TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 125, 29 May 1925, Page 9

TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

(By ESTDtTSTRIAL TRAMP.) i UNION MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. Monday. Juno I—Klilpirriehtß. Drivers. T lUKjay, a lino 2—Engineering Trades. Uponesday, Juno 3—Auckland Carpenters. Onehunga Carpenters. Thursday, June 4— Electrical Workers. Tramway Officers' Executive. Plumbers Educational. General Labourers. A SERIOUS DEFECT. The Apprentices Act of 1923, which came into operation in 1024, was the iiappy result or a mutual agreement arrived at in a conference of employore and employees, called and presided over by the Minister of Labour. It waa only fitting that an Act having 6uch a happy inauguration should pass through Parliament without any alteration bo fnr as the principles involved, and as to the i wording, surely it Should be a safeguard as to quality that the bill had previously peesed through the hinds of the lawdraughtsman. But last month in Auckland, a serious defect was made manifest in the construction of Section 8 of the new Act during a case brought before J Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., against an I employer for failing to register a conI tract with, an apprentice. Section 8 of I the Act provided that contracts with apprentices required to be in - writing, and must be filed with the District Registrar within 14 days of completion. The defendant took on an apprentice, and, so far, the contract bad not l-pcn filed. Iα iact the contract had only been partially completed, as it had only been signed by one of the parties. Tbc Registrar of Apprentices for the Auckland District asked lor a ruling as to whether the 14 days within which the contract must be filed with the Registrar counted from tha date it was. raado, or tbe date it was completed. Mr. Hunt said the contract must be in writing, .•m! tarl to 'v! signed by botli parlies, ai.i] until that was done ii is not completed. Until that is done, the contract does not exist, and therefore cannot be I filed. A man cannot be fined for not registering a document which baa not been completed. Hβ is allowed 14 days from toe timo In which the. contract is signed by both parties in which to file the document. According to this reading, an employer ca.n take on an apprentice, nxake out the contract and take five or ebc years to complete the signing, and the registration of the contract provided for by Section S of the Act ia thereby evaded. The Plumbers' Union has referred the matter !to the Trades and Labour Council to move in the. direction of an amendment of the Act by Parliament co that regis- . tration of an apprentice aha.ll be compulsory within 14 days of the employment of the apprentice.

COMPENSATION FOR ACCIDENTS. To a good audience last Tuesday evening, at the Leys Institute, Mr. Will J. French, for Jl years connected with the Industrial Accidents Commission of California, gave a most comprehensive account of hie work under the title "The Human Toll of Industry." A very full account of his lecture has been given in our columns, so that there are but one or two points on which I am able to comment outside those mentioned. Mr. French stated that of preventable accidents in the States, it had been estimated that about 25 per cent could be charged to mechanical failures, and about 7j per cent to the failure of the processes of education. He stressed the fact that the. American employers were doing their i!fmoat to remedy the failures due to education. Bulletin boards weie provided in most large factories, and hinta as to how to obviate accidents v;ere placed on these board*, and renewed, some weekly, and at moet, monthly; these were in large conspicuous type, and the hints specialised in the section of industry carried on in that building. Rometimes slogans were used conveying pointed pithy warnings.. For instance, in steel factories where many workers are liable to lose an eye ivhilrf working a lathe or quick-moving machine, it ia compulsory to use goggles for protection, behind the lathe would be the slogan: "It 15 easier to see out of glass goggles than out of glass eyes." Another maxim is, "Toe best safety device ia a careful man." Or, "After reading th>se directions if you must fall; fall on your head." The employers went into the prevention phase in the States, heartily. Said Mr. French: "In many industries in America, the foreign element large.ly predominates, and it is the aim of the employer to group these sections together. Sometimes arguments arise between the men, and one section will punctuate its argument with, say, the stiletto, another with poison, while, the coloured labourers are prore to use the razor to enforce their point- At a conference the other day, one delegate from a firm advanced the point that his firm did more to prevent casualties than any ottipr firm, because m the pa. si tczlt their negro workers had all been supplied with safety razors." The lecture had its touches of 'mmour which lightened what would otherwise hiv.? been a sad, and pathetic subject. ''In the early days of the Act in the States, employers were often slow in paying out compensation" said the lecturer, "and on one occasion he had received a letter from a poor woman wno had lost Her husband by death, complaining of the dilatory settlement, if it not soon settled' said the letter, ' almost wish T had my husband back. , " Mr. F-ereh left for Australia to-riay in the Maunginui. HANDSOME COMPENSATION. A vigorous protest against the German Government's action in handing over £/53,000,000 to the Ruhr capitalists for the loss of profit" they suffered during the occupation has been made by the German Federation of Labour and the Union of Employees which, together,

claim a membership of morn than 7,500,0n0 workers. The protest states that the Government found it possible to grant £33.000,000 to the Ruhr capitalists, though only £3,.">00,000 was set aside for indemnifying all others incurring losses from tho occupation. It alao deci-ires that (lie Government, by most drastic taxation, managed to show a surplus last year of only to squander more than three-fourths of it on the capitalists. The latter, in fact, were twice indemnified. First they profited by the lowering of wages, the raising of prices, and breaking down of working conditions. Then they received from tho Government the huge buiij-s concerning which the controversy is now raging. The protest also repeats the accusation already made that the Government sought to conceal the granting of credits until after they had been made, and declares that the Government's action has filled the workers of tho Ruhr capitalist!", who received the cash, with bitterness and indignation.

ALWAYS WRONG. The Union Secretary. If the secretary writes a letter, it is too long. If ho sends a postal, it's too short. If he sends out a notice he's a spendthrift. If he doesn't send a notice be is lazy. If he attends a committee meeting he is butting in. If he. stays away he is a shirker. If he duns the members for dues he is insulting. If ho fails to collect the dues he is slipping. If he asks for advice he. is incompetent, and if he does not ho ie bullheaded. If he writes his reports complete they arc too long, and if he condenses them thry are incomplete. If he talks, on a subject he is trying to run things; and if ho remaJxin quiet ho has lost interst in the institution. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust, If the others won't do if, The secretary must.