["More Waterworks Hanky Panky", The Sunday Times (Perth, WA), Sunday 05 February 1905, page 5]
MORE WATERWORKS HANKY PANKY.
HOW RATEPAYERS ARE FLEECED
BY FAST-RUNNING METERS
WHICH PUT ON A SPURT AT THE YEAR'S END.
For its size there is no self-governing State on earth which furnishes its people with more and more frequent causes of complaint against the methods of His Majesty's Ministers and those in authority over them – meaning the heads of departments – than this same State of W.A. now running under the guidance of the Hon. W. D. Johnson, as good and competent a carpenter as ever stood at the back of a jack-plane and pushed.
...
notes:
It appears that The Sunday Times was responsible for Johnson being given the nickname "Plane Bill". This may be the first reference:
"the Hon. W. D. Johnson, as good and competent a carpenter as ever stood at the back of a jack-plane and pushed."
