NOVKMBKR, igl 



History of the Month. 



rhr I'riim- Ministt-r does not anti- 

 Federal Business ,.; tf that the Federal I'.iilianKii 

 and the ' . . 



Referenda. tary session will elosi.' till within 3 



fortnight of Christinas, and tlie 

 frt)v.-riiiin?iu an- resolved to make the most of the 

 iiiterveniof; time to push through some of the im- 

 (lortant lej{islatiun on their i)rogramme. The Naviga- 

 tion Hill is oiif of the measures which it has be<'n 

 ordainccl shall pass ixjfore the session terminates. 

 From reci-nt sji.'eehes it is evident that the Ministry 

 are laying their plans cirefully for the next Ref- 

 erend.i. which. is to Ix; made a party is.sue. The 

 l>recise- torn) ot tlu- Referenda is not to he announced 

 ■ till nearly th<- i-nd of the se.ssion. " Wc w.int iiowcr 

 to protect the f)eo|)le of Australia against aggres- 

 sion," says -Mr. Fisher on this subject. " Whv 

 should not th-- High (Vmrt l>e a court of api)eal in 

 industrial matters? We go even further and say 

 that the High Court should hav«: original jurisdic- 

 tion in matters of industrial dispute, e\en though 

 confined to one .Stale. Why should we wait until 

 the dispute has extended to two or more States l)e- 

 fore the Commonwealth can interfere. Our con- 

 tention i.s that there should Ix; p.ower 10 jiermit of 

 the High Court Ix-ing moved at any lime. In the 

 case of the Ne« South Wales coal strike, two \ears 

 .igo, although industries all oV<'r Australia were 

 .iffected, the Commonwealth could not intervei.e in 

 any way lH.fausf there was no aclual strike in any 

 other Stale. Tin- same diflieulty aro.se in regard 

 To the Hrisliaiie tramway strike. We are not making 

 V attack upon the rights of the States. All we 

 iv.int to do is to protect the people from industrial 

 warfare. II lh<; proposals that we are about to 

 DuKmit are carried, the High Court will be able, 

 if it tljinks fit, to sit in any State at any time to 

 deal with an industrial matter. At the present time 

 disputes might ari.se that the State Courts coulil nni 

 \erv well deal with. 'J'he shearers, for instanct-, :ir. 

 A working jieacefully under an award that IkhI 

 ;o take into consideration the varying standard of 

 living in difTereiit jiarts of Australia. And the 

 shearers have h.id two aw.irds in ten years. There 

 is another thing. We have lieen asked why we don't 

 make our own rails for the transcontinental line. 

 .At present the • ornmon wealth's hanils are tied with 

 this inatt<'r bei .iu>e w<- couKl <m\y manufacture for 

 our own consumption. II we m.ido one or two rails 

 over we coulfl not sell them, but should have to 

 throw them awav. We wani to alter that sort ol 

 thing. ■ There is no doubt as to what .\lr. Fisher 



Jill! Ills colleagues w.nil. Whether the el< ei<irs liui' 



changed their minds or not on th<' subject ol .State 

 rights since the last Referenda is quite another 

 matter. The present indications are thai they have 

 not. 



Tht^ fluent and jjervasive Mr. Hoi- 

 The (ioal niaii is nothing if not ojitimistic, 



ol Labour. ^^ ^j^,^^ ^^,,^;[^. ^,^,,^1,. ^^.|,^, r|„sely 



study the signs in the political 

 heavens are shaking their heads at the prosj)ects of 

 the Labour Party in New South Wales at the next 

 elections, Mr. Holman is assuring his followers that 

 though they are as yet only on die fringe of the pro 

 mised land, full [K>ssession is near at hand. In an 

 addre.'^s at the Ivight Hours' celebration ai C'obar 

 the New South Wales .Xttorney-Ceneral reminded 

 his audience th.it the gaining of the eight hours prin 

 ci|)le b\ the miners was practically the first important 

 step towards that gentral success ol organised lalKuir 

 that th<'\- were celebrating thai day. They had 

 begun at one end of the .scale by aiming at the 

 sim7)le lKX)n of the limitation of the hours of labour, 

 and the\ had gone from one goal to another till to 

 da\ laliour aimed at what many would regard as the 

 ambitious proji'<-t of controlling the entire govern- 

 ment of the country in which it found itself. '.Al- 

 though it was too earlv yet to say that l.alwur ])riM 

 ciples were in an\ i)ermanent way inculcated or 

 established, he thought it was not t<x) early to .say. 

 " We shall not be defeated." No one who had 

 seen the advance that had be<fn made could doubt 

 that Au.stralia was destined to Ixr go\ernetl by the 

 workers. That was the goal towards which Aiis 

 tralia was going, and he exhorted them to celebrate 

 flight Hour Day in a spirit of hojx-fiil looking for- 

 ward, and as a foretaste of hundreds of othei^ vic- 

 tories thev Were to celebr.ile in ihe iie.ir funnc. 



.Australia is not old enougli y«'t to 



The lirsl and leckon its historv bv centiiri<'s. She 



the Last. j^ moving toward the centuries 



r.ith<r than along them. In any 



ca.v liiere is one man in .Australia who has estab 



lislK'd a |)roud re<'(ird. Hi' is an old railway servant 



in whom practically tlu- railway historv of the Com 



monwealth is rejjre.senled. Mr. T. R. Herald joineif 



the railway service in .Sydnex .it its iiic<'ptioi\ 



55 \ears agt>. He was the lirsl stationma.sler .it 



Newtown, and is the last of the Iratlic staff living 



who joined th<' ."Mirvice at the opening of the rail- 



wa\s. 'I'lu* total start in th<' s<'rvici' in those days, 



under .1 six)re, com|iri.sed the trallic manager and two 



elerlvs, I »■> lei Milnal slilioPiilisters. loiii iiilerinedi il< 



