Letters to Editor: January 12, 1895.

*THE WORKER*

Brisbane, January 12, 1895.

Mail Bag.

Ed, WORKER, – Will you kindly acknowledge in WORKER receipt by me of the sum of £5.5s. In aid of strike fund. I received this cheque from Miss M. Afloo, it being the amount of sweep drawn on the Longreach Handicap in July last in Miss Afloo's sweep. This ticket was presented to the union by Wm, Scafe, Esq., Longreach. The delay in handing this money over to me was owing to Mr. Scafe's absence from Longreach, – W. Kewley, Secretary, A.W.U.

Ed. WORKER, – As a man who pays towards this paper, I think I am entitled to a few lines space in it. I have noticed in what we commonly call strike camps that those who have nothing to do with the union or never could show a ticket (such as horse jockeys and men that knock about merely for the chance of getting at their fellow man's money) have got the most to say. Now, I think if such a thing should ever occur again, which I hope not, that every man should show his ticket or be banished from the camp, for the above mentioned are both a nuisance to their fellow men and the public at large, which I had occasion to see during the last strike. - Harold Nouman, St.George. P.S. - I held out until I found there was no hope of gaining, then I went cooking at the last shed.

Under date September 4, 1894, the following was written by P. Ryan, but only arrived at the office on January 3, 1895:- “Ed. WORKER, – A few words as to the way we are shearing at Bimerah. We had £2 per 100 for ram and £1 per 100 for wethers. We signed no agreement, but worked under a verbal one. There were no rouseabouts; the wool classer picked up the wool. The other hands received their rations in, but I was charged 8s. per week for mine when I would not sign the agreement. I offered to subscribe to the men on strike, but the delegate (F. Waugh) would not take my subscription. What I want to know is whether I ratted or not. When it came to signing. I left and went to battle with my mates.” [ Mr. Ryan should state his case to the committee of the Longreach branch of the A.W.U. - Ed.

Ed. WORKER, – Although the inexorable law of evolution entails great suffering to the living it brings improvement as certain as time passes. There cannot be a doubt that the evolution in polities that has taken place within the past five years in Australia has been brought about by the action of greedy short-sighted men who, taking advantage of unjust laws have thrown away the veneer of honesty in which they strove to cover their schemes, and have declared a class war. In time to come, when the history of Australia will be written, the wonder and contempt of the then readers will be great, through the evident stupidity and cowardice of the working classes of this time, and the verdict of posterity will be; Served them right, they had the power in their own hands and would not unite to use it, but went smelling after every red herring held under their noses. - J. D. S.

Ed. WORKER, – Until I read your extract from Joe Symes in the Liberator (WORKER of 20^th October) I had been congratulating myself on the fact that no one in Queensland had been found to raise his voice in behalf of fiat money. I approve of a State Bank, and am astonished that the moneyed classes do not demand one for their own protection against bank failures, and I approve of such bank issuing notes against a gold reserve. But your quotation advocates fiat money, the craze of the American Populists (not, however, approved by the Socialists). If anyone wants to be cured of a hankering after fiat money he has only to read the chapters on that subject in Professors Walker's books on money. Professors Walker and Ely, though strongly opposed to fiat money, are claimed by Populists here as favourable to it – no doubt in the hope that their dupes will not read the books for themselves. - Yours truly, H. W. B. Mackay, Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge, Mass.

Ed. WORKER, – In your issue of the 10^th November you had an account of the experiences of three bushmen looking for work. Now, perhaps, your coastal readers would like to hear how free we are when in work on a station not 100 miles from Muttaburra. I happened to meet the manager of the station on the creek, and he gave me a start as a shed hand; so I packed up the horse and went to the shed, but before getting to the hut I was bailed up by a policeman, who stood guard over me until the boss of the shed had done counting out. After he had finished I told him that I had been put on as a rouseabout by the manager. “Have you signed?” he grunted. I told him I had not done so yet. “Oh, well, you can't unpack here until you have,” says he. I tied up the horse to the fence, went to the station, and signed the agreement. A few nights after we started a few of us were having a quiet game of whist, when down came his lordship, the boss of the shed, and told us to go to bed, as it had gone 9 o'clock. How is that for cast-iron check? I sometimes fancy that I am doing a bit of “time,” because one cannot turn round without rubbing against a constable. Then, again, if one of us go to the hawker, we are sure to be bailed up twice at the least before getting to the hut with, “Who goes there? Give your name!” But the worst of it is to see one's mates driven away from the hut, yes, and also from the tucker table. Only the other day a poor old swagman was driven away from the shearers' breakfast table before being allowed to have a feed. And then we read of what the squatters give away; yet here they are preventing others from giving men a single feed. - Walters.

Ed. WORKER, – A few lines to let you know the present rate of wages paid to station hands out this way. General hands are paid at the rate of 20s. per week of seven days, and if we are let off with twelve hours' work per day we are very lucky. Then the accommodation is the very worst. In fact some dogs are better housed. The rations are about half of the P.W.'s 1891 scale, which they boasted so much about with a very dirty cook thrown in. Then we have to pay 8s. per pound for very bad tobacco with other stores in proportion. Also if we lose a few days in wet weather the boss will try to stop our pay. All things considered we earn about 10s. a week. A splendid wage for this far western part of glorious Queensland. - Tarpot, Mackinlay Way.

Ed. WORKER, – Will you kindly grant a small space to recognise the death of my husband Peter Carr, who died at Torbanlea on the 27^th December, 1894, aged 34 years, after a long and painful illness. Perhaps, sir you may never have heard of him, but by his death you have lost one of the most ardent workers in the cause of humanity, and one of the greatest martyrs – I say greatest, because he suffered in silence. Formerly living in Gympie in 1890 he got discharged from the No.1 North Glenmire claim for being one of the party who took part in a political procession from Gympie railway Station through Mary Street at the opening of the Brisbane and Gympie railway. From that day he was completely boycotted on Gympie, and he never got another day's work on the field. Still the more they oppressed him the more zealous he became in the cause he had at heart, and he often used to say he would sacrifice his life before he would deny his principle, or yield in any way. I need not weary you with an account of the semi-starvation he suffered on Gympie even while he was working his hardest for the last general election, as the victory won for that town satisfied him fully for all his suffering; but just after the election he was laid up with typhoid fever sixteen weeks. Getting better, and seeing it was quite useless to obtain work at Gympie he came down to Howard, where he was again boycotted for trying to form a worker's political organisation. He at length formed a friend in the manager of Torbanlea, Mr. John Sharp, but his health which had never properly recovered from the effects of typhoid relapsed again from which God willed he should never again recover. Hoping you will not let the life and death of one who suffered so much pass without a slight recognition. - Jessie Mary Carr, Torbanlea.