1856. W. W. Dobie, `Recollections of a Visit to Port Phillip,' p. 47:
"Government labourers, at ten shillings a-day, were breaking stones with what is called `the Government stroke,' which is a slow-going, anti-sweating kind of motion. . . ."
1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,' c. ix. [near end] p. 163:
"In colonial parlance the government stroke is that light and easy mode of labour—perhaps that semblance of labour—which no other master will endure, though government is forced to put up with it."
1893. `Otago Witness,' December 2r, p. 9, col. 1:
"The government stroke is good enough for this kind of job."
1897. `The Argus,' Feb. 22, p. 4, col. 9:
"Like the poor the unemployed are always with us, but they have a penchant for public works in Melbourne, with a good daily pay and the `Government stroke' combined."
<hw>Grab-all</hw>, <i>n.</i> a kind of net used for marine fishing near the shore. It is moored to a piece of floating wood, and by the Tasmanian Government regulations must have a mesh of 2 1/4 inches.
1883. Edward O. Cotton, `Evidence before Royal Commission on the Fisheries of Tasmania,' p. 82: