LABOUR NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 71, 23 March 1912, Page 14

LABOUR NOTES.

ITEMS OF INTEREST. (By " Unionist.") ' ( The Miramur Branch of the New Zea- , land Labour Party ia contesting one of . the seats on the borough council at the forthcoming municipal elections. , Mr. ( Peter Palmer has oeen chosen as the s party's candidate. A concert and rally ] iv furtherance of My. Palmer's Candida- ] ture will bo held under the auspkee of tho branch at the Borough Town Hall ' on Wednesday night. ' Four vacancies arose on the Brisbane < Water and Sewerage Board, and the elec- j tion was held last week. Labour ran ; three candidates, ail of whom were elected by good majorities, Coming so eoutt after the general strike in the city, the i victory is .significant. It means a gain. ' of two seats on the board, which, ia - elected, on the property franchise. Labour is. jubilant over the result. " Mr. D. M'Laren aud Mr. W. „H. ! Hampton have been appointed to repr«- '. seal the Wellington Main Branch of < the New Zealand Labour Party at the Easter Conference. Other local branches will most likely be represented, and in all an attendance of thirty or thirty-five 1 delegates from throughout the Dominion is expected at the conference. A General Election will be held inTas mania , towards the end ■of next month. There alao the contest is purely Labour versus^ anti-Labour. Of the thirty seats comprising the Assembly, Labour holds , eleven at presentOne member for each of the ten Legislative Council provinces in Weet Australia retires next month. The elections will be held in May next, and Labour u> contesting every seat. The rat;e of pay for bootmakers ' throughout 7*7 * South Australia Victoria, and New South Wales will be £2 14s on and after 4th April. That rate was . fured by Mr. Justice Higgins, and on 4th April, 1913, it will come into force in Queensland. The reason {or the difference in the dates is that there was a considerable disparity in the rates of pay when the award was made, and the jump to £2 14s would be more detrimental to tho manufacturers of one State than another. Last year 1259 lives were lost in British coal mines in 1206 separate accidents. The number of deaths shows I a decrease of 516, and the number of accidents a decrease of 36, as compared with the preceding year. Labour should not advocate the general strike as a party policy. General strikes will rise spontaneously from time to time ' under capitalist pressure. The lesson taught ' roust be the ease with which focussed public opinion can be translated into law, and that at once. The alleged glory of individual or mass sacrifice and starvation is a fetish. In these days industrial conditions are subject to political power.— J. Mahlon Barnes, in the Chicago Daily Socialist. In addition to increased pay, ranging from 6d to Is a day recently granted the police force, the West Australian Colonial Secretary (Mr. Drew, M.L.G.), has announced that every member shall receive three months' leave at the end i of ten years on full pay, The police have formed a non-poutic&l association, and are agitating for retirement at sixty ■years and for all promotions to be made* from the ranks. - • The Sydney Hotel, Club, Restaurant, and Caterers' Employees' Union hat prepared ,a new ,sst of claims for the Wages Board when the present award : expires in April. One of the main fea- , tures of the claim is a. forty-eight hours' week. A scale of wages has been asked for to apply to both town and country employees. It ie expected that employees hi* the country will benefit to the extent of from 50 to 100 per cent, in wages. Havelock Wilson, secretary of the Seamen's Union in. the Old Country, say*: "Yes, on the Parliamentary ajde I think I may fairly say much "work, has been done and remains to be done. I 1 certainly believe in political action for that reason. Next to strong combination comes activity in ' politics. The two things, indeed, work in together, and 1 deprecate those. who decry Parliamentary action." A suggestion has been made by Mr. & J. Kavanagh (secretary of the New South Wales LaLour Council) that a I Federal Council Bhould be formed to deal with strikes. Mr Fieher (Federal Prime Minister), in commenting upon the proposal, said that he considered it was on ' the right lines. "If a central body wero ' appointed," continued Mr. Fisher, "to whom all disputes of magnitude would ' have to come before negotiations were entirely broken off, I think it would be a good thing for both sides. Parliamentary representation is not necessary to fix the kind of .representatum on hard and fast lines. All that is needed a set of sensible^ cool-headed men, capable of grasping a position readily and giving a clear decision. We have a central council in connection with the Waterside Workers' Union. It is practically the same scheme in miniature" The coming Commonwealth Bank, has Mr. O'Malley (Minister for Homt> Affairs) believes, resulted already in benefit to the clerks employed by the private bank doing business throughout Australia. Mr. O'Malley had been told instances where the eujaries of bank clwks had been increased as much as £25 a year, and that other inducements would be held out by the established banks to keep their best men contented in their service. But he had no doubt ,at all that when the Commonwealth Bank was ready there would he a rush of applicants for clerkships. . The following planks were adopted by •.he South African Labour Conference, just, concluded : The adoption of a white labour policy; the establishment of a oitizec defeuce force, with the stipulation that it must not 'be used for any purpose during industrial disputes ; the establishment ot a system oi bounties in lieu of a protective tariff j the separation of whites and natives, with advisory councils for each; tKe non-extension of the i franchise to natives. It is an open secret that -ever since the recent seamen's strike, the London Seamen's Union has been anxious to follow up the heavy blow which it then dealt to the Shipping Federation and the Free Labour organisers, but the work of getting in new members has taken precedence of other considerations. Since July last over 30,000 new members have i been enrolled, und preparations are now going forward^ for a great struggle in the shipping industry, which both sides have i be<>n feeling inevitable. Tho international eide of the organisation is being attended to by Mr. llavelock Wikon and . Mr. Tom Chambers, and meanwhile a great campaign fund of £50,000 ie being ' built up. The {Shipping Federation's ticket in tit a discount, and it is hoped that before long non-union labour may be banished from tho shipping industry, la ari official report the union states that its income is now £1000 per week, and tiiat beoineu's wage« have been increased by the strike by some £8 or £10 jjttr annum. A new programme of demands it* being drawn up, which will bo pro&tiuUd to the. fihipow_atfj.'6 next year.