THE COLONIAL WORKING MAN’S POLITICS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1391, 28 November 1884, Page 2

THE COLONIAL WORKING MAN’S POLITICS.

la his recent able address to the Trades Union Congress at Aberdeen, the Earl of Rosebery, who has returned from Aus ralia, was very complimentary to the colonial working man, whom he rightly regards as the most important factor in colonial politics. He remarked: —Tnere is nobody within these islands that his so much to gain from a closer connection with the colonies as the working classes; and for this reason—that the working classes in Australia and Canada have g >t much more power and have made much greater advances in many ways than the working classes of this country have boon able to do. If it is important for the working classes of all countries to have a union together, surely it is more impor. taut for the working classes of the British empire to have a u>ion. The report of the second of the Intercolonial Trades

Union Congresses that met at Melbourne will show, I think, very clearly that, though in one curious and important pa - ■ ticular they are behind the working class* 0 of this country, yet in many points they are as much ahead of them as in that one point they are behind the working classes of this country. It is in the legislation of trades unions ; because it seems to one hardly credible that in a colony like Australia, which is governed by advanced democracy, the law that regulates their trades unions is a Bill that was passed in the reign of George IV,, which gives trades uaions no standing, and -practically makes them illegal. I must say that it did surprise me when I found that the trades unions of the colonies of Australia, or, at all events, the colony of Victoria, had its trades ■ unions regulated by a law of George IV., under the Ministry of Lord Liverpool (Jheers.) The colonies in all other points seem to mo to have gained great advantages. Their working day is eight boars. (Cheers.) They have more representatives of labor in Parliament—(cheers)—and in one colony—the colony of Victoria—they have paid representatives. (Cheers.) What I have to point out is that you will gain enormously from the experience of the working classes who have made this experiment in the colonies; and let me illustrate it by this very question of the payment of representatives. I .'think I saw that you are going to discuss that question of the payment of represents* tives in Congress, and I recommend to your attention the debate on (that subject in the Colonial Congress, because I think that, although in the abstract it seems a principle against which no objection can bo urged, the practical experience of Victoria is rather curious on that point. They passed a resolution very warmly in fasror of the payment of members, but what is strange is a discussion that- took place upon The curious point of that discussion is that the members who came from Victoria, where the payment of members is in operation, though they appeared in favor of the resolution, criticised very much the operation of the law. Mr Hayse, of the Victorian Society, said, although he was in the great minority, that the payment of members had neverdo ie anything, so far as he could see, for: the working man. It bad never produced protection, nor had it produced politicians. (Cheers.) Mr Fuller, of the Victoria Saddlers’ Society, though he voted for the resolution, said that before the payment of .members became law the Liberals were better represented in Parliament than they were now j at any rate, they used to win division after division, which they could not do npw. Mr F. Manuel, Melbourne Central Friendly Society, thought that the payment of members had not succeeded. He had not seen one working msn get into Parliament since the system was introduced, although political loafers frequently get into Parliament upon the shouldei s of the working men since the introduction of the Act. (Laughter aud cheers.) In reading these extracts lam not expressing the slightest individual opinion on the question at issue, but I thought that was a very excellent specimen of the way in which the working men in this country can gain by the experiments of the working men in the colonies. (Cheers,) You will gain by a closer communion with them, and by learning the results of the experiments they have tried, and which many of you are anxious to try. They will gain, on the other hand, by the greater power and support you can give them at home. . (Cheers.) ie I -