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Arthur Daley
In the 1936 WA elections, Arthur Daley came 4/4.
Daily News, Tuesday 25 March 1930, p. 7.
POLITICAL PERSONALITIES
Mr. Arthur Daley, of Mt, Lawley, is one of the Nationalist candidates in the Maylands electorate at the forthcoming State elections. Prominent in commercial circles for some years it will be recalled that he carried on the business of Daniel White and Co. for many years in this city and he is recognised as a capable and successful business man. Coming to this State from New South Wales as a boy more than thirty years ago he received the greater part of his education at James-street school. He started life in the business world as a messenger boy for E. S. Wigg and Co. 30 years ago. He only spent a few months with that firm and was then apprenticed to his father in the carriage building business, and owing to ill-health of his parent he was assisting in the management of this small business at the early age of eighteen. When his father died and Mr. Daley (then 23) took control of the whole business and gave his attention to the motor car, which was in the very early stages of development at that time. With this aim in view, in 1915 he bought the goodwill and plant of Daniel White and Co. from Mr. F. D. Good. During the years of the war business was very difficult and he was tempted more than once to cease operations, but thanks to the goodwill of his creditors and tenacity of purpose he was able to carry on.
Mr. Daley was offered contracts to build bodies for the Ford car by Mr. Dan Dwyer and it is this opportunity given by the Ford agents that gave Mr. Daley the opportunity to try himself out in the big business. He bought the present plant and employed 100 craftsmen, paying out from £25,000 a year in wages and as much as £3,800 income tax in the best year. In 1926 Mr. Daley sold his business of Daniel White and Co. to Mr. Len Bolton, of Fremantle, who is still carrying on under the combined names.
At the age of 38 he had fulfilled one of the ambitions of his life. He retired from business, and went for a trip around the world, visiting the U.S.A., England Scotland, Ireland, Holland. Belgium, Francs and Italy. Mr. Daley made many observations on the construction of roads and bridges and the systems of financing them. The greatest impression he gained was that he was gratified of having been born of British parents (Irish and Scotch), but most of all that he was an Australian, and he now considers it up to him to take a share in helping the State to which he owes so much. With confidence and the advice of many of his business friends he desires to offer the ability and commercial training of a successful business man to the electors of Maylands.
The West Australian, Saturday 22 March 1930, p. 14.
MAYLANDS.
Mr. A. Daley's Campaign.
With few interruptions, Mr. Arthur Daley, a Nationalist candidate for Maylands, addressed an appreciative audience at the Maylands Town Hall last night. Mr. C. E. Courthope presided. The president of the National Party (Mr. J. M. Macfarlane) spoke in support.
Mr. Daley said, that he had grown up in the neighbourhood, and had adopted the slogan of "A Maylands man for the Maylands people." He claimed a reputation for straight and business-like methods, and stood as a "business-man" candidate. In 1915 he took over a business which had been burned out, but under his guidance it increased its number of employees from 17 to about 100. Due partly to his activity Maylands obtained its Memorial Park. As a member of the Ugly Men's Association he had helped to erect houses for limbless ex-soldiers. Tramways should be available to the residents of the Peninsula, and the foreshore should be tidied up. A bridge to serve the northern suburbs should be built at once over the Swan, and the district should receive a grant in respect of the several non-ratable institutions within its borders.
The candidate continued that the Premier (Mr. Collier) had offered no solution of the unemployment difficulty; but Sir James Mitchell had presented practical suggestions. The Premier had not shown how the State might produce more, but he (the candidate) had ideas. Men on group settlements had to feed their pigs on potatoes which, though good, could not be marketed. Butter now imported from the Eastern States should be produced and sold in Western Australia. Motor car bodies should be built here. If people could increase their income by producing more and better goods than their neighbours, there was no sound reason why they should not. Mr. Bruce had risked the wrath of the working class by advocating piecework, but payment by results was a beneficial policy. When bricklayers who could lay 1,000 bricks a day had to slacken to the level of 300-brick men, it meant more costly homes for the workers and higher rents. When travelling through America he had seen workmen worked to a standstill by day labour. It was a fallacy that the less work a man did the more was left for the other fellow. Actually, such a system increased the cost of the job and raised the cost of living. Depression and unemployment were the worst factors in reducing wages. While an advocate of piecework, he held that every man should receive the basic wage as a minimum. Practical farming was prevented on thousands of acres suitable for production because they were held up. The Government's aid should be sought to release that land. Closer settlement along the railways was essential. The Trades Hall, objecting to Victorian conditions for employees, had induced the Government to block H. V. McKay, Pty. Ltd. from establishing a factory in Western Australia. The Canning-road to Fremantle was costing £7,800 a year interest, but it could not be said to be worth such an outlay. Sir James Mitchell had rescued the State from a serious situation in 1919, when the returning soldiers had to be rehabilitated. He weathered the storm creditably until 1924, when he was voted out of office, despite his record, in favour of Mr. Collier. Now Mr. Collier had built up a heavy deficit, despite buoyant revenue and loan conditions. The subsidising of industry was highly undesirable. He had learned while in the United States that America sold oranges in Java and Singapore—three or four weeks' sail distant, but only one week away, from Australia. Trade commissioners should be appointed to capture that trade for Australia. India bought 2,000,000 pairs of boots a year from England. These should be produced in Australia at competitive prices.
Answering questions, the candidate said that he could not promise to support reduction in the number of members of Parliament. The trouble was that only about half of the men in Parliament were workers, and he doubted whether electors would like a smaller representation. He did not believe in the reducing [of] members' salaries, but approved of members being paid for time worked.
Sunday Times, 9 February 1936, p. 11
UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
Advocated by Mr. A. Daley
Mr. Arthur Daley, who is contesting Maylands as an endorsed Nationalist, in condemning the action of the Government in so speedily bringing forward the election, expressed the opinion that if the elections were held at the usual time, the Treasury might by then be empty.
This candidate, who is in favor of balancing budgets, claims that the Financial Emergency Tax was instituted to assist employment whereas it had been used to reduce deficits. In the year 1934-1935. £683,000 was raised by financial emergency taxation, and that after the Government had spent £72,000 the remaining £611,000 was paid into revenue. He submitted that had this money been used for the purpose it was intended, it would have provided full-time work for the men now on part time. Mr. Daley, who is prepared to support any move to examine new monetary systems, is in favor of a scheme of unemployment insurance, and of a scheme for the betterment of conditions and further employment of apprentices.
The West Australian, 27 March 1953. p. 28.
DALEY: On March 26, 1953, at Mt. Lawley.,Edna Rose, the dearly loved wife of Arthur Daley, devoted mother of Jean (Mrs. Lloyd Hayward. Darlington), Phyllis, Mervyn and Eric, and fond sister of Irene, Roy and Ross Sherwood.
DALEY (Edna Rose): On March 26, Mt. Lawley, beloved sister and sister-in-law of Ross and Olive Sherwood, For ever with the Lord.
References and Links
Trove, as above.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 31 March, 2024 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/daleyarthur.html (it was last updated on 3 April, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.