N.S.W.'S NEW PREMIER

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 118, 21 May 1941, Page 6

N.S.W.'S NEW PREMIER

A SELF-MADE MAN

THE THIRD BOILERMAKER

(0.C.) SYDNEY, May 17. Of five Labour Premiers who have held office since responsible Government came to New South Wales, two have been boilermakers. The sixth. William J. McKell, 49 years of age, is also a boilermaker. ....

McKell, whose party swept to power with an overwhelming majority last weekend, is what the popular novelist would term "a self-made man." Son of a butcher, he was one of a family of four. At six he was brought from the small south coast town of Pambula to Redfern, and has lived there ever since.

At 13, McKell left school to take his first job—errand boy in a city chemist store. Three years later he was apprenticed at a Sydney dockyard, served his five years, and became a journeyman boilermaker. As a 17----year-old apprentice. McKell attracted considerable attention to himself when he conducted a case before the State Arbitration Court and successfully applied for the variation of an award which was operating harshly against the apprentices.

He was a "promising boy" when he was admitted to the Boilermakers' Union. Two years later he was its assistant secretary. Shortly after, he was elected Labour candidate for Redfern in succession to Mr. J. S. T. McGowan, a former Labour Premier also a boilermaker. x McKell has represented Redfern ever since—a total of 25 years. Redfern has had a boilermaker as State representative since 1891. Although he held a secure blue ribbon seat, McKell was not content to sit idly back. By kerosene light he studied law. - ADMITTED TO THE BAR. In 1920, at the age of 28, he became a Minister for Justice and the youngest man to hold Cabinet rank in a New South Wales Parliament. In 1926 I McKell's hours of nightly study bore fruit and he was admitted to the Bar 'Later as Assistant State Treasurer, he visited England and America on a loan raising expedition. He returned in five months * with more than £16,000,000 worth of Australian credit. He held various portfolios in the Lang Government until Labour was outed in 1932. McKell has always taken an active interest in sport. He regularly visits Sydney stadiums and once boxed in amateur heavyweight contests. He played first grade football for Balmain and is still chairman of the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust. He likes horse racing and enjoys talking of the sporting giants of his youthful days. SHUNS THE LIMELIGHT. McKeii has one governing principle —"moderation in all things." He frankly admits his taste for a glass of good beer. He smokes —one cigar a day and that usually after his main meaJ. He hates theatricalism. The glamour ot position leaves him "cold." He prefers, he says, "the simple pursuits and tastes of the people." His wife and family share his views and join him in shunning all limelight.

Now that he has achieved State leadership, McKell has no intention of changing his mode of life. He was married in 1920. He has two daughters. Betty (20) and Pat (18), and a younger son, Billy, attending Sydney High School. With the family lives McKell's 81-year-old mother.