George W. Cotton

He was especially notable for being a champion of a scheme in South Australia to put working men onto small blocks of land (around 20 acres) on which they could carry out agricultural production.

After working in London he migrated with his wife, Mary Ann (Jull), and his parents to South Australia aboard the barque Athenian, arriving 5 March, 1849.

[1] In the 1880s he left the Wesleyans, whose indifference to reform enraged him, and declared a new faith: 'I worship a living Christ in the person of every child, however it may have been born into the world.

'[1] The depression affected Cotton's financial position to such a degree that in 1886 he was forced to resign his seat (as at that time members of the Legislative Council were unpaid).

[6] For instance, in a spirited public debate on unemployment, a Thomas H. Smeaton, under the heading "Delusive Demagogues," said of Mr Cotton and his supporters: Dangerous men these at the present.

Discard them working-men; they will fool you and nothing more...,[7] and another man wrote: He is a secret enemy, not an open fee, and in future it is the duty of all right-thinking men to treat his wordy vapourizings with the select contempt they deserve...[8] The maligned politician sprang to defend himself on 13 April 1886, page 6f: Any man speaking of me as attempting to "gull" anybody can only be measuring me by some standard of his own to which course I respectfully demur to have judgments passed upon me...[9] Another correspondent to the Register on 16 September 1886 complained: If [he] wishes his 300 to 400 pioneers on labourers' blocks to succeed he had with misleading statements, but rather ought to preach to them uninterrupted industry (no eight-hours system), the strictest of economy and an unlimited amount of self-denial.

[12] But Cotton retorted on 17 February 1888: I hope when the historian has to look back at the difficulties small holdings had to encounter... that there will not be "perils among false brethren" to be received as amongst the bitterest opposition.

Some of us working men are growing tired of [it]: Cotton's the man for all jobs, He scowls on all the nobs, He winks and shouts at the snobs, And he sighs for the Government's bobs.

In the meantime Trades and Labour Councils must act for the workers...[21] And on 10 February 1890 Cotton wrote in relation to parliamentary representation: What I hold is wanted is a fair representation of each class and not a packed chamber that can only legislate for the country from the standpoint of its own class interests... For several years past South Australia has progressed in one direction only and that is in rapidly adding to its indebtedness to foreigners...[22] Cotton died at his home on Young Street, Parkside after a brief and painful illness, leaving his widow, four sons, and a daughter.

[23] At his funeral, a wreath from some "blockers" bore the inscription – "In loving gratitude to [our] father, friend and champion"[24] The Register of 3 February 1893 has a proposal for a "Cotton Memorial Homestead Institute" and at the same time the author unwittingly pens an appropriate epitaph for a man of compassion and Christian principles: He it was who trod that broader path of humanity, revelled in those broader views that teach us there is a temporal as well as a spiritual side to questions concerning man's salvation...[25] A school named after George Cotton was opened in 1914 and closed in 1945.