EIGHT HOURS DAY IN MELBOURNE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1212, 22 May 1885, Page 3

EIGHT HOURS DAY IN MELBOURNE.

By R. P. Whitworth. THE PROCESSION. Were any impartial residmt of Melbourne to be asked what is, “par excellence,” the holiday of the metropolis, he would, as indeed he must, unquestionably reply, the Eight Hours’ Day. In sooth it is a day of days, a day which afford? a demonstration of which not only the city, but the colony at large, may well be proud ; a day which gives, not onlv well-deserved gratification to the ac ive participators in that demonstra-. tion, but also a sight to onlookers unequalled perhaps, if not in magnitude, at least in its social bearing, in any other part of the world. It is not my intention to treat the matter from a reportorial point of view, further than to say that the gathering exceeded all previous ones in point of numbers and magnificence, and this is undoubtedly due, in a great measure, to the pregnant fact that His Excellency the Governor may fairly be said to have taken a prominent part in it. Not to put too fine a point on it, Sir Henry Loch is a man with a level head, and knows well enough where, in these troublesome times, when the air is heavy with distiaciiig rumirs, the real strength and safety of the country lies. Hitherto it has been deemed sufficient for the Premier and other political heads of the people to address the assembled bone and sinew of the country, but Sir Henry, seeing beyond his nose and as the representative of Koyalty itself, says, in effect, ‘ L too am one of you.’ How far such a proceeding may have the effect of further strengthening the bond of loyalty that attaches us to the Crown it needs no prophet to guess, suffice It to say that it was a bold step, a wise step, a step in the right direc tion. Of the aspect of the procession, as a procession, I have nothing to say, beyond recording that the day was a truly Austra» li in summer’s one, the sky was unflecked by a single cloud, the sun was bright, and, singular to relate for Melbourne, there was no dust; that the city was rendered gay by a marvellous display of bunting, and the we'kin rendered joyous by the strains of innumerable bands of music, more or less harmonious or noisy as the. case might be, and that the roadway resounded to the measured march of some 10,000 of the “ horny handed” who formed the proces* sion. All the familiar flags, banners, and other insignia were there, and some n iw ones, notably that of the Typographical Association, who may be compliraen ed on the possession of a b inner which is not only a banner, but a work of art in execution and design. Another striking feature was the appearance, at the hj ad of the tinplate workers, of two mounted knights, armed “cap-a-pie - ’ in thHr glittering panoply of plate armour, a la Henry V., and yet another, that of two stagecoaches an I a drag, filled with the pioneers of t ie Eight Hours’ Movement, which brought up the rear. The first question naturally to arise in the mind of any spectator who saw the procession

from several points of vantage was, ** Where dn all the people came from ?" the next ‘ Where are the poor we hear so much about 1” Both, questions are easily answered. To the first the reply is “ Half Melbourne and suburbs are .flocked to see the sight,” to the second, “ Hidden away in their dismal slumsj this bright God's sunshine, and this scene of festlvi'y is no place for them. No, they are not here, bnt, alas Iwe have them 'with us always.” If any proof we needed of the tangible prosperity of Victoria, surely the crowd on crowd of not merely well, out in very many cases, luxuriously clad men and women, youths and maidens, beaming with health, and radieut with high spirits is amply sufficient. The gloss of broadcloth aud the sheen of silk, so to speak the glory of purple and flop linen, the glow of rich color, and the glitter of jewellry, not only here, but there, and yonder, and everywhere, far as the eye can reach over the apparently interminable mass of moving humanity. Surely in view of such a vast congregation of well clad, well fed, well cared for colonists, the veriest pessimist must admit a national prosperity, tor once the larrikin element, the curse of oar city, is conspicuous by its absence, that is to say, in any force, ana even the few meagre straggling groups that are visible at intervals, seem ill at ease, and as much oat of place as they would be at the Governor’s levee. The crowd, dense as it is, is orderly in the extreme, there is no symptom of rowdincss, no ill-temper, no ba I language, not over much crushing, and practically, no intoxication to ht, heard or seen in the thickly packed lines of spectators that occupy the pave* ments on both sides the route from the. Trades Hall to the Friendly - Societies Gardena, where preparations had been made fora high holiday. The orderly and obliging, even courteous demeanour and conduct of the vast assemblage may be gathered from the fact that although I and my confrere attended the*demonstration from ten a.m. until six p.m., and although we toge* ther and separately saw men with their wives and families, and women with babies in arms, and, Oh 1 foolish mothers, in the midst of such a cram and crush, in perambulators, we did not witness, nor hear of a single accident. The only halt made in the procession was opposite the Treasury buildings in Spring-street, where the vice regal party and the Ministry ;had the opportunity of judging of the material of the working men of Melbourne. That Sir Henry and Lady Loch expressed themselves delighted beyond me sure with the spectacle, goes without saying, and well so too, for there before them was the visible outcome of some of the best blood, bone, sinew, brain and pluck of Great Britain, a body of stalwart men wno, should war unhappily devastate our shores, wnul *, drilled or undrilled, “pro aris et focis,” give such an account of themselves as would make the Northern Bear shiver in his Imperial den.

THE BANQUET. I have already expressed aa opinion that Sir Henry Loch is a man with a level head, and if that opinion needed any strengthen ing it would be amply fortified by the speech he made at the banquet given at the Gars dens in the afternoon. Ido not propose to make any lengthened remarks on that speech he made at the banquet, as it has already been reported “in exteuso” in the Alelbourne papers, farther than to say that it was a masterpiece of tact, and proves, if nothing else did, that our worthy Governor has no slight claim to be considered that “ rara avis ’ “ the right man in the right place;” Sir Henry had, and no man knew it better than himself, a difficult game to play, and he played it well. A less skilful tactician might have been fulsome in his compliments to his auditors: might have tickled the ears of the working m«u wi(h adulation and, perhaps, nauseous flattery. But not so he. Too well he knows that the Australian working man, educated as he is to a knowledge of his social and political rights, is rather too ol a bird to be caught with chaff, and therefore while complimenting the workers in the numerous industries which are the backbone of the colony, and congratulating them on the prosperity of which their labours have formed so important a factor, lie carefully avoided steering into the troubled waters which have the Soylla of capital on one hand, and the Sharybdis of labour ou the other. And wisely, for say what we will, and think what we may, there is, and always necessarily must be. an implied, it not an overt, antagonism between the two. Their interests, although they ought to be, are not, as a matter of fact, identical, and possibly never will be, and the Governor, as such, stands in the middle ground- half way between, as it were —and it, consequently, behoves him to be very cautious. Cautious he is, wary 1 had almost said, but his speech is a capital one, and one which cannot but be read with pleasure by all classes of the community. More power to him. As for the balance of the speeches, they were of the usual calibre, and meant as much, or as little, as after dinner speeches generally do. To sum all up, the Eight Hours’ day in Melbourne of 1885 may be marked with a white stone, and the pioneers of the movement may fairly pride themselves on the outcome of their manly efforts of many years ago.