WORK AND WAGES.

Evening Star, Issue 11701, 6 October 1902, Page 3

WORK AND WAGES.

THK SHEARING DISPUTI

The Pastorales' Association and Shearers' Union on Saturday came to a final agreement ou all points in the dispute in this colony. The. agreement will last three years. The conditions are : Hours. 5 a.m*. to 5 p.m.. or 5.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., with intervals for meals and smokos as mutually arranged; shearing to cease at 4 p.m. on Saturdays, except, in certain cases when work stops at noon. Prices : Machine, 15s 6d per 100, or 16s 8(1 without rations, except for stud sheep, for which there is a special agreement. Earns over twelve months old double rates. No shearer is compelled to handle wet or cancered sheep. In machine work the employer finds all the necessary gear, but the sheater pays for combs and cutters at cost price. Freedom of contract outside unionists to be allowed. Where more than 25 per cent, of the sheep require (lagging, this to be done before the sheep conic to the .shod. Dagging done by shearers, 2s 6d per 100 where the percentage exceeds 25. THE AMERICAN WORKEK. Thp Massachusetts Bureau of Labor and Statistics has issued a comparison of the cost of living in that State in 1872. 1897, and 1902. In 1902, as compared with 1897, fcotl cost 11.16 per cent, more ; dry goods and boots, 16.07 per cent, more: rent, 52.43 per cent, more; and fuel, 9.78 per cent, more. But as compared with 1872 food was 19.97 cheaper in 1902 ; clothing and boots, 41.01 less ; rent, 0.02 more ; ;>nd fuel, 26.61 less. On the other hand, in 1872 a majority of the families depended upon support from members of the family other than its head, while now, in each of the 152 families chosen at random as fair examples, the. earnings of the father sufficed to meet the family expenditure. In 1872 from a quarter to "a third of the family income came from child labor; now only 11 per cent, of the fa.mily income is earned by children under twentyone. No children were found in 1902 who. being under fifteen, contributed to the family funds, hut in 1872 such supplied from one-eighth to one-sixth of the total familyearnings. The only change which may imply retrogression is that while in 1872 less than 1 per cent, of the aggregate family income was earned by mothers who worked, 5.29 per cent, came from that source in ISO2. Sir James Crichton Browne, the eminent Scotch physician, pointed out to the International Concress for the Welfare and Protection of Children, lately held in London, that one reason why the United Statesis becoming .so formidable a commercial and industrial rival to Great Britain is that the working men in the States are better fed.