Industrial relations, 1914-1922

Component identifier:

Series 18

Content Summary:

This small series refers to some of Hughes' conciliatory and legal attempts to settle industrial disputes during his term as Prime Minister and the determination of wage rates. It is arranged in two parts, with papers on a variety of subjects followed by material on the 1920 Royal Commission on the Basic Wage.

The first part contains reports and draft proposals on the industrial conference of February-March 1922; notes of a meeting with a deputation on the labour conditions at the Broken Hill smelting works (August 1917); some letters and notes on amendments to the Conciliation and Arbitration Act (1917 and 1921) and an opinion by Garran on industrial aspects of the War Precautions Act (1920). There are also papers on the seamen's strike, 1919, and the prosecution of Tom Walsh that include intelligence reports and Walsh's speech in court, annotated by George Knowles. The remainder contains the various reports of the Royal Commission on the Basic Wage, letters from the chairman, A. B. Piddington, speech notes, letters to Hughes from the Commonwealth Statistician, George Knibbs, and some newscuttings.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The W. M. Hughes Papers were presented to the National Library of Australia by Dame Mary Hughes in 1953. The collection was received in two consignments. One consisted of papers taken from the Perpetual Trustee Company comprising material from Hughes' Lindfield home and from his office rooms at the Commonwealth Offices, Sydney; the other came directly from Lindfield. Lists of the contents of both consignments are held in the Library's Manuscript Branch. With the agreement of the executors and the Library, much of the collection, was for a time, held at the Australian National University by Fitzhardinge. He was permitted sole access to the collection while writing the biography Hughes commissioned in 1951. Fitzhardinge's own papers documenting the writing of the biography are also held by the Library (MS 5400). The papers transferred to the Library in 1953 are by no means the total collection of Hughes' personal papers, although it is impossible to say what proportion has survived. (see Fitzhardinge, p.936).

Names:

Hughes, W. M. (1862-1952)

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