Milton Love

Milton Sydney Love (18 September 1852 – 14 November 1924)^[1] was an Australian Stipendiary Magistrate in New South Wales and the founding Warden of the Southern Mining District of NSW.

Birth and education

Love was the son of the politician William Love and Ellinor Robinson, both immigrants from Ireland, and brother of merchant James Robinson Love. On 16 July 1863, Love was one of the first 16 boys enrolled on the foundation of Newington College at Newington House on the Parramatta River at Silverwater, New South Wales. At twelve years of age he was student number eleven on the handwritten roll.^[2] According to the second Headmaster of the school, Thomas Johnstone, Love was "one of the best conducted, most perseveringly diligent, and most thoroughly amiable pupils that I have ever taught.’" He left Newington in September 1866 "in consequence of business depression".^[3] His father and brother had joined in a retail grocery shop at 476 George Street, Sydney, but in October 1866 Love & Son became insolvent.

Public service career

Following school, Love joined the Public Service as an officer of the Works Department and in 1877 moved to the Justice Department. He was appointed to be the Police Magistrate, Clerk of Petty Sessions and Registrar of the District Court at Cooma by the Governor of New South Wales on 1 June 1887, when he also assumed the duties of Warden at Cooma. Love was also appointed to be a Warden of the Southern Mining District by the Governor of New South Wales on 18 June 1887. ^[4] He was later appointed to the position of Stipendary Magistrate, a position which he held for 18¹⁄₂ years. He retired in 1919.^[5]

Public acclaim

Love received acclaim in 1924 after imposing a fine, for which its smallness, was probably a world record. A young girl came before the Newtown, New South Wales Magistrates Court charged with a breach of railway regulations. Despite suggesting the case should be withdrawn, which was deemed not possible, Mr Love then imposed a fine of "one penny, in default one minute imprisonment, and I will allow the accused twelve months in which to pay".^[6]

Marriages and children

On 3 December 1878, Love married Alice Emelie Rosa Spooner in St Andrew's Church, Walcha.^[7] They had three children between 1880 and 1887 and two died in infancy. Alice died in 1897 and Love married Matilda Jane Wallace in 1899 at Marrickville. They had two sons. At the time of his death, Love left a widow, two sons, Mr William Arnold Love of Goulburn and Mr Jack Milton Wallace Love of Sydney, and a daughter, Mrs Emily Ellen Magson, of North Sydney.^[1] His second wife died in 1943.^[8]

References