Appendix 4
Sir Thomas M'Ilwraith's Election Speech
Sir Thomas M’Ilwraith’s campaign speech as delivered
in Bundaberg’s Victoria Hall on Tuesday, 7th August 1883
This speech, that was delivered to launch Sir Thomas’s campaign for the coming election was very lengthy and, consequently, only a listing of the leading points raised in the speech has been given below, not the full text of the speech itself.
The Opening Remarks:
The dissolution of Parliament that had recently taken place;
The depressed state of the colony on his Government’s election in 1875 and the following two years of relief works undertaken to create employment;
The prosperity in the colony following his party’s election that had not been surpassed at any previous time;
That any credit available for the colony to borrow from the English money market was very limited;
That any increase in the colony’s population increased the potential to raise funds on the money markets.
On the Land-grant Railways:
A reference to the Railway Companies Preliminary Bill of 1880;
The potential to develop many thousands of miles of railways in the colony’s interior;
That the Government railroads were run at a loss to the State;
That the Government was not in a financial position to construct railways throughout the unsettled districts of the State’s interior;
The Government’s offer of land bonuses to induce capitalists to construct the railways through the interior, and for these financiers to retain and maintain them when constructed;
His concern at the amount of ignorance prevailing throughout the Queensland colony concerning his government’s Railway Bill;
The lack of confidence of the House in his negotiations related to Transcontinental Railway agreement; and
He felt that he still maintained the support that he had attracted in the past as public confidence was at the same level as in 1878.
The Colony’s Current Financial Position:
That the Government could do no more than to construct those railways that had been already promised;
That the public would demand of Parliament at least eight other railway routes during the next five years;
His was willing to carry on railway construction with borrowed money provided that the money could be borrowed at the current rate of interest;
The Government’s need for additional borrowing powers if it were to raise further funds;
That the offering of land grant rewards to constructors presented an excellent means of acquiring the required railways;
That railway construction would benefit the Mulgrave electorate as it would give Bundaberg access to its hinterlands’ produce;
That the Opposition had reversed its prior acceptance of his government’s policy of land-grant railways construction;
Those opposing his land-grants bill were the owners of large estates who resented their inability to incorporate the land granted to the railway constructors into their own estates;
The Opposition, though previously agreeing with the land-grant principle, voted against the Railway Bill when they perceived that there were enough Government members who were willing to cross the floor for them to defeat the proposed legislation;
He felt he was on firmer ground than ever and therefore had the confidence to introduce legislation on the land-grant principle;
He raised the question as to what alternative was available to replace the land-grant principle; and
He knew it was impossible for the colony, at the rate of increase in population to which the Parliament was presently committed or even if the present population was quadrupled, to borrow enough money for the country’s development.
On the Railway Guarantee Principle:
If it became impossible to borrow public works money then railways could only be constructed on the guarantee principle;
That the guarantee principle had proved to be more of a failure in practice than had any other principle;
That there was no place where the guarantee principle was utilized except in the Argentine Republic and to a small extent in Peru;
That in India the guarantee railway construction had been discarded many years ago, and he was sure that no other colony would adopt this railway construction principle;
If it came about that there could be no more borrowings at 4% per annum the interest rate was most likely to rise to 7% per annum as in South America;
The mismanagement of the Government railways had been largely due to interference by the public and non-official persons; and
That officials had assisted friends to receive staff appointments, and too often the railways had been operated for the benefit of officials, rather than for the benefit of the railway system itself.
Kanaka, Coolie and Other Labour:
There was no need for kanakas to be employed in the interior of the colony as there were plenty of white labourers willing to work there;
That in 1878 a Kanaka Bill was reintroduced by the previous government because they wished to put coloured labour of any description out of the colony, and yet they were never prepared to embody any clause to that effect in their bill;
The sugar industry was making a promising restart, even though it had previously been regarded as a pathway to certain ruin;
The Government of the day should have taken an honest and distinct course - had they intended not to continue with kanaka labour then this should have been included in their legislation to deter settlers from investing capital in a profitless industry;
The previous Government had drafted a clause which would, if implemented, have put an end to kanaka labour within three years, but the debate had been adjourned on the first night to give the Government time to draft an amendment. Since then there had been no amendment and no further action;
When M’Ilwraith’s party was in Opposition, the Government in power received a request to bring in a bill either to regulate or to abolition kanaka labour; the then government chose abolition;
M’Ilwraith’s government had introduced a bill and, despite all the odium cast upon his government, it had framed the present Act which regulated kanaka employment;
The planters knew the party that consistently pretended to bring in a bill to terminate kanaka labour was insincere in its claims;
The planters had continued to develop their plantations, and to render them both profitable and growth promoting - to such an extent that the working men had obtained confidence in the benefits provided to them by these plantations;
That it was not a time to attempt to abolish kanaka labour when all colony constituencies believed in its benefits;
His Government had no connection with the fiasco resulting from the landing of the Ceylonese coolies in Bundaberg;
That the first intimation that his government had of this incident was when the ship reached the coast and, on being advised of its presence, he found it hard to believe that it could have occurred;
His knowledge of Ceylon did not allow him to think that men could have so little judgment as to apply there for working labourers;
A telegram from the Indian Government, asking if the transportation had the Government’s sanction or knowledge and whether provision had been made for the care of the men transported, was the first official intimation the Government had of the coolies’ recruitment;
His reply had been that the coolies’ transportation had not occurred with either the sanction or the knowledge of the Government and if coolies were to arrive in the colony then they must arrive under the same conditions as applied to all other settlers;
That most of the colony’s seaboard, and some distance inland, needed kanaka labour for successful agricultural production;
He considered that the idea of coolie or kanaka labour being in competition with the colony’s white labour force was ridiculous;
The proposition that, if availability of kanaka labour was to be terminated, Bundaberg’s economy may prove to be sustainable but Maryborough and Brisbane would have an economic collapse;
His position was that any fresh labour obtained must not be allowed to interfere with the population balance of the colony;
His thoughts on a Mr. Rutledge (see below) who claimed that the panacea for the country was the introduction of German and Italian migrants in such numbers that they would have to work for 5 shillings a week were that, though the Premier believed in immigration, his government would not introduce colonists merely to depreciate the wages of the colony’s working men;
He advocated immigration not because it would lower wages but because, when labour was plentiful, men with capital utilized it more and this increased the amount of wages the capital paid which in turn helped to develop the resources of the colony; and
His opinion was that the use of kanaka labour by the sugar planters did not interfere with the labour balance of the colony in any adverse way but had helped to increase the colony’s overall employment and wages position.
Past Legislation:
That he took pride when looking back over the legislation passed during his party’s tenure;
His acknowledgment it may have appeared to others that his Government’s approach had been tyrannical and high handed;
That, in those situations where he had received the most criticism for his actions, it was later acknowledged that these actions had been justified;
That he had received abuse for trying to bring the colony into direct communication with the home country;
That the monopoly in the sea traffic arrangements between the home country and Australia had, in the past, acted in favour of the other colonies and to the detriment of Queensland;
That there was general acknowledgment as to the increased prosperity in the coastal towns when the established merchants could deal directly with England;
That the ability to deal directly with England had been achieved by his determined stand in subsidizing a mail company to initiate direct traffic between the home country and the colonies;
That Queensland was the only colony that had a four-penny rate for half ounce letters sent in bulk consignments, giving Queensland postage a considerable advantage over that of Sydney and Melbourne.