cent of the population, lived on them. Cotton also championed the State Bank, technical education, a strong government department of labour, and boards of conciliation and arbitration. He was short-tempered and not an effective speaker despite being widely read. In the 1880s he left the Wesleyans, whose indifference to reform enraged him, and declared a new faith: 'I worship a living Christ in the person of every child, however it may have been born into the world'. The depression affected Cotton's financial position to such a degree that in 1886 he was forced to resign his seat (as at that time members of the Legislative Council were unpaid). Cotton was a Fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute and the Royal Horticultural Society of London, a member of the British Economic Association and the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. Family George Witherage Cotton (4 February 1821 – 15 December 1892) married Elizabeth Mitchell (1832 – 27 December 1901) with whom he had nine children, including: Mary Elizabeth Cotton (c. 1851 – 5 July 1862) Emma Morcom Cotton (c. 1853 – 31 July 1908), married William Bowen Chinner on 23 June 1875 Samuel Mitchell Cotton (1854 - ?) George Samuel Cotton (22 February 1858 – 26 October 1918), married Annie Wallace on 15 July 1880 William Mitchell Cotton L.R.C.P., M.R.C.S. (4 May 1860 – 21 April 1899), married Maude Pullein on 26 June 1888, died in London James Boorman Cotton (22 April 1862 – 9 May 1878), died at sea when mast collapsed Francis John Cotton (30 September 1868 – 18 April 1880), died after swimming accident Edward Witherage Cotton (1 March 1870 – 31 October 1941), married Mary Catherine Dempster on 5 September 1894. He was one of the first students at Roseworthy Agricultural College, under Professor John D. Custance, later a farmer in Western Australia. Charles Henry Cotton (23 September 1873 – 27 February 1947) A sister, Jane Boorman Cotton (c. 1824 – 20 November 1910), married Claude Shuttleworth (c. 1819 – 27 May 1892), and conducted Hardwicke College for Girls. Newspaper reports Cotton's opinions attracted controversy, as extracts from newspapers of the day show. For instance, in a spirited public debate on unemployment, a Thomas H. Smeaton, under the heading "Delusive Demagogues", said of Mr Cotton and his supporters: Dangerous men these at the present. Discard them working-men; they will fool you and nothing more..., and another