THE BURKE ELECTION

POLLING TO-DAY.

. . . The candidates are Mr. Thomas Glassey and Mr. W. C. Little, and victory may be predicted for Mr. Glassey.

The following manifesto has been issued to electors of Burke, and will be read with much interest in view of to-day's contest :—

 ELECTORS OF BURKE

 VOTE for

 THOMAS GLASSEY.

UP, MEN OF BURKE !

 " With the exception, perhaps, of the negro and the Indian coolie, who have not yet made good their footing on the continent." Not yet ! All other varieties of the servile slaves of Capital we have with us. So at least Miss Shaw told a delighted audience of Australian absentees assembled in London. Black-hatted industrious Chinese, Javanese, and Japanese, Malays, and Singalese, and the humming bird Kanaka in great abundance, "But," she adds with a sigh, "the negro and the Indian coolie" have not yet "made good their footing." Nor ever shall, Miss Shaw, if the workers of Australia are true to themselves. When this talented lady was permitted to lift the veil, and reveal the full intentions of the black-labor party, she was just fresh from a visit to Queensland, where she had been schooled to believe that the country lay absolutely dead at the feet of M'llwraith and his creatures. In the extravagances of their pride they had themselves circulated the report that there was no opposition to their rule. The few who remained faithful to White Queensland were not, in their eyes, worth taking account of. The time had come to throw off all disguise, and to boldly declare the future of Australia as ordained by M'Ilwraith & Co.
 And this is the proclaimed black-labor creed, which unless a man believes faithfully he can not be a true M'Ilwraithian. There are two Australias, not one Australia. These two Australias at not like one another, but quite different. One Australia is temperate; the other tropical. The life, the commerce, the labor, the politics, and everything else are different. Democratic institutions are to be allowed to remain to one half— that is, until the enemies of democratic institutions all the world over see a chance of successfully attacking them ; in the other half, the business of the politician will be "to find means by which the affairs of a large servile population may be justly administered by a relatively small, and consequently aristocratic body of white men." And these two Australias will not fight one another like the Northern and Southern States of America, but they will profoundly modify one another as they grow to maturity side by side." Which mean that the aristocratic Australia, backed by British guns, would be incessantly plotting against the democratic institution of White Australia. How sweetly it all sounds in the ears of the little clique of absentees who are going to pull the wires in obedience to which the small aristocratic body out here would have to dance. And this precious scheme is proclaimed under the patronage and approval of the Queensland Government.
 Men of Burke! Do ye like the picture? Where will you come in ? Are you going to be the Aristocrats in the new black labor State, or will you be the "mean whites" who in such states do the dirtiest work for the masters for the poorest pay— or will you be an isolated fragment of the White Australia living surrounded by the new Slave Paradise ? Will you dilly-dally with the danger or trust the assurances of a perjured Government until the "negro and the Indian coolie" and, worse still, the conscienceless black-labor owning syndicates have made good their footing?
 Men of Burke! Remember the brave explorer whose name you bear. Who has made Australia what it is? Was the work of exploration and colonisation done by Chinese, Javanese, Japanese, kanakas, or by the absentee whites who now claim all? You know it was the strong arm and the courage and endurance of men like yourselves that built up the Australia which absentees now claim as a black labor preserve to furnish revenues to enable them to lead lazy lolling lives of luxury in London and Paris. Men of Burke, your chance is to speak now. The leader of the slave party on this side of the ocean will be back directly with the latent instructions from headquarters as to the best means of rivetting black labor upon you for ever, shall he succeed ?
 Men of Burke, it is for you now to send your answer. Since the gilded chamber in London rang with applause at the declaration of the black labor party Townsville, in the North, has unmistakeably spoken ; Ipswich in the South, no less emphatically has answered "No"; it remains for you to return an answer and let it run thus : Not a foot of Australia for your black labor colony. If you want to run a black labor colony go to a black labor country, Australia has been made by White men and shall remain for ever White!

Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs General Advertiser (Qld. : 1875 - 1902), Saturday 16 June 1894, page 3