Obituaries Australia

I feel sure that members will regret to hear of the death of our old organizer, Jim McInerney, which took place on the 11th of February at Mummell, near Goulburn. Elected by members as a delegate to the last A.W.U. Conference he was unable to attend owing to his illness, in fact he had been ailing for some considerable time, but game old chap that he was, he struggled on as long as he possibly could. When forced to take to his bed he wrote me that he did not expect to leave it alive, and asked that the committee appoint some one in his place to attend the Conference. Old Jim was one of the very first to join the Union, and almost from its inception had held official positions in the organization. In 1887 or 1888 he was organizing for the Young Branch. When the Goulburn Branch was started he was appointed secretary and held office until its close. The following year he was organizing in Victoria for the Creswick Branch, and from that time on to the end of last year he was organizing for Central. Well liked by members, who recognised in the old chap a good sturdy worker for the cause, he was elected every year in the branch ballot as organizer and delegate to the A.W. Union Conference. He leaves a wife and little child in straitened circumstances, and I feel sure that members will respond to the appeal that will be sent out from each branch on their behalf during the present season. No straighter Unionist than old Jim could be found, and if good work on this earth is a guarantee of future happiness in the Great Beyond, then our old battler is reaping his just reward. At a general meeting of members held in Orange during the past week the following resolution was carried, 'That a letter of condolence be sent to the widow of Mr. McInerney, expressing the sympathy of members with her in the death of her husband'.