p.m., and read prayers.
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– I ask the permission of the Senate to submit a motion in reference to the late Mr. Frazer.
Leave granted.
– The motion is in these terms -
I submit the motion, confident that it will be received with the same feelings which animate me in presenting it to the Chamber. The late Mr. Frazer had a career that was remarkable in many ways. That career was evidence of self-reliance, courage, capacity, and determination - characteristics which have invariably marked those men who have not only made themselves, but helped to make Australia. When but a boy Mr. Frazer left his home, and pushed out into what was then but a little-known portion of the great State which he was subsequently to represent. Charlie Frazer, as we were all privileged to call him, possibly thought little of. that early incident in his career, and perhaps thought less of it afterwards. But the spectacle of that boy of fifteen leaving the guidance and the care of home and friends, and pushing out into the distant and the unknown afforded evidence of that determination which soon compelled the attention of those among whom ho lived and worked, and who, with dramatic suddenness, sent him to represent that constituency in the other House. The best tribute which can be paid to the memory of our late comrade is the story of his own career, and the knowledge, now that that career has been closed so suddenly and too early, that friends and opponents gather round, united in a bond of deep regret, and of sincere sympathy with the one whom he has left behind. The late Mr. Frazer was a staunch friend, a manly opponent, and few, sir, can claim to have emerged from the ten years ofstrenuous political struggle which has marked this Parliament, claiming so large a measure of the personal friendship of its members, and so little that can be denominated personal enmity. I do not believe that he had a single enemy in the whole of Parliament, and I think it can be said that every one who was privileged to be a member of this Chamber, or of the other, could speak of and refer to him as a personal friend. It is because of these facte that I move this motion, desiring to add to it my own personal tribute and regret at the untimely loss which has fallen upon this country and this Parliament. Whilst we by this motion express a sense of our own loss, there is a loss greater still to which I desire, in a few words, to make reference. I am quite conscious, as we all must be, how feeble words are on an occasion like this. But still I offer this motion and its reference to Mrs. Frazer in the sincere hope - which I am sure the Senate will indorse - . that she may find in our expression of sympathy some slight consolation in the hour of her trial.
– It is with feelings of very deep sorrow that I rise to second the motion. In the past, and probably in the future, similar action may be necessary in respect of men who have departed full of years, and have either accomplished or left unfinished the great work in which they were engaged. But when a motion such as this has to be submitted in the case of one who had scarcely gained more than manhood, who had given promise of much capacity for the future, and had done strenuous work in the past, it is a different and a much more serious thing altogether. I am sure, sir, that not only we in the Senate and his more intimate colleagues in another place, but every man and woman in Australia, realizing the career that has just been closed, will with very great sorrow mourn the loss of such a public man. I might also state, in sympathy with what has been said by the Leader of the Government here, that we all deeply and sincerely feel for Mrs. Frazer in her bereavement, and that any thing any member of either House could do to smooth her lonely path, he would, I am sure, be only too happy to do.
Question resolved in the affirmative, honorable senators standing in their places.
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Bill received from the House of Representatives, and (on motion by Senator Clemons) read a first time.
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Death of the Hon. C. E. Frazer.
– As a mark of respect to the memory of the late Mr. C. E. Frazer, I move -
That the Senate do now adjourn. t
– I second the motion.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Senate adjourned at 3.8 p.m.
Cite as: Australia, Senate, Debates, 26 November 1913, viewed 22 October 2017, <http://historichansard.net/senate/1913/19131126_senate_5_72/>.