FROM PEDLAR TO PREMIER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144826, 2 November 1915, Page 5

FROM PEDLAR TO PREMIER.

THE HON. W. M. HUGHES The Hon. William Morris Hnghes, who has succeded Mr. Fisher as Prime Minister of the Australian Commonwealth and Leader of the Labour Party, is a Welshman by birth, having been born in Wales in 1864. He is therefore 51 years of age. The new Prime Minister was educated at Llandudno Grammar School and St. Stephen’s Church of England Grammar School, where, for a short time, he was a .pupil teacher. Coming to Australia in 1884 he engaged in various including peddling and wharf work. Taking a keen interest in trade union work ho organised the Maritime Unions and became "general secretary of the Now' South Wales Wharf Labourers’ Unions. Flo also filled the position of president of the Carters’ Union in the same State. In 1897 Mr. Hughes stood, on the Labour Party’s platform, for the Long Division of Sydney in the New South Wales Parliament and was' elected to that and the three succeeding parliaments. Wliile a member of the Now South Wales Parliament Mr. Hnghes, with Mr. Holman, now- Premier of New South Wales, qualified for and was admitted to the bar of his adopted State. On the accomplishment of Australian Federation, Mr. Hughes resigned his position as a member of the State Parliament, and was elected M.P. for the West Sydney Division in the Federal Parliament. - He was Minister for External Affairs in the Watson Govern-' ment in 1004 and was Attorney-General in the Fisher Government in 1908 and, with the exception of a short period when his party was in opposition, he has filled that position ever since. In. 1907 Mr. Hashes was one. of the delegates to, the imperial Navigation Conference in London. In addition to his parliamentary duties, he has, for some years, filled t!ic position of president of the Waterside Workers’ Federation, an Aus-tralian-wide organisation, and he handled, with conspicuous ability, the extremely delicate situation which existed during the Now Zealand Waterside Workers’, strike in 1913. He has also written extensively, principally on Labour questions, in the Sydney dailies. In conjunction with Mr. W. T. Dick he published a brochure dealing with the Federation of Australian States, and shortly afterwards “The Casa for Labour.” a publication very widely read by workers in the Australian States and iii New Zealand. Mr. Hughes, who is small in stature, is a very capable speaker and, administrator, and is credited with being the ablest man in the Labour Party in Australia.