TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 198, 21 August 1919, Page 8

TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

tP.r INDUSTRIAL TRAMP., UNION MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. This Evening. August 21—Hairdressers. Moadav, Aucust -'• —Painters. Shipwrights (Special. Tuesday. August :M - Carpenters. PlmuWrs. Wednesday. August Si- Bootmakers, Waterside Workers. Thursday. August 2S — Enginedrivers, Boilermakers. Stonemasons. PAYMENT OF JURORS. A very important matter that forces itself upon the attention of every wage earner, when called to discharge his duty to the S;ate a? a common juror, is the inadequacy of the pay received for such important service. Now that the pay of an ordinary labourer is 1 ti per hour, while tradesmen are advertised for at 2/ per hour, it is surely high time that the pay for jurors who are compelled to drop their work tn serve the State, should be increased by tiie Oovernment to something more approaching the loss of earning power sustained by the worker. The statutory pay is: —

*" For every day's attendance of over four hour-*. S/ per .lay: of hours or less. 4/ per day." The tjartter was recently rather forcibly brought under my notice, a couple of weeks ago. by a worker, who was summoned as a juror :u ilio Supreme Court. As a tradesman his award rate i> 1 105 per hour, and he attended each day for the week from {Monday till Thursday. T do not know whether he would term himself as a lucky or an unlucky man. but he was not <-alled to sit on a case during the week, and at midday was discharged from attendance until the next morning. Jlc drew 4 1 for ea.li Jay's .service, and on Thursday found himself in ppssession of 16. for the week's work, for on presenting himself at his work on Friday, he found hi* place had been filled by another man. and he had to look for work. He started again on the following Monday morning, at a fresh job. so that for the «eek that lie discharged his duty as a citizen he received 16/ instead of his usual -C 4 2/6. To a worker receiving a ■weekly wage the position is not so bad. for he can work at his business till | 0.30 a.m.. and on being discharged for the day. he can resume his work, but to n man paid by the hour, it is crippling for a couple of week.- to follow. Again. tae legal lunch hour is from 1 till* 2 p.m.. so that when discharged at noon. or or.c o'clock, lie has. to get his lunch, snd change into working <-lothes. by which time it is too late to do anything for that afternoon. With the advent of a general flection campaign, the candidate for Parliamentary - honours who will promise an amended Payment of Jurors' tiill. ought to receive an extensive support. THE STRIKE TX ATSTRALTA. The strike of Australian seamen is still dragging along its weary way. and a settlement srems to be as far off as ever. The men have refused to man the ships until their general secretary ("Mr. Thomas Walsh) is released from paal. where lie is serving a sentence of three months for revolutionary and seditious speeches. Several ardent unionists have recently expressed to mc their opinion that the request of the seamen should be granted, and Walsh released, but this opinion has been formed in the absence of a full knowledge of the offence committed. Xo Government, not even a Labour government, with any sense of responsibility for the administration of the laws of the State, could reli»a>e an offender like Walsh. I hare fjefore mc a fairly full report of his trial, along with the magistrate's remarks, and I form my opinion upon these. My space will not allow of a full report- but 1 give :i few extracts. On July ISth Walsh pleaded guilty at the Thir-d District Court. Melbourne, to a | charge of encouraging a continuance of j t, strike. At the trial notes of a speech I delivered by Walsh on July 12th were j pnt in as evidence by a licensed shortliand writer, in which, inter alia, Walsh | eaid " They could imagine what would j happen in a enminnnity dying of starva- '■ tion. and that it was his duty to do bis : •utmost to plunge Melbourne into dark- i ness."' He was fined i'lf'O and ordered j to pay costs. Or. July ISth Walsh ad- ! dre-sed another meeting in "Melbourne, j " Tn order to carry on this fight," Walsh, " 1 -want yon (the seamen) to stand firm, i IWhen the money goes out. beg i and borrow food and clothing. When those means are exhausted, come and j tell mc. 1 will not advise you then; I | ■will show you what to do. Tf T wanted food for my family. 1 would steal it. I ■Rill not ask you to do something I would not do myself. So when it comes to the ( pinch, and I do a certain thing, and you I think it right, you can follow mc. First of all, we must put Melbourne in darkless, and make it unsafe for people to ■walk out after seven o'clock." As tiip result of the second speech. ■Walsh was prosecuted and round suilty. Ht» was sentenced to three months' imprisonment, and fined £200. The io!l..Trin<r letter, sijme,] by John Barnett. J. Shea. W. J. Hopper, and J. Corcoran, has been forwarded from Port Adelaide to the Adelaide Press.— "" As members of some years' standing of the Seamen's Federation of 'asia. we feel we roust .itrain.st | the sentiments expressed by the general j secretary of the union at the Socialists' Hall. Melbourne. We are simply amazed at Walsh's wild statements and threats, coming as they do from the general secretary. It- is only natural that the public ■nil infer that he is expressing the feelings of the Sulk of the members of the -::iion. whereas nothing could be further from the truth. "There is nothing that could te more calculated to do the union and its cause harm than its general secretary's wild ■talk of revolution, tht- establishment of a Soviet (iovernment in Australia and of accepting assistance from and having 'truck' with, the I.W.W. in Austria. Germany and America. '"It appears to us that Walsh, instead of considering and working for the interests (if the union, of which ho is elected and paid as secretary, is siraplv making every effort to place himself in the limelight to establish himself as a martyr and hero, and to gain kudos for himself, with hopes perhaps that if the Soviet Government that he advocates is established he may 'become its potential Czar. " In short, it appears that he is quite ■Killing to sacrifice unionism and all it stands for for notoriety and self-glorifi-cation. This letter expresses the sentiments of hundreds of -anion men here."