James Mirams

Mirams became an ironmonger and had a business in Royston, but migrated to Melbourne in 1857, after his father accepted the position of minister at the Independent Church, Collins Street.

In the boom years of the 1880s, he became involved in numerous speculative ventures, such as the Freehold Farms Co. and the Essendon Land and Tramway Co. Ltd. A Sabbatarian and a leading temperance advocate,[2] he was also the co-promoter of the ornately designed Federal Coffee Palace, which was opened in time for the 1888 Centennial Exhibition.

[3] After four unsuccessful attempts in the previous five years, Mirams was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the member for Collingwood in 1876, serving until 1886.

Opposed to plural voting, an advocate of payment of members and of the creation of uniform electorates, he was a founder of the Liberal party, and a committed follower of the radical premier Graham Berry.

He fell out with Berry over the compromise which settled the constitutional crisis, and he condemned the formation of the coalition Conservative-Liberal ministry in 1883.

As a result of his mismanagement of the society's finances, as well as his reckless involvement in other speculative ventures, Mirams resigned as secretary in November 1888.