The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Smith, Lieut.-Colonel Hon. William Collard
Smith, Lieut.-Colonel Hon. William Collard, youngest son of Wm. Smith, manager of a large cotton factory at Ballington, in Cheshire, was born there in 1830. He emigrated to Victoria in 1852, and ultimately settled at Ballarat, of which he has been Mayor. Identifying himself with the mining interest, he began to acquire that ascendency in the local politics of the goldfields' city, which he for many years maintained. He was first returned to the Assembly for Ballarat West, in conjunction with the ex-Premier of Victoria, Mr. Duncan Gillies, and after a brief retirement stood again in 1871, when he was returned, and represented the constituency without intermission till April 1892, when he was defeated. Lieut.-Colonel Smith, who holds that rank in the local forces, early identified himself with the volunteer movement, and distinguished himself in Parliament by his mastery of the Local Government question. He was Minister of Mines in Mr. (now Sir) Graham Berry's first Government from August to Oct. 1875, and held the same office in conjunction with that of Minister of Education in that gentleman's second Cabinet from May 1877 to March 1880. He also acted as Treasurer during his chief's absence in England on the famous "Embassy" from Dec. 1878 to Nov. 1879. In Mr. Berry's third Administration Colonel Smith was Minister of Education from August 1880 to July 1881. He was one of the delegates to the Federation Convention held in Sydney in March 1891, and the next year lost his seat for Ballarat.