[Battye, J. S. (James Sykes)(ed.), 1912, The Cyclopedia of Western Australia: an historical and commercial review, Hussey & Gillingham, for the Cyclopedia Company, Adelaide]
...
The Honourable JAMES DANIEL CONNOLLY, M.L.C., is the second son of the late Mr. D. Connolly, of Clifton, Queensland. Born at Allora, on the rich Darling Downs, in 1869, and educated at Warwick, he early in life engaged in business as a contractor in his own State. He was attracted to Western Australia by the gold discoveries, and arrived in 1893, in time to see the foundation of the eastern goldfields and catching the boom at the flood he found great opportunities for the profitable employment of his enterprise and business acumen. Kalgoorlie was then practically unborn, and a city had to be built in the remote desert within five years. In the raising of that mushroom city Mr. Connolly found plenty to do, and the strenuously busy character of his early years in Western Australia may be best gauged by the number of public buildings and commercial edifices at Kalgoorlie and throughout the eastern goldfields, for the building of which he was responsible. As Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie rose from humble mining camps to large, up to-date, and prosperous settlements his fortunes rose with them. In addition to his business enterprises he interested himself largely in mining development, and while he had his successes as an investor, he nevertheless paid a fair quota to the cost of establishing the great mining industry. In the course of a few years he was able to devote some time to public affairs and in 1901 entered the Kalgoorlie Municipal Council. This civic honour proved but a stepping-stone to the greater dignity and responsibilities of public life. When Mr. A. P. Matheson was returned as one of the members of the Federal Senate for Western Australia Mr. Connolly contested the vacancy in the representationo f the North-East province in the Legislative Council of the State, and was elected by a substantial majority in 1903. That seat he has continued to hold ever since. Three years later, on the formation of the Moore Ministry, he accepted the 325 important portfolio of Colonial Secretary, which carried with it the responsibility of leading the Legislative Council and piloting all Government business through that Chamber. Mr. Connolly has always taken a sympathetic interest in public charities, particularly those relating to children, and in the State Children’s Act which he carried through Parliament in 1907 the State is recognized to possess one of the most humane and advanced measures of the kind in the Commonwealth. As Minister in charge of public health he strove to place the hospitals of the State on an efficient basis, and in the consolidating Health Act of 1910-11 he succeeded in embodying provisions which give this State the most up-todate health and pure foods legislation on the Statute Books of Australia, a meritorious feature of the measure being the sections dealing with the protection of infant life. Another matter to which Mr. Connolly gave earnest attention was that of immigration. By a judicious policy of advertising the resources of the State and giving proper attention to the immigrants on their arrival he brought about an influx of desirable settlers at the rate of 12,000 per annum, and having regard to the fact that Western Australia has never encouraged indiscriminate immigration, this result is one of the most gratifying in the record of Mr. Connolly’s administration. While swelling the white population he was not unmindful of the claims of the original owners of the soil, and during his regime the laws dealing with the aborigines were remodelled on most benevolent lines. Everything possible was done by him to improve the conditions of the native race, and in this respect Western Australia is not eclipsed by any other State in the Commonwealth. In 1898 Mr. Connolly married a daughter of Mr. Edwards, of St. Arnaud, Victoria, the issue being five daughters.
...
