Higgins, Henry Bournes (1851–1929), politician in Australia, was born 30 June 1851 in Newtownards, Co. Down, second of six sons in a family of nine children of John Higgins, a banker who became a methodist minister, and his wife Ann, daughter of Henry Bournes, landowner, of Crossmolina, Co. Mayo. Higgins attended (1861–5) the Wesleyan Connexional School, St Stephen's Green, Dublin, but left to attend a local school in Newry due to his ill health. He worked in a drapery warehouse in Belfast and a merchant tailor's shop in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary. After his older brother's death from consumption, the family emigrated to the healthier climate of Victoria, Australia, on a doctor's advice, and arrived in Melbourne on 12 February 1870. Higgins attended (1871–6) the University of Melbourne. A gifted student with a talent for languages and the arts, he pursued law with the hope that it would force him to correct his stammer. He obtained Bachelor of Laws (1874) and Master of Arts (1876) degrees, and was called to the bar (1876) and the Inner Temple (1886).
Having been a member of the lower house of the Victoria legislature (1894–1900), Higgins was elected MP for North Melbourne (1901–6) in the federal parliament, was appointed attorney general for the commonwealth of Australia (1904) in the country's first federal Labor government (although he was not a member of the party). This unprecedented situation has never happened since, but it reflected the high regard in which Higgins was held by the labour movement (Rickard, 140–44).
He became a high court judge in 1906, and served as president of the commonwealth court of conciliation and arbitration (1907–21). His most important achievement as president is known as the ‘Harvester judgment’ of 1907. It had a profound effect on workers’ rights and family welfare in Australia for many decades. In his ruling, Higgins calculated the minimum or basic wage that an average working man would need to be paid in order to support his family and ruled that wages should not fall below this minimum in future (Rickard, 171–7).
Although Higgins only visited Ireland a few times after emigrating, he maintained a continued interest in Irish affairs. In 1887 he was prominent in protests against the bill that became the Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act. In 1905 he moved a resolution in the commonwealth parliament urging Britain to grant home rule to Ireland. He also had an interest in both Irish and Australian culture, with a particular love of poetry. After consulting George Russell (qv) (AE), he bequeathed £25,000 to the Royal Irish Academy (RIA). He also bequeathed £4,000 to the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) to fund a travelling student scholarship. He was a member of the council of the University of Melbourne (1887–1923).
Higgins was a pacificist, and his opposition to the Boer war ended his career in Victoria politics (Rickard, 107–13, 118–20). He agonised over the first world war, in which his only child, his son, Mervyn Bournes Higgins, was killed in action in Egypt in December 1916, aged twenty-nine, as a captain in the Australian Light Horse (Rickard, 220–7).
Higgins died 13 January 1929 at his home at Heronswood, Dromana, Victoria, and was buried alongside his son in Dromana cemetery.
He married (19 December 1885) Mary Alice Morrison.