MAIL HEWS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 55, 7 March 1899, Page 3

MAIL HEWS.

(yiji. iiitiisi»isig

A^GLO-COLUINiAL SiOTSS

fflrem Our Special CeHsesgendeHt.)

LONDON, January- 37.

GOMFUtSORI- Aii,tti¥±iAT±ON

Ffhe inseussien in the 'Times-' eon:

ceraittg Oompuisory Arbitration is still in One ci the iaat %& !aau a

■wssa 1 thereto is Mr Jesnua ptraage Yfiiiiaras, who was gr-esiaeße ci iiie Industrial Arbitration Court from tiie

time the S-ei wag brought inte egerar tiea Until April last, and had therefoFß B6ffle considerable experience ef its Mr WJHiama admits that the Jsw Zealand Act is imperi-eet, as aay Act dealing with an entirely new and diffleult (subject must neeea^ariiy bo but as ho points out 'that those who know where the shoe pinches are content to wear it is shown by the fact that no political party suggest the repeal of the Act, but that both parties in the last session of Parliament gave their best efforts to amending it,' and in retaining the Act on the Statute Book, and striving to make it more efficient, Mr Williams believes Tarliamerit to be faithfully representing the trend of public opinion. 'The Act,' he winds up, 'is an experiment, hut an experiment with good hopes of success. . ■' ■ a bold and honest attempt to grapple with one of the most difficult of our social problems, and its operations worthy of careful study. It is yet too early to pronounce a final judgment on our attempt, but even if the attempt should fail, the failure may give light to a better way.' Mr Steadman Aldis once more tackles Mr Beeves upon his statistics of registered factories as proving an increase in the manufactures in the colony. Taking the Agent-General's figures, Mr Aldis remarks that the average number of hands employed per factory is almost exactly seven, and argues from this that as there are a good many factories, in the ordinary Bense employing scores an«J? hundreds of hands, the number of small shops employing one or two hands included in Mr Reeves' statistics must be preponderant. Mr Aldis wants to know what is the sense of statistics of this kind as bearing on the growth of manufactories, especially when there was the artificial stimulus to increase of 'registered factories' given by the Act of 1894; and extended by an amending Act in 1896. In answer to the Agent-General's protest against the Arbitration Act being viewed as a piece of 'gloomy tyranny,' Mr Aldis remarks, 'When the question of imprisoning employers for taking more apprentices than the officials Of trade unions think to be right, of fbr employing non-unionists, comes to be seriously discussed in the colonial parliament, Mr Reeves' phrase seems to be a not unfair description. Nor, I think, is a man who complacently passes a law which enacts that every workshop where a master and one man work together' shall register, pay an annual fee, and submit to inspection at any hour of the day or night,' a good judge of what constitutes . tyranny, whether gloomy or, otherwise.

Miss Jessie Boucherett joins issue ? with Mr Beeves on the point of Ms denial that the gradual discovery of workrooms and their registration as factories was the 'sole' or 'main' cause of the increase of the factory figures during the last three years. By denying that these discoveries and registrations are the main and sole cause of the increase, Miss Boucherett says that the Agent-General admits that they are one cause, and she submits that a cause which is not main or sole may yet be a considerable factor in an event. Miss Boucherett proceeds to prove to her own "satisfaction that the New Zealand labour laws, whether good for men or not, are distinctly injurious to women. To do so she quotes from a report of the Labour Department of August, 13 ft, a table showing the return of men and women employed in trades in * perishable articles and the wages respectively earned by them. From this it can be seen that the proportion of women employed is small, and that there is an enormous difference between the wages p^aid to men and women. The taible also shows that there are no women fish curers in New Zealand, a fact which Miss Boucicault deplores, as the trade 'is one of the rare kinds of work which actually increases the health and strength of those who engage in it, and is one also foT which women have a special aptitude, doing / "the work more quickly than men and .earning in England just the same; wages that men earn in New Zealand.' j > THE NEW ORIENT LINER OMRAH. The new Orient liner Omrah, which is now lying in dock at Tilbury, pre- j paring for her maiden voyage to Aus-i tralia, which commences next Friday,! is undoubtedly the finest boat all Tound engaged in Antipodean .trade. She has a gross tonnage of 8300 tons, with 10,000 effective horse-power, a total length over-all of 507 feet, . a breadth of 56 feet 9 inches, and a depth of 37 feet 6 inches. Her passenger accommodation and her internal arrangements generally are be- , yond criticism," and among the mechanical contrivances conducive to the comfort of passengers may be cited what are known as the 'noiseless bees-wing fans,' which are work* ed by electricity, and are undoubtedly more effective ventilators than any previously adopted.. The Omrah is • also fitted throughout with scuttle windows so constructed that they can be instantly and effectively closed by a single turn of the wrist, and in case - of need a steward can close twenty of these scuttles in the time it would take to screw up ordinary port holes. The Omrah has accommodation for 323 saloon passengers (first and second class) and 500 third, and her cold air chambers have a capacity of about 40,000 carcases of mutton. The Admiralty have placed the new liner on the list of.vessels suitable for armed cruisers in ease of need. On full bunkers it is estimated that she can steam at a speed of ten knots ' for 150 days without recoaling. Her average speed on the voyage to Austarlia will be about 16.5 knots, at ■which rate she could steam 16,000 • miles without requiring to recoal. As a 'handy' boat the Omrah requires ; Aatehing among liners, for she can make a complete circle of two ana a half times her own length within a minute.