TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 141, 16 June 1928, Page 20

TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

(By INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.)

UNION MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. This Evening, June 16—Fellmongers. Monday. June IS—Hairdressers, Furniture Trades. Tuesday, June 19—Plumbers. Wednesday, June 20—Plasterers. Thursday, June 21—Boilermakers, Plumbers' Educational. LOCAL. There has been very little improvement in trade conditions at the Trades Hall since last week, and the statement by th Prime Minister that " the Dominion has turned the corner" has, as yet, brought no conviction to the hearts of the local unionists. An explanation of the statement is possibly in the fact that the Prime Minister is further advanced than most persons in the Dominion, and he would probably "turn the corner" much sooner than the rest of us would. But in the natural order of things our "turn" must comu sooner or later. At present we are on the , broad road that leadeth to privation, i "and many there be that walk therein," | while the corner to be turned will lead | to the narrow road of prosperity, "and few there be that find it."

Mr. R. F. Baiter, secretary of the local Engineering Trades Union, leaves on Tuesday evening for the South, to conduct disputes for the federation. The motor mechanics' dispute opens in Wellington on the 21st, the assessors for the unions being:—Auckland: Messrs. J. H. Wilde and H. Baxter. Wellington: A. Black. Canterbury: Messrs. W. Attersley and G. T. Thurston. Otago: Mr. A. Wright. In this dispute the Motor Trades' Association is applying for continuous eight-hour shifts to apply to garages; it is therefore contemplated that all garages shall be open all the year round, including Sundays.

The general engineers' dispute will be taken at Christchureh on the 2oth, the assessors being:—Messrs. H. -Baxter, Auckland; A. Black, Wellington; J. Cordell and G. T. Thurston, Christchurch; A. Wright, Dunedin. An interesting

feature in this section is that the employers have tiled »counter proposals claiming a reversion from the present 44 hour week to a week of 47 hours, at 2/ per hour instead of the existing 2/3, with a further reduction so far as the Canterbury manufacturers are concerned to 1/10J per hour.

An old Labour stalwart called at the! Trades Hall yesterday, in the person of Mr. R. H. Dalhousie, who is on his way to the annual conference of the New Zealand workers at Wellington. Mr. Dalhousie will be remembered by the older trades unionists as a prominent delegate at the pre-war unity conferences, at which he represented the Manawatu flaxworkers. On the outbreak of the war Mr. Dalhousie went into camp, and left for France as a member of the 4th Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade, coming back to the Dominion as a sergeant, and he, as a railway construction worker, is stationed at Okaihau. Hokianga district. At the conference, which opens next Tuesday, Mr. Dalhousie is representing the North Island construction workers, and there are over 100 remits on the agenda paper. It is expected there will be son : interesting discussions, and the policy of the Public Works Department will come in for some strong criticism, it being alleged that the Department is confusing the question of what works shall be worked as ordinary public works and what shall be carried out as relief works under the so-called 9/ and 12/ per day wage allowed to the unemployed. The men use the term "so-called" because it is only the first fortnight that is paid for at those rates for single ami married men respectively; after that period the men are put on at contract rate.-;, bringing in about eightpence per hour. These grievances are to be ventilated at the conference next week.

THE PROBLEM OP DEMOCRACY.

"What I do fear and what we must j fear is the danger of a half-educated j electorate," said Mr. W. W. Hill, in his presidential address to the conference at Cambridge of the National Union of Teachers. "It is not democracy that is the menace, but ignorance. This is the time to utter a solemn warning to the statesmen of the country that if they let their educational reforms lag behind their political reforms they will be preparing a situation of a highly dangerous character. The political system of the twentieth century cannot be run with the educational equipment of the nineteenth century. It is conceivable that a despot might rule Well if he were able and wise. It is inconceivable that a democracy can rule well unless it is able and wise. Changes are inevitable in the future as they have been in the past. But the English believe that changes should be carried out coolly, sanely, and with reason and deliberation. They like people to keep their heads; for history shows that when the members of one section of society k>*e their heads the members of another scction lose theirs also. The aim of the educationist is not a reduction in the number of heads, but an increase in the amount of knowledge and wisdom they contain. "It is important to keep close to reality and not to be dazzled by a vain idealism. We must prepare children for the life they actually will live and not for some ideal life which exists only in our dreams," Mr. Hill added. "It is foolish to imagine that the great majority of the children in our schools will become completely skilled craftsmen. For millions of workers industry means merely the performance of minute fractional processes, which can be learned in a few minutes and do not engage more than a small part of their personality. A worker in a shoe factory to-day is not a bootmaker—he is only a. hundredth part of one. The changes that have taken place in the industry, indeed, are the direct opposite of those which have taken place in society. While industry for many workers is becoming more and more simple, the demands of life are becoming more and more complex. Formerly the individual was a complete man in the workshop but insignificant in the State; to-day it is in the works that he counts for little, while in the State he is a complete citizen. He gets his living inside the works, but he lives his life outside. This fact obviously determines the kind of education he should receive. In all the new postprimary schools, whether they are labelled grammar schools or modern schools, the keynote of education must be breadth and liberalitv. In remembering the worker the school must not forget the man."