The Chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY. LEVIN. FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 1915. AUSTRALIA'S PRIME MINISTER.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 15 January 1915, Page 2

The Chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY. LEVIN. FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 1915. AUSTRALIA'S PRIME MINISTER.

-Mr Andrew Fisher, Prime Minister oi the Commonwealth ot Australia, is visiting New Zealand, and has been rcceiv-' ed by all classes with great cordiality. Ho is a remarkable man, having climbed the ladder of fame from the lowest rung. His father was a poor .Scottisli j-miner, and Andrew was born at Crusshouse, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, in August IStti, so that he is in his fifty-third year. He did not take kindly to. school and at the age of thirteen left it, preferring to work at his father's occupation. This hindered his progress as a scholar, but he was fond of reading, and his bent of mind was towards politics and science. He Soon realised the .sad social conditions of the working classes; he saw among the colliers men worked out at even the age of forty or filty, and he was constrained to seek a betterment of their condition. He became very active in this direction and was acknowledged as a power in alleviating distress. Yet lie worked as a miner until 'his twenty-second year. Some literature concerning Australia came in his way, and he telt that there were more opportunities for advancement in that land. He left the Old Country for Queensland and settled in the Wide Bay district, and soon became a prominent man. He went gold mining, and was elected president of the Amalgamated Miners' Association -Meanwhile he studied Australian politics and in 1893 stood for the Queensland Parliament. He was elected lor Gympie, and at that election fifteen Labour members were returned. At the next election he was defeated, but in 1899 be was returned again for Gympie. He next won for Labour the Wide Bay district in the first Federal Parliament. Then he tackled the black labour question and made many friends as well as enemies. The latter took every means to spoil his progress, but without success, and step by step he- has mounted the political ladder, until to-day he stands at the head of the Federal Government of Australia. These are the men who make history, who can, owing to early experiences, sympathise with the world's undercurrent of life and its struggles. Mr Fisher is no hot-headed agitator, like so many who go up like rocketei and come down as blackened sticks. He gave the workers in Wellington a few days ago some trenchant advice, and it is hoped his words will hear fruit. All honour to a man who from lowly beginnings, through many adverse circumstances, in the face of foes, and with a calm and heroic stern-set face fits himself to guide the destinies of his fellowmen.