LINES ABOUT LABOUR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 138, 7 December 1907, Page 11

LINES ABOUT LABOUR.

The Auckland Hairdressers Assistants' Union started in November, 1904, with eleven members, at first had a hard struggle. It has just held its annual meeting, and the treasurer, Mr. Henry, jiresentecl a year's balance-sheet, which gave great satisfaction. Starting his term with a credit balance of a little over £6, tho treasurer showed that, after paying expenses, tho union had within, a few shillings of £20 in the bank. The demand for capafjlo domestic servants in New South Wales is so great that the Agent-General in London for the State is offering assisted passages at £3 from London, Liverpool, or Plymouth to Sydney, where the new arrivals arc met by responsible officials and introduced to prospective employers. A strong, healthy man in the Pitt Town Labour Farm (says an Australian paper) absolutely refused to work, or to do a tap of any kind except exercise his teeth. In a joke the manager threatened to bury him as a useless member of society, and actually put him in a stump hole. The joker had no sense of humour, for, with a howl of despair, he escaped fiom his holders, and, coatless and hatless, fled over the landsc o. In record time he disappeared over ,iue horizon, and no one has seen him since. And no one want to! The Times reports : The annual congress of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants was opened on Moriday, 4th October, at Middlesbrough. Mr. J. R. Bell, the president, in his inaugural address, commented on the fact that raihvaymen now stood almost alone in being refused the recognition of their accredited representatives by their employers. Ho thought the present movement furnished powerful arguments in favour of the nationalisation of railways. The fact that thero were over 100,000 railwaymen in receipt of less than £1 per week showed the urgent need of the more equitable distribution of railway companies' profits. After acknowledging some improvements which had been effected of late years in the conditions of service, Mr. Bell urged tho need for a reduction of tho hours of work, insisted on the necessity for unity in the labour ranks, and said that a union of railwaymen, to be effective, must include every grade of the scrvico. Tho Auckland Furniture Trades Union, according to the Star, is moving in tho direction of an alteration of some of the trade working conditions. The prcsontv award was obtained on 19th February, 1903, and though the term was for two years, has answered co well that neither tho employers nor the workers have applied for any alteration, consequently tho award still continues in force. Lately sonic of the employers have availed themselves of tho clause relating to the employment of apprentices over and abovo the number allowed under ordinary circumstances, and a certain amoun', ot dissatisfaction among the workmen has resulted. A meeting of the management committee of the union has been called' to consider the subject. Tho Auckland Plumbers, Gasfitters, and Metalworkers' Union has been dissolved in order that the name might bo changed. It is now entitled "The Auckland Plumbers' Industrial Union : of Workers." The officers of the new ! union are almost identical with those i of the old. It is explained that something more, than the name is involved, as it is suspected that the appellation "metalworkers" has tended to keep down the minimum wages. In former years, there was comparatively little lead work in the average building, tho gutters and waterboxes wero invariably of galvanised iron, and wiped joints were almost unknown. But now, with our sanitary by-laws, and required certificates of competency, every trades man requires to be an efficient leadworker. /\, A correspondent writes : The amendment of clause 20 of the Shops and Offices Act has conferred a great boon on hotel-workers in this countiy. Hitherto, only those actually employed. in the bars of hotels had the privilege of the weekly half-holiday, but by the amendment the clause is made to apply to all workers. The local union has long advocated this concession, and its members are highly pleased. The holiday, though new here, is no innovation in the colonies, having been in force for years in most of the Australian States. In some cases Australian Legislatures have gone further, not merely providing for the half-holiday, but limiting the number of working hours per week. In West Australia, all hotels are classified as shops under the Early Closing Act, and the hours for the male workers are limited to fifty-six a week. At the recent sittings of the' Arbitration Court here, the union asked for sixty-five hours weekly, and, even with the granting of the half-holiday, New Zealand hotelkeepers, so far as working conditions aro concerned, are a long way behind their fellows in Australia. A stirring and withal a pathetic story of railwayman's heroism (writes a Home paper) explains why, in a little house at Dendy-street, Balham, a widow and five children aro mourning the death of the breadwinner. Thomas Smith, a foreman platelayer, employed on the Wandsworth section of the L.B. and S.C. Railway, was a strapping fellow, who gave his lifo for his comrades. Smith, upon whom an inquest was held, was engaged with his gang assisting tlie Balham and Clapham Junction gangs in removing clay and replacing it with ballast. Suddenly the lookout man blew his whistle to warn the twenty-four men of the approach of an up local train. Unaware of the approach of a train in tho other direction, many of tho men stepped between the metals of the down local line, and simultaneously the two trains lushed upon the gangs. Smith, a tall, strong man, could have saved himself, as others did, by throwing himself flat between tho metals and allowing tho train to pass over him. But there were several of his gang who hesitated. Regardless of his own danger, Smith, shouting, "Look out for tho down local," threw tw«i or more of these into tho six-foot way. He had junt saved m this way tho 'life of a man named Pfirrott, when ho stumbled with his exertion, was drawn under the train, and literally cut in half. "They tell mo," said his widow, "that my man saved seven or eight. lie was a fine man and a good father. Twenty-three ytMrs ho worked for the company, starting hero in Balham when he was seventeen Ho was ten years at Carshalton, and returned to Balham two years ago." Mrs. Smith has five children. "It's very hard," she said quietly ; "but, like lots moro, woe got to bear il." At tho inquest a verdict of accidental death was returned.

The mnil steamer Charles Roux,' launched at St. Nazaire on 251h September is the fa-it French merchant steamer having turbine machinery, the first French triple-screw, and the' first vessel to uae tha now St.. Jfas&iro e»tiiaficc._