Person

Coghlan, Timothy Augustine (1855 - 1926)

KCGM

Born
9 June 1855
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died
30 April 1926
London, England
Occupation
Statistician

Summary

Timothy Coghlan was a statistician who earned an international reputation for his work as Government Statistician for New South Wales. He joined the Department of Public Works in 1873, becoming Assistant Engineer in 1884, but found the mathematical and statistical aspects of the work more interesting. Appointed Government Statistician in 1886 amid some controversy, his first major achievement was the publication in 1887 of the Wealth and progress of New South Wales (the forerunner of The official yearbook of New South Wales) in which he elaborated on his theories of he influence of economics in populations and population growth as a reflection of prosperity. These were recurring themes throughout his career. Coghlan was consulted by government on taxation and other financial matters. Government agencies in which he was involved included the N.S.W. Public Service Board, the Central Board for Old-Age Pensions, and the royal commission into the Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board. His views on free trade were influential in the public debates leading up to federation. Invited in 1903 by the Prime Minister, Edmund Barton, to comment on the proposed Bureau of Statistics, Coghlan declined the position of federal statistician. For three periods between 1905 and 1926 he was Agent General for New South Wales in London. During this time he made efforts to improve the State's financial position and promote migration. He also published the landmark book Labour and industry in Australia (1918).

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Details

Chronology

1870
Career event - Employed in the Wool-broking office of Edward Flood
1870 - 1872
Career position - Pupil-teacher, Fort Street Public School, Sydney
1873 - 1884
Career position - Cadet, Harbours and Rivers Navigation Branch, New South Wales Department of Public Works
1884 - 1886
Career position - Assistant Engineer, New South Wales Deptartment of Public Works
1886
Career position - Member, New South Wales Public Service Board
1886 - 1905
Career position - New South Wales Government Statistician
1887
Career event - First issue of Wealth and progress of New South Wales published
1892 - 1905
Career position - Registrar of Friendly Societies
1893 - 1926
Award - Fellow, Royal Statistical Society, London
1900 - 1905
Career position - Chairman, Central Board for Old-Age Pensions
1902
Career position - President (jointly), Section G (Social Science and Agriculture), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science
1903
Award - Imperial Service Order
1905 - 1915
Career position - New South Wales Agent-General, London
1916 - 1917
Career position - New South Wales Agent-General, London
1918
Career event - Labour and industry in Australia published
1918
Award - Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG)
1920 - 1926
Career position - New South Wales Agent-General, London

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

  • Timothy Augustine Coghlan - Records, 1878 - 1959, MS 6335; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Private hands (Cordell, J.M.)

  • Timothy Augustine Coghlan - Records, 1886 - 1905; Private hands (Cordell, J.M.). Details

Published resources

Books

  • Coghlan, T. A., The wealth and progress of New South Wales (Sydney: New South Wales Statisticians' Office, 1887). Details
  • Coghlan, T. A., Statistics : six states of Australia and New Zealand, 1861-1903 (Sydney: Government Printer, 1904), 94 pp. Details
  • Coghlan, T. A., Labour and industry in Australia : from the first settlement in 1788 to the establishment of the Commonwealth in 1901, 4 vols (London: Oxford University Press, 1918). Details

Book Sections

  • Hicks, Neville, 'Coghlan, Sir Timothy Augustine (1855-1926), statistician and public servant' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds, vol. 8 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1981), pp. 48-51. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080053b.htm. Details
  • Hicks, Neville and Woodburn, Susan, 'Coghlan, Timothy Augustine' in The Oxford companion to Australian history, Davidson, Graeme, Hirst, John and McIntyre, Stuart, eds (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 136-7. Details

Journal Articles

  • Heyde, C. C., 'Official statistics in the late colonial period leading on to the work of the first Commonwealth Statistician, G. H. Knibbs', Australian Journal of Statistics, 30 (B) (1988), 23-43. Details
  • York, Barry, 'T. A. Coghlan Hard Measurable Reality', National Library of Australia News (2000), 11-13. Details

Resources

See also

  • Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details

McCarthy, G.J. & Rosanne Walker

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 1 February 2024

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