BRISBANE'S LABOUR HALL

 *THE WORKER* 
Brisbane, April 18, 1891

Chief Justice Lilley Lays the Foundation Stone.

For six long years a committee composed of delegates from the various Brisbane labour unions has been continuously working, latterly as a board of Management, to get a hall for Labour. After astounding opposition from various cabinets, a grant of land was secured and from various sources sufficient funds have been secured to start operations. The Eight Hour Union Committee has been particularly active in the work having raised no less than ₤1500 by art unions and sports, while a goodly number of societies took up shares as a form of investment for funds, particularly before the drain of the big maritime strike. By hard and devoted work, all preliminary difficulties were overcome and on Saturday, April 4th, the foundation stone of the future Temple of Labour was laid. This does not mean that the committee can now rest on their oars, however, for the help of every unionist in Brisbane is still needed to carry the work to a successful conclusion.

The foundation ceremonies were commenced by a procession which was taken part in by nearly 2,000 members of various local unions, marching under their banners to the strains of band music and headed by the members of the Trades Hall Board of Management, the Eight Hour Union Committee and the District Council, A.L.F. Delegates of the Women's also took part. At the Turbot street site, which was gay with bunting, over 6,000 people were gathered when Chief Justice Lilley stepped on to the platform, the crowd covering roadway, scaffolding, platform and that part of the Wickham Terrace reserve immediately opposite; he was enthusiastically received.

Preliminary Speeches

Mr. W.P. Colborne, after narrating briefly the history of the hall, and stating that 1,500 pounds more was wanted to complete the first section, said that he hoped that with this foundation stone they would lay the foundation stone they would lay the foundation of better things in Queensland.

Secretary T. F. Smith laid particular stress on the necessity for technical education and looked forward hopefully to seeing a real technical school in connection with the hall, not the shoddy system now boasted so much of, but one which would turn young men out thorough tradesmen, no matter what their calling was. That would be doing a vast good to the country and developing the character of the coming generation, so that some day Queensland would be second to no country in the world for mechanics.

The Chairman, Mr. Chas. Lancaster, in asking the Chief Justice to perform the ceremony said that his committee had not remembered only that Sir Charles Lilley sympathised with the aspirations of the working classes. If it were not for the free schools there would be no hope for the workers and it was the men who had given the free schools to Queensland that they had asked to lay the foundation stone of their new Trades Hall.

Rising amid rounds of applause, again and again repeated.

Chief Justice Lilley said:

Working men and working women of Queensland, I congratulate you most heartily on the work of today, because it symbolises to me the work, patiently began and patiently carried through, of past years work which I think is of the very greatest importance to those men who most need self-help and the help of others. (Hear,hear.)

And this is an indication of the self-help that the workers of Queensland are prepared to do for themselves. (Hear,hear.) Now, I am glad for another reason to see the beginning of this work today—I mean the beginning of the material part of the work—because the spirit which began it has lived amongst working men for some years past. (Hear,hear.) This is an educational institution; and I dare say some of you, like persons among other classes in the community, have wondered at the persistency of my actions in the direction of education. I will tell you why I have been persistent, why I have been animated by the warm desire and strong resolution that the people of Queensland should be educated, and above all, that the working men of Queensland should be educated. (Hear,hear.) The rich, it has been said, can provide education for themselves—why need you trouble to found schools and colleges and a university? Why? Because I wish to have them for the poor as well as for the rich—for these who are not so wealthy—for the workers in the community. I have held, and hold very strongly, and shall continue to hold until the mischief I regard it to be—that the endowed schools of the colony, unless free and shared by working men of Queensland, are educational institutions endowed for the wealthy, and not for those who help to support them. (Cheers.)

Now , I am also glad to see this hall being erected for another reason, and probably not less strong. That is, that it is to be, I hope, the Parliament of the working men of Queensland--(hear,hear)--where you are to discuss those questions that affect most vitally your interests of those that are dear to you—your wives and children. That is why I am glad to see it—a place where you can discuss reasonably and quietly amongst yourselves matters affecting your immediate interests, intellectual, and I would like to add, almost spiritual; for I regard the spirit of man not merely as a religious machine, but as one having high and elevated aspirations applicable to life and duty on earth. (Hear,hear.) Now I regard this institution as a most valuable contribution to the material wealth of the colony, for this reason; For the first time in history labour is entering as an organised movement—as an organised power into the life of nations. (Hear,hear.) Now it has been confronted and is confronted today by the power which is and has been in the past almost omnipotent—the organisation of of intelligence purchased by wealth--(Hear,hear.) --and the duty of labour probably is in the future to oppose that wealth—the wealth of individualism—with the wealth of a capital drawn from collective efforts and contributions of the working classes. (hear,hear.)

You have not only to confront that with that wealth, but you have to meet it with the organised educated band of labour. (Hear,hear.) That is why I have been so anxious, in the past that you should be educated up to a fitting state of knowledge, so that you might meet that with success. (Hear,hear.) Now I am not an enemy of capital. The man who says he is an enemy of capital has not thought upon upon the matter. You must have capital if you are to work, and to work with effect for the advantage of yourselves and of the community generally. Capital is essential to carry out work; but of course I am not going into the great question of labour and capital today, I am merely pointing out to you that this movement in the present is an important movement, because you will have to meet organised intelligence with an organised intelligence of your own. (Hear,hear.) My experience of the schools convinces me that the heads of working men's sons are the best in the community. (Hear,hear.) They come from the healthy labour-trained physique the physically strong and the healthier portion of the community, and they have held their own through all the schools of the colony, and second to none in other countries where they have had the fortune to go.

I say you are a power; I wish you to be an educated power. I have never believed in an uneducated democracy. My belief is that we should have an educated democracy, because, at the same time, I believe it will be a self respecting, a reasonable and a just democracy. (Hear,hear.) I am here today because I have always regarded with the deepest sympathy—I had almost said affection—the working men of my country. I know that every man who has any grit whatever, either of nature or education or talent or genius, should devote himself to the elevation, to the redemption of men who through past ages have certainly had the worst end of life. (Hear,hear.) I am a great believer in the fact that working men can be elevated. We know they can. We know they will be elevated; but it must be by this great lever—first by education, and second by wealth, which they must draw from their own temperance, prudence and thrift. (Hear,hear.) I do not think that a working man will ever be elevated if he takes his earnings—whether from the office where he works or from his labour, whether it be under a system of socialism or under an individual employer—to to the nearest public house. (Hear,hear.)

Believe me, you have a great power in your own hands, in your own lives. (Hear,hear.) I am not going to preach to you, but I am at liberty at least to refer to a very old book, which I am afraid is not sufficiently regarded in these days, I mean the Christian Scriptures. I wish to say a word or two on the life of one there that is an example to all of us here—the first great democrat that ever lived. The Carpenter of Nazareth, in his short life, left us the great precept upon which all social systems in my opinion must be built. I mean the great principle—you must not work merely for yourselves, every man trying to gather in something for his own selfish indulgence—but you must work more for one another. You must do unto others what you would have them do to you. Be self-helping but also be mutually helping. That is the rule of the future, and I believe that is the rule which men will enter upon-the rule of life which will bring all classes of men nearer together. If they do not enter upon it the old selfish spirit of men will reassert dominion over them, and the plans for advancement, however wisely formed, will crumble away to dust. I say that because I believe the Church has failed in its duty in not holding up sufficiently the glorious life of that great and beloved Man. (Hear,hear.)

Now I will glance for a second or two at the present unhappy state of the colony. I am sure my friends the working men will forgive me if I speak plainly. (Hear,hear.) I am not a great believer in strikes, and I believe the great body of working men are not great believers in strikes. They are things to be avoided; but if there is no other remedy—and if they are likely to be successful—why, they may be resorted to unquestionably. (Hear,hear; and laughter.) But they do not always achieve the end in view, and there can be no doubt of this that labour and capital are like man and wife—they are better when they live together in peace than when they are quarrelling by the fireside--(Hear,hear); and if I could by any means in my power reconcile labour and capital, why, I would undertake a very long journey to do it. (Hear,hear.) I am satisfied that these differences bring loss, but I would counsel in respect to every movement amongst working men patience as far as it can possibly be practised—patience and peace. During the last five or six years since the question stirred very vigorously—I have given very great attention to, and have read very considerably on this social question. I am not a believer in the everlasting continuance of the present system. (Hear,hear.)

I am satisfied that we are approaching, possibly slowly, some great change in the social condition of classes. (Cheers.) I think we are not far from the day when he who does not work shall not eat--(hear,hear)--and it is no use of any people who have been eating without working making a great face about it because they will have to reconcile themselves to the condition of labour. I do not wish them any harm; on the contrary, I wish all men good. I am convinced of this, that they will have to work. That will be the primary condition of life. But I think that work should be reasonable--(hear,hear)--that a man should have leisure; that he should have time for intellectual enjoyment, for refreshment of spirit with his friends, time for music, time to visit paintings in the picture galleries. He should have time to enjoy himself after the toil of the day has been completed, in short I am a believer in shorter hours of labour. (Cheers.) Although I never worked with my hands—A Voice: I hope you never do—well, I am getting a little old now, and under the present social system I would be entitled to my pension--(hear,hear)--I have a very vivid recollection of the time when I began the study of law under a grinding attorney. (Laughter.) He kept me at work from twelve to fourteen hours a day. 

I have worked all one day and all night and I tried to work the next day. But nature was too powerful for me and the attorney. (Laughter.) I had to succumb but then I got the advantage of it in years after. I got a good deal of rather feeble health, which was perhaps a doubtful advantage; but I also got a most thorough training in the profession in which I have had the honour to practice in this country for over thirty years. (Cheers.)

The attorney meant well and I still think of him with kindness; because while he worked me hard in my profession he was very careful of the culture of my mind in other respects. That is, I had the pleasure of working in the hours that he left me. (Laughter.) You see why I believe in reasonable hours, shorter hours, hours that will leave you leisure for improvement. I shall say no more, but again offer you my congratulations and hope that you may proceed with patience and with calmness in your course, knowing that the brightest and most active intellects of the country which we have left, and also of the country which we now inhabit, are engaged in serious and earnest consideration of the great problems that affect labour and our social life. (Loud cheers.)

The ceremony of laying the foundation stone having been performed, accompanied by the “Auld Lang Syne” of the band, the chairman presented Sir Charles Lilley with the silver trowel used as a mark of the esteem in which he was held by working men of Queensland, a sentiment greeted by the meeting with another ovation. But the greatest enthusiasm followed the singing of the “Sons of Australia” to the tune and wording of the “Marseillaise” by Miss Annis Montague, accompanied by the Montague-Turner opera chorus. Miss Montague who was in magnificent voice, had freely given her song, at the request of the committee, and roused the assembled thousands to a fever heat which could only be allayed by an encore. Then followed cheers for Miss Montague, cheers for the bushman, groans for the Government, cheers for the Chief Justice, cheers for a dozen things and people at once, amid which excitement the meeting dispersed.