LINES ABOUT LABOUR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 148, 23 June 1906, Page 12

LINES ABOUT LABOUR.

So far no steps have been taken to call together the delegates from the Auckland unions to decide what steps phaU be taken to celebrate Labour Day this year, According to current report Csays the Weekly New 6), there is every likelihood of a stormy meeting over last year's celebration when the meeting (if any) ipccups. Mr. S. Brown, of the ' Arbitration Court, gave a very interesting address in the Auckland Chamber of Commerce last week on the advantages of the proposed Industrial Association. The subscription fee for artisan members (says "Artizan" in tho Herald) is much too high, and will debar many who otherwise would ha,ye become active mmbera. At a meeting of the Kalgoorlie Political Labour Council, Western Australia, on the Bth inst., the following motion was carried, "That the Federal Labour Party bo written to, stating that this council objects to tho interference of the Federal Labour Party in reference to granting immunity pf opposition to non-Labour candidates, as it is a matter for the local lahour bodies to decide." Mr. Dalziel, secretary of the owners' side of the Sou^h Wales Coal Conciliation Board (says the Tribune of Ist May), received notice yesterday from the Miners' Federation that they intend applying for an increase of 3| per cent, in the wage rate. The matter will come under* the consideration of the board next week, ujid, failing agreement, will bo referred to the independent chairman, Lprd St. Aldwyn. At the Trades-hall Council, Melbourne, on the Bth inst. Mr, C. Gray said that the statement of the Premier that there were no unemployed in Melbourne was an absolute lie. There were three thousand «»pn in the city and suburbs who could pot get work, and mapy of them had wives j^d children depending on them, Th£ problem waa now as had as ever ifc wa«. It was depided to dtunapd that the Government should start relief works, suoh as irrigation, timberclearing, land-draining, road-making, and co-operative village settlements. Work in Auckland, according to the Weekly News, is still fairly plentiful for this time of the year, though broken time is the general rule in most trades. The building trade keeps good for 'the season of the year, but there are a fair number of men on the unemployed bock. House painters are quiet, bootmakers fairly busy, timber mills fair, boilermdkere fairly busy, but engineers and fitters are quiet, and quite a number are signing the unemployed book. The Labour Bureau ptill is able to find country work for suitable men A further development has taken place in Victoria in connection with the shearing difficulty. Owing to the negotiations relating to a cpnferonce between the Pastoralists' Association of VJfitona and Australian Workers' Union, with reference to rates, having been broken off, the PastoralLgts' Association on the 6th inst took action on its own initiative, and fixed the shearing rates for the coming Victoiian season at 16s per hundred, the shearer being found in rations, or 18s 6d per hundred the shearer finding his own rations. This is an increase of a shilling per hundred on. the rates prevailing for the past three seasons. A serious strike is reported from Aberdare, Wales. About the beginning of April some seven thousand colliers employed by ,the Bwllfa Colliery Company, the Powell Dufryn Company, 'and the Giomaman CoaJ Company gave nolice to teiminate thoir contract, in order, it is alleged, to coerce the nonunionists to join the South Wajes Milters' Federation. Strenuous efforts were made to induce thesp to join, but -with the exception of the Bwllfa Company their efforts were in vain, The result was that six thousand men ceased work. Nearly ten thousand men employed at Messrs. Nixon's collieries at Mountain Ash and Merthyr Vale also tendered their notices to terminate contracts on 31st May. " • ' The decision of the Arbitration Court to take only those caseft filed before December last (writes "Artizan" in the Weekly New?) revives the question of Utilising the Conciliation Boards again. In some quarters the opinion is nut forth that if the constitution of the board was altered co that the parties to a dispute were on each side to appoint expert members of their own trade or calling with a chairman to be mutually agreed upon — failing agreement the chairman to be appointed Dy the Govornment — there would be a far better prospect of reaching a satisfactory settlement of a dispute, and- in cases where only a partial agreement could be arrived at only those points in dispute to be referred to court. Labour Day (cays "X.Y.Z." in Public Opinion) has become something of a farce. In London the genuine working man was at work, and the demuustrators were a polyglot company who are hardly entitled to British sympathy. In Paris there was serious anticipation of trouble, and the Government took precautions which served both to scare Wny good citizens into flight and in keep 1 the agitation within due bounds. Whether there was anything in the alleged revolutionary plot, or whether its discovery was a clever electioneering manoeuvre on tho part of M. Clomeiiceau, there is nothing to show. At the annual provincial ci/nferenqp of the Poverty Bay Farmero' Union the resolutions passed included one asking "that the duty on potatoes be with' drawn during the existence of the blight;" "that, as there fa a scarcity of labour all over the colony, tho colonial executive might to some extent alleviate the position by a ciraulur letter to tho English paper?, setting forth the kind of mou moat requited, probable wages, and tho beßt time to arrive." This (says the Hawkes Bay correspondent of the Otago Witness) seems to he a good idea, as if wool keeps up to progent prices, it will follow that next year a lot of money will ho spent in improvements if the labour is available. Tho pouiitry wants developing, and it cannot bo done without tho farm hand und worker. At the present time there are a considerable number of men idle, owing, perhaps, to some of the flaxmills shutting down, During tho summei months men could hardly be got at any price. Most of tb,e harvesting was done at Is 3d an hour and tuckei-j and some ul higher prices. Under the heading "The Apotheosis of Trade Unions" the Siren, and Shipping is a little sarcastic in its comments on the debate in the House of Commons on the Trade Disputes Bill, particularly as regards "peaceful persuasion." Mr. Shackleton, it says, look it upon himself to contend that "trade union leaders had proved their desire not to lead their people astray in the paths of unlawful ness and disorder." We do not know what ground ho had for making this assertion. Indeed, we are inclined to believe that the leaders' agitation for the legislation of picketing proves fairly conclusively that they chafe at the limitation of their power to create "disorder," because they know perfectly well that "picketing" is simply another name for "intimidation" by brute force. "No trade union," said the Lancashire Labour member, "ever intended to send bands of men about to annoy peaceful citizenß," Wo should very much like to aeo the true interpretation of the term "peaceful citizen," as read by the average unionist. It certainly would not, we 1 pjjiiWU, cover the obnoxioufl "bfocklog."