TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 241, 8 October 1920, Page 9

TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

(By INIUKTHIAL TRAMP.) I'.SION MKKTINCS KOB THE WEEK. TUlf Kvi-iiliiif. iii-tnlicr K-Curriers. aiitn , <!«.'", iii'tdlivr ii — VluorniiUerK, ChiyMoDilny. (letulirr 111 — l'ulntors Gnniwurkeni Drivers. ~" I 'l''' I "-Bnufllow, Storenien, Wwliirsiliiy. Oi-mlier 12-Gns Kuiplbvees Uuutainkurs l-Nilerutlou Uxei-uUve V-ir-pentrr*. Tliursilny, (li-tober 1:1 —Fnrrlrrs. TIIK ARBITRATION COURT. Tlu> business of the Arbitration Court was Hnirthwl, so far as hearing applications was concerned, last week, and ttio meiiibri's gut away for the .South by Sunday evoninjr's train. Most of the decisions in bin , Auckland oases have been given, but there are a few yet to be dwtared, Quite a record for an Auckland session liiis 'boon established, both In number of applications dealt with, and tho tiim , occupied in hearing tlit'in. The Court opened sit Auckland on Monday, September (3th, to a list ot 114 oases till told. It sat continuously until Friday, October Ist, and during the interval severn.l disputes had been heard by the Conciliation Cammiesioner and referred to the C'uurt in a more or less settled condition; these have also been dealt with. Previous to the official opening of the Court, the members had been 111 Auckland nearly a month, as Mr. Justice Stringer presided at the Supreme Oourt ecesions, and his two colleagues, Messrs. W. Scott and ,T. A. McCullough, were busy pitting in committee working off arrears of buincss brought from the southern centres. During this period too, there was a special sitting of the Oourt held to hear the suganvorkera' dispute, ond an award was given, co that while wo often "blame tho Count for delays in getting ite decisions filed, I am afraid we do not always give credit to tnc members for the amount of work done. During the session just finished the Court has not restricted its work to daylight houre, for on many evenings it has sat in committee until 10 o'clock. Neither would I care to guarantee that the six-day week has been observed, for after decisions have been arrived at they have to be typed, and the courteous Registrar of Awards will not be eorry to get away from the northern cityi From here the Court goes to Dunedin awl starts to work north again, and it will probably he tho month of February before Auckland Is readied again. THE OUTLOOK. The workers of Auckland of all grades, as the result of recent decisions of the Court granting an increase of wages all round, are congratulating themselves on their comparative good fortune in being better able to meet the increasing cost of living. Sugar is now Od per pound instead of 3d, while butter has soared from 1/9 to 2/10 per pound, to say nothing of increases in other f commodities, and it behoves the family ' man to bo careful and spend wisely, for indications are not wanting of depression in other countries, and the Dominion cannot always escape taking its share of the usual slump after a loner and wasting wan In Great Britain the industrial outlook regarding employment is not bright, and in the last number of "The Labour Leader" to hand a writer says:— ; "The email black cloud on the horizon which indicates the coming of a trade depression is growing bigger. Comi mercial men are speaking of bad times __ sin tho coming whiter. The wonder ie 1 that they have been so long in coming. The country has borne the financial etrain of the coat of. the war with fat greater resistance than was thought possible. When the break comes, as it certainly will come coon or late, it will be of an unparalleled character. The artificial prosperity will be blasted like a hotOiouse plant brought into the frosty outside air. The state of things in the East End of London and in the South Wales port towns is already serious. Men are viciously fighting each other for work at the dock gates just as in •the old days before the war. Well, not ,' jnet as before, for there is a new deeperaition in their mood. Unemployment today is a much more serious matter ithan in pre-war days. The cost of living makes paltry_ trades union and unemployment grants a mockery of a family's need. The contrast between the workers' present lot and the iand fit for heroes which was (promised -them fills them with a hitter resentment which bodes no good for the future. The outlook must fill every , thoughtful person ■with anxiety, if not with despair," WORKERS AND COAL SUPPLIES. In liis labour column In the "Otago Daily Times," under the above heading, "Veteran" has something to cay in relation to the action of the miners in holding up the coal supplies. He writes: "The action of the coal-miners in the Old Country and also in New Zealand in refusing or neglecting to produce sufficient supplies is causing suffering and a great deal of inconvenience not only to the general public, but to the wageearners in many industries. Not long ago the railwayinen and other transport workers in England appealed to the coalminers not to further restrict the output, as 'by so doing they were causing aerious hardehip to the working classes generally through industries having to close down for want of coal, thus throwing out of employment thousands o f people who were anxious to work in order to live. The position is similar fn New Zoaland, and if the threat ot closing down tlie State mine is carried cut by the Cabinet it will mean not only serious hardship to large numbers who will be thrown out of employment, but it will mean increased prices 'for any household coal that can 'be produced."