LABOUR NOTES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 7, 9 January 1915, Page 4

LABOUR NOTES

(By "Optimist.")

AN INNOVATION AT DUNEDIN Beginning with tho New Year (says the Hon. J. T. Paul) one of the Dimedin foundries will make a decided innovation by the introduction of the bonus system. Each workman is to keep a record of his time on each job In one column the estimated time foi 1 the job is placed. "Any man cutting down the estimated time on a job will bo credited with the same (the moulding, of course, being satisfactory), and due allowance will be made for those oh hea.vy and light work" says the circular to workel's. "The bonus will be entirely in proportion to a man's capabilities, aad will be worked on a time basis," and the ■worker is Informed that "at the end of the financial year, 31st December, 1915, A bonus will be allotted to each workman in proportion to his capabilities." The innovation may work satisfactorily, but there is much experience against it. Almost invariably in the past the "estimated time" fat a job haß been reduced, the measure of time being the .capacity of the mosj/ skilled worker. Very little of that saps the confidence of the men in the fairness of the system. Organised labour ha* a very dee£-rooted objection to any system which introduces unfair competition between the individual work' erg in an establishment, and if this new proposal is to work satisfactorily the employera will have to be scrupulously fair in regard to the "estimated time," but so far as I can learn that has not been done in the proposal under notice. THE COUNTRY WORKERS. During the progress of tho late strike the organising of the country workers was undertaken on a small scale, but apparently the outcome has _ been nil. Recent visitors (interested in Labour matters) have been struck by the suspicion evinced by the small farmer and country worker against the progressive movement, and the impression was left that a distinct setback had taken place which -will take a long time to put right. Industrially and politically the country Worker is a long way behind the town worker, and until he can be approached by organisers with grit rather than cheap propaganda, the country quota will retard the Labour movement. The country worker will know as much about the Labour movement as he does about grass and the milk production when he is got at in the right manner. THE SOCIAiL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. At a recent reception to the Right Hon. Andrew Fisher, Mr. P Fraser, national secretary of the Social Democratic Party, spoke as the representative of the only political organisation of Labour in New Zealand. He said that the lesson of the past three years showed that the workers of this country must work out their own salvation by the acquirement of political power. Their party had about 100 unions and branches in its membership. At the last elections 50,000 votes had been cast in their favour. If Mr. Fraser is correctly reported, he has made a mistake in his figures. Nothing like 50,000 Votes were cast for Social Democrats a$ the last elections. The majority of the Labour members who were returned were elected outside the auspices of his party, and it is also a strange coincidence that some of thpse who are now the loudest in welcoming Mr. Fisher to the Dominion were not only his political opponents in the Commonwealth, but have repeatedly damned the Fißher Government through the press and by word of mouth. Mr. Fisher and his party had to get rid of these reactionaries in tho Commonwealth, the same as they will have to be got rid of here. WHAT IS A TRADE UNION? Some workers look on their trade union as a slot machine. They think by putting in half a-crown a month (thirty shillings a year), for instance, an eight hour day and an increased wage scale will automatically roll out. A. trade union is not a thing itself. Men talk i about their union as it f H, were something separate, distinct, and apart from themselves. They growl about the union. They bemoan ite shortcomings, and overlook entirely their obligations and their failures. They fail to see that they themselves are the union, and only as they live and talk and act as union men will the union prosper and be what it was intended for — simply an instrument to make possible the collective actions of the -workers. CLERKS' UNION. At the general meeting of the Federated Clerks' Union in Melbourne recently the following resolutions were adopted: — "That this union emphatically protests against the action of the Federal Labour Government' in giving

preference to non-unionieto in temporary clerical employment, thus breaking down the basic principle of the Labour movement." "That thie union strongly condemns the apathy and indifference of the Federal Labour Government towards their unemployed and starving fellow workers, who have placed them in the position they now occupy, and calls upon them to at once find employment for these mon; failing that, food and shelter." "That the Prime Minister be asked to receive a deputation urging upon the Federal Government the neces* sity of a Bill to amend the Commonwealth Public Service Act, to enable preference to unionists to b© accorded in temporary clerical employment in that service. * WEST AUSTRALIAN STATE SAWMILLS. Speaking in the West Australian Assembly, the Premier (Mr. Scaddan) said that the State sawmills were going faster than before the declaration of war. About 500 men were employed at that time, and now 1200 were kept working by the mills. The Government had obtained orders, and was exporting to the Eastern States, South Africa, Great Britain, and would shortly be shipping to the Continent of Europe, to replace the ravages of the German armies. Further, the Government was employing hewers to cut sleepers in advance of requirements, and was advancing them 50s weekly, the balance to be paid when tho sleepers were sold. The private firms had discharged their men, and the State had found them employment. The Minister for Works said that the State Sawmills were working at a profit. VERY IMPORTANT REPORTS. The Labour Minister for Homo Affairs., Commonwealth, ig interesting himself in the investigations now being made by the Commonwealth Statistician ltt regard to industrial conditions. Mr. Archibald states that in the course of a few days one of the most comprehensive and important reports that have appeared od these subjects will be published. The report will furnish information for 1913-14 regarding the development of trades unionism, unemployment, prices, rents, cost of living, wholesale prices, wages, accidents, operations of industrial tribunals, and other important features of industrial life, and for the first time particulars for the whole of Australia will be published, showing the caases ? results, and modes of settlement of strikes and lock-Outs in each State, as well as the methods by which changes in rates of wages have been effected. AUSTRALIAN UNIONS. ! The number of unions m Australia at the end of 1913 was 710, and th* number of unionists 497,925. The railway and tramway services had 66,323 members, pastoral and agricultural industry 51,696, shipping 40,913, mining 40,449. engineering, etc., 33,372, bttildiag 31,* { 544, food, drink, etc,, 33,372 members. The total includes 20,204 women and girk. I LABOUR AND THE WAR TAX. ' Labour circles believe that it is time | that a war tax was levied. Right along the line wages have been kept to normal, the Arbitration" Court refuses to make awards, and yet the cost of living is increasing, and nothing has been done to make a fair allocation of the cost of the war.' If flour rises in price, bread is raised. With one or two sons at the war, a wage-earner thinks it about time that some provision should bo made; for the payment of interest on war loans.