A LABOUR LEADER

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 18, 22 January 1913, Page 8

A LABOUR LEADER

"♦ ' TO TBB EDITOR. Sir,— By cable in your issue of even date we are, informed that Mr. Joseph Cook has J been elected leader of the Liberal Party in the Commonwealth of Australia in succession to Mr. Alfred Deakin. Mr. Cook entered the New South Wales Parliament as a Labour member, and was by his party elected leader. Sir Henry Parkes was at that time Premier. With characteristic astuteness, he recognised that. Labour was a force to be reckoned with, and immediately set about to draw it within his fold. • Recasting his Ministry at the opening of Parliament, he included the leader of the .L&boul' Patty 'and made him Post-master-Geriferal (the least important of the portfolios). This move had the effect desired by that wily political engineer (Sir Henry Parkes). He gained a leading light of the Labour Party, threw it into confusion, and sorely perplexed the direct Opposition. That Ohe of their own party, and one whom they elected as their leader^ should act so, set the advocates of direct Labour thinking hard; and as a result of Buch reflections the solidarity party was the outcome. Each member was pledged not to accept office in any " Mirtistry not a Labour Government, nor to suuport any radical measures unless first advised by caucus. Following events in their sequence, we find that the desertion of Mr. Cook kept the party from which he sprung, a long time in the cold shades of opposition. But Mr. Cook's conduct strengthened and gave knowledge to Labour. Ifc showed who were its enemies and taught them self reliance. The result is now that Labour is predominant and respected throughout Australia.— l am., ' JOSEPH CULLEN. Wellington, 21st January.

A movement for the general recognition of five days as constituting a fanweek's work, is on foot here (writes our Sydney correspondent). It is encouraged by the fact that some employers in Sydney and Melbourne, factory proprietors mostly, already dispense with work on Saturday. These employers say that experience has shown them that there is no chance of their getting a fair half-day's work on Saturday from their hands, who, on Saturday morning think and talk of nothing but the sports which are to take pl&ce in the afternoon. Our defence system is being drawn into the pi'eseht movement for a supporting argument. It is said that the Saturday morning could be used for military turning No doubt many of theme who via this argument believe what they

say. But there is no evidence of their readiness to say that all those who get Saturday morning off should undergo military drills However, insistence, or rather argument to the contrary, is based not so much on the plea about Saturday morning drills as on the be lief that as soon as a five-days' week had come ' into operation a new movement would be started for a working woek of only 40 hours— five days of eight hours each. ' A heat-wave in Melbourne laet week caused some distress to many of the population. Those who ,had to brave the raging north jvind appeared in variegated costumes. On the Sunday the blistering wind took the temperature up to 100.10. On the Mond.iy it was again over 100. People sought the seashore on tho Sunday, but the bathing regulations harassed them in their efforts to- keep cojl. At SandTingharn bathers found themselves in the midst of bush-fires, policemen, and sharks, and over them hung the pall of the local bathing regulations. The sharks drove them to shallow water, the bush-fires kopt them from the ti-tree, and the policemen took their names because they stayed on the sand. About 170 people are to be prosecuted by the ■police because they bathed on tho gands . instead of amongst the sharks, the regulations declaring that the bather must proceed between the bathing-box and the water in a straight line, and not recline in bathing costume on the sand. Messrs. A. L. Wilson and Co. insert particulars of n. sale of household furniture, linen, and effects they are holding to-moVrow, at 1.30, at 23, Thorndon-quay,, when the contents of eight rooms will be [ offered. On Friday, at 1.30, at their i rooms, 26, Brandon-street, the firm will , conduct a sale of furniture, including n piano. Under instructions from tho Public Trustee they will 6ell on Monday, at 63, Roxburgh-street, the contents , of five rooms.