'Are We Medieval?' <em>The Worker</em>, 2 January 1904
Criticism, democracy, economy, guild, industrialisation, labour, legislation, medieval guilds, McKenzie, politics, Professor Thorold Rogers, progress, trade, trade bosses, trade guilds, trade unionism, wages, workers, working conditions.
This article from Brisbane publication <em>The Worker</em> rebukes derisive comments published by a London journalist mocking Australia’s legislation concerning workers as a reversion to medieval trade laws. Responding to McKenzie’s quip that ‘Under the guise of the most advanced democracy you are reverting to regulations which strongly resemble the rigid conditions and strict trade laws of medieval life’, the author of the article cites research arguing that medieval workers were comparatively better off than modern workers, and suggests that the old trade guilds only failed when they started admitting the bosses into their membership. With a swipe at the British economy and working conditions, the author concludes that Australian workers will not be frightened by medievalism if it means better conditions and more pay: ‘We who go back 2000 years for our religion have no need to be ashamed of reverting a few centuries to pick up an economic hint or two. We go backwards sometimes to progress’.
Cintra
TROVE: National Library of Australia, <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71036792" target="_self">http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71036792</a>
<em>The Worker</em>
2 January 1904, p.3
Copyright Expired
Newspaper Article
‘Medieval’ Mental Health Service to be Modernised
Archaic, article, government, health, internet, legislation, mental health, newspaper, online, Angela Pownall, WA, The West Australian, Western Australia
This article by Angela Pownall appeared in the online version of The West Australian newspaper. It reports on State Government legislation aimed at modernising the Western Australian mental health system. The existing system is described as being ‘medieval’ and ‘archaic’, suggesting that the two terms are synonymous.
Pownall, Angela
The West Australian
The West Australian
16 December 2011
The West Australian; Angela Pownall
Online Newspaper Article
English
Post Office Orders
Bank, business, colony, commerce, commercialisation, Executive, Governor John Stephen Hampton, Henry VIII, legislation, mail, mail carts, “medieval conditionâ€, medieval condition, monetary orders, money, Perth, post office, Western Australia.
In the second half of this article, the author draws attention to the positive response with which a plan to establish a system of post office orders in the Western Australian colony had been met. After conceding that there were two or three members of the Executive who opposed the plan on the grounds that it would be dangerous to transport cash on mail-carts, the author goes on to suggest that the real source of the opposition was the W. A. Bank, who did not want to relinquish monopoly on all financial and monetary matters in Western Australia. The author concludes that the proposed system is sorely needed to bring Western Australia into line with the other colonies for the purpose of conducting business, and denounces opposition by negatively linking it to a desire to dwell in the pre-modern past: “is the colony always to be kept in a medieval condition by men whose notions appear to be regulated by those which prevailed in the time of Henry the Eighth?â€
Anon.
National Library of Australia<br />
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"><a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3754203" target="_blank">http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3754203</a></span></p>
The Perth Gazette and West Australian Times
21 October 1864, p. 2.
The Perth Gazette and West Australian Times
Newspaper Article.