Councillor Weakling opposed the motion.He thought that 35/- a week was little enough for a man to keep a wife and family with (Rot), even if all the men got it regularly, which they did not.Members should consider what was the average amount per week throughout the whole year, not merely the busy time, and if they did that they would find that even the skilled men did not average more than 25/- a week, and in many cases not so much.If this subject had not been introduced by Councillor Rushton, he (Dr Weakling) had intended to propose that the wages of the Corporation workmen should be increased to the standard recognized by the Trades Unions.(Loud laughter.) It had been proved that the notoriously short lives of the working people - whose average span of life was about twenty years less than that of the well-to-do classes - their increasingly inferior physique, and the high rate of mortality amongst their children was caused by the wretched remuneration they received for hard and tiring work, the excessive number of hours they have to work, when employed, the bad quality of their food, the badly constructed and insanitary homes their poverty compels them to occupy, and the anxiety, worry, and depression of mind they have to suffer when out of employment.(Cries of `Rot', `Bosh', and loud laughter.) Councillor Didlum said, `Rot'.It was a very good word to describe the disease that was sapping the foundations of society and destroying the health and happiness and the very lives of so many of their fellow countrymen and women.(Renewed merriment and shouts of `Go and buy a red tie.') He appealed to the members to reject the resolution.He was very glad to say that he believed it was true that the workmen in the employ of the Corporation were a little better off than those in the employ of private contractors, and if it were so, it was as it should be.They had need to be better off than the poverty-stricken, half-starved poor wretches who worked for private firms.
Councillor Didlum said that it was very evident that Dr Weakling had obtained his seat on that Council by false pretences.If he had told the ratepayers that he was a Socialist, they would never have elected him.(Hear, hear.) Practically every Christian minister in the country would agree with him (Didlum) when he said that the poverty of the working classes was caused not by the `wretched remuneration they receive as wages', but by Drink.(Loud applause.) And he was very sure that the testimony of the clergy of all denominations was more to be relied upon than the opinion of a man like Dr Weakling.(Hear, hear.)Dr Weakling said that if some of the clergymen referred to or some of the members of the council had to exist and toil amid the same sordid surroundings, overcrowding and ignorance as some of the working classes, they would probably seek to secure some share of pleasure and forgetfulness in drink themselves! (Great uproar and shouts of `Order', `Withdraw', `Apologize'.)Councillor Grinder said that even if it was true that the haverage lives of the working classes was twenty years shorter than those of the better classes, he could not see what it had got to do with Dr Weakling.(Hear, hear.) So long as the working class was contented to die twenty years before their time, he failed to see what it had got to do with other people.They was not runnin' short of workers, was they? There was still plenty of 'em left.(Laughter.) So long as the workin' class was satisfied to die orf - let 'em die orf! It was a free country.(Applause.) The workin' class adn't arst Dr Weakling to stick up for them, had they? If they wasn't satisfied, they would stick up for theirselves! The working men didn't want the likes of Dr Weakling to stick up for them, and they would let 'im know it when the next election came round.If he (Grinder) was a wordly man, he would not mind betting that the workin' men of Dr Weakling's ward would give him `the dirty kick out' next November.(Applause.)Councillor Weakling, who knew that this was probably true, made no further protest.Rushton's proposition was carried, and then the Clerk announced that the next item was the resolution Mr Didlum had given notice of at the last meeting, and the Mayor accordingly called upon that gentleman.
Councillor Didlum, who was received with loud cheers, said that unfortunately a certain member of that Council seemed to think he had a right to oppose nearly everything that was brought forward.
(The majority of the members of the Band glared malignantly at Weakling.)He hoped that for once the individual he referred to would have the decency to restrain himself, because the resolution he (Didlum) was about to have the honour of proposing was one that he believed no right-minded man - no matter what his politics or religious opinions -could possibly object to; and he trusted that for the credit of the Council it would be entered on the records as an unopposed motion.
The resolution was as follows:
`That from this date all the meetings of this Council shall be opened with prayer and closed with the singing of the Doxology.' (Loud applause.)Councillor Rushton seconded the resolution, which was also supported by Mr Grinder, who said that at a time like the present, when there was sich a lot of infiddles about who said that we all came from monkeys, the Council would be showing a good example to the working classes by adopting the resolution.
Councillor Weakling said nothing, so the new rule was carried nem.
con., and as there was no more business to be done it was put into operation for the first time there and then.Mr Sweater conducting the singing with a roll of paper - the plan of the drain of `The Cave' -and each member singing a different tune.
Weakling withdrew during the singing, and afterwards, before the Band dispersed, it was agreed that a certain number of them were to meet the Chief at the Cave, on the following evening to arrange the details of the proposed raid on the finances of the town in connection with the sale of the Electric Light Works.