TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 136, 11 June 1927, Page 18

TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

(By INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.) UNION MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. Monday, Junj? 13. —Saddlers. Painters. Tuesday, Ju.oe 14 —Storemen. Wednesday, June 15 —Plasterers, Auckland Carpenters. Labour Representation Committee. Onehunga Carpenters. Thursday. June 10 —District Council of Alliance of Labour. Saturday, June 18. —Gas Clerks" Social.

ARBITRATION COURT.

A wire received at the Trades Hall, notifies unions that the Court of Arbitration will open its Auckland sittings on Monday, July 4. There is not a lengthy" list of cases to be dealt with, and • the session will not last more than a week.

AMONG THE UNIONS. The building trades unions all report stagnationof trade. Last week, an advertisement for a carpenter drew over 50 applicants.

In the painting trade, there is no improvement from last week, \esterdav an advertisement for a paperhanger to paper one room in the city was well answered; oi# respondent informed uie that he was well over the fiftieth to apply, and he was there before 9 a.m. and it was safe to assume that others would apply after he had departed. Mr. A. H. Dixon, secretary of the furniture trades union, is at present away on an organising tour of the North, as far as Kaitaia. He is expected back on Monday.

Mr. J. 11. Sutherland, secretary of the General Labourers' Union, is also away this week on union business to Rotorua. This is part of a general rally in the interests of the award: he returns to-day and leaves again for tin; Waikato on Morula v.

The Drivers' Union reports work as very bad indeed, numbers of men being paid off each week owing to poorness of trade. As the result of the annual conference of Storemen's Unions, held , in Wellington at Easter, the Dominion Federation executive has been located at Auckland. There are well on for 2(HK( members in this federation, and for three years past the executive has been located in Dunedin. The seven unions in the federation are operating at Dtinedin, Christchurch. Blenheim. Wellington, Napier. New Plymouth and Auckland, of which Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin comprise a- membership of about 500 each. A conciliation council for the boot trade operatives meets at Wellington, under Mr. P. Hally, Conciliation Commissioner. 011 July 14. The existing Dominion award ran out in April and it is expected that an agreement will be arrived at that will supersede it. At the sitting the question of what is a fair system of piece work will be fully gone into. Four assessors have been appointed: Messrs. F. Jones (Dunedin), F. H. Kobson (ChristchurchJ. Moore (Wellington) and C. A. Watts (Auckland). Advices to the union report strenuous efforts to "white ant" the British boot trade, obviously emanating from Russia. This will affect prejudicially the Dominion boot trade, owing to British boot operatives seeking work here.

The recently-formed Biscuit Makers' Union is now a legal entity, its registration having been effected. Past attempts to organise this trade have not been very encouraging, but on this occasion the movement for a union has come from the workers themselves to the Trades Hall, with the result that much enthusiasm lias been manifested at meetings. The statutory meeting to file a dispute has already been held, and the application is under way. A union social to mark the registration has been arranged for June 23, at the Trades Hall. Now that the Auckland union is an accomplished fact, steps are being taken to resuscitate the Christchurch Biscuit Makers' Union, so as to permit of an application for a Dominion biscuit workers' award. Mr. S. Tyson, inspector of sawmills for the Dominion, has been spending his annual leave in Auckland, renewing old associations, and friendships. He leaves on Tuesday next for Wellington lo resume dutv.

AUCKLAND SHIPWRIGHTS. The new award for the Auckland ship, yacht and boatbuilders' industry came to hand last week, and met with general satisfaction from the members of the union at a meeting last Monday evening. It is practically an agreement arrived at in Conciliation Council between the parties, leaving the questions of wages and country allowance to be settled by the Arbitration Court. The new award came into operation on May 30, the previous award having run for the long term of seven years from May 24, 1920. During this period the minimum rate had been varied by general orders of the Court, as the result of cost of living figures furnished from time to time by the Government Statistician, until it became a problem of calculation in determining the ruling wage. Under this new award, the wages have been stabilised, and the rates are:—Shipwrights, 2/4J per hour, and boatbuilders 2/3 per hour, an increase of 2}d an hour on the rates awarded seven years ago, but which it is only fair to mention the employers have not adhered to but paid higher rates voluntarily. The country allowance has also been slightly increased and is now fixed at 5/ per day additional.

LABOUR IN NEW SOUTH WALES. Once again the political Labour party in New South Wales is riven in train. In this, history is repeating itself. The oldest Labour party in Australia it has, like almost every one of its sister Labour parties, been weakened by division. In the case of New South Wales, however. Labour has had many internal struggles, and this latest is in i many respects the most discreditable. The main contention at the moment centres round a struggle to decide which faction shall rule the party and incidentally reap the rewards of office. Each condemns the other, and a large number of people believe that personal ambitions and preferment have supplanted all questions of principle. Today it is estimated tliat Mr. Lang has 19 followers and some 27 opponents, but political allegiance to one or other Labour faction counts for so little that any day may change this aspect of the quarrel. Tn view of the present split in the New South Wales party its beginnings are of interest. It was "the first Labour party in Australia, and its history is consequently of outstanding interest. Sir George Grey, who was visiting Australia in 1891, in cqnnection with the movement for New Zealand and Australian Federation, was one factor in its creation out of the general elections of 1891, his speeches influencing many votes in favour of the Labour party. The most potent influence working for Labour, however, was the revulsion of popular feeling against industrial war and in favour of constitutional reform through parliamentary action. The Labour party posed a« * party in

favour of industrial arbitration and reasonable progress. To the great surprise of many people it was returned at the election of 1801 with a strength of 35 members. Within a very short time the party split in almost two equal portions—l 7 in one section and 18 in the other. This division continued for some vipars, and at subsequent elections the party's strength was 27, 18. 19, 24, 2.">. 32. reaching 46 members in 1910. In 1917 the parliamentary membership was 29 n*ernbers. while three years earlier it was 49. Another split was responsible for the shrinkage, and at the elections of 1917 21 Labour members faced the electors. The history of the New South Wales Labour party is an eloquent commentary on the inefficiency of a nation's would-be governors to govern themselves. —>T. T. Paul, in Otago "Daily Times" Labour Notes.