Bernard Otto Holtermann (part 4)
>> see also A. P-R. 1953
In the same year Holtermann's thoughts turned definitely to an earlier dream of becoming a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. Accordingly he was nominated for the coming election for the district of St Leonards, but it was something of a vain hope, for the sitting Member was the Secretary for Lands, James Squire Farnell, who had represented the area for six years and was unlikely to be unseated.
However, Farnell, or one of his campaigners, saw fit to issue an extraordinary anti-Holtermann handbill, apparently considering his rival worthy of shot and shell. It was a period when a regular feature of vaudeville entertainment was to have some performer deliver songs and recitations in a weird broken English that German immigrants were supposed to speak. Holtermnnn preserved amongst his papers a copy of the handbill containing two sets of doggerel verses in this style headed respectively Oration at the Bar (pub.) and On the Stump, purporting to be written by Holtermann.
The last lines of the verse are typical of the whole:
' "dinky 1'll go a law makin'' out shpoke der Holtermann, "Foost ding, now dat I builds mine house I doos all vat I can, Vor pridges and goot roads, und dings to goom to my nice place, Dat's vot 1'll do so soon I vins dis here law-makin' race;
"und if der Farnell has de sass to geom und vight mit me, 1'll deach him dricks from Vaderlandt,'' says Holtermann, says he.'
As might have been anticipated, Farrell was re-elected.
Two years later Holtermnnn campaigned again. Farnell had departed for New England, and the population of the St Leonards district had grown to such an extent that the electors were now required to choose two representatives from the seven who were nominated. The advertising pages of the Sydney Morning Herald of 5 December 1882 carried Holtermann's campaign manifesto. It was attractively displayed, occupying about nine inches and ran as follows:
‘Electors of St Leonards. Vote for Holtermann who will give his best attention to your requirements . . . whose interests are identical with your own . . . a man of indomitable energy and perseverance . . . who, through weal or wale, has proved the staunch friend of the working man . . who has the courage to demand that your rights be accorded to you. Vote for Holtermann, and a hrm adherence to the Education Act. Vote for Holtermann, who maintains your rights to the privileges of local opinion. Vote for Holtermann, and a judicious but not indiscriminate, immigration. Vote for Holtermann, and free trade, free trade, free trade. Vote for Holurmann, who for the past ten years has given his earnest support to every public movement having for its object the advancement of your electorate. Holtermann and Progress. Holtermann and Local Improvements. Holtermann and Fearless Representation. Holtermann for St Leonards.'
On this occasion, he was not only successful but led the field. The results read: 'Mr B. 0. Holtermnnn, 965 votes; Mr G. R. Dibbs, 962 votes.' Both names were marked with a printer's dagger, indicating that they were composed to the land policy of the present government as embodied in their Land Bill'.
Whilst Holtermnnn was in the House, he delivered three long addresses and a number of shorter replies. The first address, on 4 March 1883, was in support of a motion for the establishment of a government-operated steam-ferry service to the North Shore. The Amount in question was the somewhat extravagant one of £40,000. Even so, the motion was narrowly lost by 24 votes to 17 'as such service would enter into direct competition with a similar service successfully established and satisfactorily worked by private enterprise'.
Holtermann's second speech was delivered on 10 April 1883 in support of his own motion to the elect that 'the sum of £25,000 should be apportioned out of the sum of £150,000 . . . for immigration generally, for the introduction into this colony of German immigrants, to embark direct from Hamburg . . .'
His speech was long and sensible. He pointed out that while more than I60,000 Germans went to the United States during the preceding year, only 883 come to Australia, since it was comparatively easy and inexpensive to go to America and exactly the opposite to come to Australia, because of the absence of any direct shipping line. However the regulations at the time allowed only ten percent expenditure on behalf of 'foreign' migrants. Mr Garrett asked 'How do we know that we shall not get the scum of the towns, the dangerous elements of the population?
His motion was lost by 31 votes to 21 . The 'no' voters included Farnell and Sir Henry Parkes.
On the same day, he put forward another motion suggesting a supplementary estimate for the present year 'not exceeding £20,000 for the purpose of procuring photographs of Sydney (in panornma), its public buildings, streets and other architecture, also of the most important public buildings and public works throughout the colony, and distributing the same amongst the various art galleries, mechanics' institutes, and institutions of a like character throughout Europe, with a view of thereby exciting the attention of the most desirable class of immigrants and others to the advantages overed for the introduction of skilled labour into this country.
Holtermann put up an excellent case. He referred to the successful showing of his own Exhibition in America, France, Germany and Switzerland and said that:
'He had in his possession many newspapers containing eulogistic comments upon them . . . When he had showed his pictures in Hamburg, Paris and Berlin, the people were astonished to find that the Australian cities had made so much progress, and that they contained so many fine streets and buildings. Some fifty or sixty immigrants now in this country had been induced to come out to Australia to a great extent in consequence of having seen his photographs, and because of the information with which he had supplied them.'
Holtermnnn went on to mention two specific individuals: one an expert in the painting and decorating of railway carriages, and the other a metallurgist dwell versed in the extraction of metals from minerals . . . The metal he was trying to introduce was phosphor bronze, which did not heat on any extent of journey, and lasted longer than any other metal . . . its use in our railway engines would save £5,000 to £10,000 yearly by doing away with the necessity for repairs.'
But Holtermann's idea of encouraging migration by means of photography, was still more than half a century ahead of parliamentary acceptance. The rest of the story may be read in Hansard. One John McElhone, a Member for West Sydney, scorned out of hand the idea of phosphor bronze being of any value and went on to propose an alternative motion: "That this sum of £2,000 be divided in equal proportions, one half to be spent in photographs and the other half in Holtermann Life Drops. It would immortalize the Hon. Member if the amendment were carried.' Another Member, George R. Dibbs (also for West Sydney), drew attention to the fact that £500 had been voted to 'meet the cost of photographs of public works and buildings in the city and colony generally'. It is a fact that the large number of photographs were taken by official government photographers of the time, but the majority of these pictures served no more useful purpose than the decoration of railway refreshment and waiting rooms.
Rebuffed, Holtermann withdrew his motion.
The Holtermann family taken just before Holtermann's death in 1885. (left to right) Bernard Otto Holtermann, Sydney, Sophia, Mrs Holtermann, Leonard, Burlington and Esther. (studio photograph, private collection.)
One of the last occasions on which Holtermann addressed the House was towards the end of 1884 when he drew attention to a 'diabolical outrage' committed on the previous evening against three valuable horses And stated that 'it behoved the Government to offer a reward for the discovery of the perpetrator or perpetrators'.
He lived in a period of utter dependence upon the horse, and during the last decade of his life owned at least one carriage pair. Apart from horses, there is photographic evidence that Holtermann had a small menagerie which included emus and wallabies.
He was still a parliamentary representative at the time of his death. He actively supported any move associated with the progress of the North Shore: his nome has been linked with the building of the North Sydney Post Once and Courthouse, the laying of the tramway from Milson's Point and the extension of the railway line south from St Leonards. He even offered to contribute £5,000 towards the cost of building a bridge across the Harbour.
In his latter years he renewed his interest in unorthodox medicine and became President of the Australian Medical and Surgical Infirmary. The 'Infirmary' consisted of consulting rooms only, these being presided over by their Physician-in-chief Dr Elton Boyd.
Bernard Otto Holtermann died on 29 April, 1885,32 his forty-seventh birthday.
His medical attendant, Dr C. Yorke, gave as the causes of death, scarcer of the stomach, cirrhosis of the liver and dropsy' and recorded that he had been consulted about the complaints over the previous eighteen months. The long illness must have been chastening to a man of so many ideas and with such a passion for activity.
He left behind him a wife and five chi1dren,33 the youngest, Leonard, being only two years old. The family was, of course, well provided for as Holtermann's estate at the time of his death was valued at £54,000.
But it could be said that Holtermann died a fulfilled man. He had gone into the unknown and found gold in that place with the magic sounding name. He had repaid, in considerable measure, his adopted land for the many favours it had bestowed upon him. Most important of all, he had attained the greatest wish of his life, that of sitting as an elected member of a British parliamentary body. And as Jack Cato truly wrote:34 'Bernard Otto Holtermann can be ranked, perhaps, as Australia's first and greatest amateur of photography, using that word in its original French sense. He liked the art for its own sake, yet realized, perhaps, more than he knew, its great documentary possibilities.'
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>> see also A. P-R. 1953
The text and notes to the plates: copyright © Keast Burke 1973
The original GOLD AND SILVER plates were taken from the Holtermann negatives, Mitchell Library Sydney.