OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 457, 16 March 1909, Page 7

OUR AUSTRALIAN LETTER.

BAD FOB THE LABOUR COUNCIL. (FROM OUE OWN CORHi;SrONPENT.) Sydney, March 6. Tho Sydney Labour Council made a gravo tactical blunder when it tried tho other day to assume power to itself to order a general strike of all unions whenever it wished to do so. Tho object it had in view, of course, was to secure such authority that, whenever trouble broko out in ono industry, it would bo ablo to compol all other workers to come to tho assistance of thoso 011 striko by going on strike also, and so paralysing trade that tho employers would liavo of necessity to yield to tho demands of tho aggrieved workmen. But tho Labour unionists promptly saw that this enormous power was too vast to boconfided to a small body liko tho Sydney Labour Council, and promptly a protest against the proposed oligarchy. For instance, tho Seamen's Union is a federated Ixxlv, and its lenders recognised tho absurdity of any regulation giving power to tho Sydney Labour Council to dictato to an organisation extending all over Australasia. Accordingly, this union threatened to withdraw from' the council unless tho obnoxious rule wore rescinded, and a number of other unions, representing a largo measure of tho financial strength of the council, spoke to liko effect. Thus tho council has had to back down. At a meeting on Thursday night, a motion , from the Seamen's Union, that the rulo should bo rescinded, was carried by 06 votes to -11. So (as reported in tho cables in The Dominion of March 0) it has been struck out, and tho men who proposed it liavo been compelled to learn a very sharp lesson as to the unwisdom of endeavouring to arrogato too much power to themselves. Had they read tho signs of tho times with greater shrewdness, they would have observed that working-niou are beginning to realise that the strike as a weapon has become obsolete, and inflicts much greater injury upon themselves and thousands of innocent people than upon the men at whom it is aimed. It was a bad time, any way, to propose such an extension of power, when tho unionists had the lesson of the Broken Hill strike daily before their eyes. In that unfortunate trouble, tho men_ liavo lost in wages a sum more than sufficient to amply increase tho political power of Labour in Parliament.

Drowned in tho Street. It sounds like a tall Yankee yarn to suggest that a pedestrian should run tile risk of being drowned in tho street; but this has actually occurrcd, not in New York or Chicago, but hero in Sydney—or, at least, ill the suburbs, not once, but tbreo times, the most recent case of. tho kind having happened 011 Saturday night, whon an old woman, Mrs. Sarah Anil Taylor, was caught by the rush of water in tho gutter wjien attempting to cross the streot, and, powerless to resist the torrent, was swept into a drain, and was drowned. Her body was actually carried down tho channel, and out into Blackwattlo Bay, half a milo away. In the tropical downpours Wo get at this season of tho year, the Hood water rushes down a hill like Halloran Street, Leichhardt, tho sceno of this fatality, with tlio speed and volumo of a mountain torrent. Airs. Taylor, who had been out shopping, was returning home after a severo thunderstorm, and was crossing the street t-o lior own house when she was overwhelmed 111 the rushing water. Tho simple remedy for this extraordinary condition of tilings is to put gratings over the mouths of tho stormwater sowers; but though thrco fatal accidents have happened, tho suburban councils simply do nothing. On the previous Saturday a child was washed into a drain in Halmum and drowned, and a month or two before, also in Balmain, a woman met her death in the same way. If a private individual had control of theso sowers, and allowed such a state of things, 110 _ would very probably bo placed upon his trial for manslaughter. There ought not to be 0110 law for the private citizen and another for the suburban alderman, important though that personage invariably is. It is monstrous that life should ho sacrificed in this fashion becauso of tho blundering of those whoso duty it is to tako tho ordinary precautions for tho safety of tho public.

Bad for the Tin-kettlers. The tin-kettling episode near Bathnrsthas como into the Courts, as was inevitable, of course; but tho result will convey a wholesomo lesson to thoso who indulgo in this particularly sonsoless form of amusement. Tho remarkable feature of tho Court proceedings was the attitude adoptod by Judge Docker, who unmistakably took tho Bido of Sinclair, the man who fired into tile crowd. Sinclair and his wife had arrived at their home at Napoleon Iteefs from their honeymoon, when their house was surrounded one Sunday night by a mob who made hideous noises by the beating of keroseno tins and so on. The husband entreated tho crowd to desist, as his wifo had becomo hysterical; but thoy ignored his request, and ho then warned them that if they persisted ho would shoot; Ho did so, firing nigh into the air, but as this did not stop tho noise, and he was provoked beyond endurance, ho aimed his j;un low, and hit one of the offenders, » yonilg man named Edwards. Then ho had to face the consequence of this act, and was placed upon his trial on a chargo of maliciously wounding. Whilo Judge Locker made it clear that notwithstanding tho provocation he had received, Sinclair was not justified in shooting, ho also mado it clear that ho was not going to inflict any punishment. So when tho jury reluctantly brought in a verdict of "guilty," his Honour said lio was glad to hear the accompanying recommendation— namely, that Sinclair should not bo punished. Judge Docker gave it to tho tinkettlers "hot and strong." They had, lie said, been engaged in a gross social outrage, and ihstead of being merely fined at the Polico Court, they ought to have been ordered a flogging. It was unfortunate that tho young man ivas shot, but no doubt somo people would think it a pity that Edwards's father, who was with his son in tho scene, had not been hit.

"It is a pity you wero not shot," said ho to one witness, a tin-kettler, who said.he was married. "You all deserved it—and you especially, as you aro a married man. How much wero 3'ou fined for tin-kettling?" "I was fined £2," was tho reply. "I should have liked to give you more," said his Honour. "You should havo been flogged." After this severe admonition, theso yor.ng men will probably recogniso in future that there aro other methods of amusement preferable to the tin-kottling of a man and his wifo. Sinclair was hound over in his own recognisances to appear when called upon within 12 months to receive sentence.

Madame Melba's Subscriptions. As briefly reported in cable news m The Dominion (appearing on March 4), Madamo Melba, now in Melbourne, lias hit upon a new plan of complying with the requests sho and other prominent pooplo reecivo for subscriptions to charitable purposes. Distinguished musical artists are continually being asked to givo their services in this cause; but Madamo Melba Jjoittts out, in a letter to tho "Argus," that it will be impossible for her to give any extra concerts on this tour for charity, and that in any case such a course merely involves a kind of tax on tho generosity of her friends. Therefore, as a result 'of tho numerous requests which she says have como to her for donations to various charities, she states that sho will contribute 1000 guineas with this object to various Australasian cities, and tho money will be sent to the Lord Mayors or Mayors of tho different planes for distribution'. Sydney and Melhourno are each to have £250; Adelaide and Urisbano, £110.; Auckland, AYellington, Ohristchurch, Dunedin, and Perth, £50; Hobnrt and Launceston, £40. It is explained by tho groat singer that as lior knowledgo of local conditions is necessarily incomplete, sho considers this method of giving these subscriptions the most judicious and far-reaching. When Madamo Molba arrived at Spencer Street railway station on Tuesday, by the Adelaide express, there was an exciting scene, and at ono time it looked as if she would bo torn to pieces in tho boisterous attentions of her admirers. Although no ollicial 1-cception had been planned, there was a great crowd, and the members of tho Women's Exhibition Choir were also Upou theplatforw,. As tho

train ran in, women jostled each other and struggled to get neur tiio cur in which Madame Melba was supposed to bo travelling. To the surprise of cveryono siio alighted from another, and there was a wild rush, the artist being jostled here, there, and everywhere, as the women fought to get near her. The police ennio to her assistance, and cleared a pathway, but iis tho crowd closed in again when she attempted to reach a cab outside the station, blio was advised to take rcfugo in a hotel. This she did, until a motor-car forced its way to the door, and Madamo Melba was thus enabled to drive away.

A Singular Hallucination. 'l'hero arc penalties in being too popular. Mr. W. S. Percy, the well-known actor, now playing tho rolo of .Toe Mivens in "Tho Dairymaids," at Her Majesty's, Sydney, finds that people want to mother him, and nnliko Sniee, tho pirate in "Peter Pan," he does not hanker aft-or tho distinction. This week he was alarmed to rcceive from tho ollice of the Master in Lunacy, a formidable legal document, requesting him to attend at tho oflico of that functionary and state tho amount "you aro prepared to contribute towards tho support of your mother, now an inmate of Qlnrtrsville Asylum, and to furnish full particulars of her property, if any." When ho went to the office, tho facts were made clear. His mother has been dead for some years, wind tho present claimant is a poor woman who is out of her mind, and imagines Percy is her son. Strange to say. this is the second timo such a thing has occurred to him. When ho was appearing as Bertie Boyd during the run of "Tho Shopgirl." two years ago, a woman who saw the piece, and whoso name was Boyd, suffered from tho hallucination that ho was her son Bertie, who had run away from her 12 years before.