Labor was returned to Government for another term when voters delivered their verdict on the NSW State election campaign on Saturday, March 21, 1959. Davis Hughes (the Country Party candidate) easily retained the Armidale seat – a remarkable feat, given that he had been absent from his electorate throughout the campaign. This week we’ll tie up some loose ends and then explore the controversy about Hughes not having a Science degree, an issue which had been so prominent in the 1959 campaign.
Firstly, the facts. The Armidale electorate (which extended from Inverell in the north, to 70 miles south of Walcha, and from Ebor in the east, to Bundarra in the west) had about 20,000 voters in 1959. Ray Farrell (the Returning Officer) announced the local result on Friday, April 3, 1959: Davis Hughes (Country Party) 9956; Percy Love (Labor) 7170; Jack Stanley (Democratic Labor Party) 568; Informal 242. The total was 17,936 votes. Preferences had not been counted, because Hughes had an absolute majority of first preferences of 2786. The non-Hughes vote totalled 7738, a margin of 2218. Hughes had an increase of about 300 per cent on the 1956 result.
And now the post-mortem speculation. Some might say that the DLP’s poor result – just 568 votes (about three per cent of the total vote) – shows the DLP’s influence was very insignificant. What is unknown, however, is the DLP’s influence on those voters who trebled the majority for Hughes. Had the DLP influenced the swingers to reject Labor in favour of Hughes, or did he get the sympathy vote? It was probably both.
The Science degree issue is told here chronologically. Educated at Launceston High School, Hughes later attended a Tasmanian teachers’ college and also studied part-time at the University of Tasmania. He was a teacher from 1927 to 1935. Athol Townley (Minister for Defence in 1959) said the young Hughes “was regarded as one the best Science Masters in Tasmania”. Hughes later taught in Melbourne, where he undertook part-time studies at Melbourne University. From June 1940 to 1945 Hughes served in the RAAF with the rank of Squadron Leader.
After the war he came to Armidale and taught at The Armidale School (TAS), where he was Senior Science Master and Deputy Head Master from 1947 to 1950. Gordon Fisher (Head Master of TAS in 1959) declared Hughes came to Armidale with an excellent record, which he sustained in every way at TAS, where his teaching work in Chemistry, Science and Maths proved he had proper qualifications to teach those subjects. So his employer had no complaints.
A constant rumour in Armidale claims some local Labor supporter who had close links to UNE discovered that Hughes did not actually have a Science degree, although he had allowed the NSW Parliamentary Hansard to attribute him with one. There is ongoing speculation about when Hughes heard that Labor intended to attack him. On Sunday, February 15, 1959 (the eve of the election date being announced), Hughes was admitted to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney for observation for a suspected gastric complaint. He remained in hospital throughout the campaign, and his condition was described as serious.
Meanwhile, the Country Party was in disarray in Armidale for several days because no one knew if Hughes was actually going to accept nomination for the Armidale seat. Nominations were to close at midday on Friday, February 20, 1959. There was an urgent meeting on the Wednesday night, when Tim Bruxner (Chairman of the Inverell Branch of the Country Party in 1959) very reluctantly signed a nomination form, in case it was needed. It wasn’t.
On March 11, 1959 newspapers ran the story that Bill Sheahan (the NSW Minister for Health), had made a public attack on Hughes about the Science degree issue. The County Party Whip said Hughes would answer the attacks when he was fully recovered, and the Whip confirmed that Hughes did not have the degree, but did have “a high educational standard at university level”. The Armidale newspaper (which was openly anti-Labor) ran editorials, letters and stories supporting Hughes. The key point is that he had been in hospital three weeks before Sheahan’s public attack, which was labelled “bottom of the propaganda barrel”.
Discharged from hospital on March 24, Hughes convalesced on the North Coast, then gathered in Sydney on April 14 with the other Country Party victors for the first post-election meeting, where his letter of resignation as the party’s Leader was accepted.
On April 21, when the new Parliament assembled for the first time, Hughes addressed the House about the Science degree issue. He listed the subjects he had completed at university and confirmed he was one subject short of a Science degree from Melbourne University, and two subjects short at the University of Tasmania. He told the House he regretted his position, but went no further. Those closest to him say he felt deeply embarrassed, and his colleagues had to pressure him to continue in Parliament, which he did, until 1973.
The 1959 State election in Lismore is also memorable, because the winning margin was just two votes, but the result was declared void by the Court of Disputed Returns. It ordered a new election which was very dramatic. That story will be told some other time. Next week we’ll start a three-part series on a history of the Ursuline Sisters in Armidale, with a focus on their Convent and St Ursula’s College buildings.