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12-man committee (which did not include our Richard) was authorised to prosecute the eight-
hour campaign and bring it to a successful conclusion. The employers were consulted and a
mass public meeting of employers and those they employed in all the building trades (masons,
carpenter, joiners, bricklayers, slaters, and sawyers) was held in the old Queen's Theatre,
Queen Street on 26 March 1856. The Age said: The theatre was completely filled in every part
and presented a most animated appearance.' The meeting was chaired by a contractor, James
Linacre. Great applause greeted James Galloway's motion, carried unanimously, 'that the
principle (of the eight-hour day) take effect from 21 April'.
Other trades met thereafter to form themselves into organised societies or unions, with the aim,
as with the new Carpenters' and Joiners' Progressive Society, formed on 1 April, 'to establish
unity of feeling and action in the great movements which will tend to advance their intellectual
and moral improvement'.
The employers, although reluctant to concede shorter hours for their construction workers were
not actively opposed to an eight-hour day, although more workers would have to be employed
to achieve the same amount of work.
Manning Clark's A History of Australia tells what happened next.
'On 11 April seven hundred members of the mechanical trades crowded into the Queen's
Theatre in Melbourne to discuss the expediency and practicability of abridging the hours of
labour to eight hours a day. Dr Thomas
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Embling, one of those doctors who wanted human beings to be kinder to one another, and a
man of a Christ-like compassion for the ones who could not manage the world, moved "That
this meeting is of the opinion that the enervating effects of this climate, the advanced state of
civilization, the progress of the arts and sciences, and the demand for intellectual gratification
and improvement, call for an abridgement of the hours of labour". He told them that more leisure
would give them the opportunity to become healthy, wealthy and wise. He was the creator of
the slogan "Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest". He reminded them of the
hope that those who were now employees would one day be employers. He told them to
improve themselves so that they might be worthy of being electors and of being elected.
'All the speakers were obsessed with the morals of the workers. In moving the abridgement of
the hours of labour to eight hours per day, Mr Burt urged them not to lower themselves by
dissipation. He hoped and believed that the workers who got drunk in England would be steady
and sober here, and save, so that they might have time and the material means to cultivate their
intellects and improve their morals. Then there would be no danger of workers abusing their
extra leisure hours; nor would there be antagonism between master and man, but rather
collaboration... Now it was known that this was no trade union combination to raise the rate of
wages; the workers would find that they could have all the wise and good men to help them.
Not all the employers were prepared to collaborate in these displays of good will and go hand
in hand with the tradesmen. When the contractor for the building of Parliament House in
Melbourne refused to abridge the hours of labour to eight per day on 21 April 1856, the
stonemasons on the university building downed tools and marched to Parliament House. There,
having been joined by other tradesmen, they resolved not to work for employers who did not
accept the eight-hour day.'
James Stephens later said of that day; 'A majority of the members being at work at the building
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