TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 292, 7 December 1923, Page 15

TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

T (By INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.) ; UNION MEETINGS FOB THE WEEK. December B—Bakers. 'Monday, 'December 10'— QiiamiMM, c Painters, Bricklayers. v Tuesday, Deceafcer 11 —Stereeea, fftddlers, Butchers. Wednesday, December 12 — Bootmakers' i Executive. Thursday, December I»—Farriers, Printers' - Machinists, Boilermakers. ! Frldny, December 14—Beainsmen, Curriers. v . i THE ARBITRATION COURT. The Court of Arbitration opens its final aeSseion for the year, on Monday, at 10 a.- m. There is not a big list of fixtures set fdown for 'hearing, but there are* several important disputes to be heard, no] t the least important being the application of. the'seamen for a new award Th.is is a Dominion application, and it has] already been before the Conciliation Cou , ncil, but was cent on to the Court witl i little or nothing settled. Mr. W. T. "ijfoung, secretary of the N.Z. Federation - of Seamen, will conduct the case on bJUhalf of the Federation.

j DISPATCH OF BUSINESS. Meiation of the arrival of the Court in Auckirand, causes the reflection of the quick ydispatch of the business of arbitration mow, as compared with the tardy dispatch of years ago. It may be mentioned' that the Court last eat in Auckland if,! the beginning of October, and in the intervening two months, the members made the round of the Dominican, so 'that at the end of the year there . Yivill be a clean slate so far as industrial disputee are concerned. The Act prtovides that there stiall be a, sitting ojf the Court in each ■of the four chief \centres "once in each three montbsL" and this was enacted so as to prevenU disputes and applications for breaChefk of awards,' being Kung up for very lorig periods. Time was, when a dispute /was .liable to be hung up for a* long as J nine 'months, by which time it happeneq that witnesses with most important- evidence had been scattered to the four winds of heaven. After the amendment specifying the qparterly hearings had been\ inserted in the Act, it often happened! that nearly six months elapsed between the time the case was filed and theydate of bearing, for it was ruled by one ht the past presidents of the Court,..thsit "once, in each three months." could fe legally construed that the Court-could eit at Auckland in the beginning of onej three months, and return *t the en«i of ■ the eucceeding quarteTi,.»ni so long as it was within six months, the Act was being complied with. The pHesent system is more satisfactory to all parties.

qOALMINING STRIKES. A , statement j qf- ■ enormous" losses -occasioned by ..strike* in the Newcastle ;and Maitland" Collieries was presented by Mr. \James McMahon, president of the Employers' Ffederation, in Sydney. He said that during the period from the beginning of 1019 to August 1, 1923 —four years seven months —there were 1344 stoppages, involving -920 daye, or two years eight months, and the miners lost in wages i 2,647,725, including -f 1,238,631 '. during the seven months pf this yesjv "It is npt. difficult to calculate how ! ma"ny mines' could have been purchased .with the enormous amount of money lost in wages by the miners," said Mr. McMahon. "Had the miners devoted an equal amount to the purchase of mines and worked them on a

pO-operative basis, no doubt the result would have been more remunerative than working for set wages and hours. As it ie,.the loss in tonnage and stoppage of production must have a very serious effect on' our coal exports and

all those subsidiary interests dependent on coal production. If tho miners can afford to lose thTe huge sum in lese than five years, it is evident: they are getting too high wages for what they produce. The coal industry is beyond doubt the greatest asset we have, and if produced to its fullest extent it would give work to 12,000 unemployed who to-day walk the streets, dependent on the thrifty for charitable support." MECHANICAL BRICKLAYER. A mechanical bricklayer, worked by electricity or petrol, that will lay 10.000 bricks a day. promises to revolutionise the building industry. - It is called the "X" erector. Bricklayers lay only a few hundred bricks a day-. The "XV erector requires three men to work it.Jbut, it lays aa many bricks as a squad of: ? 20 men," supposing they lay 500 bricks each; Estimates of the number ofibricks that bricklayers lay in these days varies from .300 to 750. The erector has been manufactured by Sir William Arrol and Co., Ltd., of Glasgow, and is at present employed on a large housing scheme in Glasgow. Its inventor was engaged for five years in perfecting it. "X" looks like a travelling overhead crane. The apparatus that lays the bricks and mortar moves backwards-and forwards along a crossbeam which can be moved over the whole site of the house. MAN'S FIGHT TO LIVE. Man wants but little here below (Edwin Pugh writes in the "Daily Chronicle"). Give 'him the earth, the sea, and all that therein-in, a fair share offtbe atmosphere, and —he is more or lees satisfied. There are a few other things that he wbuM also like, but these primal needs of his existence he does at least claim a right to, with a certain urgency. And i.c is not allowed any ef-these rights. He is not allowed undisturbed possession of so much as a bit of'a garden not muc!] bigger than a billiard table. To hold and to keep anything that he has he much go ori.fo-' ever fighting.for it. At the outset, there is the weather to contend with. Even in this temperate England' of ours it is so-fickle that to guard his body against its r ravages, man must.,, keep an assorted medley of garments always at hand, ani also that last shield of defence, the hopelessly inadequate and exasperating umbrella. Nature does not provide man, as she provides the lower animals, with seasonable changes of pelt in. the form of fur or feather, carapace and cocoon. There are no hollow trees, caves, or holes or burrows in the ground that in any way fulfil ihia requirements. There is' no'blessed period of hibernation during which he. may ignore the w rst rigours of the climate. Only by fighting Tiara , '.by means of every imaginable I device can he hope to bold 'his own. And there is always his garden Ito remind him painfully that he does mot matter much. One ha* only to hear 'him talk, in trains and other rendezvous of miNed hvmanity, pite.ouely, despitefully, of weeds and vermin, floods anJ ■rales, frosts, and inopportune droughty to" realise how much harder is his lot than that of the myriad wild I beasts, wild flowers, and other wild [ things that Nature provides for or [ teaches to provide instinctively for themeelvea.