LABOUR NOTES

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 133, 12 June 1909, Page 12

LABOUR NOTES-

(By Unionist.) I

ITEMS OF INTEREST. Arrangements for the formation of adominion federation of another set of like unions are now in progress. There are five bakers' unions in Now Zealand, and at the invitation of the- Christchurch body a conference of representatives from each of them to draft a constitution for an association is shortly to be held. It is expected also that the gathering will be asked to discuss the question of "daylight baking." The Wellington union has for some time been collecting information as to the variom legislative measures that have been enacted in different 'xmntries, providing for daywork only in bakehouses,, and after the conference will wait on the Minister for Labour, and iirge the claims of the bakers of this country for protective legislation on similar lines. •Especial credit is due to the Dunedin Trades Council for the success it achieved in connection with the "bread fund" appeal. Of a total of £1805 16s lOd collected for the sufferers in England, a- sum of £1178 18s 6d was gathered through the medium of the council. The money was cabled home free of cost by the Government in two or three instalments. Auckland Trades Council has decided to send three delegates to the forthcoming annual conferenco of all the councils. Six members of the council stood for election, and the poll resulted as follows : — T. Long 35, H. Horning 28, E. Moxsom 24, A. Rosser 19, -W. Peako 16, T. Clarke 7. The election of delegates to represent Dunedin at the annual conferenco of Trades Councils will be held next Thursday night. There are ten nominees for the honour. The council is sending four delegates, and it is anticipated that the election will result in the following candidates being chosen : — Messrs. R. Breen, J. 'Brown, iW. Warren, and J. Haymes. The 'Christchurch. Trades Council elected its delegates to the conference in [ January last in accordance with a very good rule in its constitution, which stipulates to that effect. Writing from memory, the following were selected to I represent Canterbury :— .Messrs. Hart, Rusbridge, Barr, Pritchard, Darcy, Cooke, Howard, Sullivan, and Young. The 'Westland Trades Council has elected Mr. Jackson to represent it at I the conference, and from Southland will come the old-time two delegates, 'Messrs. .O'Byrne and Alsweiber. Labour, if it gains the by-election caused by the death of the late Premier in South Australia, will count on twenty members in a House of forty-two. Tom Mann's engagement as organiser has now been definitely terminated by the combined unions of tho Barrier. The motion to retain his services for a longer period was easily defeated. Mr. Mann ' has decided to remain in Broken Hill for j the present, and deliver a series of lectures. He has been invited to resume his position as secretary and organiser of the Victorian Socialist Party, which he vacated when ho went to the Barrier. The New South Wales Industrial Court > has agreed to appoint' a wages | board to create a standard of hours md wages for cabmen in Sydney. In making the application, the secretary of the union stated that some of the men worked as many as 140 hours per week. An j application by the Cleiks 1 Union for a, wages board was, however, refused by the President of the Court, Judge Heydon. Delegates to the recent Coolu' and Waiters' Conference all expr°- - s 1 hemselves as satisfied with the rcheir.o ot federation proposed. The draft constitution tentatively agre&d to by the dele- ! gates needs only ratification by the represented unions, when the association will be immediately register jd. It i? three years now since the first union was formed, and the fact that in such a; short time the other centres have been organised and the federation |.raotifally accomplished, was a matter of mutual congratulation between all delegates on the conference. At the close of the financial half-year of the Dunedin Trades' (Joun/il there were thirty-ono unions affiliated to it, with a membership of over two thousand. The Queensland Parliament has bpen, further adjourned till the 2Ju inst. li is sixteen months since the elections, I and the House has been only in ,«u-sian four week altogether since (fiat !»,ne. Mr. Kidston is accused by the Labour press of being forced to await the result of the Moretpn by-election on 19th June, before he can meet the House. The electorate is a sure Philp &eat, and has been represented by a member of the family for a long time. During the last few weeks the political situation, according to Mr. , Kidston, appears a little brighter, lie estimates to obtain the voles 01 thirty-eight members in the event of a no-confidence motion. In answer to several inquiries lately : — That section of the "Lord's Day Act of Canada which compels the weekly day of rest, reads : ' 'Except in cases 01 emergency, it shall not bo lawful for" any person to require any employee engaged in any work of receiving, transmitting, or delivering telegraph or telephone messages, or in the work of any industrial process, or in connection with transportation, to do on the Lord's Day {he usual work of his ordinary calling, unless such employee is allowed during the next s,ix days of such week, twentyfour consecutive hours without labour.'' Though the special wages board appointed to deal with the dispute between the " Tailors' and Tailoresses' Union of Sydney and the employers has been sitting over two months, no full determination has as yet been finally arrived at. The fixing of wages, the preparation of a piecework log, and tho prescribing oi' special conditions for factory work have yet to be deliberated upon by the board. Most of the other demands have, however, been considered, with the result that workers in the trade will work under much better conditions when effect is eventually given to the decision of the board. The chief grievances of the union, apart from wages and piecework prices, were the weekly time system, the team system, and unfair outdoor-work competition. The board has decided to institute the piecework system, as against the old custom, and to abolish altogether the team system. Restrictions have been placed on persons working outside the shops which, while not altogether prohibiting such work, will tend greatly to lessen the practice, and contmo me work to regulated establishments. Tho larger employers have helped the union to bring about these alterations in the working of the trade.

There is no longer any doubt ' (says the London Chronicle) that the severe depression of trade is passing away. From every part of the country comes reports of reviving business. In the - agricultural districts a mild but widelydiffusod prosperity has been experienced for the past two years ; and now the manufacturing centres are visibly recovering from the effects of the sharp restriction of business that followed in the wake of the financial collapse 'in the United St-ai-efo,