278 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



towards merchants and capitalists, and he had boldly refused to 

 start Government relief works for the unemployed, in the face of 

 his supposed overflowing exchequer. On the 3rd of August a 

 couple of hundred of the unemployed organised a demonstration at 

 the Melbourne Wharf, and proceeded to burn the Premier in effigy, 

 when a squad of police rescued the inanimate counterfeit and dis- 

 persed the mob. 



The want of employment in the winter of 1890 was largely 

 due to conditions more particularly dealt with in the next chapter. 

 Owing to numerous insolvencies of speculative builders, a cessation 

 of work in the trades connected therewith had thrown many hun- 

 dreds of mechanics idle. The construction of the tramways, which 

 had employed a very large body of men for some years, had recently 

 been completed, and several projected suburban railway works had 

 been deferred owing to hostility in Parliament. The fact of scarcity 

 of employment had, however, nothing to do with the initiation of 

 the great maritime strike which brought desolation into so many 

 homes in August, September and October, 1890. It was not initi- 

 ated to escape from hard, grinding poverty, such as had driven the 

 half-starved labourers in the London Docks into fierce revolt the 

 year before. On the contrary, the men who struck work on this oc- 

 casion were, as a rule, well paid, well treated and prosperous. Large 

 numbers of them were depositors in savings banks, shareholders in 

 building societies, freeholders of their own residences or other pro- 

 perties. By legitimate combination in trade unions, they had rightly 

 won many privileges not yet attained by their equals in Great Britain 

 or America. Eight hours as a day's labour was practically the law 

 of the land, and from 8s. to 15s. a day, according to the character 

 of the work, was a recognised wage, which any competent man 

 could command. Indeed, during the Exhibition year, when two 

 masters were running after one man, those figures were often largely 

 exceeded. 



The labour party, though it had in Mr. Trenwith its only repre- 

 sentative in Parliament, was an important element in social politics. 

 The wide influence of the various trade unions, and the organisa- 

 tion which concentrated their power in the Melbourne Trades Hall 

 Council, was a factor which every politician had to seriously con- 



