EX-PREMIER’S DEATH.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 August 1921, Page 5

EX-PREMIER’S DEATH.

TRIBUTES TO MR. T. J. RYAN. HIS POLITICAL CAREER. By Telegraph'.— Press Assn.—Copyright. Brisbane, August 2. Mr. Ryan was in the middle of a strenuous by-election campaign and just before the final seizure he delivered an hour’s speech. His voice was husky, otherwise he was apparently in good health. London, July 1. When the news of Mr. J. Ryan’s death was communicated to him, Mr. Hughes was greatly distressed. He said it came as a positive shock that a man in the prime Of life should be so unexpectedly cut off. Though he disagreed with him in politics he liked him as a man, and his death would leave a gap in public life in Australia which would not be readily filled. The late Thomas Joseph Ryan was bom at Port Fairy, Victoria, on July 1, 11876, and was only forty-five years of page. He graduated at Melbourne University, 8.A., 1897; LL.B., 1899; and was admitted to the Queensland Bar in the following year. He was elected to the Queensland Parliament in 1909, and was appointed leader of the Queensland Labor Opposition in 1913. At the elections in May, 1915, the Labor party secured a .substantial majority over the Denham Government, and Mr. Ryan assumed office as Premier.

Among the first measures introduced by the Ryan Go verament were the State Meat Works Bill, State Insurance Bill, and Pastoral Rents Bill. The lastnaniedj measure caused a good deal of concern among financial circles in London, through the threatened repudiatory nature of the provisions of the land legislation, which was defeated by the Upper House, but paesed at a later stage, when the Labor party secured a majority there, by fourteen appointments from its ranks. Shortly afterwards, the Government seized meat supplies, and sold them at retail prices at a number of State shops in Brisbane and the country districts, and placed embargoes on the export of meat. In October of the same year, Mr. Ryan introduced his bill for the abolition of the Legislative Council. •

In March. 1916, Mr. Ryan visited England, was entertained by members of the House of Commcns, and w T as received in audience by the King. While in England, he. took an active part in the campaign for Home Rule for Ireland, and visited the Australian divisions in the field. On his return, he purchased for the Queensland Government a number of cattle stations, which he supplemented later. He also purchased the Chillagoe Smelters, at a cost of £700,000, from the English debenture holders. The works were closed down 4n the later years of the war, through the difficulty in securing materia].

Mr. Ryan had a stormy career in the Queensland Ministry. Perhaps nc State Premier in Australia has ever had to fight the criticism he met in his public duties. Tlie entire Press of the State, with the exception of the Labor daily in Brisbane, and a Labor paper in Rockhampton, in which he was alleged to have had an interest, attacked him regularly on matters of public policy. Many of his most important Acts, such as the Land Act, the Abolition of the Legislative Council Bill, and his appointment of Judge McCawley to the Arbitration i Court, he defended'in the High Court of Australia and the Privy Council with conspicuous ability. The Privy Council endorsed his selection of Judge Me-. Cawley, and complimented him on his able advocacy. Amusement was. caused throughout Australia by his enlistment, and his subsequent withdrawal, as his political opponent did not aiso Enlist; the recruiting of the Ryan Thousand; the seizure by the Commonwealth of Hansard, and the charges of disloyalty against him; ‘he thrashing of his secretary by the editor of one of the Brisbane dailiee; the Bolshevik demonstration in Brisbane; and Mr. Ryan’s part in the conscription campaign and the Perth Labor conference, at the conclusion of which the delegates sang “the Red Flag” in ( bidding him good-bye. To all his critics, the late Mr. Ryan ! presented a smiling face. He was the i sworn friend pressmen, and never I hesitated to give them “copy” that he i knew would move their editors to fur- I ther attacks on him. He had a ready | wit, and was an accomplished after-din- I ner speaker. He loved his home, where. t he sper.’ all hia spare time, in the com- ' pany of his wife and two little children, : who survive him. Since his entry into 1 Federal politics, in the beginning of 1919, t little has been heard of him; he refused ' to accept the leadership of the Federal 1 Labor Opposition, but ehose to work loyally under his leader, Mr. F. G. Tudor. \ His death removes the most active leader in the Labor movement in Australia, and a man who wae more in the lime- * light of public affairs than any other politician, since the retirement, of Sir I George Reid from the political arena. '