Mr Jabez WRIGHT (1852 - 1922)

Member for Willyama	06 Dec 1913	21 Feb 1917	3 years 2 months 16 days
Member for Willyama	24 Mar 1917	18 Feb 1920	2 years 10 months 26 days
Member for Sturt	30 Aug 1921	17 Feb 1922	5 months 19 days
Member for Sturt	25 Mar 1922	10 Sep 1922	5 months 17 days

Date of Birth: 25/04/1852

Place of Birth: Greenwich, England

Date of Death: 10/09/1922

Place of Death: Bondi, New South Wales, Australia

Australian Labor Party (ALP), president of the Barrier Labor Federation.

Qualifications, occupations and interests

Carpenter and undertaker. 

Worked in North and South America before arriving in Australia; 

lived at Peterburg in South Australia; moved to Broken Hill c.1888, 

Worked as a carpenter then as an undertaker trading as O'Connor and Company; 

Member of Australian Workers' Union; active in Amalgamated Miners' Association, 

Life member; assisted to found the 'Daily Truth'.

Grenfell Tower Disaster –London Fire Brigade Should Not Take The Blame

The London Fire Brigade should not take the blame for the “impossible” circumstances that hindered the Grenfell Tower rescue operation, the firefighters’ union said today.

Relatives of fire victims called for prosecutions after the inquiry’s first stage report blamed the LFB’s “gravely inadequate” preparation for battling the blaze.

Inquiry judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick wrote that the lack of a plan to evacuate residents was a “major omission” and more lives could have been saved had the “stay-put” policy been rescinded sooner.

Relatives of some of the 72 people who died in the June 2017 fire called on Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton, who is retiring next year, to resign.

Nazanin Aghlani, whose disabled mother and aunt died on the 18th floor, said in a press conference: “The whole LFB ... is in the hands of people that are incapable of their jobs. They should be discharged of it … They should be prosecuted.

“I’m not saying individual firemen, they do a hard job... but the seniors at the top get good money to do a very serious job.”

Grenfell United said fire chiefs failed to learn lessons from previous fires – such as the 2009 Lakanal House blaze – and called on them to “stop hiding behind the bravery of front-line firefighters.”

Ms Cotton resisted calls to resign and said it was up to the police to “look into” accusations that she was “criminally negligent.”

She added that she regrets offending survivors and the bereaved over her comments during the inquiry that she would change nothing about her team’s response on the night.

Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack said there was “no way of knowing if evacuation could have saved more lives” and said that trying to get 150 people out of the 24-floor building with limited resources could have led to more deaths.

He said: “We strongly refute the report’s assertion that it would have been possible or safe to evacuate more than 150 people via a narrow, smoke-logged stairwell with just 30 firefighters.

“Firefighters stand in solidarity with the bereaved, survivors and residents … They have an absolute right to ask difficult questions.

“Firefighters that night acted bravely in impossible circumstances, many of them repeatedly risking their own lives to save others. 

“Firefighters and control room staff are, as with any profession, only able to operate within their training and procedures. It is clear that no-one had planned or prepared for an incident like Grenfell.”

In the Commons, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who wore a green tie as a mark of respect, said: “I know nobody is trying to do this today, let’s not blame firefighters for their work – they did everything they could and more and well beyond that.”

He stressed the “whole truth is not yet with us” with phase two of the report – to focus on the refurbishment of the tower and installation of the aluminium combustible cladding – still to come.

Mr Corbyn added that the order of the inquiry has been “entirely wrong” and that the first phase should have focused on the refurbishment rather than scrutinising firefighters.

Meanwhile, Tory MPs had jeered Mr Corbyn over his green tie, which he wore as a sign of respect to those who died in the fire.

Theresa May, who was prime minister when the fire happened, could be seen admonishing the MPs by stressing the tie was to mark the tragedy.

Old Bush Songs–Edited by A.B.Paterson 1905

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939)  Sat 17 Feb 1906  Page 20.

"The Old Songs, Composed and Sung in the Bushranging, Digging, and Overlanding Days," edited by A.B. Paterson (Angus and Robertson, Sydney).—

   Mr. "Banjo" Paterson expresses the object of this volume as "to gather together all the old bush. songs that are worth remembering," and in his preface adds, "Apart from other considerations, there are many Australians-who will be reminded by these songs of the life .of the shearing sheds, the roar of the diggings, townships, and the camp fires of the overlanders. The diggings are all deep sinking now, the shearing is done by contract, and the cattle are sent by rail to market, while newspapers travel all over Australia ; so there will be no more bush ballads composed and sung, as these were composed and sung, as records of the early days of the nation. In their very roughness, in their absolute lack of any mention of home ties,- or of the domestic affections, they proclaim their genuineness. . "Attempts to ascertain the names of the authors have produced contradictory statements, and no doubt some of the songs were begun by one man and finished or improved by another, or several others." In the volume the older generation of Australia will meet many old friends such as "The Old Bullock Dray." "Paddy Malone in Australia," "The Old Bark Hut," and " The Wild Colonial Boy."

Alison Pouliot–The Allure of Fungi

Alison Pouliot is a natural historian who is passionate about fungi. She moves between northern and southern hemispheres to have two autumns each year, guaranteeing a double dose of fungi. Her extraordinary photographs reflect her research on the ecology and conservation of fungi. In this book she documents a forgotten corner of the natural world that is both beguiling and fundamental to life.

Although relatively little known, fungi provide the link between terrestrial organisms and ecosystems that underpin our functioning planet.

The Allure of Fungi presents fungi through multiple perspectives – those of mycologists and ecologists, foragers and forayers, naturalists and farmers, aesthetes and artists, philosophers and Traditional Owners. 

It explores how a history of entrenched fears and misconceptions about fungi has led to their near absence in Australian ecological consciousness and biodiversity conservation.

Through the combination of engaging text and stunning photography, the author reflects on how aesthetic, sensate experience deepened by scientific knowledge offers the best chance for understanding fungi, the forest and human interactions with them.

Bruce Pascoe–Dark Emu

Recent Review

This book needs to be read by all Australians, especially poleticians. It redefines our first nation and there is so much we can learn from them. This could change the face of farming in Australia - will not happen overnight but farms in marginal areas could turn their profits around. 

Rather than spend $50M on a new memorial to Capt Cook, invest that money into research and education outlined in this book. My view of our first nation has changed dramatically. 

I lived in central Australia in the mid-late 70's, and have returned several times - I now need to visit that area with different eyes & mind set. Thank you Bruce for enlightening me. 

I hope many more Australians will read this book and see our first nation in a different light. 

Collectively we need to put pressure on all areas of government to read this book and do something about saving our environment and learning from "hunters & gatherers" (what a misnomer) and preserving their heritage.

W.G.Burchett– Warmongers Unmasked History of Cold War in Germany (1950)

Warmongers Unmasked No. 5. There were five parts published. This is the fifth & final part. 

Author, W.G. Burchett (1911-1983) is listed as "International journalist, well known Australian foreign correspondent & author". 

Front cover blurb: "One World, or None". Thin staplebound booklet. Printed in Australia.

Journalism award-winning journalist Mimi Mefo Refused visa

Mimi Mefo, who works as a freelance journalist in Berlin, is a prominent campaigner for press freedom. She is due to speak at a conference in Brisbane but has been refused a visa. Her anticipated stay in Australia is only for a few days as she is due to speak in South Africa next week. This is the letter MEAA has sent the Immigration Minister:

The Hon. David Coleman MP

Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs

1 Parliament Drive,

Parliament House

CANBERRA ACT 2601

URGENT INTERVENTION – VISA REJECTED FOR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION CAMPAIGNER MIMI MEFO

Dear Minister,

                                The journalists’ union – the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance – urgently asks you to intervene on behalf of  leading Cameroonian journalist and freedom of expression campaigner Mimi Mefo. She is due to give a keynote speech at the Integrity 20 conference in Brisbane on Friday this week. However, MEAA understands that her visa was refused because immigration authorities said they “were not satisfied that the applicant’s employment and financial situation provide an incentive to return.”

The conference, hosted by Griffith University, is an internationally renowned event bringing together the world’s leading thinkers and activists to discuss global issues. Mefo is due to speak on media freedom and the challenges she faces as a journalist in Cameroon.

Mefo is the winner of this year’s Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award. She works as a freelance journalist in Germany and recently flew to London to speak as the guest of the UK government at a major global conference on media freedom.

After speaking at Griffith University, Mefo is due to fly from Australia to give the prestigious Carlos Cardoso memorial lecture in South Africa on October 28, where Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz will give the keynote.

You may be aware that Index on Censorship has issued a statement urging Australian immigration authorities to reverse their decision, saying: “Australia prides itself on its democratic values, including freedom of expression. This means it needs to support and champion those being denied the right to speak in their own countries. Denying visas to journalists who have faced oppression and censorship in their own countries simply emboldens the oppressor.”

MEAA endorses those remarks.

We respectfully urge you to intervene to reverse this decision, and to ensure that Mefo can be allowed to speak in Australia on the crucial issue of freedom of expression that faces enormous challenges in Cameroon.

Sincerely,

Paul Murphy, chief executive

NYT–Boeing Pushed for Reduced Government Oversight !!!

Boeing lobbied for and helped shape new legislation last year that essentially undercut the government’s role in approving the design of new airplanes, a Times investigation reveals.

When the bill was being written, the Federal Aviation Administration and a labor group representing agency inspectors raised concerns that the new rules could compromise safety.

Weeks after the law was passed, a Boeing 737 Max jet crashed off the coast of Indonesia, killing everyone onboard. A second Max crashed in Ethiopia less than five months later, and the 737 Max was grounded.

Now, as Boeing tries to emerge from the crisis, lawmakers are scrutinizing flaws in the new rules.

How we know: The Times interviewed more than 50 regulators, industry executives, congressional staff members and lobbyists, and examined drafts of the bill and federal documents.

What’s next? Boeing’s chief executive, Dennis Muilenburg, will testify before Congress this week for the first time since the two crashes.

John W. W. Wrigley– Australian Native Plants

People may have many reasons for growing native plants. They may like to have a garden that is easy to maintain and that attracts birds, they may have an interest in conservation, or they may simply be seeking a challenge to their horticultural skills. 

Whatever the reasons, they will obtain enjoyment, relaxation and satisfaction from Australian Native Plants- Sixth Edition. 

With the industry knowledge provided by both the former Curator and the Visual Resources Manager of the Australian National Botanic Garden, the book provides a wealth of information on literally thousands of native plants, their properties, cultivation and propagation. 

The introductory chapters provide sound practical advice on the collection and propagation of plant material, dealing with pests and diseases, selection of plants, fertilising your plants, plant management and landscaping. This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date book on the market and is indispensable for anyone interested in growing native plants anywhere in Australia, whether they are home gardeners, landscapers or professional horticulturists.

The Hare Krishna Book of Vegetarian Cooking

Biriyani Baked vegetable rice 

2 cups (350 g) basmati or other good-quality long-grained rice 4 cups (950 ml) water 3 tsp salt 1/4 tsp powdered saffron 3 tbs ghee or vegetable oil 2 tsp garam masala 2 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp turmeric 3 potatoes, peeled and diced.

11/i cups (200 g) fresh peas, boiled 4 tomatoes, blanched and mashed 3 tbs minced fresh coriander or parsley leaves 3/4 cup (175 ml) yogurt 2 tsp rose-water 1/4 Cup (35 g) chopped hazel-nuts or walnuts
Wash the rice and let it drain. Put the water and 2 teaspoons of the salt in a medium-sized saucepan and bring to a boil. Then add the rice to the water and bring it to a second boil.

Cover it and cook it over low heat for about 15 minutes. While the rice cooks, steep the saffron in a small amount of warm milk. Then heat the ghee or vegetable oil in another saucepan and stir-fry the powdered spices.

After a few seconds, add the diced potatoes and stir-fry them gently for 5 minutes or until they are lightly browned. Now put in the peas, the tomatoes, half of the fresh coriander leaves, and the remaining salt. Cook with the pan covered until the vegetables are tender. Stir every few minutes. If necessary, - add a little water to prevent scorching.

By now the rice should be cooked. Add the yogurt, rose-water, and saffron milk to the rice, mix gently with a fork, and let stand eill undisturbed for 5 minutes. Grease a cakepan or casserole and cover the bottom with half the rice.

Pat the rice down. Spread th vegetables evenly over the rice and cover them with the remaining rice. Pat it down and cover the pan tightly with a piece of aluminum foil. Heat the oven to 275° F (1402 C) and bake the rice for 15 to 20 minutes. To serve, cut into portions and remove from the pan with a spatula. Garnish each portion with chopped nuts and coriander leaves. Serve hot.

Preparation and cooking time: 45 min 

Ron Edwards–Basic Rammed Earth

Ron Edwards– Aboriginal Rock Art

Ancient China–Early Autumn

Early Chinese gunpowder recipe

Blacking–Grainger 'A Commonsence View of all Music'

Percy Grainger's contributions to the study of world music and to music education have not received the same attention as those of his contemporaries Bartok and Kodaly. 

Taking Grainger's views as his starting point and heading each chapter with a quotation from Grainger's writings, John Blacking restates and reflects upon observations and attitudes which may be considered relevant to contemporary problems of ethnomusicology and music education. 

Professor Blacking discusses these issues in the light of his own research, musical experience and convictions. He endorses Grainger's view that 'folk' music is complex (not 'simple), and that individual expression is also important in unwritten music. 

He considers three features that Grainger found particularly characteristic of unwritten music: 'irregular' rhythmic patterns, 'lovely' melodies and 'democratic' polyphony; in emphasizing their cognitive, affective and social sources he explores further Grainger's notion that art can generate as well as reflect life. 

The final chapters of the book are concerned with the application of the discoveries of ethnomusicology in music education. 

A synopsis of twelve lectures given by Grainger in 1934 is reprinted as an appendix together with a list of the records that he used to illustrate them. 

Chinese Painting Techniques

Matt Parker–Humble Pi A comedy of Maths Errors

This is a highly entertaining and engaging read. It's accessible to non-mathematicians but still delves quite deeply into the mathematics behind many everyday activities - be it walking across a bridge, flying in an airliner or watching a game show. The author has a wry sense of humour very much in the vein of English medical doctor and author Ben Goldacre (who is actually referenced in the section about the way pharmaceutical companies game the system with research results). I can't recommend this book enough.

Ric Throssell–Katharine Prichard–Wild Weeds And Wind Flowers

Katharine Susannah Prichard was a writer of novels internationally acclaimed for their realism and power, a foundation member of the Australian Communist Party, a feminist. Her son, Ric Throssell, has drawn on the memories of a lifetime and a deep and intimate knowledge of his subject in this full and moving account of his mother's life.

In this moving biography, Ric Throssell, who was himself an accomplished writer, brings to life the story of his mother Katharine Susannah Prichard, drawing on his close personal relationship and his memories of her lifetime.

Katharine Susannah Prichard (1883-1969) was one of Australia's most distinguished writers of the first half of the twentieth century, as well as one of its most politically engaged. A foundation member of the Western Australian branch of the Communist Party, she was also a fervent feminist, and her writing was informed by a broad-reaching socialism.

Prichard published many major novels, including Working Bullocks (1926), lauded on publication as the first properly Australian modern novel, and Coonardoo (1929), which attracted some hostile criticism for its portrait of a loving sexual relationship between a young Aboriginal woman and a white man.

As a public figure Prichard won acclaim, but she also suffered public abuse. She was an intensely private woman who requested that all her personal papers and letters be destroyed upon her death. This is the authoritative and intimate account of her life.

Ric Throssell, the son of Gallipoli Victoria Cross winner Hugo Throssell and the acclaimed writer and pioneer Communist, Katharine Susannah Prichard, was himself a writer and playwright. Born at Greenmount, Western Australia, in 1922, his father's suicide in the face of mounting debts blighted his early life. It also came to be dominated by his mother's commitment to the causes of socialism and feminism.

For forty years Ric Throssell fought a battle to climb through the ranks of the Department of Foreign Affairs at home and abroad, unaware that he was under surveillance by the Australian security services.

A committed anti-nuclear campaigner since World War II, he presented his father's Victoria Cross to People for Nuclear Disarmament in 1984.

India–Photograph of the ancient Petroglyphs

Ancient Chinese Star Chart

Found on a mural in a Neolithic tomb in Xishuipo (西水坡), Puyang, Henan. Clam shells arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper in the North and below the foot, Tiger in the West and Azure Dragon in the East. Also showing Five Stars.

Protesters to hold Berlin demo over final Brexit referendum

Volt Europa has teamed up with Pulse of Europe and British in Germany to stage the protest. 

It’s being held to coincide with the Let us Be Heard People's Vote march taking place in London on the same day, which is calling for a second referendum to let voters have a final say on any agreed deal, and whether or not to leave the EU.

The demo, which will include speeches and solidarity singing, will take place on the corner of Unter den Linden and Wilhelmstraße, where the British Embassy is located, in central Berlin from 10am until 12noon. 

Rachel Riesner-Marriott, a volunteer with British in Germany who has lived in Berlin for nearly eight years, told The Local the gathering was happening in solidarity with those marching in London. 

“And to ask both the EU and the British Government to ringfence our rights, particularly if this deal is not passed,” added Riesner-Marriott. “It’s been three years of sitting in limbo waiting to find out what’s going to happen. 

“We will be making our voice heard and hoping London listens. That’s why we are taking to the streets tomorrow.”

W. H. Paling–Ring The Bell Watchman– Tune For Click Go The Shears

Ring the Bell, Watchman” was mentioned as early as 1869 American Civil War Song by H.C.Work

Fintan O' Toole–Heroic Failure Brexit and the Politics of Pain

A fierce, funny and smart book about the delusions of Brexit, the threat it poses to economic prosperity, peace in Ireland and the tradition of British democracy.

England's favourite poem, Rudyard Kipling's 'If', says that triumph and disaster are the same thing. It also enjoins the English to "lose, and start again at your beginnings / And never breathe a word about your loss." 

Most modern English heroics are screw-ups, retreats or disasters: the charge of the Light Brigade, the doomed Franklin expedition to find the Northwest Passage, "Scott of the Antarctic", Gordon of Khartoum, the flight from Dunkirk. 

The parallels with Brexit are obvious, but the problem is that the cult of heroic failure was developed precisely in an empire that could afford to play up its failures because it was so successful. Its pathos becomes bathos in a post-imperial world. Failure is no longer heroic - it is just failure.

Brexit is essentially an ultra-Thatcherite project of deregulation. In its own bizarre way, it is a kind of English revolutionary storming of the Bastille or the Winter Palace. 

On the Right, this idea of the single historic moment from which there is no going back has great appeal. The "illiberal democracy" pioneered by Vladimir Putin has refined the idea. 

Once the strong man (Putin, Viktor Orbán, Recep Tayyip Erdogan) has taken power, he embodies the will of the people and is therefore entitled to control the media and the judiciary and crush dissent. But history does not work like this. And democracy doesn't function if we believe that a Year Zero can change the world for ever.

Fintan O'Toole's ruthless dissection of the psychology and politics of Brexit is a stirring call to preserve democratic values and rational thought.

About the Author

Fintan O'Toole is one of Ireland's leading journalists, drama critics, biographers, polemicists and historians. He is the author of acclaimed biographies of Richard Sheridan and Sir William Johnson and the bestselling Ship of Fools.

Maxim Gorky–My Childhood

Like the volumes of autobiography that were to follow, My Childhood examines the author’s experiences by means of individual portraits and descriptions of events. 

It presents vignettes of the people and situations he encountered early in life. He reveals that his mother was mostly absent after his father’s death and that his upbringing was in the hands of his brutal grandfather. He also creates a compelling portrait of his unlearned but loving grandmother. Leaving home at age 12, the young Gorky learns self-reliance and begins to educate himself by reading.

The subsequent autobiographical volumes are V lyudyakh (1915–16; In the World; also published as My Apprenticeship) and Moi universitety (1923; My Universities; also published as My University Days). Considered to constitute one of the finest Russian autobiographies, the books reveal Gorky to be an acute observer of detail with great descriptive powers.

Peggy Seeger – Song of Choice

Boris Pasternak–Doctor Zhivago

This epic tale about the effects of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath on a bourgeois family was not published in the Soviet Union until 1987. 

One of the results of its publication in the West was Pasternak's complete rejection by Soviet authorities; when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958 he was compelled to decline it. The book quickly became an international best-seller.

Dr. Yury Zhivago, Pasternak's alter ego, is a poet, philosopher, and physician whose life is disrupted by the war and by his love for Lara, the wife of a revolutionary. His artistic nature makes him vulnerable to the brutality and harshness of the Bolsheviks. The poems he writes constitute some of the most beautiful writing featured in the novel.

Helen Garner–Everywhere I Look

Helen Garner is one of Australia’s greatest writers. Her short non-fiction has enormous range. Spanning fifteen years of work, Everywhere I Look is a book full of unexpected moments, sudden shafts of light, piercing intuition, flashes of anger and incidental humour. 

It takes us from backstage at the ballet to the trial of a woman for the murder of her newborn baby. It moves effortlessly from the significance of moving house to the pleasure of re-reading Pride and Prejudice.

Everywhere I Look includes Garner’s famous and controversial essay on the insults of age, her deeply moving tribute to her mother and extracts from her diaries, which have been part of her working life for as long as she has been a writer. Everywhere I Look glows with insight. It is filled with the wisdom of life.

Helen Garner is an award-winning author of novels, stories, screenplays and works of non-fiction. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature. 

Her novel The Spare Room, published in 2008, won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Queensland Premier’s Award for Fiction and the Barbara Jefferis Award, and has been translated into many languages.

John Le Carre–Agent Running in the Field

Nat, a 47 year-old veteran of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, believes his years as an agent runner are over. He is back in London with his wife, the long-suffering Prue. But with the growing threat from Moscow Centre, the office has one more job for him.

Nat is to take over The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies. The only bright light on the team is young Florence, who has her eye on Russia Department and a Ukrainian oligarch with a finger in the Russia pie.

Agent Running in the Field is a chilling portrait of our time, now heartbreaking, now darkly humorous, told to us with unflagging tension by the greatest chronicler of our age.

Archie Roach Tell Me Why–the story of my life and my music

No one has lived as many lives as Archie Roach - stolen child, seeker, lover, leader, and musical and lyrical genius - but it took him almost a lifetime to find out who he really was.

Roach was only a few years old when he was forcibly removed from his family. Brought up by loving foster parents until his early teens, his world imploded when he received a letter that spoke of a life he had no memory of.

In this intimate, moving and often shocking memoir, Roach’s story is an extraordinary odyssey through love and heartbreak, family and community, survival and renewal - and music. Overcoming enormous odds to find his story and his people, Roach voiced the joy, pain and shining hope he found on his path through song and became the legendary singer-songwriter that he is today - beloved by millions and the beating heart of our country.

A stunning story of resilience and strength - and of one of the greatest love stories ever told. 

V. Pudovkin–Mother–1926

Vsevolod Pudovkin, in full Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin, (born February 28 [February 16, Old Style], 1893, Penza, Russia—died June 30, 1953, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.), Soviet film director and theorist who was best known for visually interpreting the inner motivations and emotions of his characters.

Wounded and imprisoned for three years in World War I, Pudovkin returned to the study of chemistry but was attracted to the theatre. After seeing D.W.Griffiths’s film Intolerance (1916), he applied for admission to the State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow. There he worked with the Russian film theorist and director Lev Kuleshov exploring the psychological possibilities of editing and juxtaposing images into emotional statements.