The whining Squatter

*THE WORKER*

Brisbane, March 16, 1895.

Bystanders' Notebook.

THE POOR SQUATTER.

For a considerable time past we have heard the whining cry of “The poor squatter! The poor squatter! What hard times he is having. What is he to do in the face of such times, heavy rental, marsupial tax, stock and dairy tax, to say nothing of a lot of ill-disposed scoundrels in the shape of discontented unionists and various other ills too numerous to particularise?” Well, we know what he should do, but it would be useless to tell him, as it is something just and humane, and anything of this description is particularly out of their line, as has been amply proved of late years. What some of them actually do to get quite with the Government for taxing them is quite another thing, as the following little transaction will show. Some few months ago a certain squatter, owner of a cattle station out Tambo-Blackall way, having vacancies for six hands, comprising one married couple and four single men, notified his agent in Brisbane to engage them and forward them to the station.

In due course they were engaged, the single men at £25 per year, the married couple at £60. rather an exorbitant rate of wages certainly! The agent paid the steerage fares to Rockhampton, but on arriving there this virtuous squatter either directly or indirectly procured from the emigration aged emigrants' tickets to carry them by rail to Alpha. How and by what means were these tickets obtained? Surely at the rate of wages paid he could well afford to pay the railway fare. What would be said What would be said of a union agent who would represent six old colonists as emigrants and procure them railway passes up the country, thereby doing the Government out of £11 18d. Would the Government take no action? We rather think they would, and it certainly would go very hard with the person who so obtained the tickets. But the best feature of the whole piece is that the people engaged by this particular squatter have signed an agreement incorporated in which is a clause to the effect that should they leave before the expiration of twelve months they will forfeit their travelling expenses. Would their railway expenses be included? This gentleman is distinctly one of the law 'n order type, and is such a thoroughly honest and just man that within the last few weeks he has had the cool gall to write on two occasions to a newspaper complaining of the injustice of a certain P. M.                           STRAIGHT WIRE.

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STICK TO THE UNION.

It is impossible to impress on the minds of the workers too often or too forcibly to stick to the unions, and stick to them with heart, mind and soul, for should the unions be neglected and eventually become powerless, the result will be desolation. Even at the present moment if some strong action is not taken the lives of the bush workers will be worse than the blacks, as their necessities of life entail a far heavier outlay that the latter's and their pay is very little above it. I am credibly informed that on two stations on the Maranoa, Eurelia and Amby Downes burr cutters are receiving 7s. 6d. to 12s. 6d. per week; on one station, Mitchell Downs, 16s. per week. On a cattle station on the Barcoo, Enniskillen stockmen and general hands, under twelve month's agreement, £25 per annum. How much lower the rate of wages can be brought by the unscrupulous it is hard to say, but one thing is certain that unless the bushworkers put aside all petty feeling and word with unanimity for the cause, it will not be a bare living wage they will receive, but one that will entail on them the necessity of thieving to save themselves from starvation. Therefore let every unionist sink private feeling, and use his utmost endeavours to bring all into the union, and let him do it in such a manner that those who do so join will become members from their hearts and not only from a wish to birk argument, for the latter sort only rat at the time of a strike or any industrial crisis.

STRAIGHT WIRE.

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THE REFERENDUM.

No system of civil government can be considered advanced and efficacious which does not radically embody the referendum as an essential. Various provisions may be made for the constitution of parliaments, and for a full representation of the people therein: but the great truth of the experienced and demonstrated insufficiency of these 'protective' provisions confronts the intelligence of every thoughtful person. The corruption of Parliament, whether consisting of one or two Houses, is, as all history irrefutably proves, a matter of glaring possibility. But the conscious corruption of the whole nation for the conscious and foreseen injury or calamity of the whole nation, is, I conceive, historically unknown. Against the proposed establishment of the referendum the infatuated voice of foolish declamation and of extravagant protest has been raised, but, if the action of the current generation co-operates faithfully with common understanding, this declamation and this protest will be disdainfully and irrevocably set aside. Concisely speaking, the referendum acknowledges the indefeasible right of the enfranchised population to supremely control the affairs of the nation in spite of the arbitrary interference or protestation of the parliament then functioning as chosen law-givers. Such being the objects and the foundation of the political referendum, it follows as a self-evident sequence, that, before the referendum could efficaciously and to full satisfaction, operate, every person qualified by age, sanity, and personal presence, should be fully enfranchised. When we survey the extensive effect of this principle in its beneficent operation, in its power to amend and correct the national constitution, and to permanently consolidate the constitution thus amended and corrected, we conclude that no grander and more beneficent achievement could attract our ambition than the indestructible establishment of the referendum.

M., Gympie.

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TRUSTS AND SYNDICATES.

Speaking of the tendency of small railway companies to fall into the hands of large syndicates in the United States, the man who wrote Andrew Carnegie's “Triumphant Democracy” says: “it is with railways as with manufactures; consolidation into the hands of a few organisations seems the inevitable tendency. The saving and efficiency thus effected over the hundred former disjointed petty corporations, each with its officers and staffs, are so manifestly great that nothing can prevent these consolidations. What the outcome of this massing of forces is to be is difficult to foretell, but that it is in accordance with economic laws is certain; therefore we can proceed without fear. We are on sure ground, hence the final result must be beneficial. If corporations grow to gigantic size and attempt to use their powers like giants, forgetting that they are the creatures and servants of the State, we may safely trust the Democracy to deal with them. There is no problem which an educated people cannot and will not solve in the interests of the people when solution is demanded.” There can be very little question as to what the outcome of this massing of forces is to be. The gigantic syndicates such as the late Jay Gould's Western Union Telegraph Company, and the Standard Oil Trust, having it in their power to sweat their employ'es as well as fleece the public will compel the public for its own safety to either take over the business of the syndicates or compete with them. This the public through its government or municipalities can do as successfully as in the case of other industries owned and controlled by the State in other lands. 

 A.B.C.

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MODERN BARBARIANS.

I was very much struck by the Premier's remarks in reference to Harry Norman's good billet. The remarks brought to mind a passage I read some years in a popular work. It referred to the fact that next generation will look down upon us as we look down on the past. But let me give the passage; “Some day man is to read with surprise that once there was upon earth a state of warfare between divisions called nations, that Europe once continually taught nine millions of men how best to butcher their fellows, and called this vile work a profession. The coming man will marvel that intemperance prevailed in these barbarous days, that there were paupers and criminals without number, and that even in Britain the many were kept down by the few, that the soil was held and used by a class, and that a million sterling was taken from the public revenues every year by one family, and spent in vulgar ostentation or riotous dissipation, a family which was an insult to every other family in the land since it involved the born inferiority of all others. He is to read of all this as we now read of the armoured keel-boat and the horse locomotive, and thank his stars that he was not born as we have been before the dawn of civilisation. 'As one man's meat is another man's poison,' so one age's civilisation is the next age's barbarism. We shall all be barbarians to our great grandchildren.” The one family referred to above is the royal family, and the coming Queenslander will regard us as barbarians for paying £5000 a year to a representative of the said royal family when there is such deplorable distress in this colony.

QUEENSLAND REPUBLICAN.

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AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION.

Few people who have given the subject any consideration are likely to doubt that Federation, if carried out upon equitable principles, would be a good thing for these colonies. But can we in the present apathetic state of public opinion cherish the slightest hope that any scheme based upon Democratic principles, and sufficiently elastic to admit of modification in the future, will be formulated? I think readers will agree with me that we cannot, and that, on the contrary, we shall be saddled with some such iron-bound constitution as that of the United States, under which we shall be as powerless to have our will carried out as the Americans are; the inevitable Upper House under some guise or other is certain to be imposed upon us in order to prevent reforms, and to defend vested interests, &c., &c., The above being the case it behoves all Democrats to oppose federation for at least the next twenty years, at the end of which time perhaps public opinion may be sufficiently educated to decide the question. No legislature should under any circumstances consist of more than one House or Assembly, and that House should elect the Government, also the Judges and the Commander-in chief of the army. This would do away with the curse of party government, and is in fact the only way really responsible government can be obtained. I was almost forgetting the most important point of all, and that is when federation does come we must have the referendum and perhaps the initiative also.

RICHD. NORTH. 23 Wickham street.

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Labour Members in the Central District.

Labour Members Kerr, Turley, and Fisher have addressed large and enthusiastic meetings at Springsure, M'Donald's Flat, Emerald, and Jericho. At the close of the meetings resolutions were carried condemning the Government and expressing unbounded confidence in the Labour Party. Messrs. Kerr, Turley, and Fisher intend also to address meetings in Barcaldine, Longreach, and all through the Barcoo and other electorates out West.