LINES ABOUT LABOUR.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 13, 15 July 1905, Page 12

LINES ABOUT LABOUR.

Surveyors are at work in the Catskills, New York, laying out what will be, when completed,- the largest brickmaking plant in the world. The new plant when erected will employ over 1000 men, and turn out 1,000,000 bricks a day. The Queensland Railway Department reports that the Nerang and Richmond extensions were carried out by day labour, whereby a saving in cost was effected. The Worker declines to give any credit to the Minister in charge, on the ground that the system was "sweating pure and simple." English emigrants to the number of 1045 sailed for Canada on 26th April, on board the Dominion liner Vancouver, with, the Salvation Army flag at the masthead. The emigrants were gathered by Salvation Army officers, and the majority are workmen. All are paying their own passage, and many are supplied with sufficient capital to make a st-art in the new world. "The outcome of the Federal crisis," says tho Brisbane Worker, "is a- Deakin Government, kept in office by Labour votes given in return for legislative concessions. The Labour Party in caucus determined to have nothing to do with ja. coalition. Therein it resolved wisely." London hansom-cab drivers to the number of 700 are wise in their generation. They are taking time by the forelock and! attending classes in motor-car driving, so that they will not be job-less when the inevitable displacement of cabs and horses by motor-cure and 'buses comes along. Mr. Deakin's prpgramme having been submitted to a meeting of the Labour Party, the following resolution y/as carried: "This Party, having been informed through Mr. Watson of , the measures proposed to be submitted by Mr. Deakin, agrees to give his Ministry a general support through this Parliament in the transaction of public business." The following statement has been made by ex-Premier Watson as to the attitude of the Australian Labour Party :— "Our understanding involves no merging of parties. It does not involve the merging of either party into the other, nor of tho two parties into a single party, but is an understanding for this Parliament upon a definite programme of work which, we think, requires attention with the minimum of delay." The lot of the Melbourne unemployed, bad enough at best (says the Sydney Worker's correspondent), becomes intensified as winter advances. Even those who by having the luck to secure casual employment or odd jobs can succeed in keeping body and soul together during the summer months without direct resort to the charity of their neighbours, find th© long nights and the demands for extra fuel which winter brings ruinous. ' Suits for damages aggregating £200,000 have been filed in the State and Federal Court at Denver, Colorado, by the United States Reduction and Refining Company and a. number of Cripple Creek mining companies against the Western Federation of Miners and its officers. The complaints charge the defendants with unlawfully conspiring to injure the plaintiffs by preventing the mining and shipment of ore. The New York .State Department of Labour reports that the workers of that Stute are better organised than those of any other State or country in the world. Members of labour unions in Great Britain and Ireland number 1,902,308; in Germany, 1,276,831; in France, 715,576; and New York, 400,000. The ratio is one to each 18 inhabitants in New York, one to 22 in Great Britain, one to 44 in Germany, and one to 53 in France. The committee of the London unemployed fund have just laid the foundations of an institution which should, if developed, prove a boon both to the unemployed and employed. Labour bureaus have been established in eleven of the London Borough Councils, and the new ventiure — the Central Employment Exchange, 34, Victoria street, S.W. — is designed to provide a means of intercommunication between the various bureaus, so that vacancies in one district may be filled from the unemployed of another district, without necessitating the weary tramping which at present is the only resource of the out-of-work. The Adelaide correspondent of the Tocsin writes- : — There are bad times in store for the unfortunate unemployed this winter. The wet weather set in much earlier than usual, and rain has fallen almost every day for a month past. This hus greatly interfered with outdoor work of every kind, and has prevented hundreds of 'men from obtaining such casual work as digging and doing up gardens. It is estimated that from 1000 to 1200 genuine working men in the city and suburbs alone are at present out of work, while in the country things are no better, and with the exception of any public works tbait may be undertaken there is littlo hope of work being provided for them. l)r. Nogaro, a Professor of the University of Paris, is now visiting Australia, and is shortly expected in New Zealand, having been sent out by his University to study the social conditions and legislative experiments of Australasia. In France, he says, during the last few years seveu laws have been passed which regulate the working of factories. Most of tho provisions apply to sanitary conditions and the prevention of accident. The working day is limited to ten hours for women, and also for men who work in the same rooms' as women; but for the adult male the legal day is twelve hours. Children are especially protected. Early closing is unknown in France. The French shop assistants are provided with seats. France, according to Dr. Nogaro, lias a very uncompromising Working Men's Compensation Act. All that is necessary to prove is injury — employers' precautions or workmen's negligence making no difference. Tho employers' sole protection is insurance. If a workman is killed, his widow is given a pension, the amount of which is regulated by the number of children under the age of sixteen. Coalminers have an old-age pension fund, contributed.- in equal parts by the employers, the miners, and the Slate. Chief Inspector Orel's annual report on the factories of Victoria (says the Sydney Worker correspondent) has been published, lie holds that the year has been the best in the history of the State. The number of hands employed had increased by 2537, and the number of factories by 111. Thero are 38 special wages boards in existence whose awards affect 38,000 out of the 62,000 persons employed. There were 189 accidents — six being fatal — duo to machinery during the year. The department secured 235 convictions out of 291 prosecutions. At a recent meeting of the Miners' Association at Bendigo n. discussion took placo as to the best method of firing holes in mince, and a committee was appointed to report on the matter. At a meeting of tho Association subsequently tho committee reported as follows: — "The safest method is to use 'snuffs' to fire all holes. Four holes should be tho maximum number fired, and only three when the holes are dependent upon one another. Not leas than oin lead of fuse should be used in each hole." One of the membeis, Mr. Hammer, said "90 per coivt. of the men get hurt through carelessness." The Chairman replied "that is not so. They cannot see where they are boring when holes are shattered." Iho recommendations of tho committeo wei'c adopted* and it was resolved t/O forward copies of tho recommendations to the Minister of Mines and tho Mining Managers' Association. Another auction record has been broken in the Iluth sale at Christie's, 1200 guineas being paid for an eugraving by Tlios. Watson after Reynolds's portrait of Cath,erino Lady; Bampfyldo.

The JSTeiv Oliver Twist— Croivn Tenant.

A CRITICISM AND A SUGGESTION. By A. H. Truebridge. V. Before proceeding to consider remedies for the existing weaknesses it is desirable to recapitulate the objects to be attained. It has beeD laid down that the whole object of the State" is to achieve the intensive cultivation of its land, and that any; scheme must therefore in the most automatic and self-contained manner possible ensure that land shall always for all time \ be accessible to the cultivator upon such equitable terms as that he may be reasonably secure of the means of a comfortable existence from its produce; and that this implies primarily the prevention of private monopoly in any form or in any degree. > The first step, then, is to consider whether the 999 years.' lease is capable of such modification as will bring it into conformity with these requirements. There appears to be one possibly effective modification — namely, the abrogation of the power of transfer. At present this power is hedged round with what are supposed to be safeguards, but whose efficiency depends upon the discretion of the Land Boards. It has, however, already been suggested that the Land Boards are altogether too weak an institution to withstand the strain which this function throws upoD them, of which j contention the existence of -dummyismv is ample justification. But the transfer is of the life-blood of the settlement policy, and yet there is no adequate means of controlling it, for the very good and sufficient reason that it never can be controlled. Not even now — and certainly not for a thousand years henco. For the decisions in respect to transfers must rest upon evidence, and tho evidence is not reliable, for people who would hesitate to depart from the truth in a Court of law appear to have no compunction in doing so where it is only the question of the transfer of a piece of land which apparently hurts nobody. ' Even with the best intentions, what chances have the Land Boards of judging correctly ? . And what is the principal use of the transfer? To effect dummyism, and to realise the unearned increment. What is the proportion of transfer necessitated by circumstances and devoid of personal advantage? The advertising columns of the daily press well answer the question. But it is only these latter which are contemplated and justifiable by the true principle of the law. In that case the requirements of legitimate transfers could be entirely met by the lease reverting to the State with compensation to tho tenant for appraisable improvements. And surely this is what should happen under any system of State leasing. The State, with no immediate or prospective direct profit, leases land to a certain person to cultivate for his own benefit. If he is unable or unwilling to use it for that purpose it should be surrendered to the State that it may be let to another tenant who will make proper use of it. The original lessee having failed, from whatever cause, in fulfilling the conditions under which he obtained the lease, by what kind of argument can he be shown to be entitled to decide as to its further disposal ? And in what manner is he injured by being deprived of that right if it carries with it no pecuniary advantage, which it should uot do, nor can, if it is a legitimate transfer? But what about the unearned increment? Suppose the land has by that means increased in value. Is the surrendering tenant entitled to this, and, if so, who is to puy it? The State must pay it, buying back the lease at the enhanced price? But somehow it does not look right for the State to do this. But if it is right for the lessee to receive the unearned increment, it is as equally right for the State as for any one else to pay him for it. But, put this way, the tenant does not appear to be so palpably entitled to it. And if it be conceded that the tenant is not entitled to this, he is not injured by the loss of the right to transfer. But what are the remaining benefits of the lease? There is the power to demise, so that the lease can descend to the heirs-at-law so long as each of them fulfils the essential conditions, notably personal cultivation. But for how many generations would this continue ? Is it possible to imagine that each of the heirs-at-law for a thousand years should happen to be both a farmer and otherwise cligible-»to hold the lease? Stripped, then, of its power of transfer, the 999 years' lease becomes not only valueless, but absolutely impracticable. Thus it appears that the essence of this lease is the unearned increment, to which the lessee appears to be so little entitled that the momentary contemplation of its purchase by the- State involves what seems a manifest absurdity. But is it an absurdity? A" private landlord sometimes buys back a lease at a price justified only by this accretion. Is such a case analagous? What is the unearned increment? Is it not that value which arises from general improvements by tho State directly, as railways, roads, bridges, and what not ; or by the Stato indirectly, as the general community, by urban settlement, local public improvements, and tho like? as well as by tho general progress of the whole country to which every unit of the population contributes in some shape. Are we not, then, justified in calling all these "State improvements?" And if State improvements, then landlord's improvements, since the State is the landlord. And will the private landlord pay for improvements effected by himself? Thero is one other possible modification—namely, periodical re-appraisement. But there are almost insuperable difficulties here. One only need be noted. A 999 years' lease with re-valuation (say every 21 years) is an anomaly. It is simply a 21 years' lease with a right of renewal at an indefinite rent, and appeals neither to the imagination nor the pocket. Mr. A. S. Boyd, the well-known illustrator, is preparing a series of drawings for the new edition of Burns's "Cotter's Saturday Night," a poem which has not yet received adequate treatment from j any modern draughtsman — so writes tho Westminster Gazette. Mr. Boyd, however, will do well if he surpasses Faed's well-known plains.