TRADE & LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 225, 20 September 1905, Page 10

TRADE & LABOUR NOTES.

(By INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.)

The building trade is still rather dull, although there are not nearly as many men signing the unemployed book in ihc Carpenters' Union office this week there have been for the last six or eight weeks.

The plumbing and gasfitting trade is dull, and a good number of men are unemployed.

The shipbuilding trade is worse this ■Week than it has been for some time.

The ironmoulding and engineering trades are still dull, and numbers ol good tradesmen are walking about idle.

House painters and decorators are slack, but there is every indication of the trade becoming brisk in the course of a few months.

Saddle and harness makers are slack, and a very large number of men are unemployed.

Mr Arthur Rosser is the workers' candidate for a seat on the Conciliation Board.

The sawmilling industry both in town and country is still fairly brisk.

The eoaehbuilding trade is dull. The importation of carriages of different descriptions no dou-bt tend-s to this.

The furniture-making trade is still dull, and a number of good men are unemployed. Mr H. Banfield, local secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, returned from Rotorua on Thursday last. While in Kotorua lie opened a branch of the societyHe reports the building trade as being fairly brisk. The building trade in the South is still active, and good men obtain employment readily. The building trade generally is fairly brisk in Gisborne just now. The unskilled labour market is rather slack this week.

The Arbitration Court has finished its round of the South Island, except Westland, and opens in Wellington on the 28th of this month.

Mr Arthur Rosser ha& been retained by the Wellington Engine-drivers' Union to conduct their case throughout the Wellington district. The Christehurch Trades and LaDour Council is holding a monster art union in aid of the funds for the new Trades Hall, which it is expected will be ready lor opening by the time the annual conference comes round.

The Dunedin Trades and Labour Council has also instituted an art union to be held in November next in aid Of their Trades Hall.

Tickets for the sports and art union in connection with the Labour Day demonstration are going off well, and everything points to a very successful function.

According to the evidence given in the wharf labourers' dispute before the Arbitration Court at Sydney, there is a much greater proportion of labour offering than there is a demand for. In the course of a discussion on the "living •wage" question Judge Heydon remarked, "It seems to mc a curicus thing to come to court and say, 'Here's work for 500 men, for which 1000 men compete, and \ve nsk the Court to forbid 500 mcn —for that is what it comes to —from seeking that work.' That seems a very curious thing." Mr. Hughes, who represented the Wharf Labourers' Union in the proceedings, replied that it seemed to him that it was not so much the question of the number of men tvho were there as a question of whether those employed were getting a fair wage. The question was, What should be paid to the men if there were no more there than were wanted? In every trade., he pointed out, there was a percentage of unemployed, and when that percentage did not rise above a certain level it did not affect the rate of wage. His Honor said the matter was a difficult one, from whatever point of view it was regarded. In the course of an address at Melbourne on "The Social Status of Women under Socialism," Mr Tom Mann said that socialists declared that woman's claim to the rights of citizenship should at once be recognised. Socialists wanted political and industrial freedom for all alike. The attitude of the typical employer of labour towards women was to pay them half what was paid to male workers, utterly regardless whether the wage paid was sufficient to enable women to live. It was almost a matter of impossibility for many young women to live decent lives on the wages they earned, and socialists declared there could be no religious principle in a, system which admitted of such serious exploitation of women folk. That the reputation of British wares for high quality has not yet waned is shown by the fact that certain Continental manufacturers of the baser sort (not to mention our friends the Japanese) still find it pays to mark fraudulently their goods '"Made in England." The British Chamber of Commerce in Paris state that recently they have come across the follo%ving articles masquerading as British made: Emery paper manufactured in Lubeck; metal bobbins for typewriters manufactured in Germany; cigars manufactured in Belgium, marked "High Life," " Bros., London"; felt hats marked "Made in London," manufactured in Vienna; pins, manufactured in Germany, marked "Epingles anglaises dune seule piece," "Qualite superieure." The Chamber are bringing the matter before the meeting of the Associated Chambers of Commerce at Liege, in September. The Committee of Lloyd's have decided to bestow Lloyd's medal for meritorious sen-ices upon Chief Engineer Thomas Holliday, of the British steamship Milton, as an honorary acknowledgment of his extraordinary exertions on the occasion of that vessel breaking her tail-end shaft at sea on November 17 last. The accident happened when about 1600 miles from Capetown. After extraordinary exertions for many days, and in spite of the heavy sea experienced practically during the whole time, the broken tail-end shaft was sufficiently repaired to permit the yes- I sel proceeding to Mauritius, where shje safely arrived on December 27, 190-1. The committee of Lloyd's have also decided to bestow Lloyd's medal for meritorious services upon Chief Engineer E. J. Fotheringham and Second | Engineer E. L. Fitch, of the British steamship Matoppo, as an honorary acknowledgment of their extraordinary exertions on the occasion of that vessel losing her propeller blades at sea j on November 3, 1904. The vessel was ; 600 miles from Capetown when the • blades of the propeller broke off. After overcoming many .difficulties the engineers managed, by November 12 to fix two spare blades on to the propeller, although the workers -were constantly in and out of the water. The vessel . afterwards experienced bad weather, : tuid lost one of the new blades, but she safely ut her destination, on ■ v ember .21, ' ' *

The new South Australian Labour Premier, Mr. T. Price, says he will do all he can to forward the "made-in-Aus-tralia" movement. The Labour Conference held in Melbourne recently passed resolutions pledging the party to do all it could to create an Australian sentiment, and to encourage its industries by consuming the products of the land. Mr. Price is determined to do all he can in this direction, and has, whenever possible, purchased only Australian-made goods. He delivered his policy speech in the Houss of Assembly dressed entirely in South Australian-made goods. Mr. Price remarked recently: "I am investing in a new suit. I have placed an order with the South Australian Woollen Company for a new rig out, and when I deliver the Government policy speech, I will be attired from head to foot in Australian clothing."

Sixty locomotives for New South Wales are to be constructed at the Clyde Works under contract, at £71 13s lid per ton. That much was decided by the Legislative Assembly as the result of three nights' debate. The division showed 41 for the proposal and 23 against, and there were ten pairs on either side. The debate was carried on in excellent temper throughout, though the Labour Party was fighting for the dear principle of socialism. At one time there was a suggestion made that private contract might mean ''boodling." but the statement was at once challenged and beaten out of court.

The far-reaching effects which the High Court's decision in Clancy's ease is having upon the jurisdiction of the Arbitration Court (says the Sydney "Daily Telegraph"') was further illustrated in the caee before the Full Court, in which Messrs. J. and W. Brown, owners of the Pelaw Main Colliery, obtained a prohibition against the Court restraining it from hearing an industrial dispute brought before it by the Colliery Employees' Federation of the Northern District. It appeared that in June last all the miners engaged in the mine refused to work any longer, and 13 days later a claim which had been made against the mine-owners in September, 1903, was revived by the union, this be'ug the matter which it was sought to have the Arbitration Court adjudicate upon. Their Honors unanimously held, in accordance with the High Court's decision, that the Arbitration Court only had jurisdiction in matters which arose while the relationship of employer and employee existed. Here the men had put an end to that relationship by abandoning their employment. It had boen argued on behalf of the union that it was competent for the union to have a case stated against an employer whether its members were employed by him or not. and whether the employees were satisfied or not with their conditions of employment, because the union might not be satisfied. Their Honors characterised this proposition as "monstrous." When the same point was taken before the Arbitration Court it was stated that, if it were upheld, the powers of the Court would, from the standpoint of industrial unions, be Beriously circumscribed.