Front page of Smith's Weekly -The Public Guardian -May 20,1933, during the economic slump , which on just about every page ran a humorous cartoon , illustration or yarn , midst stories of the devastating economic Depression and its politics .
The above dramatic illustration accompanied articles about taxes and charges by woolbrokers , middlemen and accountants on primary producers and businesses. Several political articles include the one [below ] which contains intimate glimpses of the women behind Australian prime ministers and premiers which tells how Billy Hughes washed his own socks .
Poet and journalist Kenneth Slessor conducts a page of movie reviews which includes an advertisement for the Pearce Bjelke-Petersen Pty Ltd Physical Culture School that offers Turkish electric baths for men and women . The enterprise was started by Hans Christian Bjelke-Petersen (1872-1964), uncle of Johannes Bjelke-Petersen , the notorious Queensland premier .
The fight between NSW Premier Jack Lang and the banks is covered in light hearted fashion under the heading THE BANK THAT JACK BROKE ; British publisher George G. Harrap,in Sydney on a visit , is the subject of large caricature and a poem ; social notes and gossip from Queensland and South Australia are included .
There is a full page devoted to the newspaper's " Royal Commission " into the Jardine bodyline bowling cricket affair. Readers with money could escape the tough times and cold weather on a 19 day cruise to Papua via Sydney, Brisbane , Whitsunday Passage and the Barrier Reef from just 27 guineas . ( Newspaper kindly made available by Magnetic Island researcher Gary Davies who is greatly interested in early cartoonists , illustrators and artists .)
