PROFESSOR ROSS ANDERSON Ross Anderson, Professor of Public Law and Editor of thib Journal, died on 23rd Februarj., 1961, a t the age of 43. Rarely in the history of the University can so wid? a circle of collcngues and friends have been affected ,so dcepll-, and with a scnsc of tragedy, by the news of his illness and impending death. The tragcdy wai in the cutting short of a career approaching its p t ~ t kand the \vastt2 , of great talent and accumulated knowledge that hat1 not ytxt l~ornc their expected fruit. So many \yere affected because he n-i-n.. not only an active man, with an exceptional range of interest.. xnd contacts, but he was a sociable man, whost, widc circle of fricnds included not only those who worked or played with him, but also many who opposed the causes he fought for. Thus he was an active supporter of the Labour Party, but his closest friend5 included Liberal members of Parliament. The regard in which he had come to be held by his University colleagues is shown by the fact that he was their first choice when the Staff Association obtained a rcprcsentative on the University Senate. Harry Ross Anderson was born in Western Australia on 11th December, 1917. He graduated LL.B. with First Class Honours at the University of Western Australia in 1938. He was elected to a Rhodes Scholarship and was at Oxford from 1938 to 1940, taking a First Class in the Honour School of Jurisprudence. The war cut short his stay a t Oxford, and he returned to Jf:estern Australia, where he enlisted in the Army. He was commissioned lieutenant in 1942, serving in the field artillery except for a period of eighteen months when he was seconded as ;iir Liaison Officer in New Guinea attached to the U.S.A.A.F. He liked to claim the distinction that his Oxford B.A. and b1.A. were conferred on him while he nras in action in Borneo. After five ,-ears' service he returned to \Vestern Australia. In 1947 he was admitted as a barrister and solicitor and practised in Perth. In 1948 he became a full-time research scholar a t the University of IVestern Australia, and a t the end of that year was appointed a Senior Lecturer in Law in the University of Queensland. I n 1952 he was promoted to Chief Lecturer (the then equivalent of the present grade of Reader), and in 1959, when a Chair of Public Law was established, he was appointed to that position as from 1st January, 1960. In the Law School he taught Constitutional Law and Law of Contract, and for a few years Public International Law as well, He made Constitutional Law his specialty, and soon came to be recognised as an authority in this field. He was one of those i ~ l ~ ~ i tteot l contrilmtc to Essays on tl~c,11u>i-ralianConstitution, ~)~il)lisl~c~tf occz~sionof the fiftieth ;~nni\.crsnry thc Comon thc of mon\vc:tltl~. In tllis field he contri1)litcd ;I number of substantial articles to vario~ih Icgal journals, and contributed thc opening chapter on The ('onstitutional Framework in a composite work on l'he Government of tile Australian States. published in 1960. 111latter ycars his interest turnctl ~~articularly Administrative to Law, and while on study leave in England in 1956 he began a long term study of thcl topic of Judicial Control of Administrative Tribunals. This work was further advanced during another year of lcave at the Aubtl-alian Kational University in 1959; but it had not reached the stage of publication when he became ill in 1960; and with his death the work he did has gone for nothing. He took a substantial and increasing part in the administration and gencral affairs of the University. To mention a few matters only, he took a major part in the planning during 1951 of a revised curriculum for the LL.B course; he was for four years a very efficient secretary of the Staff Association; for ten years he was editor of this Journal; and in his last year he was a member of the University Senate. I n questions of policy he always cxercised an independent judgment, came to definite conclusions, and had the courage of his conr-ictions ; and with this character, coupled with a first rate intellect, he would have played a leading part in top-level University Administration. His death is a great loss to the University in all its aspects. But Vniversity work was far from taking all of Anderson's cnclrgies. Anothcr major interest was politics. He was an active member of the Australian Labour Party, and for some time was secretary and at the time of his death was vice-president of the Toowong branch of that party. He was a foundation member of the Fabian Society in Queensland, a member of the Labour 12awyer1sLeague, and of the Labour College Council. He was on the legal panel of the Australian Council for CiviI Liberties, and president of the Queensland Branch of the Civil Liberties League. Any move which he considered to he a threat to civil libertj- brought him into the open, \vl~ether the move cam? from his own party, or opposing political parties, or from any other source. I t was a Queensland Labour Government measure, the Printers' and Newspapers' Bill, that drew him into the hottest controversy of his career and mad? him the object of a vicions attack in Parliament by a Labour Minister. The papers he left are evidence of a great deal of unpublicised activity, and show that hi' was often consulted by persons and bodies outside the University. He had a cultivated interest in most of the Arts, and he had been an interstate hockey player. There was not much that was outside his range. I'erhaps a better tribute to his memory could be paid 1)). one who morr intimately shared his interests and was the companion of his lighter- di\.ersions. Rut as the head of thc University department in which he worked I can saJ- that I could not have wished for a more \villing, co-operative, and agreeable collcagucl. I do not recall in our- tn.cl\.e ycars' association a single occasion in which there was ill feeling, or even a brief angry word, bctwcen u s ; and as far as I know h i relations with other members of the dcpart~nent were eciuall?- agr-rcahlt.. Strong ~nindedas he was, this coultl not have becn if tllr,re had bee11 pettiness or self-scc,king in I ~ i s nature; and the diitrchs felt by his colleagues w a the mcvsurc of their respect for his character. This was enhanced by tllca courage with which he bore his affliction, and t h e resolution with whicll he continued his work despite it. U . K. HAIIKISON* '