as a lecturer was not a success. His indifferent platform ability, coupled with an insufferable egotism, did not add to his appeal to the public. I well remember Semple, who was instructed to accompany Peter on his tour, raising very strenuous objections to being asked to act as guide to similar personages in the future. Peter’s tour fell flat, and it was whilst in New Zealand that he received word that he was deposed as President of the Newcastle Miners.
Bowling never appeared to regain his punch after this defeat, and although he was for a time afterwards general secretary, Illawarra Miners’ Federation, N.S.W., he was later defeated for that position, and gradually drifted into obscurity, only to emerge during the war period, definitely in the enemy’s camp.
In the work of education each Union played its part. Affiliations were encouraged to purchase propaganda literature for distribution among members, in addition to which the Federation itself undertook a similar task.
The culminating point in this work of enlightenment was reached when our small Federation, few in numbers though it may have been, lacking in experience in the task confronting it, but with great enthusiasm and almost unanimously, decided to embark upon the publication of a weekly labour paper.
THE FEDERATION AND ITS OFFICIALS
The 1909 Conference decided that, since the Trades Councils had done nothing to bring about closer unity, that the name of the Federation be changed from the Federation of Miners to a Federation of Labour; and it is under the latter title that it made history in New Zealand. In conformity
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