LINES ABOUT LABOUR.

Evening Post, Volume LXVII, Issue 132, 4 June 1904, Page 12

LINES ABOUT LABOUR.

In sending :.oiug unemployed for work in the countiy districts, the Victorian Pienuer, Air. iJent, has dcleiinmcd that they must sign uu agieumeiit to leluru halt their callings to their wives and families. Mr. lieut says it is iniquity bin that men shuuld spend their earnings in drink and have their wives and families supported by philanthropic societies. .Mr. ividston, Iho Queensland Labour Treasurer, rclei ring to a letter ip the press suggesting that the Government should adopt somo scheme for assisting the uneinp.oyed to grow cotton, tuid that would mean the Government enibiuking in an industry, which he did not approve of ; but if there wero men who desired to go into cotton growing the Gin eminent might bo able to help them u.ong, but tho men must take responsibility and risk. In a couple of months, when tho proper timo cuiiio round, he intended to try an experiment in growing sisal hemp. This would be on tho Glad-stoue-Rockhampton railway. At a meeting of tho Rockhampton Waterside Workers' Union recently held, it was decided to write to the Prime Minister piotcsting against the practice of working alien crews when .cargo i-s being discharged from any steamer at Australian ports As on immediate step to relieve the unemployed, tho Victorian Government has decided to equip and provide work for 1/ gangs of six men each in clearing 80,000 acres of land lying between Moe and Walhulla. It has undertaken also to provide railway travelling, tools, tents, nnd blankets, and in some cases houses, for tho men who aro prepared to tackle tho woik. Tho maximum pay for the work will be at the rate of 6s 6d per day. Another batch of unemployed will bo despatched in a week or so to tho Goulburn levee works. The Melbourne Ago in a recent article says: — "Tho chief mischief wliich tho leaders of the Labour Party are at present working in Australian politics is that of completely misrepresenting Labour. We have lately seen the course of Federal legislation abruptly arrested by the Labour Party, not on account of somo broad aspiration of tho workers, but to give political power to the State employees, who are ivlieudy by far the most comfortable waj;e and salary earning "class in the community. It is well known that throughout the country there is but little sympathy with the imaginury grievance) of; the pampered public fiorvant, and yet the organised Labour Party puts tho indulgence of these favoured few before overy genuine Labour interest." Though the strike at tho Gippsland coal mines hits bc«n declared off, there is very little prospect of additional hands being pub on lor some timo, and thu chances of those who left work being ro-engaged are exceedingly remote. In the ilrst place, the mines have sufficient men for present requirements, whilo it is considered desirable that there should not bo association on the part of thobo who went out on strik,o with the fice labourent. A recent visitor to tho* Gippsland coal mining towns in Victoria gives a graphic account of the deplorable state of nftairs which prevails iv them, especially in Out trim and Juinbuuna, in consequence of the strike. Ptopcrty has depreciated in value, and houses are fulling into a dilapidated condition. In Outlrim, for example, business . promises in one case which were bringing in a ronlal of 8$ 6d a week prev.ous to tho strike were sold recently for £30, nnd small cottages ur« obtainable at a rental of 2s and 4s per week. Instead of twelve «tore» all doing a good business there are now only two open. BourdinghouKes are deserted. Although there are many vacant houses the men who nre work nt the mines have to reside in temporary structures in consequence of the compulsion which is exercised to refuse them accommodation in tho town The non-union men are absolutely boycotted by thu strikers nnd their triendii. The campaign on behalf of the New South Wales Lnbour Party was. opened by Mr. M'Gowon, its louder, the oth<-r day. The Olmirmnti (Mr. Riloy, President of the Political Labour League) said thnt tho party aspired next election to seize the reins of Ktllce in tho next Parliament. Mr. M'Gowen, apparently (says the Sydney Telegraph) did not share this sanguine hopo, because ho talked of some" persons as somo "who will be in Mr. Carruthers' Ministry," and ho incidentally declared thnt tho Labour Party would bo found in opposition to Mr. Carnithers's Government. Ho indicated also that they were able to keep any Government in power that, gave them what they wanted. Ho defondrd the Government from tho chargo of gross extravagance, and, with regard to the Friedman case, said it was befouling the fountain of justice to say that the prisoner's wealth secured his liberation. Figures were quoted extensively to show that tho Arbitration Act was not exorcising a baneful eifect in scaring capital out of tho State. The strike of the Welsh choir nt Ballarat, which 'occurred in consequence of a disagreement with the deacons some time back, has proved a great deal inoro successful th;m some recent organised revolts iv other walks of life. After the trouble with the church authorities the choir took over the Doveton Ilall for the conduct of mm vices, and it is stated that the building is crowded each Sunday. It has now been decided to open a Sunday school iv connection with tho new congregation.,. Meanwhile services aro being held at the Welsh church but on a recent Sunday only about a dozen persons attended. The members of the choir state that harmony will bo restated as soon us the deacons consent to al.ow the congregation to adjudicate upon the mutters iv dispute. The Rand Labour question is discussed in the Contompowtry Review, by Mr. Herbert Samuel, M.P., who regards it as ono of paramount importance, not merely to South Africa, but to the whole Empire ;0; 0 for, he obseives, "had the Johannesburg policy prevailed in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Cape Colony those territories Avould by now have become as Chinese as Singapore or Java." Against tho urgumnfc thut skilled white lnbour i,s too costly, and that unskilled white labour is not procurable for the Rand, Mr. Samuel adduces tho statements nmdo to tho Trans vual Industrial Commission in 1897, tho Stale Engineer of California and Supervising Engineer of the United States Geologicnl Survey, to the effect that the conditions under which low grade ores are worked on iho Wilwutersrand gold fields are more favourable than those under which ores of it similar quality are worked in the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Slope Stales of America; and yet there ■white labour, and white labour only, is employed. But tho objections to this in the Transvaal are not so much economic ns political, it would uppeur ; for ono of the directors of the Consolidated Gold Fields Company, a Mr. Rudd, made tho following frank admission — "If 200,000 native workers were to be replaced by 100,000 whites, they would simply hold the Government of tho country in tho hollow of their hand j und without any disparagement to the British labourer, 1 prefer to see tho more intellectual section of the community at the holm."

♦'I's fiction deteriorating?" asks a writor in the National Review. Certainly not since tho war began. j