Samuel Wilkinson Moore


Samuel Wilkinson Moore was an Australian Freetrade and Liberal Party parliamentarian who served in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. He was the Secretary for Mines and Minister for Agriculture from 1904 until 1907 and from then, until 1910, Secretary for Lands.

Early life

Moore was born in Bau, the son of the Reverend William Moore, Wesleyan Minister and missionary in Fiji, and his wife Mary Ann Ducker. The family arrived in Sydney in 1864 and Moore attended Newington College when it was located at Newington House on the Parramatta River at Silverwater. From 1870 until 1872 he was a student teacher at the private High School, Goulburn, run by George Metcalfe who had been his Headmaster at Newington. In 1873 he went to the Tingha tinfields as secretary and manager of a land company. Moore married Isabella Sawkins in 1876 and had four daughters and a son. He was commissioned as a Justice of the Peace in 1879 and was a member of Board of Technical Education from 1886 until 1887. In 1896, Moore was elected the second President of the Old Newingtonians' Union. He served again in that position in 1898, 1904 and 1916.

Parliamentary service

Moore was a Member of the NSW Legislative Assembly for a total of 24 years, ten months and 27 days. He was elected by Inverell from 19 October 1885 to 19 January 1889 and Bingara from 17 July 1894 until 14 September 1910. In the ministry he served as Secretary for Mines and Minister for Agriculture from 29 August 1904 to 1 October 1907 and as Secretary for Lands from 2 October 1907 until 20 October 1910.

Post-Parliamentary career

After Moore was defeated in the elections of 1910, he was appointed Commissioner of the NSW Lands Board and retired from that position in 1922. Moore died in the Sydney suburb of Roseville, New South Wales.