EMPIRE SELF-RAISING FLOUR The West AUSTRALIAN
Rises Above all Others.
RE C RD
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY
1:1,
1913
The Right Hon. Andrew Fisher, P.e. Fifth Prime Minister of Federated Australia A
\ ISITOlt FEW HURRIED IMPRESSIONS OF OUR DISTINGUISHED
sting. Mr. Fisher was singularly "There has been no revolution. Nofree from any feeling of the kind, No oR. cut body's head has been and I could not help recognising and nabeen has over -prosperous industry appreciating it. The second quatity of tionalised. The usual methods to which I have referred was his obsurstill production and exchange servation and mental receptivity. It vive." was unnecessary to complete a rethe This, gentle reader, is not mark or an argument ; he saw the apologia of an ardent follower of aimed at almost at once, Australia's second Labour Prime conclusion Minister. It is the grudging tribute and "Thought leaped out to wed with of a well-known Australian periodithought cal which usually renounces the Party led by Andrew Fisher-with all its Ere thought could wed itself with speech." works and pomps. Our distinguished visitor, who came to turn the first At that time I had no premonition sod of the Kalgoorlie to Port Augusta section of the trans -Australian of his future prominence, but he left railway last Wednesday, is a noted an indelible impression of an unusIt was not ual personality. figure in many respects. He enjoys the unique distinction of being the a striking personality so much an unusual one. There was as only Prime Minister in the world something about him that markwho guides the political destinies of him out from the ordinary ed a whole Continent. His elevation to the highest dignity within the power of the people to bestow, his undoubted integrity and honesty of purpose-conceded even by his political straightforward his opponents speech and unassuming manner, his determination and indomitable will power, stamp the Right Honourable Member for Wide Bay as one of the great statesmen of the Empire. With Mr. Fisher's political creed, as Leader of the Federal Labour Party, (being a non-party the "Record" journal) has no concern. The pros cons of both Federal proand grammes will he discussed with unwonted vigour on the hustings and in the columns of the daily press months. One ' within the next few need not necessarily endorse every item of the Party led by Mr. Fisher, to admire the man who has risen by sheer merit from the humble position of coal miner to the exalted office of Governor -General's Chief Adviser. The friends of the Home Rule cause in Australia cannot forget the Prime Minister's able advocacy of
House, and Mr. Fisher retires to the privacy of the Prime Minister's room, there is NO MORE ('HARMING HOST. Whatever the visitors politics may he, they seem to be quite forgotten and there remains only the genial and kindly Mr. Fisher, who does not seem in the least conscious that he is the Prime Minister of a great Commonwealth. Once when I sat talking to him in his private room he received a cablegram from London that Mr. Balfour had just resigned the Leadership of the Oppoiidtion, There were some of his party Present, and the contrast between him and them was most noticeable. It was to them a cause of great excitement, but Mr. Fisher did not seem affected or elated with a Position that idaced him in direct re-
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there was always apparent in them not only a party respect for Mr. Fisher, but also a personal esteem The strangest and even affection. part of the scene to me was that the feeling of the Federal Labour Party towards their Leader was fully reciprocated, and that though he was Prime Minister he was something more, he was a Labour Member who had won the confidence and affection of his party-a thing which it is not easy to do, either in the Liberal or Labour side. I felt quite embarrassed even though I had been introduced to every one present.
Interesting as it was
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"Whose life in low estate began, And on a simple village green." He recognised the quotation, but with characteristic modesty would not admit the application or pursue
to Self He was one of the first
it. What he did dwell upon at length was the conservative restriction on freedom, and even thought, in the old country at that time. The dead
to welcome the Irish Envoys, Messrs. Redmond, Donovan, and Hazelton, to Australia, and his speech on the occasion of their reception in Melbourne was in every way worthy of an Empire statesman. Wien the "Iiieadnutight" frenzy was in full blast, Mr. Fisher resolutely refused to succumb to the jingo fever,and to the stand be took at that juncture is credited in a large degree the triumph of his party over the Fusion forces at the eeneral election three years ago. From a character sketch in our bright contemporary, the Queensland "catholic Advocate," we cull the following items first met ,Mr. Fisher on a railI years way platform nearly twelve ago. He invited me t, have a cup of tea. which now, as then, is his favourite beverage, thota-li it is merely from personal choice, and he would not limit in the smallest degree the taste of his zia,,ts. He had then been a member of the Federal Parliament for some it oaths, and my risssica, of him formed at the a iv. The v hefore of tsr..0Th.lity is a matt r. diTieulty, bat two peen-
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Mr. Fisher stand out memory. The first is a sin, ! ,,f pression and man genuine t b..t wr-e and natural. Most members of Parliament* can never get away from their consciousness of their own imaort-nee, and the fact is only too evident from their manner even when they wish to he most ingrati- t
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observe
the EXPERIENCES OF HIS EARLY LIFE, from his first memories of cross house, in Ayrshire, where he was born in 1862, to the time .vhen he entered Parliament in Queensland. It was only by a discussion on tile social conditions of that period that I ascertained the facts of his early life. I did not care to question him, but he was and is very pleased with the stand which he has alwa s te,ken from his youth, and was very communicative. It is a matter of COMmon knowledge that Scotland had an excellent educational system long before England or Ireland. Mr. Fisher came in for its benefits and a Ivantages in the use of a good public library and reading room. In discussing his native village of Crosshouse, I quoted Tennyson's famous lines on a great statesmen
Ireland's rightful claims Government.
to
Mr. Fisher in his environment in the Federal House, it was still more interesting to converse with him on
weight of the centuries and of feudal surroundings lay upon the little village, and no one had ever stopped to consider that :
ANDREW FISHER, P.C. turned the first sod of the who Minister, Prime c.,mmonwealth 'ontinental Railway at Kal goodie during the week.
"Here and there a peasant's bibe Is nobly horn by right divine."
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ceipt of private news that was then known to only a few persons in the empire. It was not affectation: that set fect produced by a black and white was quite apparent. I could only fact artist who attains a special result his nonchalance down to the from that he had recently returned by confining himself to the hold and the coronation and Imperial Conferinr.,enent lines of his drawing. ence, and that he had deliberately weighed himself in the balance with since then T have had many op iortunities of meeting Mr. Fist's, the statesmen whom he had 'met and of ascertaining his views. He there. if my conjecture was dart, that he was quite their he felt she- vs no effect of the passing,of the years, and looks as yi,attlful :mow :is equal, and probably quoted to himhe did more than a decade ago hen self white "Their pride is yet no mate for mine, I Fret met him. His thick, air ::ives to his features a most Too proud to care from whence they face is ' ariking apaearance. anus." :oldle, and full of ex-re,-,sian w 'Inn the thn,nsh it can acquire 't wrild be an impertinence to seek fix,tv of a sphinx when he is re,:!ai ascertain his views upon such a ing a deputation, or when politiell fiec,-mstances excite his caetion. His c,iaject, and the surroundings changsto quickly that there was scarcely .1 -ecarance is unite yfintlif,11, mini his walk and manner are full of verve, ecen time to speculate. Labour memwhich does not suggest any ntivsical bers came in to see him, on minor ,leteriaration as a result of his ntren- matters of party business ; he was lions political career. When an oc- wanted to go here or there ; they casional lull occurs in the contest discussed the speech of the member for Parliamentary control in the then on his feet in the Chamber, but
Parliamentary representative. The impression was not the result of ostentation, It was similar to the ef-
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In early youth he felt that the world was made when a man was horn, and he refused to accept the I empty husks of old traditions. took especial pains to ascertain his ideas when he was leaving Scotland. I wondered if he had any fixed views as to the land to which he was coming. Had be a definite idea of the conditions in Queensland, or, was he a Dick Whittington, who saw the "lights of London flaring through the dreary dawn?" He explained that he learned that AUSTRALIA WAS A LAND OF FREEDOM, and that he came out primarily for that reason. Like most young men, he had a trust in that future which is a prodigal in promise and a miser in fulfilling. In his case, however, the conditions were reversed. I was specially interested in knowing if he had any premonition of his future greatness, hat all that 1' could discreetly ascertain was that he always felt drawn into industrial and social disputes which were not of his own creation, and, while -he had a horror of all turmoil, he still found 'iimself