Staniforth Smith

Australian politician

Miles Staniforth Cater Smith, MBE (25 February 1869 – 14 January 1934) was an Australian politician.Born in Kingston, Victoria, to William John Smith and Margaret Gomersall (Charlesworth), he was educated at St Arnaud Grammar School and then the University of Melbourne before becoming an engineer.

He moved to Western Australia in 1896, becoming a public servant.He was a councillor of the Municipality of Kalgoorlie and its mayor in 1900, and was a leading federalist.

In 1901, he was elected to the Australian Senate as a Free Trade Senator for Western Australia, holding the seat until his retirement in 1906.

He then became involved in Government Service in Papua, where in 1907 he was appointed Director of Agriculture and Mines.In 1910–11, he led an expedition into the interior, where he and his party were lost and feared dead for several weeks.

Rescued with much publicity, he was hailed as an explorer and in 1923 awarded the Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.

During the First World War he served in the military from 1916 to 1918, for which he was awarded an MBE.On his return to Australia he briefly served as acting Administrator of the Northern Territory for 1919–1921, before resuming his involvement with Papua as Commissioner for Crown Lands, Mines and Agriculture.

After retiring from government service in 1930, he took up farming at Boyup Brook in Western Australia, where he died in 1934.

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