WORK AND WAGES.

Evening Star, Issue 12625, 3 October 1905, Page 7

WORK AND WAGES.

A mass meeting of workers. » oaUotk lor 'next Friday evening io tie Choral BoJl.io enter an emphatic protest against the* Invasion of huge coming into the colony and crashing our local industries. Amongst other tm*t* to bo dWt with' a the International Harvest or Trwfc. The meeting is convened by the Trades and Labor Council at the request of ReM and Gray's employee*. Mr W, H. Uttley will preside, and representative men giyo short addresses. A large gathering and awch enthusiasm ja expected. The Federal High Court haw reversed the decision of the Victorian. Supreme Court in a Factories Act matter relotbig to tie wages of "an average worker." T*e Court ibeld that a woman who did work at her own establishment for a olothjer was an independent contractor, not an employee, still owed £53.

On the recent case of alleged " sweating " in Melbourne, which the High Court decided in favor of the wareboneemon on appeal, tie 'Tocsin' mys: "In tWe particular case—the facts cannot be too frequently repeated—Beath, Schiesa. and Co. let out the making of aprons to a Mrs Rogers at Is per doaen! Aft the CourtsMagistrate's, Full Court, and High Court —were satisfied that no ordinary worker could earn the minimum wage ot that rate. Now, Mrs Rogers was not a worker, but a contractor, and she sublet the work at 9d per dozen. In other words, she took tie work at sweating rates, and got the work done at 25 per cent, lower still. All a sweater need do now is to employ a dummy contractor, and be can sweat to his heart's content. Ninepence per dozen for making aprons! And we talk of cheap labor foreign competition!" The revival of trade this year (writes the 'Westminster Gazette') baa not been strongly marked, but conditions have improved slightly and the best testimony to that is borne by the Board of Trade returns of employment These show a percentage of 5.2 men out of work, as compared with 6.1 in July of last year. The natural anticipation would be that we shall not have the same amount of unemployment to deal with this winter as was the case in tie earlv part of the present year. In certain neighborhoods there is bound to be dJfltress. One of the evils of such an outpouring of relief as took place in West Ham last year is that it acts ua a magnet to attract undesirables from all parts of tie country, many of whom settle without any chance of even casual employment. There can be no surprise that already in West Ham there is a large percentage of unemployed, or that the outlook for the winter is very bad.

In tbe eoarse of bearing of the dispute between the wharf laborers and the interstate steamsbip-ownere in tbe Arbitration Court, Sydney, Sarah Dawes, wife of a wharf laborer, was celled by Mr Hughes (for tbe men) to show the cost of living, Witness- said she had sis children, the agee varying from two months to eighteen years. Deducting 5s for rent, as they let one roam, she derailed the cost of living jper week at £1 17* 3id, exclusive of fruit, fieh, tobacco, boo&, clothing, medical fees, union subscriptions, or luxuries of any description. They could not Jive on this scale but for the supplementary earnings of some of the children. Dr Barnard, who had made a special study of dietetics, examined the acale as supplied by a previouH witness, and said be could not suggest any economy except that rabbits might occasionally be substituted for meat. Captain Smith, A.D.S.N. wharf superintendent, gave the overage weekly wage of preference men for eighteen consecutive weeks at B2 lis-