LINES ABOUT LABOUR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 72, 22 September 1906, Page 12

LINES ABOUT LABOUR.

The Auckland Bootmakers' Union is agitating to have the boot industry in this colony constituted a State monopoly. The socialism of the Brisbane Worker is frank and unqualified. "Socialism alone," it says, "can make- honourable wives and mothers of our women." Industrial unions do not as a rule provide funeral benefits, but the Federated Bootmakers of New Zealand is an exception. The amount donated ranges from £5 to £10, ccording to length of membership. Two claims' have , recently been sent in on account of the? death of members of the local union. Labour women (cays tho Brisbane Worker) will agree that the progress of the Factories Bill' last week was important for the amendments which were nob supported by Labour members. The amendment that no overtime should be worked by women unless paid for was supported by only twenty-one Labour members out of thirty-four, while an amendment that no woman should work overtime at all rallied only sixteen Labour members to its standard. Convict labour in tho United State of America produces goods to the value of thirty-five million dollars (£7,000,000) annually. About half of the prison-made wares are produced under the "contract system." It is estimated that in productive efficiency three outside labourers are equal to five convict labourers on an ayetage. Penal and refoiniatory institutions have invested £900,000 in machinery used by convicts. Ninety per cent, of the trees or frames for riding saddles made in tho United States are prison products. Over fifty thousand convicts aro engaged m productive labour in 296 penal and reformatory institutions ia the United States. ' The removal of tho duty on sugar (says the Beason) would give a saving to consumers of £190,000 a. year. And what would bo the cost ? The closing down of the sugar refining in Auckland. Well, that Tefinery employs 236 persons all told, of whom 14 are under 16 years of age, and 38 between the ages of 17 and 20. Therefore these 236 persons cost the colony £770 each per annum. This paper estimates that it would be good business to pay those persons a handsome "screw" to walk about and do nothing. Writing on industrial diseases, "Artizan," in the Weekly News, says that balers' asthma is more prevalent in the trade than it was a generation ago, owing principally to tho cliange in the methods of manufaetuiayj flour from the old stone system to Wo steel rollers, which grind the flour much finor, thus resulting in a greater quantity of particles of dust in the bakehouso In Auckland thero are fully a dozen house painters who are "leaded," and are unable to work at their trade, and through their physical incapacity are not much good for any other enimoyment. In the mining industry on the Thames golJfields "miner's complaint" is a common occurrence among the older miners, contracted through the inhalation of dust while working in the mines. Tho unemployment problem (says Mr. Keir Hardie) bulks more largely in the public eye with every passing decade. It is a state of things for which neither Freetrade nor Protection has any remedy Unemployment is as rife in protection as in freetrade countries, and it is a significant fact that, outside our colonies wherever Labour parties exist in protection countries they are supporters of freetrade, as is the Labour party here in Great Britain. However, we are under no delusions in the matter. Protection has not solved the socia". problem either on the Continent of Europe ot in the United States of America, but noither has freetrade done so in Great Britain. The Brisbane Worker frankly recognises tho divisions in the Political Labour party. "We have to recognise," it says, "that tho' Parliamentary force is torn into fragments. Tho situation <•> too hopelessly tattered to admit of a patching nrocea*. It is disheartening, no doubt, that th© struggles of co many years should have resulted in nothing better than this. Yet some cain thero will have been, if only we know how to extract the valuable essentials that lie in tba kernel of the bitterest experience. Wo havo not reached that stage of wis- > dom when progress can come otherwise than by suffering, disappointment, and disillusion." The labour market in Auckland (according to " Artisan ") is rather eood, there being plenty of work in most departments. The building trades, are fair, and promise to improve. House painters aro quiet, but should look up a bit shortly. Furniture trades are slowly improving. Boot trade quiet, but will im prove towards the end of the month. Engineering, on the whole, is rather quiet. Manufacturing confectioners aro getting buoy. Order tailoring is improving, most of the shops having all their regular hands employed. Work on the wharf has been very plentiful during tho last week, good time being made by the majority of those who follow this class of work. There is a steady enquiry for milkers and farm labour, and the exodus from the city to the country is now on. A Perth (Western Australia) telegram of the 2nd inst. reports : — There appears to be danger of difficulty arising between the shipowners and the Fremantle Lumpers' Union. Seven years ago the Fremantle wharf lumpers went on strike and a serious state of affairs prevailed on the wharfs until an agreement was drawn up which appeared to be satisfactory to both parties. This agreement was never registered, but both sides worked for seven years in good faith, and only once did a slight hitch occur — two months ago. However, a feeling of perturbation was occasioned among the lumpers owing to an announcement made at a meeting of the Fremantle Harbour Trust. It was the intention of the shipowners to submit a now agreement and seek the sanction of tho Arbitration Court to it. A draft agreement has been issued by the shipowners and strongly condemned by the lumpers on the ground that it seeks to curtail their carninga and privileges. The Brisbane Worker expresses great disgust at tho attitude of the State Labour members in the Legislative Assembly, including the leader and viceleader (Messrs. Her"- and M'Donnoll). "The most democratic Government in Australia, with a Labour man as its Premier," it saya, " proposed to compel shop assistants to work overtime twenty nights in the year for nothing, and Labour members rose one after another and called them blessed. In the interest* of the shop assistants themselves, they said, the villainous attempt of Bowman and a few others to have all overtime paid for must bo frustrated. It is Bad to listen to such pitiable stuff from men elected by the workers to represent their causo in Parliament." MNtingiinfnfaininntifMiiHiitffiiifnnifnwnftiiintfmi I Don't Neglect a Bad C«ld; I Never allow a cold to tako its courfcu. Too oftsn at this time of the year Us course in towaids pneumonia. Chamberlain's Cough Remedy will promptly wn9 y»ur eoUl ftiiU dUv«t »H Ocuttfor *f i .thai -difiwuK*