2001 ASSLH conference – Company based recreation in Australian industry 1885-1965

Nikola Balnave
PhD Student, University of Sydney

Abstract

Labour and social historians alike have rarely considered the role of company-based recreation in Australian industry. As a result many issues are left unexamined, issues that should lead to a greater understanding of class relations, working class culture and labour management strategies. The purpose of this article is to examine the extent and application of company-based recreation in the Australian context. In doing so it should firstly broaden the limited field of knowledge on welfarism in Australia, and secondly contribute to the growing pool of research on sport in Australian labour history.

More than any other form of welfare activity, recreation received support in all kinds of industries, in both large and small companies. Even a small undertaking could provide an annual picnic or Christmas party for the employees. However, in many large firms company-based recreation extended to a broad range of facilities and clubs, at times including the wider community. Such provision was part of a company’s overall welfare strategy. Popular overseas, particularly in America, during the first three decades of the twentieth century, welfarism was a method of securing and legitimising managerial control over the workplace. Central to this strategy was the belief that if an employer showed concern for the mental, emotional and physical wellbeing of an employee, the employee would reciprocate with concern for the interests of the employer. Beyond this was the additional assumption that welfare provision would develop an improved, “uplifted” worker, one who strived for self-betterment, demonstrated obedience and cooperation, and was fiercely loyal to the firm.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the application and extent of company-based recreation in the context of Australian welfarism. That labour historians have rarely considered the interconnections between sport and the labour movement partly reflects, according to Moore, the remnants of the “Marxist belief that sport deflects the working class from the task of revolution”.1 Given this view, company-based recreation clearly represents a significant tool in the hands of the capitalist class, a method of minimising industrial tension and of securing control. It is thus an important dimension of the overall struggle for control in Australian labour history.

Overview

While there is no doubt that the company picnic was a popular activity by the turn of the century, the more formal and organised recreational activities of companies were also evident in this period. Parke, Davis & Co., for example, provided a variety of social and sporting activities and a recreational hall at its Sydney factory. In doing so, local management emulated the parent American company’s policy of “sympathetic humanitarianism”, demonstrating the importance of foreign manufacturers in importing welfarist practices to Australia.2 The overseas influence is also evident in the NSW Railways which drew on English railway experience to introduce an Institute in the late 1880s. Amongst other things, the Institute was concerned with providing activities such as a dramatic club, flower shows, a musical society, smoke concerts and a cricket club. The range of activities was expanded due to the industrial unrest of World War One and again during the 1920s. Coverage was also extended to include rural areas. Indeed, by the late 1920s the Institute had 63 tennis courts in country areas, many of which were built by Institute members’ volunteer labour.3

By 1931, Mauldon found that of the 76 private establishments with organised welfare schemes, 34 had subsidised clubs and/or institutes and 5 had holiday resorts and schemes. The expansion into the wider community is also evident from Mauldon’s findings—11 had erected parks, recreation grounds and playgrounds, and 3 community centres.4 Surveys conducted during the 1950s and 1960s5 demonstrate the wide range of activities provided by the clubs. Popular social activities included Christmas parties, dance or social evenings, picnics, theatre parties, smoke socials for men and special interest clubs such as camera, debating, music and drama. The sporting and recreational activities organised or sponsored by the clubs also form a substantial list. Cricket was the most popular activity, followed by golf, football, and table tennis. Company size impacted largely on the range and frequency of events.

These surveys found that recreation was an enduring and widespread provision of companies. While many welfare strategies did not become popular until World War Two, a large proportion of recreational clubs had been formed in Australian industry long before 1939. Nevertheless, the popularity of such clubs did increase in the post-war period. The Commonwealth Department of Labour and National Service estimated that between 1948 and 1956, 42 per cent of Australian companies provided social and/or recreational facilities.6 However, social changes, particularly by the mid- 1960s, had begun to limit the applicability of such techniques. The 1959 survey found a trend of falling attendances at dances and smoke socials which were at one time central to club activities. The major influences in this trend were claimed to be a general decline in interest in conventional ballroom dancing and balls, and the disinclination of members to return, sometimes long distances, to a central location after work. The traditional company picnic was also reported to have lost much of its old-time fervour. As noted, the “excitement and gaiety associated with a group travel to picnic sites by special train, ferries or buses is said to be losing appeal in the face of growing preference by families for travel in their own cars and in their own time.”7 Club officers involved in the survey generally concluded that declining support for social functions was related to changing tastes and interests in the community, and to the advent of television.

In contrast to the declining support of social activities, the 1959 survey found an increasing interest in recreational and sporting activities, and a steady increase in the range of such activities requested by their members. Fishing, squash, badminton, car rallies, judo, sailing and skiing were typical of these new activities, but they attracted a small number of participants.8 Despite this positive finding, the1953 survey reported that some executives expressed disappointment that club members did not make full use of the sporting facilities provided for them. While workers patronised fully any facility that could be utilised during lunch-breaks, as with social events, there was a reluctance to participate in activities that required workers to return to the factory area after hours or at weekends. In addition, apart from special functions such as carnivals, annual sports days, and social evenings, sporting activities drew few spectators.9 Over the next decade, the expansion in the public provision of sporting and recreational facilities and the increasing mobility of workers through private car ownership continued to weaken the importance of company-based recreation.

Themes

Providing ‘respectable’ forms of leisure

An important determinant of the type of welfare program a company introduced was the location of the plant. If a company was situated in a rural area, recreation facilities were generally of more value than if it was located in the city where the employees had access to other diversions and often lived too far from the plant to return after work. This said, there were occasions in which the dislocation of the worker from country to city, leaving him without the familiar forms of rural recreation, could also necessitate the provision of recreation. Some employers no doubt felt it was their duty to replace the loss. However, the need went deeper than this, and as with other forms of welfarism, recreation was seen as a way of rescuing the worker from the evils of life. The workers had leisure time, and how they used it was of potential danger to the company. They may sit around and grumble about their troubles, leading to industrial tension. More importantly, there was the possibility of drinking, along with all its usual accompaniments such as brawling, gambling, being a less efficient worker, thieving and general troublemaking, or union organising. Recreation was seen as an acceptable alternative to these evil influences.10

In terms of rural areas, company welfare programs often involved making, or remaking local society. Eklund shows how at Port Pirie, the Broken Hill Associated Smelters’ (BHAS) welfare program involved upgrading the town’s facilities and opportunities for “respectable” recreation. The industrial labour market relied heavily on itinerant male workers and these men filled the many pubs of Port Pirie, leading to a problem of drunkenness. Indeed, in the year from June 1909 there were 660 cases tried at the Port Pirie local Courts and 340 convictions for public drunkenness.11

As a result, BHAS went to considerable lengths to provide employees with alternative forms of leisure and recreation. The Weeroona Holiday camp was opened on Christmas Day 1918. The well-structured camp was large enough to house 600 holidayers, and was built in three weeks by a large gang of men from the smelters works, assisted by many voluntary workers at weekends.12 In addition, a children’s playground was built, the company providing the money and materials, while the workers volunteered their labour. Overtime, a quoit pitch and bowling greens were laid, tennis and croquet lawns were added, and an open-air picture theatre was built, transforming it into a Family Playground. The children’s playground was sited within the Memorial Park, also constructed by BHAS. Both projects were aimed at providing alternatives to the town’s “rough and tumble male social life”.13

The inclusion of the picture theatre served additional purposes. Movies were useful in terms of publicity and propaganda, as well as having an uplifting value, as indicated by the following advice: “The picture theatres which grace (or is it the reverse?) Pt Pirie should be taken over by the Smelters and run jointly by their Welfare and Publicity Departments. Clean, elevating pictures can do an enormous amount of good, and the cinema may be used, as it is here [Great Britain], for educational purposes…”14 In addition, movies were seen as an antidote for grumbling and complaining.15

Other early examples of recreation schemes in isolated areas include the Electrolytic Refining and Smelting Company’s works at Port Kembla which provided financial assistance for the creation of a recreational reserve and town band16, and the Mt Lyell Mining and Railway Company whose welfare scheme included subsidies to three social clubs each with library, a billiard table and buffet, and holiday cottages. The company also financed the merging of the local towns’ brass bands into one large band “to liven up the streets on pay night”.17

Recruitment

In isolated areas, the need to meet the recreational requirements of workers was not only a “duty”, or a way of providing alternatives to the evils of leisure, but also necessary in terms of recruiting and retaining labour. As the manager of Mt Lyell recognised: “Without better sporting facilities, lively entertainment and cheaper cost of living, nomadic miners would remain just long enough to earn their fare back to the mainland”.18 For those companies with a dispersed workforce, providing facilities was at times difficult and costly. For example, Australian banks had branches in numerous rural areas requiring only a small number of workers. The industry was able to overcome this problem by joining together in establishing clubs for all bank employees in the various areas to promote the social and sporting welfare of the banking fraternity.19

As a form of recruitment, recreation was also of value in cities. Brandes argues that in America recruitment programs were very much like those in universities—“if athletic programs could make colleges famous and attract students, they could work similarly for business”.20 As in America, this often manifested itself in Australian industry in terms of professionalism. For example, the Bank of NSW had a choir instructor, and a professional speaking and debating tutor. Moreover, a 1955 publication by the Bank emphasised that in terms of qualifications, recruits were welcomed who were “alert and well spoken, with wide interests, and who, preferably, are reasonably good at some form of sport.”21

Advertisement

It could only benefit the company to have their various teams perform throughout the region, or even nationally and internationally. For example, at Associated Pulp and Paper Mills Ltd., where sporting clubs including football, cricket, tennis, badminton and soccer all “adopted the maroon and gold, which have come to be recognized as the mill colours”.22 As a form of advertisement, recreation was not limited to sporting events. Companies organised a variety of activities that received public attention. For example, the Bank of NSW had a Horticultural Group, a Dramatic Group, and a dance group of “ballet girls”, all of which held and competed in outside concerts and shows.

Composition of the labour force

The composition of the labour force often determined the type of recreation provided by a company. Differences emerge in terms of age, marital status, class, ethnicity and gender. For example, the 1953 study found that one engineering firm with a completely male staff of mostly married men found it possible to run only two successful functions a year: a smoke night and a Christmas tree. Further, Christmas parties were attended mainly by married workers and their families, and dances apart from the annual ball and cabarets were most popular among the younger workers, and were particularly patronised by single members of the social clubs. A company with a largely unskilled workforce found that no function was successful unless a liberal quantity of liquor was provided. In addition, this company emphasised competitive events “that appeal to the manual worker’s pride in his physical strength”.23 The 1959 survey found that soccer was often introduced to encourage migrants to participate,24 and the 1964 survey concluded that young men tended to participate in club sporting activities more than older men, and women tended to have less interest in sports than men.25

The issue of gender is one of importance. Firms that employed large numbers of female workers usually emphasised those types of recreational pursuits which assured the worker that she need not sacrifice her femininity when she entered the predominantly male world of work. The Bryant & May match factory management provided a dancing hall, tennis courts and a bowling green for its predominantly female employees. Similarly, the female workers of the textile firm of Geo ABond & Co were provided with swimming and tennis clubs, physical culture classes held in a gymnasium, and dancing arranged by a social club.26

Such activities reflected society’s view of masculinity and femininity. Cashman argues that before 1850, sport in Australia “was almost entirely associated with male culture and space”.27 While during the second half of the nineteenth century women began to increase their involvement in physical culture, sport remained essentially male-centred, celebrating “masculine” strength, fitness and skill. In contrast, women’s sports emphasised “feminine” codes of conduct, focusing on recreation and relaxation rather than competition and performance.28 According to Adair and Vamplew, the rise of competitive women’s sport trespassed on what was considered “the male sphere”. Men who felt aggrieved or threatened by this change reacted with hostility, ridiculing female athletes as “unladylike” and trivialising their sporting abilities. The media led this assault, “lampooning them as straying mothers and wives, reminding them that their ‘proper’ place was in the home, not on the playing field.”29 Parts of the medical profession too encouraged this view, claiming that beyond a very basic level of activity sport not only placed women in “physical peril”, but also artificially placed them on a similar plane to men, effectively denuding them of femininity and “de-sexing” them.30

As the opportunities for women to be involved in sport increased in the early twentieth century, attitudes lagged and indeed at times hardened. For example, the Surf Life Saving Association of Australia, having allowed female contests in the late 1920s, later banned women from competition and rescue work, asserting that they were to physically frail for such demanding tasks. Consistent with the world of work, this rule was lifted during World War Two because of the shortage of male volunteers, but was imposed again in the early 1950s, despite the fact that women had shown themselves to be proficient. This rule was not abandoned again until the early 1980s, indicating the perennial nature of male discrimination against women in Australian sport,31 and again eerily echoing the experience of women in the workforce.

Despite the emphasis on femininity, recreation in predominantly female workplaces nonetheless promoted the economic goals of welfarism. As Dorothea Proud discovered in her1916 study of British and Australian industry, women did not apply themselves fully to their work since they ultimately expected to marry and leave the workforce. Hence, employers needed to convince them that “efficiency is essential to their future”.32 To achieve this, some employers of the 1920s promoted values based on physical and psychological efficiency, as demonstrated by a pageant written by the Welfare Secretary Eleanor Hinder and performed by the staff at the predominantly female Farmers and Co in 1925.33 In order to satisfy an old shopkeeper’s request to enlighten him about the “new commerce”, the Spirit of Modern Industry introduced the spirits of Health (swimming and physical culture), Knowledge (vocational training and literature), Play (basketball, dancing, Junior Club), and Citizenship. The focus on “female” forms of recreation indicates the need to balance the accepted role of women and the pursuit of efficiency in industry.

Team spirit

While in general, recreation for women emphasised their feminine nature and seldom involved competition, for men the opposite was the case. According to Cashman, central to the concept of athleticism was “the belief that sport should serve a moral purpose: to build character and to encourage individuals to consider the interests of the team first”.34 As such, during the second half of the nineteenth century sport became an integral part in the Australian school curriculum because it was believed that it “enhanced discipline and fostered a sense of co-operation”.35 This idea was transferred to the work environment. Team sports, it was believed, would foster loyalty to the firm. On the one hand, labour turnover would be lessened since by leaving the company, the worker was also leaving his team-mates. On the other hand, industrial conflict could be minimised. As one manager stated: “The whole idea is to weld the team together. If employees play together outside working hours there is less chance of industrial discord in the factory.”36 However, this could also have an adverse effect—if employees could learn to cooperate in team sports, they could also cooperate in forming a union.

Social and recreational outings could also create a sense of unity in the company “family”—everyone could interact together regardless of class and ethnic loyalties.37 However, the 1953 survey38 found that some companies expressed a doubt whether the recreational clubs brought sections and departments closer together—there was a tendency for the same work groupings to gather in the social setting. Many workers were reluctant to mix with those that they did not know well. Adding to this problem was the progressive introduction of non-British migrants into the workforce who had a tendency to remain aloof from voluntary club membership due to language difficulties and cultural differences. In addition, difficulties resulted through the bringing together of groups of varying status levels. “Some clubs have found difficulty in effectively bringing together the factory workers and office staff in the same social setting. Some managements expressed the opinion that social functions provide an opportunity for executives to ‘let their hair down’, and demonstrate that perhaps they ‘have some human qualities after all’. This view should not be accepted uncritically, for it is unlikely that any lasting impact would be made unless the sorts of attitudes that exist in the job were in harmony with those demonstrated in the social setting. In fact, a marked unbending at social activity by a usually stern executive may be interpreted as patronage, and do more harm than good”.39

Family

In general, welfare work focused a great deal on the family. At one level this involved creating a sense of family within the firm itself, as aforementioned. On another level, many welfare schemes were also directed towards the workers’ families. According to Jacoby, welfare workers in America believed that many of the employees’ defects could be traced to an improper home life. As a result, they attempted to “protect the working-class family from the exigencies of industrial life, even while calling into question the family’s ability to function without expert assistance”.40 Many welfare schemes in Australia were designed to include employees’ families. Cuckson and Son, for example, noted that the “recreational facilities provided by our concern have the family in mind…To the rear of the factory there are tennis courts, a tiled swimming pool…people meet after work and during the week-end together with their families in an atmosphere of informality and friendliness”.41 Children’s paintings, the result of the contact with the local schools, decorated the factory walls—the company offered annual prizes for the best work, and the winning art was displayed. In addition, several children’s functions were held annually including a fancy dress ball, field sports, a bonfire and barbecue, and a Christmas party.

Patriotism

In his analysis of American industry, Brandes emphasises the patriotic benefits of recreation in industry. The most prevalent kinds of patriotic recreation were military drill classes, most of them involving younger workers and children, and rifle clubs. Such activities were no doubt advantageous in terms of the patriotic public image of the company.

However, far more important was the effect it had on the employees of the company. Just as identification with a team could promote discipline and loyalty, so too could identification with the nation. Indeed, if a company was helping to train its army in defence of the country, then the company could surely be seen as a complement to the country’s armed forces and disloyalty to the company may become a disloyalty to the country.42

While the patriotic fervour of American companies is not as evident in the Australian context, it did exist. Several companies established patriotic funds and the company-based military band was relatively common. Moreover, rifle clubs were popular in Australian industry during the early part of the century. Prior to 1910 both Clyde Industries43and Dunlop had introduced rifle clubs.44 The directors at Dunlop also granted leave on full pay to all militiamen in its employ who wished to attend the “Kitchener Camp” at Seymour in 1909, and in 1912, as a publicity venture, a despatched ride between Adelaide and Sydney was designed to publicise the “dashing side” of warfare as well as their tyres.45

A prominent example of an enterprise using recreation to promote patriotism is the NSW Railways. According to Patmore, “rifle companies were a positive though minor element in the development of labour control through cultivating a general respect for authority and fostering loyalty to managerial goals.”46 Management first established a Reserve Railway Rifle Company in 1888. This club was succeeded by various others, culminating together as the Railway and Tramway Reserve Rifle Clubs Association in 1914 with the expressed aim of encouraging and consolidating a spirit of active patriotism to the Commonwealth of Australia amongst the Government Railway and Tramway staffs of the six States.47

Apart from the undertaking of military duties, the Association was encouraged from a social point of view. As stated; “We have annual interstate cricket, football and other sporting fixtures, for which it is claimed that much good is derived by the provision of the social element connected with and following upon such meetings. How much more so when the members of the opposing teams represent the patriotic element of the Railway and Tramway staffs, and fully recognise that the experience and skill required in friendly rivalry have really for its ultimate objective that of the defence of our home land.”48

Labour response

Workers’ responses to welfarism in general are largely submerged in the historical record. However, it is clear that, particularly in the pre-war years, many employees were enthusiastic about the social and sporting activities organised by the company. Indeed, given that volunteer labour constructed much of the holiday camp and park at Port Pirie, and built the tennis courts for the NSW Railways, evidently recreation received support from a great number of workers.

In later years, many management and club officials reported that organised social, recreational and sporting activities continued to be of value to both the company and the employees. The general feeling was that these activities made a positive contribution to morale and friendly working relationships, and, consequently, to improved industrial relations.49 It was reported that “people from different departments and shifts were enabled to become better acquainted; there was better understanding between management and employees through breaking down of social barriers; company spirit was fostered; and migrants were more quickly assimilated.”50

However, there is evidence of opposition by unions. While originally offering lukewarm support for the Railway Institute, the May 1929 Annual General Meeting of the NSW Branch of the Australian Railways Union (ARU) proposed to reduce the Institute’s influence by competing with it. The plan was to sponsor sports organisations, bands, holiday camps and a special organisation for wives. In time, this idea underlay the union founding organisations such as the ARU Women’s Auxiliary and the ARU Cricket Association in the early 1930s.51

Similarly, underlying suspicions about the true nature of management’s motives at Port Pirie were present among union officials. Eklund notes that the Works’ band was evidence of BHAS’s intrusion into traditional forms of working class culture where brass bands were often important cultural expressions of working class identity. Moreover, the BHAS picnic was clearly a company-sponsored version of traditional labour movement rituals. Further, it was scheduled for early October, a time when workers celebrated Labour Day. As Eklund points out, the timing of the picnic suggests a campaign to undermine the popularity and impact of the Labour Day celebration. “The two types of picnics are indicative of a clash over the control and organisation of public forms of recreation, and highlight the way in which the industrial struggle between labour and capital at the point of production spilled over onto a broader cultural/political canvas of local forms of recreation and ritual.”52

Furthermore, by the 1950s the traditional social and sporting activities were losing their appeal. Some executives interviewed in 1953 doubted any need to provide social entertainment at all, their opinion being that people preferred to seek social enjoyment and satisfaction in the community in which they lived. In addition, given the increasing diversity of the workforce in terms of age, gender and ethnicity, only a very large organisation could be expected to cater for the wide variety of interests to be found.

Conclusion

As part of an overall welfare strategy, company-based recreation aimed to increase management’s control over the workforce by installing a sense of self-betterment, cooperation and loyalty in the workers. Despite some opposition from unions, in general workers enthusiastically supported the company provision of recreation, particularly when alternatives were few. However, the post-war period brought social changes which increased the choices and mobility of workers, reducing their dependence on the company and thus limiting the applicability of company-based recreation. As with any form of welfarism, the success of the strategy relied on worker support. Faced with a choice, workers preferred to claim their independence rather than be tied to the welfarism of the company.

Endnotes
1 A. Moore, “Opera of the Proletariat: Rugby League, the Labour Movement and Working-Class Culture in New South Wales and Queensland”,Labour History, No.79, November 2000, p.58
2 C. Wright, The Management of Labour. A History of Australian Employers, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1995, p.23
3 The Staff, 22/3/29
4 F. Mauldon, “Co-operation and Welfare in Industry”, in D. Copland (ed), “An Economic Survey of Australia”, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, November 1931, p.186
5 L. Wall, “Social and Recreational Clubs in Queensland Industry”, Personnel Practice Bulletin (PPB), Vol 11, No.1, March 1955. ; S. Imer, “Social and Recreational Activities in New South Wales”, PPB, Vol.15, No.3, September 1959.; S.Bannerman, “Social Clubs in 24 Victorian Undertakings”, PPB, Vol.20, No.1, March 1964
6 Wright, The Management of Labour, p.64
7 Imer, “Social and Recreational Activities in NSW”, p.11
8 Ibid
9 Bannerman, “Social Clubs in 24 Victorian Undertakings”.
10 S. Brandes, American Welfare Capitalism 1880-1949, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1976, p.76
11 E. Eklund, “Intelligently directed welfare work?: Broken Hill Associated Smelters and attempts to create company loyalty at Port Pirie, 1915-1925”, Paper presented to the Fifth National Conference of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, October 1997
12 Advisory Council of Science and Industry (ACSI), Industrial Co-operation in Australia, Bulletin No.11, Melbourne, 1920, pp.14-15
13 Eklund, “Intelligently directed welfare work?”, p.10
14 Ibid, p.11
15 Brandes, American Welfare Capitalism, p.77
16 Wright, The Management of Labour, p.23
17 G.Blainey, The Peaks of Lyell, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1954, p.224
18 Ibid, p.224
19 The Etruscan, Vol 1, No.1, p.38
20 Brandes, American Welfare Capitalism, p.78
21 A Career in the Bank of New South Wales, Bank of New South Wales, Sydney 1955, p.8
22 C. Turner, “One Day’s Stoppage in Twenty Years”, PPB, June 1959, p.22
23 Wall, “Social and Recreational Clubs in Queensland Industry”, p.49
24 Imer, “Social and Recreational Activities in NSW”
25 Bannerman, “Social Clubs in 24 Victorian Undertakings”, p.42
26 Wright, The Management of Labour, p.22
27 R. Cashman, Paradise of Sport. The Rise of Organised Sport in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1995, p.73
28 D. Adair and W. Vamplew, Sport in Australian History, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1997, p.50
29 Ibid, p.51
30 Ibid, p.52
31 Ibid, p.53
32 D. Proud, Welfare Work. Employers’ Experiments for Improving Working Conditions in Factories, G.Bell & Sons, London, 1916, p.81
33 State Library of New South Wales, Mitchell Library, ML MSS 770/2/1
34 Cashman, Paradise of Sport, p.55
35 Ibid, p.55
36 Wright, The Management of Labour, p.62
37 Brandes, American Welfare Capitalism, p.80
38 Wall, “Social and Recreational Clubs in Queensland Industry”.
39 Ibid, p.52
40 S. Jacoby, Employing Bureaucracy. Managers, Unions and the Transformation of Work in American Industry, 1900-1945, Columbia University Press, New York, 1985, p.49
41 W. Cuckson, “The Factory and the Community”, PPB, Vol.15, No.2, June 1959, p.28
42 Brandes, American Welfare Capitalism, p.79
43 J. Murray, Phoenix to the World. The Story of Clyde Industries and Sir Raymond Purves, CBE, Playright Publishing, Sydney, 1992, p.35
44 G. Blainey, Jumping Over the Wheel, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1993, p.93
45 Ibid, p.93
46 G. Patmore, A History of Industrial Relations In the NSW Government Railways: 1855-1929, Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sydney, November 1985, p.42
 47 The Budget, March 1913, p.166
48 Ibid, p.166
49 Imer, “Social and Recreational Activities in NSW”, p.13
50 Bannerman, “Social Clubs in 24 Victorian Undertakings”, p.44
51 Patmore, A History of Industrial Relations in the NSW Government Railways, p.397
52 Eklund, “Intelligently directed welfare work?”, p.13