Henry Richard Nicholls

The Society is named after Henry Richard Nicholls who, in 1911, was the editor of the Hobart Mercury.

Nicholls published an editorial in that paper in which he roundly criticised Henry Bournes Higgins, who at the time was a High Court judge and President of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration. Higgins had trenchantly attacked a barrister, H.E. Starke QC, who was appearing before him, and Nicholls, in his turn, took Higgins to task for behaving in a politically partisan and nonjudicial manner.

H.B. Higgins was outraged by this editorial and persuaded the Attorney General to have Nicholls charged with contempt of Court. Proceedings were set in train, and it was only then that Higgins learned that the editorialist whom he sought imprisoned was 82 years of age and very highly respected in his hometown.

The case was duly heard and Nicholls was acquitted unanimously by a full bench of the High Court. The Court’s decision was written by Chief Justice Sir Samuel Griffith and is a damning indictment of Higgins’ behaviour.

When the judgment was announced the citizens of Hobart arranged for a celebration which took place in the Hobart Town Hall. Hundreds of people attended from every walk of life, and messages of congratulation from all over Australia were read out. Nicholls gave an extempore speech which was reprinted in full in the Mercury, and in this speech the learning, energy, and good humour of this remarkable octogenarian is delightfully displayed.