# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/MacBain, James

​MACBAIN, Sir JAMES (1828–1892), Australian statesman, born in April 1828 at Kinrives, Ross-shire, was youngest son of Smith MacBain. While he was still an infant his family moved to Scotsburn, and thence to Invergordon. His education was much interrupted by delicate health, arising from a fall from a horse. In 1845 he was apprenticed for five years to Andrew Smith, warehouseman, of Inverness, and became his bookkeeper and cashier. He afterwards was employed as traveller for the firm of Milligan & Co., of Bradford. In 1853 he migrated to Melbourne. For four years he held a clerkship in the Bank of New South Wales. In 1857 he paid a visit to Great Britain, and on his return to Melbourne in 1858 became managing partner for a branch of the firm of Gibbs, Ronald, & Co., mercantile and squatting agents. In 1863 he became partner in the London house, as well as the colonial branches, and when, two years later, the business was bought by the Australian Mortgage Land and Finance Company, he became chairman of the Australian directorate. This position he held for over twenty-five years. He was also director of two leading banks and three insurance offices, and engaged extensively and successfully in speculation in agricultural land.
In 1864 MacBain was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Victoria as representative of the Wimmera district, a scattered constituency, which he represented for sixteen years. In the house MacBain distinguished himself equally by his fairness in debate and his steady adherence to constitutional principles (cf. Victorian Parliamentary Debates, 1875, p. 1244, and November 1884). He took a prominent part in the abolition of state-aid to religion, and opposed both the present Education Act and the Land-tax Act as injudicious and imperfect. He leaned to free-trade principles.
In 1880 MacBain was elected to represent the central (on redistribution of districts, the South Yarra) province in the legislative council. When in August 1881 Sir Bryan O'Loghlen formed a government, MacBain entered the ministry without portfolio, and remained in the cabinet till its resignation in March 1883. He had declined previous offers on account of his private engagements. On 27 Nov. 1884, in succession to Sir W. Fancourt Mitchell, he was elected by acclamation to be president of the legistive council.
MacBain visited England in 1874–5, and again in 1883, when he acted as chairman of the Victorian commissioners at the Amsterdam Exhibition. In 1888 he was president of the executive commission of the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition. He was created a knight bachelor on the queen's birthday, 1886, and a K.C.M.G. in 1889.
MacBain was a leading member of the presbyterian congregation, and took an active interest in church affairs. He was a trustee of the Scotch College, the Working Men's ​College, National Gallery, and other institutions, and for many years president of the Board for the Protection of Aborigines. He died on 4 Nov. 1892, at his residence, ‘Scotsburn,’ near Toorak. He married in 1853 a daughter of William Smith of Forres, the brother of his Inverness employer.
[Melbourne Argus, 5 Nov. 1892; Mennell's Dict. of Australasian Biography.]
C. A. H.