tese sindicalismo e partido trabalhista

7/27/2019 Tese Sindicalismo e Partido Trabalhista

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University of Wollongong Thesis Collections

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection

University of Wollongong Year

Labour and politics in New South Wales,

1880-1900

Raymond A. MarkeyUniversity of Wollongong

Markey, Raymond A., Labour and politics in New South Wales, 1880-1900, Doctor ofPhilosophy thesis, Department of History - Faculty of Arts, University of Wollongong, 1983.http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/1423

This paper is posted at Research Online.


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LABOUR AND POLITICSIN NEW SOUTH WALES

1880-1900

A thesis submitted in fulfilmentof the requirements for the awardof the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

from

THE UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG

by

RAYMOND A. MARKEY, B.A.(Hons.), Dip.Ed.

Department of History,1983


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This thesis is my own work.

R.A. Markey.


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for my mother and father.


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TABLE OF CONTENTSPage

List of TablesAcknowledgementsAbbreviations in TextReference AbbreviationsA Note on the term 'Labo(u)r'SynopsisIntroduction

1V

viviiviii

ixxii

Part I. Social and Industrial StructureIntroduction

Chapter1

Part II,

Urban Industry 12Industrial Structure 12Workforce Structure 25Wages 39Unemployment and Underemployment 45Working Conditions 53Living Conditions 61The Aristocracy of Labour, Social Mobility,and Productive Re-organization 65

The Primary Sector 79Smallholders and the Pastoral Industry 83Metal Mining and Broken Hill 101Coal Mining 114Transport 136

Maritime Transport 141The Railways 161The Role of the State 172Public Works and Public Employment 175State Welfare 188The State As A Repressive Apparatus 196

Labo",r OrganizationIntroduction 211Trade Unions 212

Membership 218New Unionism and Industrial Strategy andTactics 230JoinL Organization and the Developmentof a Class Leadership 242The Holocaust of the 1890s 253


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6 The Emergence of the Labor Party 2647 Collectivist Organization From Below 319

Trade Unions and Democratic Experience 319Co-operation 342Municipal Labor Organization 353Part III. Ideology and Policy: The Emergence of Laborism

Introduction 3688 The Decline of Social Democracy 374

Political Reform 374Industrial Legislation 392

9 Labor and Socialism 424Socialism in Labor's Platform 426A National Bank 430Socialists and Labor 43810 Labor and the StateState WelfareWorking Class Distrust of the StateArbitration11 The Populist Paradigm: Racism and the LandLabour and ImmigrationLabour RacismLand and LabourThe Populist Paradigm

EpilogueConclusionAppendicesAppendix 1. Workforce StatisticsAl.l Percentage Grades of Occupation by IndustrialClassification, 1891-1901.A1.2 Percentage Proportion of Male, Female, and TotalBreadwinners in Industrial Classifications, NSW Census,1871-1901.A1.3 Number of Manufacturing Establishments and Hands

Employed, NSW and Metropolitan District, 1881-1901.A1.4 Employment According to Censuses in IndustrialClass, NSW, 1891-1901.A1.5 Number of Haads Employed in Principal Industries,NSW, 1881-1901.

467467472480505505510529544546554

564

568-9

570

571-2573-5

576-7


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LIST OF TABLES

Table 12: Females as Percentage Proportion of Workforcein Principal Industries of Female Employment,Selected Years, 1883-1901.

PagePart 1 IntroductionTable 1: Percentage of Census Grades of Occupation of

Total Breadwinners, NSW, 1891-1901. 4Table 2: Percentage Proportion of Breadwinners in Census

Industrial Classes, NSW, 1871-1901. 9Chapter 1Table 1: Metropolitan Proportion of ManufacturingEmployment and Establishments, Selected Years,1881-1901. 13Table 2: Number and Size of Factories in the Sydney and

Newcastle Areas, 1900. 14Table 3: Percentage of Grades of Occupation of TotalBreadwinners in Census Industrial Class, NewSouth Wales, 1891-1901. 15Table 4: Number of Manufacturing Establishments andHands Employed, NSW and Metropolitan District,1881-1901. 16Table 5: Average Hands per Factory, Sydney and NSW,

1881-1901. 18Table 6: Employment and Factory Size in Metals andMachinery Industrial Sector, NSW, SelectedYears, 1890-1901. 23Table 7: Employment and Factory Size in Principal

Factories, NSW, Selected Years, 1885-1901. 24Table 8: Female Employment, 1881-1901. 27Table 9: Percentage Proportion of Males and Females inthe Workforce by Census Industrial Classification,NSW, 1871-1901. 28Table 10: Percentage of Female Employment in Metropolitan

Manufacturing, 1881-1901. 29Table 11: Female Employment in Manfacturing and Works,

1882-1901, NSW. 32

34


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1 1

Table 13: Children Under 15 years in Employment.Table 14: Percentage of Children and Juveniles (under20 years) in Employment in NSW, 1891-1901,by Industrial Classification.Table 15: NSW Unemployment in the Census Years of1891 and 1901.Table 16: Significant Unemployed Occupations at1901 Census.

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52

54

Chapter 2Table 1: Breadwinners in Primary Industry by Census,1881-1901.Table 2: Percentage of Breadwinners in Grades of

Occupation in Primary Industry, by Census,1891-1901.Table 3: NSW Workforce Engaged in Metal Mining,1881-1901.Table 4: Workforce Engaged in Silver and Silver-lead Mining in Albert Mining District inNSW, Selected Years, 1889-1901.Table 5: Serious Injuries and Fatalities in Silver-Mining in NSW.Table 6: NSW Coal Mining Workforce, 1880-1901.

Table 7: Number of Coalminers' Working Days perFortnight, 1890-1902.Table 8: Coalminers' Productivity Measured in Tonsper capita per annum, 1880-1902.Table 9: Serious Injuries and Fatalities in NSWCoal Mines, 1881-1901.

80

81

103

108

111120

121

122

130

Chapter 3Table 1: Percentage Grades of Occupation in Transportand Communications, 1891-1901.Table 2: Breadwinners in Transport and Communications,1891-190i.Table 3: NSW Workforce in Sea and River Transport,1901.

137

138

148


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IV

PageTable 2: Unionists as Militia Members. 477Table 3: Union/Employer Attitudes on Conciliation/

Arbitration at 1891 Strikes Commission. 484-7


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vi

ABBREVIATIONS IN TEXTAA Co. - Australian Agricultural Company.ALF - Australasian Labo(u)r Federation.ALP - Australian Labor Party.AMA - Amalagamated Miners' Association of Australia.ASB - Active Service Brigade.ASE - Amalgamated Society of Engineers.ASL - Australian Socialist League.ASN Co. - Australasian Steam Navigation Company.ASU - Amalgamated Shearers' Union.ATU - Australasian Typographical Union.AUSN Co. - Australasian United Steam Navigation Company.AWU - Australian Workers' Union.BHP - Broken Hill Proprietary.CRSN Co. - Clarence and Richmond Steam Navigation Company,FSA - Farmers' and Settlers' Association.GLU - General Labourers' Union.HRNSN Co. - Hunter River New Steam Navigation Company.ISN Co. - Illawarra Steam Navigation Company.LEL - Labour Electoral League.MP - Member of Parliament.PLL - Political Labor League.PLP - Parliamentary Labor Party.QSS Co. - Queensland Steam Shipping Company.SDC - Sydney District Council of ALF.SDF - Social Democratic Federation.STL - Single Tax League.TLC - Trades and Labour Council


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VI1

ANUARcf.CPDHRDDM

MLn.NSWPDNSWTARCIRA

RRCSSOASRSRC

SMHVPLANSW

REFERENCE ABBREVIATIONSAustralian National University.Annual Report,compare with.

- Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates.Hunter River Miners' District Delegate MeetingMinutes.

- Mitchell Library,footnote.

- New South Wales Parliamentary Debates.- New South Wales Typographical Association.

Reports under the Census and Industrial Returns Act,1890.- Report of the Royal Commission on Strikes, 1891.

Steamship Owners' Association of Australia.- New South Wales Statistical Register.- Special Report of the Conference Between the SteamshipOwners' Association of Australasia and the FederatedSeamen's Union of Australasia and the Stewards' andCooks' Union of Australia (Federated) on the Subjectof the Proposed Reduction in Wages, Sydney, 1886.

- Sydney Morning Herald.Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly ofNew South Wales.


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A NOTE ON THE TERM 'LABO(U)R'

Contemporary spellings can be confusing. In general, I have used'Labor' solely to refer to the Labor Party; and 'Labour' to refer tothe labour movement as a whole, i.e. the Labor Party and the tradeunions. However, the political organization established by the unionswas usually referred to as the 'Labour Party' in its earliest years,1890-4, and when referring specifically to that period I have remainedfaithful to contemporary usage.

The dropping of the 'u' from Labor's title reflects the urbanunions' loss of control of the Party. ASU publications dropped the'u' from all words normally ending '-our'. As it became the dominantforce in the Party, its spelling, 'Labor', was adopted generally.


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XI

was that it was dominated by small landholders. Populism, therefore,

was mainly responsible for the 'Laborist' policy which emerged atthe end of the 1890s, and which concentrated on arbitration. WhiteAustralia, land reform, and a limited state welfare apparatus. Asan ideology, 'Laborism' assumed the neutrality of the stateapparatus. With this ideological basis and policy, the Labor Partybecame the vehicle for the deliverance of the working class to aNational Settlement between the classes in the new Commonwealth,after the most intensive class conflict Australia had everexperienced.


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The decade of the 1890s was one of those historical periods whichshape the history of a country for many decades afterwards. This istrue, in a sense, of any historical period. But the 1890s witnessedan unprecedented level of industrial strife after the rapid spread oftrade unionism in the 1880s, a level of economic depression which hasonly been matched on one other occasion, in the 1930s, and a level ofsocial and political experimentation which earned Australia a reputationas the 'social laboratory of the world'. In 1901 the Australiancolonies federated. But the social, political and economic programmeof the new Commonwealth - 'new protection', arbitration, the beginningsof a welfare state, and White Australia - was developed in thepreceding two decades. One of the major actors in Australian politicssince 1900, the Labor Party, was also established during the 1890s, andits role was central for the development of the new Commonwealth'spolitical prograimne.

Nowhere was this more evident than in New South Wales. The LaborParty achieved its first political successes in New South Wales. Theclaims of Queensland apart. New South Wales led the other colonies inthe consolidation of a Labor Party, and of a distinctive Labor policy.The New South Wales Labor Party provided the model for the AustralianLabor Party (ALP), especially in its development of the pledge andcaucus system. It also provided a disproportionately large number ofmembers of the first Federal Parliamentary Labor Party, includingits first federal leader, J.C. Watson, who became Australia's firstLabor Prime Minister in 1904. Furthermore, it was in New SouthWales that the Labor Party was first committed to arbitration,one of the main elements of the new


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Commonwealth's political programme. The other elements of theprogramme had their political origins as much, or more, in othercolonies. The 'new protection', which sought to grant workers somebenefits from the tariff which protected local manufacturing, was apolitical by-product of Victoria's early beginning in manufacturingin Australia. But it was in New South Wales that the working classwas first committed to the policies of the early Commonwealth, as anintegrated programme, and it was the Labor Party which bound theworking class to endorsing the programme.

The importance of this period in Australian labour history hashardly escaped historians. R. Gollan's Radical and Working Class

1 2Politics, and R. Ward's The Australian Legend, are the classicalworks on the period, although both cover a broader time span, as does

3B. Fitzpatrick in A Short History of the Australian Labor Movement.Notwithstanding some different emphases, these works, together witha number of studies less specifically concerned with the 1880s and

41890s, have provided a fairly consistent historical interpretation,which built on a much earlier Australian historiographicaltradition. Broadly speaking, the classical interpretation of latenineteenth century Australia has told an optimistic story, of radicaland working class achievement in building institutions - trade unions,

1. R. Gollan, Radical and Working Class Politics. A Study of EasternAustralia, 1S50-1910. Melbourne, 1960. I refer to the 1970 reprintthroughout this thesis.2. Melbourne, 1958.3. Melbourne, 1940. I refer to the 1968 reprint in this thesis.4. For example, I. Turner, Industrial Labour and Politics. The LabourMovement in Eastern Australia, 1900-21, Melbourne, 1965, Chapter 1;R. Ward, Australia, Sydney (1965) 1967 revised edn., Chapters 4-5.5. Of which, the classic document is W.K. Hancock, Australia, London,1930. See also V. Palmer, The Legend of the Nineties, Melbourne,1954.


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J. Hagan's Printers and Politics. A History of the Australian Printing12Unions 1850-1950, Gollan's The Coalminers of New South Wales. A

13History of the Union, 1860-1960, a number of studies primarily14concerned with the twentieth century, and a number of theses, such

as those by W. Mitchell and J. Docherty on the wharf labourers andrailwaymen. These have inevitably qualified the classicalinterpretation, but in a piecemeal fashion only.

In fact, the classical interpretation has proved very resilient.N.B. Nairn's Civilizing Capitalism. The Labor Movement in New South

1 (-1Wales, 1870-1900, is an unashamed restatement of the classicalinterpretation with only minor qualifications. J. Rickard, in Classand Politics, New South Wales, Victoria and the Early Commonwealth,1890-1910, breaks new ground by combining an examination of employers'political and industrial organization with a more traditional labourhistory. This began to correct an important omission in the classicalinterpretation, which usually attempted to study the working class inisolation from those with which it shared a class relationship. Butin his synthesis of 'business history' with the classicalinterpretation, and its recent qualifications, Rickard still owes hisbasic framework to the classical interpretation itself.

12. Canberra, 1966. See also R.T. Fitzgerald, The Printers of Melbourne.The History of a Union, Melbourne, 1967.13. Melbourne, 1963.14. For example, B. Mitchell, Teachers, Education and Politics. AHistory or Organizations of Public School Teachers in NSW, St. Lucia,1975; J.S. Baker, Communicators and their First Trade Unions. AHistory of the Telegraphist and Postal Clerk Unions of Australia,Sydney, 1980; F. Waters, Postal Unions and Politics, St. Lucia, 1978.15. W.J. Mitchell, 'Wharf Labourers, Their Unionism and Leadership, 1872-1916', unpublished Ph.D. thesis. University of NSW, 1973;J.C. Docherty, 'The Rise of Railway Unionism. A Study of NSW andVictoria, c..C0-1905', unpublished M.A. thesis, ANU, 1973.16. Canberra, 1973.17. Canberra, 1976.


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generally, the theoretical differences between labour historians haveconfused the issue, when they are apparently analysing the same phenomena.

This confusion largely exists because none of the historianssurveyed have attempted to systematically examine the links betweenworking class organization and ideology, on the one hand, and thesocial and economic environment which gave rise to these, on the otherhand. Ideology, in their hands, assumes powers of self-propulsion.Despite Rickard's effort to sketch the physical separation of employerfrom worker at the turn of the century, his emphasis is on Thompsonesqueclass consciousness, rather than the material conditions of class. Thisis not so much of a problem for the individual trade union histories.Their institutional basis is not as theoretically demanding on thebroad questions of class, and most have actually been able to, more or

less, relate institutional developments to an important aspect of thesocio-economic environment, the labour process. But for a generalinterpretation of the late nineteenth century, the lack of socioeconomic analysis is a serious flaw. For a work, such as Radical andWorking Class Politics, which attempts to use a historical materialistframework, it is extraordinary, more so because of the availability,from 1941, of Fitzpatrick's historical materialist work, The British

21Empire in Australia, 1834-1939. For all its faults, Fitzpatrick'swork provided an extensive starting point for historical materialistanalysis.

21. Melbourne (1941) 1969 edn. The one, notable, exception to thesecomments, which unfortunately is restricted to the 1880s, isE.G. Fry, 'The condition of the Urban Wage Earning Class in Australiain the 1880s', unpublished Ph.D. thesis, ANU, 1956. Note that Gollanhimself criticises McQueen in the terms I have used, 'An Inquiry intothe Australian Padical Tradition - McQueen's "New Britannia" ',Arena, no.24, 1971, pp.32-8.


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22Connell and Irving's Class Structure in Australian History aimedto overcome the weaknesses of labour historiography which have beendiscussed. Somewhat ambitiously, they sought to locate the historicalprocess of class formation in a specific socio-economic environment(mode of production, they would say), and to delineate class relations.Too ambitiously perhaps, for they do not consistently describe changesin the mode of production in enough detail. Their chapter on the1890s and early 1900s is one of the weakest in this regard. But thisfailure also relates to their theoretical apparatus. After considerabletheoretical agony, they eventually adopt a Thompsonesque 'culturalist'

23framework to analyze class. Armed with this theoretical apparatus,'hegemony', or the domination of ruling class culture and ideology,became Connell and Irving's major explanatory tool, at the expense of

the mode of production.Despite the differences within the classical tradition, and

between it and its critics, virtually all of the historians discussedshare a common methodology. This may be characterized as 'traditionallabour history', which is distinguished by its focus on working classinstitutions and leadership, and its heavy use of literary andParliamentary sources, and the records of central organizations, such

24as Labour Councils. But this methodology can only tell part of astory. In general accounts it also distorts an overall interpretationof events because of its tendency to take historical statements andactions at their face value; and its tendency to assume that 'the trade

22. R.W. Connell & T.H. Irving, Class Structure in Australian History.Documents, Narrative and Argument, Melbourne, 1980.23. ibid., pp.3-?6.24. For a more detailed critique of traditional labour history inAustralia, see R. Markey, 'Revolutionaries and Reformists', LabourHistory, no.31, November 1976, pp.86-95.


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into three parts: Part I, Social and Industrial Structure; Part II,Labour Organization; and Part III, Ideology and Policy.

The sources used also reflect these concerns. I have used therecords of individual trade unions to a considerable extent, unlikeother general interpretations of the period. But I have also employed,widely, more traditional sources, particularly Trades and LabourCouncil Minutes, the Report of the Royal Commission on Strikes, of 1891,and the Reports under the Census and Industrial Returns Act, of 1890.In re-reading these sources in the light of my methodology they haveproved to hold a wealth of information for my purposes. Historianscan not claim that they lacked the sources to answer the questions Ipose here.

It is important at the outset to define terms. A lack ofdefinition, consistently applied, has been a major cause of theconfusion over the issue of class evident in comparing different labourhistorians of this period. 'Working class' here is used objectively,to describe those men and women who possessed nothing but their labourpower, which they sold for a price on the market. But it is immediatelyobvious that, in a society which had experienced so much fluidity sincethe gold rushes, many did not really belong to a working class sodefined, or the capitalist class (or 'ruling class' or 'bourgeoisie').Semi-independent men on the land, or miners, who also worked for wagesperiodically to make ends meet, were declining, but their numbers werestill significant in terms of the total workforce, and many moved inand out of independence from wage labour. Furthermore, subjectively,white collar workers were distanced from the remainder of the workingclass to a far greater extent than they are today, and saw themselvesas being much closer to the capitalist class (and indeed, they oftenwere). Consequently, if my terminology for these 'intermediate strata'


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appears at times imprecise, it is because this reflects a sociallyimprecise, transitional situation. My purpose instead, has been tobe precise about the relationship between these groups.

The importance of intermediate social strata and the dream ofindependence for small men produced an ideological phenomenon whichI have called 'populism'. Gollan has recognised the influence ofAmerican populist literature in late nineteenth century Australianlabour circles, but without tying this influence to any social base,and he can not therefore answer why such ideas took root. He only

25offers a circular explanation in terms of the influence of ideas.I have been led well beyond Gollan's notions of populism, to recognizeit as a major social force within the labour movement, with a clearlydefinable social base, and clearly definable political and ideologicalconsequences for the Labor Party as a whole. I argue that by 1900 thedominant social force within Labor was populism, and that the Party'sbehaviour cannot be understood without reference to that social base.

Since the populist phenomenon is so central to this thesis, Ishould clearly define my usage of the term, for it is particularlyamorphous. Indeed, it is an amorphous reality as a recent conferencein London discovered in trying to pin the beast down. It representsa series of ideological tendencies rather than an ideology in itself.Populism characterizes movements which idealize 'the people', assertingtheir welfare and capacity against those of society's corrupt rulingelites, who 'cclablish and maintain their power by conspiratorial

25. R. Gollan, 'American Populism and Australian Utopianism', LabourHistory, no.9, November 1965, pp.15-21.26. The results were published as G. lonescu and E. Gellner (eds.).Populism, I*:s Meanings and National Characteristics, London, 1970.


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cunning'. Populism often suspects change, and idealizes small-scaleenterprise, 'especially on the land. There is a tendency to emphasizeparticular causes rather than roots', and an emotional tone, oftendeveloping into an 'apocalyptic fantasy world'. It often exudes anultra-moralism, but at the same time opposes the rulers' conformism.'Monopolists', 'financiers', and 'money power', rather than a class,

27exploit 'the people'.Two general points arise from this description. First,

populism cuts across and confuses actual class divisions. Secondly,despite some of the amorphousness associated with the term, we canclearly identify the type of social base which spawns populistmovements. It is always associated with 'small men', frequentlypeasants and farmers, or selectors, but sometimes with small urban men,with shopkeepers, clerks and craftsmen. The experience shared betweenthese diverse intermediate strata, and between such historicallydiverse characters as Parisian sans culottes in the 1790s, UnitedStates farmers and Australian selectors in the 1890s, and even Naziwhite collar workers in Germany in the 1930s, is their resistance tothe emergence or extension of capitalist social relations, in the nameof threatened pre-industrial values (or, in the case of Germany, thelooking back from an industrial society to past pre-industrial ideals).One further point emerges from this: populism in itself may swing tothe political right or left, depending on the nature of other socialformations. Important a force as it may be, populism is not anindependent social variable. We must begin, therefore, by examiningthe social and industrial milieu in which it flourished in colonialNew South Wales.

27. The quotations are from M. Roe, Kenealy and the Tichborne Case,Melbourne, 1974, pp.164-5.


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2.

3was as much a partner, as a victim, of British imperialism. Australiabenefitted from rising British living standards in the second half of

the nineteenth century, which increased demand, and prices, forimported foodstuffs and raw materials for processing, notably wool whichwas crucial to the British economy. The colonies also provided anoutlet for British investors seeking new opportunities as the Britisheconomy stagnated after 1873. British capital, in turn, financed almosthalf of Australia's imports, in capital goods, such as railway rolling

4stock, and in consumer goods, most of which were imported from Britain.So persuasive has the colonial prosperity thesis been, that the New Leftcritique of the classical interpretation of the period resembled theaustere British 'optimist' school of economic historians, who argued thatthe British working class did not suffer unduly in the industrialrevolution. The New Left argued that the Australian working class waspampered out of revolutionary socialism by British capital, whichcushioned them against the pains of early industrialization experiencedelsewhere.

The most immediate indicator of prosperity and the transitionalnature of society was the social fluidity between classes. Socialmobility allowed individuals to move relatively easily and quickly,'upwards', 'downwards', or 'sideways', within the social hierarchy:

3. See D. Clark, 'Australia: Victim or Partner of British Imperialism',in E.L. WheeV-Tright and K. Buckley (eds.). Essays in the PoliticalEconomy of Australian Capitalism, vol.1, Brookvale, 1975, pp.47-71,for an attempted synthesis of the Butlin and Fitzpatrick arguments;and P. Cochrane, Industrialization and Dependence. Australia's Roadto Economic Development, 1870-1939, St. Lucia, 1980, pp.1-57.4. Sinclair, op.cit., p.145; Clark, op.cit.; C.K. Hobson, The Export ofCapital, London, (1914) 1963, Chapter 11.5. For a review of the original British 'optimists', such as T.S. Ashtonand J.H. ClaphaiTi, see E.J. Hobsbawm, Labouring Men, London, (1964)1968, pp.64-125.6. See McQueen, A New Britannia, p.198, and passim. Innuendoes of thisview still appear in Connell and Irving, op.cit., for example, p.122,130-3.


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independence from wage-earning, on the land, or as a miner. Some NewSouth Wales industries, such as coal mining, the pastoral industry,and sections of manufacturing also failed to fully recover from the1886-7 recession, before the full onset of economic depression in the

191890s.The 1890s depression completely removed the prosperity of the boom.

In the absence of reliable statistics, Macarthy estimates overall20unemployment at about 29 per cent in 1892-4, but considerable

occupational variation occurred. Money wages fell markedly, but as faras one can tell, prices actually fell faster initially. Nevertheless,some limited wage rises after 1896 were apparently negated by a sharprise in the cost of living. Not until 1900-1 do real wages seem to

21have undergone a slight, brief improvement. Despite economic recoveryfrom about 1900, the prosperity of the long boom, such as it had been,was not recovered in Australia until the 1940s.

These developments reflected fundamental economic changes whichhad commenced in the late 1880s, and intensified during the 1890s. Themost immediate causes of the depression had been the bursting of theland boom, the bank crashes of 1892-3, rapidly falling world pricesfor wool and base metals from about 1890-1, and the virtual cessationof British capital inflow after the Baring crisis in Argentina. The

22onset of the long drought of 1894-1902 exacerbated these circumstances.But unlike other sectors, manufacturing recovered and expanded in the

23late 1890s. As Macarthy argues, this represented a structural

19. These themes are also taken up in Chapters 1-3.20. P.G. Macarthy, 'The Harvester Judgment: An Historical Assessment',unpublished Ph.D. thesis, ANU, 1967, pp.32, 101-2.21. ibid., pp.74-8, 87-9, 94-8.22. For a discussion of the causes of the depression, see Sinclair,

op.cit., pp.147-52; Fitzpatrick, British Empire in Australia, pp.253-8.23. op.cit., pp.30, 46, 52-4.


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re-allocation of resources from the primary sector and buildingindustrial infrastructure, to manufacturing and servicing its products.The rural diversification which also occurred in the 1890s onlyrepresented a re-allocation of resources within the primary sector,from wool to wheat and agriculture.

The shift towards industrial capitalism was not sudden, for itbuilt on earlier developments, and remained gradual until the 1940s.Nevertheless, it was clearly discernible at the end of the century,particularly in New South Wales, where manufacturing growth laggedbehind Victoria until the late 1880s. By 1900, New South Walesmanufacturing employment exceeded Victoria's in all areas except-, ,-. 24clothing.

The proportion of the workforce in different industrial classes,

as shown in Table 2 below, partly hides the structural shift. Forreasons which are spelt out at the beginning of Appendix 1, CensusIndustrial classifications were not entirely reliable, and verydifficult to validly compare between pre- and post-1891 Censuses.

The Primary sector's share of the workforce declined drasticallybetween 1871-81, and then very slowly between 1881-1901, which indicatesgrowing capital intensity, and in the 1890s, some re-allocation ofresources to other sectors. In fact, the 1901 Census underestimatesthe extent of this re-allocation. Apart from dairying, the only othergrowth areas in the Primary sector were mining and 'other'. Both were

24. And even there, NSW employment was understated, for reasons discussedin Chapter 1. See Comparative Statement by Victorian StatistRespecting the Average Number of Hands Employed in Manufacturing,of Victoria and NSW, Votes and Proceedings of the LegislativeAssembly of NSW (hereafter VPLANSW), 1897, vol. 7, pp.3-4;Sinclair, op.cit., p.138; Turner, op.cit., p.5; and Table 6 inAppendix 1.


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disproportionately from the expansion of manufacturing. WhilstMacarthy has estimated that overall wages decreased as a proportion of

national income after 1896, skilled wages actually increased between271899-1901. But not all skills were in high demand. Productive reorganization sharply reduced demand for many skills, even as it createdsome newly skilled beneficiaries.

The following three chapters examine this context in detail. Theyidentify two aspects of material working class existence, which, it isargued later, largely account for the extension of workers' organizationand class consciousness in the late 1880s: first, the limitations toprosperity in the 1880s; and secondly, those sections of the workingclass which bore the brunt of productive re-organization, the closing-offof opportunities for social advancement, and economic crisis in majorindustries. The chapters are divided according to the various industrialsectors, and emphasise working, rather than living, conditions, becausetrade unions were the major organizational response of the working classto these changes, and were also the initial basis of working classpolitical organization. The last chapter of this section, examinesthe role of the state because of its importance in the social and economicenvironment of the working class, and because when the working classorganized politically, it was forced to come to terms with a stateapparatus which had an exceptional role in a liberal democratic societyfor that time.

27. Macarthy, op.cit., pp.30-4, 43-54, 105-7, 179.


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CHAPTER 1

URBAN INDUSTRY


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The urban working class was the largest component of the workingclass as a whole, and its trade unions, particularly of the skilled,dominated the organized labour movement until the mid-1890s. By thenhowever, its organized strength and material conditions had declinedconsiderably. For important sections of the urban working class thisdecline was permanent. It was based on economic changes mainly connectedwith the structural shift to manufacturing. These had begun to have aserious impact from the late 1880s, with noticeable effect on urbanworking class politics. In order to appreciate the impact of thesechanges, an examination of the changing work and living environment ofurban workers is required.Industrial Structure

A growing majority of urban industrial activity was conducted inSydney, the colony's commercial and administrative centre, althoughNewcastle was also developing as a manufacturing centre, and eachcountry population centre required some manufacturing establishmentsto service the population. Sydney employed roughly 80,000 wage earnersin manufacturing, building, transport, and retailing in 1891. About

237,000 of these were in manufacturing, and about 15,000 in building.

1. For example. Report no.9 on Bootmaking, of the Reports under theCensus and T .dustrial Returns Act of 1891, VPLANSW, 1891-2, vol.7(hereafter RCIRA), p.1108, reveals a flourishing provincial sectionof that industry. See K. Sv/an, A History of Wagga Wagga, WaggaWagga, 1970; R. Wyatt, The History of Goulbum, Goulburn, 1941; andS. Glynn, Urbanization in Australian History, 1788-1900, Melbourne,1970,2. Calculated from NSW Census, 1891, pp.663, 676-7, 683, 693. Fry's totalestimate is 60-70,000 because he does not account for the fact thatthe Census Industrial class had a significantly larger than averageproportion of wage-earners, and he does not count the unemployed, mostof whom would have been ex-wage-eamers, op.cit. , pp.64-6, 71. SeeTable 3 below.


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the two primary concerns of this chapter, since commercial employeesplayed a minor role in organized labour at this time, and sincetransport workers are examined in Chapter 3. Sydney metropolitanmanufacturing establishments were on a significantly larger scale thanin New South Wales generally, as shown by Tables 1 - 2 and 4 - 5 below.The metropolitan proportion of factory employment grew from 57 - 64per cent from 1881-1901 (after a pre-depression peak of 61 per cent),whilst its proportion of manufacturing establishments only grew from33 - 42 per cent (again, after a pre-depression peak of 44 per cent).In comparison, Sydney's proportion of colonial population rose from

330 per cent in 1881, to 35 per cent in 1891, to 37 per cent in 1901.

Table 1Metropolitan Proportion of Manufacturing

Emplo3mient and Establishments,Selected Years, 1881-1901

Year1881-21885-61890-118951901Source: CalculatedRegisters

Persons % Establishments %57 3356 3361 4458 3964 42

from New South Wales Statistical

3. Calculated from J.W. McCarty, 'Australian Capital Cities in theNineteenth Century', in C.B. Schedvin & J.W. McCarty, Urbanizationin Australia. The Nineteenth Century, Sydney, (1970) 1974, pp.21,33; and NSW Census, 1901, p.630. 'Sydney' is generally used hereto include the city and suburbs, but most official statisticsexcluded Granville, Auburn, and Rookwood municipalities (all ofwhich were important and growing industrial sites) and Hunter'sHill.


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Table 2Number and Size of Factoriesin the Sydney and Newcastle Areas, 1900

Number ofEmployeesover 500400-499300-399200-299150-199100-14980- 9960- 7940- 5930- 3920- 2910- 194- 9under 4

Number ofMetropolitan40412162528416560169408809406

Area FactoriesNewcastle10100110791252155130

2047 369Source: New South Wales Department of Labour andIndustry, Report on the Working of theFactories and Shops Act for 1900, VPLANSW,1901, vol.6, pp.716, 746.

Urban industry was directed primarily towards servicing the domesticpopulation, rather than towards export production, or the significantproduction of capital goods. Consequently, its main sectors were: food,drink and tobacco; clothing; metals, machinery and vehicle construction;building; raw materials processing; and various service activities suchas printing, furniture-making, and gas production. Urban industry wascharacterized by low capital/labour ratios, low productivity,relatively small industrial units, and (as shown in Table 3) arelatively large number of employers and self-employed, although theproportion of these groups was smaller than in the overall economy.As Coghlan wrote in 1900, 'the progress of manufacturing industry inAustralia has been slow and fitful, even in the most advanced colonies...'.

4. T.A. Coghlan, A Statistical Account of the Seven Colonies ofAustralasia, 1899-1900, Sydney, 1900, pp.597-8. '


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Nevertheless, the rate of growth of manufacturing from 1861-90(8.4 per cent per annum) was second only to railways, and ahead of therapidly growing construction and pastoral industries (6.7 per cent perannum each). In the 1880s this growth rate dropped back to fourthplace, but it remained ahead of Gross Domestic Product and the pastoralindustry. In the 1890s manufacturing investment remained attractive,despite a reduction in colonial capital formation as a whole. Itsunit investment remained low, and falling wages benefitted its labourintensity. The eventual recovery of prices, the cessation of Britishcapital inflow, and some extension of protective tariffs, also combinedto aid import replacement. Growth in residential building was alsosignificant enough to offset economic downturns in 1878, 1882 and 1885,but during the 1890s building declined drastically.

From 1881-1901 the manufacturing workforce increased by 112 percent. In the 1880s the workforce grew by 48 per cent. This growthrate dropped to 43 per cent in the 1890s, but this figure is impressivegiven the loss of over 7,000 from the workforce during the trough ofthe depression, in 1891-4. Table 4 shows the growth in the manufacturingworkforce.

Tables 4 and 5 also reveal the increase in factory size in NewSouth Wales and Sydney. In New South Wales as a whole the averagefactory size almost doubled between 1881-1901, although it was not aneven growth. In New South Wales the number of establishments declinedfrom 1887, and only grew again from 1894. In the late 1880s, and until1892, when the manufacturing workforce continued to increase, this trendrevealed a marked increase in scale of industry. But during the depressionthe workforce fell more quickly than the number of establishments in

5. Butlin, Investment, pp.16-24, 47, 203.


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Table 5Average Hands per Factory,

Sydney and New South Wales, 1881-1901

Year Metropolitan New South Wales1881-21882-31883-41884-51885-61886-71887-81888-91889-901890-11892189318941895189618971898189919001901Source:

18.118.6518.9219.5619.9217.9717.9919.5321.8724.9625.7829.1424.9128.4123.8026.1026.4128.2328.9029.91Calculated from Statistical

10.5310.7310.7711.3511.7712.2912.8514.6715.3616.6518.0317.3215.1517.6417.0218.2018.5019.1219.7519.64Register,

(17.86)(19.71)(18.97)(16.47)(19.04)(17.96)(19.09)(20.04)

1892-1The calculation from 1890-1 is based upon the 1896definition of a factory, i.e., minimum four hands,rather than five, where such figures are available.The bracketed figures represent a calculation onthe old, pre-1896 definition, of minimum five hands.

1893, and in 1894 and 1896. The workforce grew more slowly than thenumber of establishments. In Sydney the average size of factoriesactually fell from 1886-8, then continued to grow markedly, evenduring the early years of the depression, until a marked drop in 1894.A recovery in 1895 was followed by a further reduction in size, untilit began to increase again from 1897. These trends suggest thatduring economic downturns, in the 1886-7 recession, and in 1894unemployed tradesmen attempted to establish independent enterprisesas they did at the beginning of economic recovery after 1895. Howeverin the long-term, the increase in scale is a clear


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trend, suggesting a decrease in opportunities to establish independententerprises, and a greater concentration of workers under individualfactory roofs. Small owner-builders and sub-contractors were veryimportant in building, but even here the small man declined inimportance from the late 1880s.

During the 1880s the relative importance of different manufacturingsectors as employers of labour did not change greatly. Of the majorsectors, building materials' proportion of the manufacturing workforcewas steady at about 20 per cent from 1881-6, after which it fellslightly; food and drink remained at about 20 per cent; and metals andmachinery rose steadily from 20 - 25 per cent. The most marked changeoccurred in clothing and textiles, whose proportion of the workforcefell from 33 - 20 per cent.

The more pronounced changes of the 1890s represented a significantrestructuring of the manufacturing workforce. Building, and buildingmaterials (and wood working, which is not easily separable from thelatter) are the only industries whose workforce (markedly) decreased.The workforce of all other manufacturing industries significantlyincreased, absolutely, and as a proportion of the total manufacturingworkforce. Food and drink increased by 34 per cent (or 14 per cent ofthe total increase in the manufacturing workforce), metals andmachinery by 26 per cent (or 16 per cent of the total increase), andclothing by a remarkable 87 per cent (or 37 per cent of the total

6. The NSW Census, 1891, p.693, lists 698 builders and contractors.See Butlin, Investment, pp.260, 267-9, 272-3; and G. Walsh,'Factories and Factory Workers in NSW, 1878-1900', Labour History,no.21, November 1971, pp.8-10.7. Butlin, Investment, pp.206-10; G.J.R. Linge, Industrial Awakening.A Geography of Australian Manufacturing, 1788-1890, Canberra, 1979,pp.471-3.


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N fimanufacturing increase).The scale of enterprise also varied between these major sectors.

During the 1880s, the average nvraiber of hands and average value ofcapital equipment per factory rose most significantly in building materials,

9and food, drink and tobacco. In the more labour intensive clothing andtextiles sector, the average number of hands and average value ofcapital equipment per factory actually declined in the 1880s and 1890s,even though it was the largest growth area.

However, the scale of enterprise varied considerably within thesesectors. For example, one large Sydney boot factory employed 300 in1891, even though small clothing workshops were more common. Althoughofficial statistics are a poor guide in this area, factory growth inclothing was balanced by a complementary growth in outwork, wherebyemployees worked in very small groups under sub-contractors, or at home,feeding the factories with semi-finished material, or 'finishing'factory work. Breweries were largely responsible for the overallincrease in scale in food, drink and tobacco. Tobacco factories were

12also large employers, but not very capital intensive, and small

8. Calculated from Statistical Register, 1901, pp.650-2. For details,based on the Statistical Register and Census, see Appendix 1,Tables 4 and 5.9. Butlin, Investment, pp.206-10, 269-72.10. RCIRA, 1891, nos. 1-4, 7, 9, pp.1080, 1083-4, 1086-7, 1092, 1095-6,1102, 1108-10 (only three of the ten Reports were on industries otherthan clothing); P. Strong (Tailors' Union President), Report of theRoyal Commission on Strikes (hereafter, RRCS), 1891, Precis ofEvidence, pp.257-61. The Statistical

Register, 1901, pp.636-9, 650-3, shows the very low level ofcapitalization in this sector, although, as Linge points out (op.cit., p.473), statistics on investment were non-existent before1886, and far from adequate even after 1886.11. See sources in n.lO. RCIRA, 1891, no.l (Tailoring), pp.1083-4, statesthat most work was done outside the factories. The incidence ofoutwork is discussed in more detail below, in relation to femalelabour.12. Tobacco factories were the subject of RCIRA, 1891, no.8, pp.1106-7.


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employers, such as bakers, were more common in this sector.Overall, New South Wales indices for scale and capitalization were

boosted by the metals and machinery sector. The average number ofemployees and value of capital equipment per establishment in metalsand machinery grew more slowly than in building materials and foodduring the 1880s. Nevertheless, this sector started from a higher levelof scale than the others, and was the only sector in which capitalintensity steadily increased.

As Buckley comments, metals and machinery was 'less an industry14than a heterogeneous group of trades'. For the purposes of this thesis,

it included specialized engineering workshops, manufacture of mining,factory, and agricultural machinery, manufacture of wire, ship buildingand repair, vehicle construction, construction of railway rollingstock, large government railway workshops at Eveleigh and Newcastle,production of cast iron fittings for houses, and a sheetmetal tradewhich overlapped with other industries, such as the expanding trade incanned meat in the 1880s. Larger ships and railway locomotives wereusually imported in New South Wales. Opportunities for localmanufacture of large items were too limited and varied to allow mucheconomy of scale, and high costs were involved in fitting workshopsfor specialized work. Together with a costly skilled workforce, thesefactors usually prevented New South Wales firms from competing with

13. Butlin, Investment, pp.206-10.14. Buckley, op.cit., p.13. Except where otherwise indicated thisdescription of metals and machinery is based upon Buckley'sChapter 2, and Linge, op.cit., pp.417-24, 430-43, 453-5, 471.15. General comments on this section of the industry are based on aperusal of the Tinsmiths' and Sheet Ironworkers' Trade SocietyMinutes of Meetings, for 1882-1900.


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23.

Table 6Employment and Factory Size inMetals and Machinery Industrial Sector, New South Wales

Selected Years, 1890-1901Metals/Engineering Shipbuilding Coaches/WagonsAverage Average AverageNo.of No.of No.ofhands hands handsNo.of No.of per No.of No.of per No.of No.of perYear Works Hands Works Works Hands Works Works Hands Works

1890-11893189518981901Source:

294213260270301Sta

10236 34.826686 31.397745 29.7910234 37.9013831 45.95

4127232725

tistical Register.

10751390103513121541

26.2251.4845.0048.5961.64

139131116146178

14861121113614011777

10.698.569.799.609.98

the worst years of the depression in 1892-4, the workforce expandedby about 25 per cent in the 1890s.

The urban industrial structure, therefore, was characterized bycombined, but uneven, growth. Manufacturing, predominantlyin Sydney, experienced rapid growth, absolutely and in scale, from1881-1901. This did not markedly alter the overall nature of urbanindustry, although the distribution of resources between differentsectors within urban industry did change more significantly. Craft-based industry remained important, but a growing number of large scaleenterprises brought larger numbers of workers together under the oneroof in some sectors. Some of the most important examples are analyzedin terms of scale in Table 7 below. Gas works, sugar refineries,breweries, and woollen mills, in particular, achieved greatly increasedproductivity in the 1890s because of increased capitalization, even

17. To reach -bout 5150 in 1901. See Appendix 1, Tables 4 and 5,which show slightly varying figures between the Censuses andStatistical Registers.


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was non-existent. At the other extreme, the food and clothing industriesemployed mainly semi or unskilled labour. However, within their 'unskilled'factory workforces, a hierarchy also existed, with women and juveniles

23occupying the lowest positions.Table 8 shows the rapid increase in the female workforce,

absolutely and proportionally from 1881-1901. The figures actuallyunderestimate this growth. The 1901 Census did not count a number ofwomen in the Primary sector who had been counted in 1891. Furthermore,only 60 per cent of all women were of normal working age, that is,

2415-65 years, of whom over 30 per cent were breadwinners in 1891.

Table 8Female Employment 1881-1901

1881 1891 1901Percentage increase of femaleworkforce for past decade - 82.8 26.7Percentage increase of femalepopulation for past decade - 52.7 24.7Female workforce participationrate 14.5 17.4 21.4Females as percentage of totalworkforce 15.7 19.0 20.1Source: Calculated from New South Wales Census, 1901, p.630.

Table 9 shows that female employment in the Census Industrialclass, which included manufacturing, was the major contributor to theconsistency of high overall female employment growth. Females were

23. This was clear in the clothing trade, for example, RCIRA, 1891,nos.1-4, 7, 9, pp.1081-6, 1087, 1089-90, 1092-3, 1094-6, 1097, 1102,1109-1110; in laundries, ibid., no.6, p.1100; and in the furnituretrade, ibid., no.10, pp.1112-3, 1115.

24. NSW Census, 1891, pp.129, 279; Commonwealth Census, 1911, pp.370ff.


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29,

also largely responsible for the maintenance of the Industrial class,and especially its manufacturing component, as proportions of the totalworkforce. Virtually all women in the Industrial class were employedin manufacturing. The proportion of the female workforce employed inIndustrial, and in manufacturing, rose steadily in the 1880s and 1890s,although the male proportions fell. In the 1880s, female growth inthis class was at the expense of Domestic employment, which hadtraditionally been the major area of female employment, as well as theCommercial and Primary classes. In the 1890s, as female Domestic andCommercial employment recovered, the continued growth in femalemanufacturing employment was entirely at the expense of Primary

25employment, although the 1901 Census did underestimate the latter.A high proportion of female manufacturing employment was in Sydney,

where its rate of growth was also very high. Table 10 shows the growthof the female workforce as a proportion of total Sydney employment inmanufacturing.

Table 10Percentage of Female Employment in

Metropolitan Manufacturing, 1881-1901Year Statistical Register Linge1881-2 12.25 19.561890-1 13.24 20.731900 22.69 22.691901 23.64Sourcfs: Statistical Register, and Linge, op.cit.,

p.741.

Statistical Register figures grossly underestimate female entry

25. See also RCIRA, 1891, nos.1-10, pp.1080-1118; Walsh, op.cit. ,pp.14-15; Macarthy, op.cit., pp.89-93; Fry, op.cit. , pp.39-48.


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31,

outworkers.The overall growth in female employment was concentrated in a very

small number of industries, shown in Table 11: apart from clothing,these were food, drink and tobacco, printing and bookbinding, furniture-

29making, and paper bag and box manufacture. With the exception ofwoollen cloth, all of these industries revealed a phenomenal growthrate in female employment in the 1880s and 1890s, with only a temporarydownturn during the trough of the depression, 1892-5.

The trend is even more marked when females are viewed as aproportion of the workforce in these industries, in Table 12. Althoughfurniture-making showed a proportional decline, all of the otherindustries showed an increase, including woollen cloth, where thedecline in absolute numbers because of greater mechanization affectedmales more severely than females. In most cases, the proportionalincrease was near equal to, or exceeded, the overall growth rate forthe female proportion of the manufacturing workforce. It is also clearthat the high growth rate in the clothing sector in the 1890s was almostentirely dependent on the entry of women to the workforce.

Prior to 1891, the statistics on child and juvenile labour areinsufficient to warrant confident assertions. However, there areindications of an increase. For example, trade unionists claimed that

30the number of juveniles had increased in clothing, and this assertionis consistent with the importance of outwork and later trends. From

29. See also F. Gordon, 'The Conditions of Female Labour and the Ratesof Women's Wages in Sydney', The Australian Economist, 23 August1894, in B. Kingston (ed.). The World Moves Slowly. A DocumentaryHistory of Australian Women, Sydney, 1977, pp.100-6; NSW JourneymenConfect^ ne -s' Society Minutes, 30 October, 13 November 1889,3 September 1890.

30. P. Strong (Tailors'), and Miss Powell (Tailoresses' Union), RRCS,1891, Precis of Evidence, pp.258, 277-8 respectively. '


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1891-1901, when more reliable statistics are available, workers underthe age of twenty did show a slight increase, even though the proportionof that section of the population slightly decreased. Coghlan claimedin 1891 that there were'not more than 1500 children of thirteen years and

31under who were employed in the whole country'. This is almost certainlyover-optimistic. In some trades, such as brickmaking and tobacco'twisting', the men hired boys, often their sons, as assistants, andthese did not appear in factory returns because they were not employed

32directly by the factory manager or owner. The Public Instruction Acttheoretically prevented employment of children under fourteen, butclothing unionists claimed, with some justification, it seems, that

33this merely led to the falsification of ages in many cases. Nevertheless,Table 13 shows that child labour, under 15 years, was a small and decliningproportion of the workforce in all Census classes of occupation between1891-1901, except in the 'Commercial' class, which included many smallfamily-based shops. Consequently, the increase in employment of thoseunder twenty years between 1891-1901, which is shown in Table 14, wasin the 15-20 (juvenile) age group.

Table 14 also shows that this increase was concentrated in theCensus Industrial classification, even though the highest proportionof juveniles was in the Domestic class. The only other class to showan increase, rather than a decrease, in the proportion of labour under

31. NSW Census, p.281.32. Progress Report from the Select Committee on Employment of Children,

VPLANSW, 1875-6, vol.6, p.890; and Report from the Select Committeeon the Employment of Children, ibid., 1876-7, vol.5, p.864. SeeLinge, op.cit., p.482.

33. See n.30. These claims were confirmed by Government inspectors inthe case of the tailoring and tobacco industries, RCIRA, 1891,nos. 1 and 8, pp.1084, 1107. Fry, op.cit., pp.366-71, underestimatesthis possibility and the extent of juvenile labour in manufacturing.


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twenty years of age, was Commercial. The most significant increase inthe Industrial class occurred in the clothing industry, which also had

34the largest number of workers under 15 years. Other majorconcentrations of juvenile labour occurred in building materials, metalsand machinery, furniture-making, and printing. But these industriesdiffered markedly in the sexual composition of their juvenile labourforces. Building materials and metals and machinery entail almostexclusively male occupations, whereas in printing, furniture-making,and clothing, even where more males were employed overall, the juvenile

35proportion of the female workforce was much higher than that for males.There was,therefore, a high correlation of female and juvenile labourin the latter industries.

The difference between the two groups of industries was relatedto the broader workforce structure. Formal apprenticeships, usuallyfor at least four to five years, had been the traditional form of juvenileemployment, which predominated in metals and machinery and building

, 36materials. However, in the clothing, printing, and furniture-making industries the growth in juvenile, especially female juvenile,labour reflected the growth of an unskilled workforce. Although thesejuveniles were frequently called 'learners', 'finishers', or even'apprentices', this did not indicate an indentured apprenticeship,or even, necessarily, the learning of trade skills. These names simplydesignated less experienced workers, or those confined to the lowest-paid jobs, and in some factories juvenile 'learners' comprised a majority

34. 912 in 1901, of whom 604 were female. The other major groups ofunder-15 year olds were in printing (225), metals/engineering etc.(317), building materials (183), food (224), building (285), andimperfe'-tly defined labourers' (234). NSW Census, 1901, pp.674-87,35. See Table 9 in Appendix 1 for these details.

36. See Fry, op.cit., pp.371-83; Buckley, op.cit., pp.89-90; HagcPrinters and Politics, pp.16-17, 39-40. 'an


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41.

45Piecewages were essentially a calculated conversion of time-wages.However, they operated to the advantage of the employer in a nimiber ofways, all of which seem to have been clearly perceived by unionists in

46the nineteenth century, although some, such as printers, were able47to do well by piece work. First, the quality of labour is controlled

by the work itself. If the goods produced are imperfect, the piece priceis not paid. Secondly, work intensity is controlled by the work process.A worker is only paid if he or she produces so much. Thirdly, the needfor supervision is reduced. Fourthly, work intensity under pieceworkhas a natural tendency to increase because it is in the worker'sinterest. Fifthly, for the same reasons, piecework provides an inducementfor the extension of working hours. But sixthly, there is a tendencyfor earnings to equalize despite extension of hours and increases inwork intensity, because under these circumstances a fall in pieceprices follows. This causes even stronger pressure on the extent(hours) and intensity of labour. Finally, piecework encouragesindependence and competition amongst labourers, counteracting the

48influence of unionism. Hagan and Fisher note this effect amongst49printers, and the other effects will be encountered in subsequent

discussions of factory and outwork. The furniture trade provides avery clear example of the tendency for piece-rates to decline. During

45. The RCIRA, 1891, emphasized this point, especially no.l (Tailoring),p.1085.46. For example, the statement by the Ironmoulders' Secretary in 1884,Hargreaves, op.cit., pp.27-8. Most unions consistently opposedthe introduction of piecework.47. Hagan and Fisher, 'Piecework and Some of Its Consequences', op.cit.,pp.26-7.48. These tendencies in piecework were clearly elaborated by K. Marx,Capital, Moscow, 1974 reprint, vol.1, pp.516-23.49. 'Piecework and Some of Its Consequences', op.cit., pp.24-7, 33.


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the 1880s when prices for one line produced by turners dropped by5067 per cent, piece-rates fell by 85 per cent.

Whatever the limitations to tradesmen's earnings, semi orunskilled wages were usually lower and more varied. Building labourerswere relatively well-paid in the 1880s, at 7/- to 8/- per day. Butgenerally, although it is impossible to estimate from availablestatistics, it is unlikely that a high proportion of the unskilledreceived the union standard of 7/-, since relatively few were unionized.In the 1890s depression, when most unskilled unions collapsed, this

52standard became total myth.Factory work included a great range of earnings in its own

hierarchical system of labour. In the boot trade wages were relativelyhigh. A minority earned as much as some tradesmen, but the lowest-paidworkers were in this sector, the prevalence of piecework meant a greatervariation of earnings than elsewhere, and outworkers usually purchased

53material themselves. 30/-to 40/- per week were good earnings forfactory work. But women often earned in a week what other workersearned in a day. Wages for 'learners' varied from nothing to a fewshillings per week, and the high proportion of girls in this categoryhelped force female wages down generally. Once their 'term' was

50. Calculated from RCIRA, 1891, no.10, p.1115.51. Coghlan, Labour and Industry in Australia, vol.3, pp.1440, 1447.It was claimed that some still received this rate during thedepression. Trades and Labour Council (hereafter TLC) Minutes,22 November 1894.52. See Macarthy, op.cit., pp.33, 39, 41, 48-9, 51, who assumes that

all unskilled received the 'standard' in the 1880s.53. RCIRA, 1891; P. Strong (Tailors') and Miss Powell (Tailoresses')RRCS, 1891,Precis of Evidence, pp.257-60, 278; Gordon, op.cit.,pp.107-8; Women's Silk-Growing Co-operative and IndustrialAssociation of NSW Ltd., Objects, Sydney, 1894.


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54completed, employers commonly replaced one 'learner' with another.Actual earnings could also be reduced by a system of fines whichoperated in some factories. At one laundry, women received a II- 'bonus'if they worked a full week, but if one day was lost, were docked 4/8,that is, a loss of 6/8, or almost half of weekly earnings.

Together, therefore, female and juvenile labour accounted for alarge and growing low-wage sector in manufacturing. The shift of femalelabour from domestic to factory work seems to have been motivated moreby the latter's greater freedom than by better wages. Low wages forwomen could be justified because most were expected in due course tomarry and their position in the workforce, therefore, was onlyconsidered temporary, or their income only considered supplementary totheir husbands'. Low wages for women also allowed higher wage marginsfor relatively scarce, skilled (male) labour in manufacturing.

Cheap female and juvenile labour were important for the processof early capital accumulation. Being subject to price and quality

54. Australian Workman (organ of the TLC, and hereafter AW), 17, 24and 31 January 1891; TLC Minutes, 30 November, and 7^ecember 1893;Walsh, op.cit., pp.14-15. See also sources in n.53. RCIRA, 1891,nos.l (Tailoring) and 3 (Millinery), pp.1085 and 1092 respectively,note the depressing effect on wages of a high proportion ofjuvenile labour.55. RCIRA, 1891, no.6 (Laundries), p.1100; TLC Minutes, 30 Novemberand 7 December 1893. RCIRA no.l suggested that fines were notcommon in tailoring, but admitted the difficulty in substantiatingthis generalization.56. Note May Hickman's lecture on this problem at Leigh House (SocialistLeague hc^Jquarters) , , 1 May 1897. (Hickman was a leader of theWomanhood Suffrage Leagues which are discussed in Chapter 8 below).See Fry, op.cit., p.41; B. Kingston, My Wife, My Daughter, and PoorMary Ann, Women & Work in Australia, Melbourne, 1975, pp.62-3; andfor an example of a Government inspector's belief in this regard,Gollan, Radical and Working Class Politics, p.159.57. Cf. Fry, op.cit. , p.40.


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58competition from overseas, local manufacturers had to force wagesand overhead costs down. Before the downward movement of unskilledwages in the nineties, the easiest method was by sub-contracting.Wages then, of course, had to be forced down further to allow for subcontractors' profits. Outwork had the added advantage of allowingevasion of industrial legislation, and since it was paid by the piece,of imposing discipline and work-loads without direct supervision.Although the data for estimating the rate of surplus value derived fromthis kind of labour is very limited, the evidence which does existsuggests that it was very high. For example, women outworkers who madeuniform trousers for the government, which paid 20/- to 35/- each, receivedlOd - 1/3 each. It was largely in outwork where this scale of profitwas made. Retail establishments which also manufactured their own

59clothing, and even factories, did not yield as high a rate of profit.Consequently, labour intensity in small sub-contracting establishments,or in outwork, was often important to maximize returns. For example,in a small market the high level of capitalization necessary for woollenmills yielded only small returns. The proprietors compensated for thisby working the mills in conjunction with clothing factories and

60outworkers.Traditionally, it has been argued that high colonial wage rates

were a product of labour scarcity. If wages were not as high as oftenassumed, therefore, we may also question the pervasiveness of labour

58. See Sinclair, op.cit., p.134; Butlin, Investment, pp.25-6; J. Norton(ed.), The History of Capital and Labour, Sydney, 1888, p.84. Food,tobacco and clothing were particularly susceptible to importcompetition. Specific cases are recorded in RCIRA, 1891, nos.l(Tailoring), and 8-10 (Tobacco, Boot Trade, Furniture Trade), pp.1081-21106-7, 1110-1, 1114-5.59. RCIRA, 1891, nos. 2 (Dressmaking), and 4 (Whitework), pp.1089-90,1095; Gordon, op.cit., p.103; and other sources in n.s 53-4.60. RCIRA, 1891, no.5, p.1098.


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scarcity. Butlin's evidence for labour scarcity actually relates toft 1

rural, rather than urban, labour. Apart from the level of wages,it is clear that earnings were often subject to uncertainty for urbanworkers, even the skilled. The greatest contributor to this uncertaintywas unemployment.Unemployment and Underemployment

Prolonged unemployment was rare until the 1890s. Nevertheless,hardship occurred during recessions in 1878-9 and 1886-7, when largenumbers of urban and rural unemployed gathered in Sydney. Accuratelong-term statistics do not exist. But a number of sources suggestthat whilst high levels of unemplo5mient were usually short-lived priorto the 1890s, temporary unemployment and underemployment were often a^ Tf 63way of life.

Insecurity of employment was implanted in the structure ofnineteenth century industry. Many workers, for example in building,were employed on a job basis, with no guarantee that they would beImmediately re-employed upon completion of one job. 'Between-jobs'unemployment, therefore, was a common experience. So, too, wasseasonal unemplojnnent, because of the service nature of urban industry.Manufacturing and building contracted in the winter months. Manyfactory hands were laid off for between six weeks and six months after

61. Investment, pp.397-8.62. Coghlan, Labour and Industry in Australia, vol.3, pp.1437-55;Progress Keport of Select Committee on Assisted Immigration,VPLANSW, 1879-80, vol.5, pp.719-815; Fry, op.cit., p.27. The

NSW Census of 1881, 1883-4, vol.8, pp.36-44, listed only about3 per cent unemployed.63. Apart from the sources mentioned below, this is a theme in Fisherop.cit., Part 2, Chapter 2. It is also suggested in the evidenceof unionists in the Progress Report, and Second Progress Report,

of the Select Committee on Assisted Immigration, op.cit. , and 1880-1,vol. 3, pp.275-94. Cf. Fry, op.cit.. pp.342-64, which is based onVictorian evidence.


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peak periods immediately prior to win ter and Chri stma s. This wasparticular ly com mon in the clothing indu stry, whe re one of theattracti ons of an outwork syste m was its automatic adjustm ent of labour

J 64supply to demand.In this ar ea, the increased entry of wom en into the man ufact urin g

work forc e was important in developing a reserve army of labour . In thefirst insta nce , this exacerbated the oversup ply of labour whi ch helddow n unskil led (male and female) wag es gen eral ly, in the late nin eti esand early 1900s. Seco ndly , female labour suited the seaso nalit y ofmanufac turing production. In slack per iod s, unemployed and unde remployed wome n were not as noticeable as unemployed mal e la bour, be caus ewom en were assumed to have a family to fall back on.

Sectional unemplojmient or underempl oyment also occurred bec aus e of

varied circumstances in individual indu stries . For exampl e,underem ploymen t was a probl em for less skilled pri nter s in the 188 0s,because of the small employers' practice of replacing boys as soon asthey were 'out of their time ', wi th fresh, cheap labour. In woo lle ncloth manu fact ure, a gradual decline in the number of mills ascapitalization incre ased, meant the displaceme nt of over 50 per cent

ft 7of the wor kfo rce in the eig hti es. Thi s increased labour supply forother factory and outw ork, upon whic h those employers relied for asatisfactory rate of profi t, and exacerbated job comp etition in thatarea of high underemployment.

64. RCIRA, 1891, nos.1-10, pp.1082-3, 1090, 1092, 1095, 1100, 1102,1114-5. In laundries, employees often only worked 2-3 days perweek (ibid., no.6, p.1100); Fry, op.cit., p.324.65. This assumption was explicit in RCIRA, 1891, no.l (Tailoring), p.1083.66. C. Jones (Secretary of NSW Typographical Union, hereafter referredto as the Printers' Union), RRCS, 1891, Precis of Evidence, p.247.67. RCIRA, 1891, no.5, p.1097.


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1898, one fifth of the Printers' Union in 1898 (100), and one third each90of the Stonemasons' and Tinsmiths' in 1900, remained unemployed.

91Buildingbrecovery in 1899-1900 was only short-lived, and in engineering,92unemployment soon reached 7 per cent again in the early 1900s. Table 16

lists some of the other principal areas of unemployment in 1901. AsCoghlan commented: 'the period closed without a complete return of thatprosperity which the community had been for seven or eight years

93patiently expecting'.The severity of unemployment during the 1890s depression comes as

no surprise. More surprising, however, was the extent of employmentinsecurity prior to then, in the prosperous boom years of the 1880s.This suggests that the traditional optimistic account of that periodrequires severe qualification. An examination of working and livingconditions of that period confirms this need.Working Conditions

The number of working hours per day, the physical work environment,and industrial health and safety are the three major indicators of thestate of working conditions. Historians have commonly identified theallegedly widespread occurrence of the eight hour day, or forty-eight

94hour week, as an indicator of prosperity in the 1880s. However,

90. TLC Minutes, 21 April and 16 June 1898; Tinsmiths' Minutes,27 November 1896, 14 October 1898, 12 January 1900; Hagan, Printersand Politics, pp.115, 117.91. Butlin, Investment, p.227.92. Buckley, op.cit., p.316.93. Labour and Industry in Australia, vol.4, p.2047.94. For example, K.S. Inglis, The Australian Colonists, Melbourne, 1974,pp.117-25; Fitzpatrick, A Short History of the Australian LabourMovement, p.109 ('the rule by 1890'). Even Connell and Irving,op.cit., pp.113, 134-5, give the impression that the eight hour daywas widespread, and, incorrectly, imply that the Government imposedit in public works contracts from the 1870s. Fry, op.cit.,

pp.209-10, 238-46 is more guarded, but still claims that Australia'led the world' in this regard.


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98trades, and was not necessarily uniform there. Shipwrights also gained99 100

it in 1872, gas stokers and sawmillers in the early 1880s, andlithographers, confectioners and farriers claimed it by 1890. Inthe furniture trade only an unrepresentative few worked less than 9 -10210 hours. Curriers (1881), butchers (1883), coopers, coachmakersand tinsmiths (1884) were involved in disputes over eight hours, but

103their outcome is uncertain. Only the coachmakers and curriers arelikely to have established eight hours throughout their trade.Frequently, country tradesmen also gained the 'boon' later than theircity brothers.

The large number of disputes over the issue indicated that itwas a primary union objective, but also, that employers stronglyresisted it. Bakers in 1884, for example, were unsuccessful inshortening hours, and in 1886 brickmakers were only successfulafter a long strike. Success was often only temporary,

98. These generalizations are based upon a general survey of unionrecords; the RRCS, 1891, especially union submissions to it; RCIRA,1891; Fry's survey, op.cit., pp.238-60, 289-90; Fisher, 'Life andWork in Sydney', pp.157-98; and some other sources referred to inthe following 2-3 pages. For the gaining of eight hours in themetal trades, see Buckley, op.cit., Chapter 4; J. Niland, 'In Searchof Shorter Hours: The 1861 and 1874 Iron Trades Disputes', LabourHistory, no.12, May 1967, pp.3-15; Hargreaves, op.cit., pp.13-14.For the building trades, Fitzpatrick, A Short History of the LaborMovement, pp.80-4; J. Niland, 'The Birth of the Movement for anEight Hour Working Day in NSW', Australian Journal of Politics andHistory, vol.14, 1968, pp.75-87; and J.T. Sutcliffe, A History ofTrade Unionism in Australia, Melbourne, (1921) 1967, pp.40-42.99. Sutcliffe, op.cit., p.42.100. Fry, op.^It., p.242.101. Sydney Lithographic Society, NSW Journeymen Confectioners' Society,NSW Journeymen Farriers' Association, submissions to RRCS, 1891,Literary Appendix, pp.146, 148, 151. However, these were tinyunions of 60-90 members.102. RCIRA, 1891, no.10, pp.1111-8.103. Fry, op.cit., pp.242, 244, implies that they were successful, butthe fol- owia? sources imply that butchers and coopers were not:Hargreaves, op.cit., p.26; Norton, op.cit., p.45; Tinsmiths' Minutes,31 August and 8 November 1883; Stonemasons' Central CommitteeMinutes, 15 November 1883. See below for tinsmiths.

104. Coghlan, Labour and Industry in Australia, vol.3, pp.1429, 1432.105. Norton, op.cit., pp.70, 113. Like butchers, bakers commonly worked

a 70-90 hour week.


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and recessions provided employers with an opportunity to increasehours. For example, mill-owners repudiated a recent eight hour agreement

10ftin 1890, and saddlers, who had claimed an eight hour day in 1882,were working 50 to 54 hours per week by 1891. After a long strikein 1890, the Bakers' finally imposed an eight hour day in some shops,

1 nobut by 1893 they were struggling to maintain it.

The achievement of eight hours was often at the expense of reduced

wages, loss of meal breaks, or an intensification of work, although wages109could be increased by overtime payments. In piecework, shorter hoursalways implied reduced earnings. For tinsmiths, coopers, saddlers andprinters, the co-existence of piece and time payment militated against

110the consolidation of eight hours throughout the trade. In the largenewspaper offices, where piecework predominated, the most skilled

printers usually only worked eight hours, and it became the union standard.But in the small jobbing offices, less skilled labour worked long hoursto earn a living from low rates. Some had gained an eight hour day inthese offices, for time-payment was more common there, but many workedtwelve hours with few breaks.

Unions, therefore, were often unrealistic when they claimed an

106. Fry, op.cit., p.243.107. SMH, 5 October 1882; Saddlers' submission to RRCS, 1891, LiteraryAppendix, p.151.108. Bakers' Minutes, 4, 2, 18 and 24 February, 1, 4 and 11 March,15 May, 28 August, 13 and 27 September 1890; 9 January, 8 October,and 26 Fc-retiiber 1892; 24 and 29 April 1893.109. For example. Bakers' Minutes, 4 March 1890, 3 May and 8 October1892; Buckley, op.cit., pp.48-9; Fry, op.cit., pp.259-60, 287.110. Tinsmiths' Minutes, 8 June 1883, 25 January, and 21 November 1884,15 January and 4 June 1886; Coopers' Minutes, 1887-91 passim;Saddlers' submission to RRCS, 1891, Literary Appendix, p.151. Evenin the iron trades, a nine hour day went with piecework atHudson'^, Hargreaves, op.cit., pp.20, 27-8.111. Hagan and Fisher, 'Piecework and Some of Its Consequences', op.cit.,pp.26, 33; Hagan, Printers and Politics, pp.39-40, 44.


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eight hour day standard. Only some of their members might have achieved112it, or, as in the case of the printers, union membership only

113represented an elite minority of trade employees. The annual EightHour Day became a symbol of union virility, evoking recognition fromfellow workers. Consequently, participation in the annual EightHours Demonstration was a poor guide to its incidence. Some unionsparticipated before gaining the 'boon', as a statement of intention,

-, 115and commitment to a major labour principle.Apart from butchers and bakers, hours were longest among unskilled

factory and outworkers, although variations were considerable. Factoryworkers were better off than outworkers; some even had a forty-eighthour week. For example, factory bootmakers had the shortest, mostregular hours in 1891, but piecework tended to make an eight-hour daypurely nominal even there. Fifty-five or sixty hour weeks were morecommon, especially in tobacco factories, clothing, and laundries.Estimates provided by employers for government inspectors were not

112. The Tinsmiths', for example, claimed this standard in theirsubmission to the RRCS, 1891, Literary Appendix, p.139. The Bakers'and Coopers' also claimed the eight hours 'standard'. TheConfectioners' claim was also dubious, for their campaign for the'boon' had only begun in early 1890, and despite support from theMaster Confectioners, at least one major firm resisted uniondemands. Confectioners' Minutes, 8 January, 20 April, 11 and25 June, 1890, 18 March 1891.113. Hagan, Printers and Politics, pp.60-1, 75. The NSW TypographicalAssociation Rules and Scale of Charges, 1885, claimed the eighthours standard. Note that during the Bakers' drive for eight hoursthere wap :: high proportion of non-unionists in the trade.114. Note SMH description of procession, 2 October 1883. See Norton,op.cit., p.47 for a brief history of the Eight Hour Day, and anexample of the mystique surrounding it. All unions expendedconsiderable money and effort on their elaborate banners for EightHour Day processions, and at the head of the Stonemasons' AmendedRules, 1891, in Rules and Contribution Book, was emblazoned'inaugurated the Eight Hours System of Labour in NSW, October, 1855'The GoveriimenL proclaimed Eight Hour Day a public holiday in 1885.115. Cf. Fry, op.cit., p.242, who implies that participation in theprocession was an indication of achievement.


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always reliable, and the practice of 'finishing' work at home oftendisguised the length of hours. Overtime could be expected by employers,

and needed by employees to make up 'average' wages. Higher overtimerates were almost unknown in factories. In some laundries 15 to 20hours overtim