LINES ABOUT LABOUR.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 98, 22 October 1904, Page 12

LINES ABOUT LABOUR.

The wages at present ruling in Auckland, according to the statement of a private employer, are : — Is and 3d an hour for carpenters, 12s and 13s per day for bricklayers, and 8s per day for bricklayers' labourers. The Nineteenth Century for September contains an article s by Mr. Tom Mann, the well-known socialistic organiser, on " The Political and Industrial Situation in Australia." The article was written when Mr. J. C. Watson and his colleagues formed the Government of the Commonwealth. Notwithstanding that fact, Mr. Mann's view of the situation, especially as regards Victoria, is pessimistic. Labour troubles, he says, are fought bitterly. Chinese and other cheap labour competition has to be met, and many skilled trades are disorganised. Generally speaking, Mr. Mann finds that the industrial and social conditions leave something to be desired on the part of the workers, although he admits that the working hours and the standard of living are favourable when compared with those existing in other countries. At the meeting of the Sydney Labour Council recently a report was received from the committee of delegates from the building trades unions affiliated to the Council who were recently appointed to deal with the question of day labour on Government works. The report, which was adopted, stated that it had been decided to organise a deputation to the Minister for Works, who would be asked to direct that all existing works be completed under the day labour system, and that in all future contracts the limit of a day's work be eight hours, and, further, that union wages be paid and a clause prohibiting sub-letting bo rigidly enforced. At Sunderland County Petty Sessions recently, 190 miners employed at Ryhope Colliery were fined 5s and costs^each for having caused a pit to cease work. On 3rd August a man was' fatally injured in the mine, and died in the Sunderland Infirmary. In accordance with custom, the men ceased work when the death was announced, but the owners contended that as the man had died off the colliery premises the men had no right to lay the pit idle. Last month the builders' labourers at Toronto struck / work for an advance in wages from 25 cents to 28 cents an hour, causing a serious interruption of building operations. Several conferences he'd with the employers to arrange a settlement haying proved fruitless, the Bricklayers' Union, by an overwhelming majority, decided that all its members should cease work in support of the builders' labourers. Work was in consequence entirely suspended, and about 1200 men are idle. Both sides are determined, and there are prospects of a long and bitter struggle. According to statistics just issued 1200 strikes and 82 lock-outs took place in Germany in 1903. This is the highest number yet recorded, the greatest number hitherto having been 895 in 1898". Last year 121,593 persons took part in such movements, the total cost of which amounted to over 5,000,000 marks, 88 per cent, of which was provided by the different organisations. Th.c sum contributed by sympathisers abroad was somewhat over 40,000 marks. At a meeting convened by the Victorian Ironworkers' Unicn, attended by 3000 people, a motion was carried unanimously that " This meeting strongly protests against Sic action of the Bent Government in sending to Scotland for a sand-dredge, thus depriving our engineering firms and skilled mechanics of an opportunity of securing a contract, which, in the depressed condition of the iron trade would have lessened the depression, given work to unemployed, and demonstrated the capabilities of the firms and the skill of the workmen, instead of discrediting them in the eyes of the manu- ' factoring world." Mr.Elmslie, M.L.A., in supporting the motion, said that a resolution should be carried through Parliament to the effect that goods paid for by the State should be manufactured in the State. At a, meeting of unemployed Gippsland coal miners', victims of the Outtrim strike, the following resolution was carried : — " That this meeting resolves to bury the | hatchet and let bygones be bygones as far as the late strike is concerned." The secretary of the Vanmen's Union complained to the Sydney Trades Council that, while the various societies attached great importance to the principle of preference to unionists, the majority of the vanmen employed in connection with the Eight-hour Demonstration were nonunionists. Two years ago the union had over two hundred members; now the number had dwindled to fifty, the cause being the futility of their efforts to secure necessary amendments iD the traffic regulations. He contended that, to be consistent and loyal to the principles of ! trades unionism, the members of the Vanmen's Union should receive preference in the matter of employment by unionists. A record of transactions of the New South Wales Clothing Factory for the year ended 30th 'June shows that the amount credited for manufacture of garments was £16,036 8s 4d. The amount Swwo in T^VY* . mana gement was ±.6072 10s Id. Rent, insurance, and deduction for plant depreciation, etc., came to £562 5s 6d. The profit and loss accpunt showed a debit balance of £1795 10s Bd. From .some 1 particulars given in the Cornhill, it is gathered that the cost of domestic service varies to a marked degree in different parts of the United States. The average wage for a cook in the far South is £1 12s a month, £3 in Washington, £3 4s in New York, £4 in Chicago, £5 in Denver, and £6 in San Francisco. No American housewife will dispute the assertion that, except for an occasional Japanese who may be hired on the Pacific coast for £7 a month, the middle-class household never knows, a really well-trained servant. The difficulty in finding even fairly competent servants is the secret of the rapid increase of apartment houses and family hotels in all American cities. Many females employed in clothing and boot factories have not yet recognised the great risk of serious accident which is involved through wearing their hair down while working at the machines or near machinery in motion. Two instances of scalping in adjoining States, recently described in the Sydney press, would most probably have been avoided had the firls* hair been worn up. ' The New outh Wales Department of Labour and Industry has had to take action in cases where the inspectors found that the fencing and guarding of the machinery were not properly maintained, more especially as the females were working at the machines with their hair hanging down; but in order to minimise the risk of accident the clerk in charge of the department asks that he be assisted in his efforts by the proprietors of all such factories making it compulsory that the females working at or near the machines shall wear their hair up. In future, where the inspectors find the females working at these machines with their hair hanging down, and the fencing and guarding of all the machinery not properly maintained, or where any other breach of the Factories and Shops Act is committed, the clerk in charge has determined to recommend that immediate action be taken against those responsible for the breach. It may be mentioned that a number of factory occupiers, through proper supervision, have been able to enforce the rule that the hair must be worn up while the females are at work.