James Balfour (Australian politician)

[3] Balfour arrived in Melbourne in 1852 as the representative of Messrs. Matheson, of Lombard Street, London, to the firm of James Henty & Co.

He visited England in 1857–58, resigned his position in Geelong in 1863, and in 1866 entered the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the member for East Bourke.

He acted on the Irrigation and Water Supply, and on the Banking Laws Commissions; was Chairman of the Australian Deposit and Mortgage Bank, Limited, and of the Equitable Assurance Company of the United States, and Vice-Chairman of the Trustees, Executors, and Agency Company, Limited, and was a member of the Council of Ormond College.

He was a member of the Australian Club in Melbourne and has an entry in Burke’s A Geneaoligical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry (London, 1891 & 1895).

Balfour was a member of the Gillies Government without portfolio from May 1890 till its resignation in November that year.