Horrie Brown Collection
The Horrie Brown Collection is a collection of Australian official publications. It consists of parliamentary papers, both Commonwealth and state, and statistics.
Background
Horace Plessay Brown (1916-1971) was an economist who believed that the basis of sound economic theory was meticulously collected and presented statistical data. After a short term lecturing in economics at the University of Western Australia in 1938, he took a position with the Commonwealth Grants Committee. In 1941 he joined the research section of the Bureau of Census and Statistics, where he "assisted with the introduction of 'pay-as-you-earn' income taxation, and was largely responsible for drawing up the pioneering national income and expenditure papers of 1944-45 to 1948-49."* Brown was elected to the International Statistical Institute in 1952.
In the late 1940s Brown took up a readership in economic statistics at the Australian National University. In this role he published papers, including the major work Australian demographic databank, on accounting, measurement of income distribution and retail prices. The Horrie Brown Library at the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University was named after him; the basis of the Library being a full set of government and other statistical material (transferred to the University of Canterbury in 2000).
Finding Publications
The parliamentary papers can be found grouped together by states (or Commonwealth), e.g. Queensland parliamentary papers. Within each state the titles of papers are given a running number, e.g. Comm. Parlt. papers 30; N.S.W. Parlt. papers 1. Use the Call no. (local) index in the Library Catalogue to browse these.
If you know the title of the report, use the Title keyword index to search the Library Catalogue. Use the Author alphabetical index for a search for the Corporate Body responsible for the paper. A search for Horrie Brown in the Author alphabetical index will find the entire collection of papers. Links to specific state papers are provided below:
- Commonwealth parliamentary papers
- New South Wales parliamentary papers
- Northern Territory parliamentary papers
- Queensland parliamentary papers
- South Australian parliamentary papers
- Tasmanian parliamentary papers
- Victorian parliamentary papers
- Western Australian parliamentary papers
Publications are shelved in a closed storage area. They are 'reference only' i.e. can be used in the Library, but not borrowed.
If the catalogue indicates that an item is held in storage, use the online storage request form
*Ritchie, John (Ed.) (1993) Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 13 1940-1980, A-DE. Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press.