TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 143, 18 June 1926, Page 13

TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

(By INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.)

UNION MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK.

Monday, June 31. —Furniture Trades, Hairdressers.

Tuesday, June 22.— Stonemasons. Wednesday, June 23. —Plasterers. Thursday, June 24. —.Knjrinedrivers. Boil'-r----uiaker>, <'oopers, Tramway Employees, lias Employees' Annual So-.-ial. THE PASSING OF A STALWART. Private advices received at the Trades Hall record the death of Mr. William Belcher at Wellington on Tuesday of last week, after a long and painful illness borne with great fortitude. To the present generation, the name of William Belcher would carry no meaning at all, but in the early years of the i Arbitration Act, he was probably the best known, as well as the most abusea labour man in the Dominion. As a man who had followed the sea as an occupation, it was natural that when Bill Belcher, as he was universally known, took up his residence ashore, he should look after the well-being of his mates that were still afloat, and ho was one of the founders of the Federated Seamen's Union of New Zealand, as we know it to-day, and for many years he was the secretary of the Dunedin branch of that federation, and also of the federation itself. With the late Mr. J. K. Kneen (Auckland secretary) and Mr. W. T. Young (Wellington secretary) he shaped the destinies of the seamen of New Zealand and had the honour of conducting the first dispute before the Arbitration Court on the passing of the Arbitration Act of 1804. The seamen's dispute is on record in the first volume of awards as number 1: and I notice that the official numbers of the disputes now has reached well into the eisrht thousand. Many of the older union officials in Auckland well remember the excitement and interest amongst the workers and <reneral public when the newly set up court arrived in Auckland to hear the seamen's dispute after the recommendations of the Board of Conciliation foT the district were not accepted. Procedure and precedent there was none; these had to be formulated as the case proceeded. Mr. Belcher conducted the case for the men, and so great was the interest in the novel proceedings that the court room was crowded each day, and the. daily papers took several columns each day to record the evidence, with question and answer, as each witness gave his evidence. | Possessed of a commanding presence, and I a deep Tesonant voice, Mr. Belcher made the most of his case, and his summing-1 up was a. masterpiece. Since then the j proceedings of the court have become | so familiar to us that a dispute is often j noted in as few lines as there were columns in 1897,' but the Auckland | seamen's award delivered and signed by Mr. Justice Williams, the first j President of the Court on January 24th, j 1898, consists of but ten short clauses, j Mr. Belcher was the highest authority on mercantile marine legislation, at that j time in Xew Zealand, not only | colonial legislation, but also for the British Empire. His fame was not confined to the colonies, as they were then termed, but extended to Great Britain, for he represented the seamen at the- Imperial Navigation Conference held in London in 1007. While secreretary at Dunedin, he was by a big vote elected chairman of the Dunedin Harbour Board, and the advent of such a pronounced labour official on sucn an ausrust local body as the southern Harbour Board caused no small stir amongst the conservatives of tbe southern city. But a sreneration has arisen "who knew not Joseph," and for some years the once sturdy seamen's advocate, ' prostrated by nn "incurable malady, , lived in retirement at Wellington, whore he passed away after a brave ficrht for • existence: but the h'storv of [ the strUErtrle of the New Zealand «pamen ; for better conditions come to be written. • fbp -nnme of WHliam Belcher will be indelibly recorded.

HOMES FOR WORKERS.

Some time ago the New South Wales Parliamentary Labour party appointed a committee, of which Mr. Fitzgerald (Minister of Local Government) is chairman, to make investigations regarding a housing scheme, and to draw up a scheme for submission to the party. The members of the committee have visited Queensland, and have made inquiries into the housing scheme there. Mr. Fitzgerald, on his return from Queensland, said that the homes built in Queensland under the Workers Homes Act and the State Advances Act were inspected in the suburb of Eutwyche, Coorparoo, Cannon's Hill, and Yuronga. and first-hand data were collected from the Officials and the purchasers. The homes inspected were found in all cases to be comfortable, with every convenience, built of weatherboard, with a pleasing appearance, and it was found that the Queensland Government Was building homes for the people at the rate of 2.7 houses per day, and making available £1,000,000 yearly for this purpose, while during the next financial year it was anticipated that f2,000,000 would be made available.

The conditions under the' State Advances Act, 191 C, he eaid, resembled closely those of the Government Savings Bank scheme of New South Wales, but the Workers Homes Act provided some novel features. Purchasers of homes under this scheme were only required to find 5 per cent of the capital cost of the house, and give security for the balance by taking out a life insurance policy to cover the amount o* tne balance due at any time during the currency of the contract for repayment—namely, 25 yeara The insurance was effected with the Government office, and should the purchaser die at any time before the expiration of the period of contract for repayment the home became the absolute property of the purchaser's dependents, without encumbrance of any kind. The land tenure was perpetual leasehold, with a ground rent of 3 per cent of the capital value, subject to reappraisement every fifteenth year by the Land Court. The amount payable monthly, which included the repayment of the principal and interest at 5 per cent, made provision also for fire insurance, life insurance, painting, repairs, general expenses, and rent of land, and was far below the amount that would ordinarily be paid in rental for such a home without the benefits enumerated above. As aii illustration, it might be pointed out that the monthly payment for a home £500 capital cost, under this scheme, amounted to £3 19/2, or 18/3 weekly. The Queensland Government schemes of home-building were undoubtedly popular, as evidenced by the growth of extensive new suburbs, Bueh as Coorparoo. , j