It is in the correspondence between King and Gillies that the profound questions that underlay the Wollaston Affair can be seen. King was of the opinion that the 1872 Education Act contained laws that required clarification, if not amendment. Gillies viewed Wollaston's actions as deliberate and calculated, gross disobedience and a breach of the law. The crux of the disagreement between Gillies and King was the place of religious instruction in schools. 'That gentlemen who advocate religious instruction being made part of our state school system should have so far shown their sympathy with disobedience to constituted authority and disregard for the law, must, on consideration be rather a matter for deep regret', wrote Gillies; but for King the whole matter was open to question: '... your statement that Mr Wollaston was punished for disobeying his instructions and the law is scarcely accurate, ... it is yet more open to doubt (in the opinion of many) whether the law forbids the act, even if the instructions do'.³⁹

It is implausible that Edward insisted on his innocence for so long because he thought he had simply overlooked the key phrase 'Church service' in the Campbell letter. He wrote in vain to each incoming Minister of Education for the next forty- two years in an effort to expunge the censure on his record. In 1889 he tried to clear his name with Charles H Pearson, who cited the Wollaston Case during an interview with the London spectator, an interview that was reprinted in a local edition of the Telegraph: 'I may state, Sir, that, although five years have passed since the occurrence, the sting of unjust blame and punishment remains as keen as ever in my mind', he wrote.⁴⁰ Pearson went through the case papers and came across Wilson Brown's 1884 letter to Campbell and Campbell's assertion that he had forwarded the letter to Wollaston. Pearson used this correspondence to accuse Wollaston of dishonesty: 'You say in a letter of October 9^th [1884] that either the words "or Church service" were omitted from the communication you received through the Honorable J. Campbell or they were entirely overlooked.'⁴¹ The Department, he warned, kept facsimile copies of its outward letters. Perhaps Wollaston was ignorant of that fact! 'It is proved therefore by your own admission that you had received the orders of the Department not to conduct a church service in a state school building.' As already noted, however, these words did not appear in any direct communication from the Department to Wollaston, at a time when correspondence was flying thick and fast between them. It is entirely possible that the fine wording of a letter to Campbell, which would have appeared a personal one, was overlooked by Wollaston. It was not, after all, addressed to him.

In April 1891 Wollaston wrote to Minister Sargood, again requesting that the fine and censure be removed from his record. A Departmental refusal noted peremptorily that 'This matter has been dealt with by the Minister's predecessors in office and he is not disposed to reopen it.'⁴² Two months later, the undaunted Edward requested permission from the Department to speak at a public meeting 'to consider the question of referring the introduction of Scripture teaching in State schools to a plebiscite of the people'. Naturally, he was refused! In March 1892 he requested a public enquiry into his case in order to 'cause the record of fine and censure against me to be erased, not as a favour, but as a clear act of justice'. Again he was refused. His letter of 14 September 1903 was addressed to Minister Sachse. The affair had occurred nine years ago and, as Duncan Gillies was dead, Edward had cause for optimism. 'That bar to tardy justice being done to me has at last been removed', he wrote to Sachse, and begged for the erasure of the charges made against him. In 1917 he wrote to Minister Lawson, noting that he was about to retire and asking for the stigma 'which has so long and so unjustly been attached to me' to be removed. But Lawson only noted that 'The question of the remission of the fine has come before several Ministers of Public Instruction who have refused to interfere'. In August 1924, Edward wrote to John Lemmon, a fellow member of the Australian Natives Association, asking for 'rectification of a wrong which I have borne for 40 years'. Lemmon displayed interest and raised Edward's hopes when he asked for a meeting. Before this could be held, however, the Minister made a decision based probably on his predecessors' notes: 'Cannot re-open the case.'

Perhaps Edward's most touching letter is to Alexander Peacock, who visited Campbelltown in 1884 as a young reporter and who, in his published article 'Religious liberty', expressed sympathy and outrage over the events.⁴³ By a curious coincidence, Peacock was the Minister of Public Instruction when Edward wrote to him in 1926:

You will remember the general indignation at Mr. Duncan Gillies' action. In leaving me, as you shook hands, you used the following words: 'If ever in the future I am in a position to right the great injustice you have suffered, I shall have pleasure in doing it.'

My object in writing is to ask you to have the record of the false charge under which I have lain over forty years, together with the punishment inflicted on me, expunged from the records.

He went on to remind Peacock of their common interests, cricket and the Australian Natives Association. The letter ends on a gentlemanly and courteous note, 'with kind regards and remembrances of your sixty fifth birthday today ...'. The reply was a curt one: 'Acknowledge and say the Minister is not prepared to reopen this case.'

In 1886 Edward had requested a transfer from Campbelltown to a school where Mary would be close to medical attention. Their second daughter was born in that year and Edward took up a position as second assistant at his old school in MacArthur Street, Ballarat. There is no doubt that his experience at Campbelltown had affected him personally and professionally and delayed any promotion commensurate with his abilities and qualifications. Head teacher Oldham, who previously had befriended and supported him, had been transferred. His position was taken by James Rattray, with whom Edward experienced years of ongoing, bitter conflict. His career stalled, he remained at the level of second assistant, and his teaching and discipline methods came increasingly under the scrutiny of Rattray and the inspectors. To add to his woes, Mary died in January 1904 after years of suffering from uterine carcinoma, leaving him alone with their two young daughters.⁴⁴

After ten years of humiliation, Edward charged his head teacher with 'having persistently belittled both my intelligence and my teaching ability' with 'humiliating interference with my methods' and with 'constant limitation of my authority as a class teacher of experience'. The effects were, he claimed, 'the consequent demoralization of my influence and a lowering of my class results and ... making my teaching life absolutely hateful'.⁴⁵ The grievance was brought before Inspector Jackson, who formed the opinion that Wollaston was argumentative and contumacious. He thought that Wollaston's professional shortcomings were due to staleness, as he had been in the same position for twenty-five years. Moreover, Jackson considered that Wollaston's thoughts, time and energies had been elsewhere: '... as a citizen he has expended a considerable portion of his energy in outside work'. Edward's bitter feud with Rattray and the resulting enquiry into his own teaching practice did not help his professional position. After an extensive and carefully documented investigation, Inspector Jackson delivered a mixed decision. He recommended that Wollaston be transferred immediately to another school as head teacher but that 'The school should not be in the neighbourhood of Ballarat. In this locality Mr Wollaston has too many engagements outside his school work.'⁴⁶

Edward was established in Ballarat. He never completed his university studies but he constructed a rich personal, intellectual and public life. In 1906 he married Florence Hammond, who was born at Poonindie Station in South Australia where his father had once been manager. He travelled regularly to Port Lincoln and later to Adelaide to visit his father, brothers and sisters. He was a member of the Australian Natives Association and the Ballarat cricket team. He had personal contacts in the local press and was a great writer of letters. He taught elocution to children and, like his brother, Tully Cornthwaite Wollaston, he was an author. He wrote and published several histories, biographies and novels. One of these was a semi-autobiographical work, Ulipa: a South Australian story, based on his memories of childhood at Lake Hamilton and his recollections of the people of Port Lincoln.⁴⁷ It is Dickensian in tone, a story of sharply observed characters written with laconic humour, wit and empathy. In Ulipa Edward described his view of the individual's right to deal directly with members of a bureaucracy whose decisions affected his or her life: '... many good people look askance upon originality or individuality and treat it as a craze or a taint which must be eradicated, ... it would seem that the world is yet far from the wise recognition of individuality as being a special gift of God, worthy of cultivation ...' (p. 99). In later life, when Edward and Florence retired to Railway Parade, Murrumbeena, he called their home 'Ulipa'.

In 1907 Edward was promoted to Kirkstall (near Koroit) where he remained as head teacher until 1910. He was then at Nhill until 1913, Casterton for one year and Kyneton where he remained from 1915 until 1918, the year of his retirement. Documents suggest that Edward's career had no further public rancour, dramatic investigations or bitter confrontations. His marriage to Florence was a long and rewarding union. In 1916 the couple visited Edward's father in Glenelg and George wrote of his pleasure at seeing them so happy.⁴⁸ Edward's letters to each incoming Minister for Education continued, but these were courteous and gentlemanly, indicated activities and interests they shared, described his story in measured terms and pleaded for removal of Gillies's judgement against him. Charles Long made an accurate assessment of his friend when he wrote that Wollaston was 'zealous in Church work' and 'wielded the pen of a ready writer'.⁴⁹ After Edward's retirement, he and Florence moved to Ulipa where he busied himself each Tuesday at the Murrumbeena school as one of the religious instruction staff; and every year he was present on Empire Day, Anzac Day and at other celebrations to address the school. There is little doubt he impressed his young audience with his powers of oratory. When Long first saw Wollaston at a recital in Alexandra, he was overcome: 'On his first appearance at an entertainment ... he recited Adam Lindsay Gordon's "The Sick Stockrider" ... On that evening I sat open-eyed and open mouthed. May I say that Gordon's memory owes something to my hearing that recital when I was about seventeen years old?'⁵⁰