Mr. John Christian Watson, the premier, is but thirty-seven years of age. He was born in Valparaiso, where his parents were on a visit, but was only a few months old when they returned to New Zealand. At an early age he began his apprenticeship as a compositor, joining the Typographical Union. When nineteen, he came to Sydney and joined the composing staff of the _Star_. Then he became president of the Sydney Trades and Labor Council, and president of the Political Labor League of New South Wales. In 1894, he was returned to a New South Wales Parliament, and took the leading place among the Labor members. In 1901, he was returned to the first federal Parliament. He was selected to lead the Labor party in the federal House, and has won golden opinions in that position. He is a born leader of men, and has rare tact. He overcame the apprehension caused by his youth. He curbed the extremists of his party. Power came to him at once. He seized the advantage of leading a third party between two opponents. It was he, rather than Sir Edmund Barton or Mr. Deakin, who decided what should pass and what not. The situation developed in this period is described by an American writer, whose sympathies are ardently with the Labor Party, as follows: "Protectionists and Free Traders (so called) were so divided in the Australian Parliament that neither could gain a majority without the Labor Party. A succession of governments bowled over by labor votes drove this hard fact into the political intelligence. The Labor Party was then invited to take the government. For five months men that had been carpenters, bricklayers, and painters administered the nation’s affairs. No convulsion of nature followed, no upheavals and no disasters. It is even admitted that the government of these men was conspicuously wise, able, and successful. But having a minority party, their way was necessarily precarious, and on the chance blow of an adverse vote they resigned. Some scene shifting followed, but in the end the present arrangement was reached, by which the government is in the hands of the Protectionists that follow Mr. Deakin, and the ministry is supported by the Labor Party on condition that the Government adopt certain legislation. And that is the extent of the ‘absolute rule of the Labor gang.’ The Deakin Government does not greatly care for the Labor Party, nor for the Labor Party’s ideas, but it rules by reason of the Labor Party’s support, and in return therefor has passed certain moderate and well-intentioned measures of reform. {32} Indeed the sum-total of the ‘revolutionary, radical, and socialistic laws’ passed by the Labor Party, directly or by bargaining with the Deakin or other ministries, indicates an exceedingly gentle order of revolution. It has done much in