With Ben Tillett In Wellington

New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 190, 12 February 1943, Page 5

With Ben Tillett In Wellington

(Written for "The Listener" by

T. L.

MILLS

that in New Zealand, at any rate, he had been practically forgotten. Yet his was a name to conjure with for well over half a century in Great Britain generally and in London particularly, where he was the idol of the dockers, I first came into personal contact with him during his tour of New Zealand in 1907 when he was 36 years, of age. He was out here collecting fighting funds for the waterside workers of London who had been impoverished by the dockers’ strike. I was tagged as a Labour agitator myself in those days, and it was in this capacity that I came into close association with this great TILLETT had lived so long

little man-he was five-feet nothing from the feet up. During the week of his visit to Wellington another famous figure was filling a season at the old Opera House in Manners Street-Cinquevalli, the conjuror. Ben and "Cinq." knew each other well, owing to the fact that Ben was a prominent member of the London County Council, and was on the special committee established by that council to visit the music halls of the city and report any that allowed their performers to break the rules of decency. I saw a demonstration of Ben Tillett’s familiarity with the music hall at Mr. Seddon’s home in Molesworth Street, Ben was invited to entertain the company, and gave an impersonation turn. He was a whole company in himself. I have never seen or heard a better mimic, But Ben and I had a date with Cinquevalli after the latter’s show, so that after the Seddon party we went to the Opera House, back-stage. "Cinq," I remember, took stout with his oysters, and Ben drank champagne with his! The tales those two told! And what a job we had making the passage at three o’clock in the morning along Lambton Quay, up Willis Street, through Manners Street and across Cuba Street to the Oak! Now Cinquevalli and Ben Tillett are both gone. One made his mark as an entertainer, the other as a fiery fighter for the underdog, as a reformer of injustices to workers, and as a dynamic personage in and out of Britain’s House of Commons.