Coghlan, Timothy Augustine (1855 - 1926)

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).

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

1888 -

Career event - Original [founding] member, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

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 - Companion of the Imperial Service Order (ISO) - Agent-General for New South Wales in London

1905 - 1915

Career position - New South Wales Agent-General, London

1914

Award - Knight Bachelor (Kt) - Agent-General for New South Wales in London

1916 - 1917

Career position - New South Wales Agent-General, London

1918

Career event - Publsihed Labour and industry in Australia

1918

Award - Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) - Agent-General for New South Wales in London

1920 - 1926

Career position - New South Wales Agent-General, London

Related entries

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, volume 8: 1891 - 1939 Cl-Gib, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (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

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7807037. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/17600165. Details
• 'Coghlan, T A (18550609-19260430)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-617455. Details

See also

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