WORK AND WAGES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10598, 6 March 1895, Page 6

WORK AND WAGES.

[Special to Press Association.J PASTORALISTS AND SHEAEEES. SYDNEY, March 5. In connection with the friction between the pastoralisls and shearers, Mr Spence, secretary of the latter’s Union, states moat emphatically that there ia noc the slightest hope of the pastoralists meeting the shearers’ representatives in conference. His Union is quite prepared to renew the fight during the coming season, and a good deal of the time of the late conference was devoted to perfecting arrangements to meet the coming difficulty. Mr Kae is hopeful of the result of the coming struggle, and asserts that the Shearers’Union is stronger than ever. He states that the pastoralists individually are being misled as to the resources of the Pastoralists’ Union, and that the experience of the past is distinctly against anything like unanimity in the future; that squatters who arc in a position to take independent action simply study their own interests and shear with unionists. Last season the cost of the pastoralists’ attempt to crush the shearers on strike was fifteen thousand pounds. TILLAGE SETTLEMENTS. The Eev Dr Strong, a leading spirit in the establishment of Victorian village settlements, is visiting Sydney. He admits that the settlements are only a partial success. Several causes were given to account for this. The Board of Management had insufficient powers in enforcing rules of discipline, and men not accustomed to work were neither skilful nor seized with the idea of working for their own good. They, too, showed no more self-help than if working for masters. They, he says abandoned the settlements so soon as outside employment offered, or wore enticed away. The cheap lands available under the New Settlements Bill crippled the movement, and ’ private assistance has fallen off in consequence of the existing depression. Some of the settlers, he thought, ware doing well, and he hoped that, with further Government assistance, would do good work, in spite of the fact that the hopes of the promoters had been disappointed. He believed that the scheme had been started on right lines, and was a severe object lesson from which good might come. He found that the great | difficulty of co-operative settlement was a moral one. Men accustomed to work for wages took a long time to learn to act independently. The lines of the scheme he believed to be practicable, but it would never be successful unless the management had fall power. [Per Press Association.! AUCKLAND, March 5. Four hundred and seventy factories have registered in Auckland. A party of navvies have been balloted for at tho Labour Bureau and sent to co - operative road work' at Waiotapu Talley WELLINGTON. March 5. A deputation from Grey town North, headed by the Mayor, waited on the Minister of Justice, urging that the halfholiday should be changed from Saturday to Thursday. Mr Eseves, in reply, said that, while sympathising with the request, the Wsirarspa magistrate, in a teat case, had decided that the Gazette notice was conclusive evidence that Saturday was the legal day. and this being so ho was bound ! to respect that decision. If the petitioners considered the Magistrate’s decision erroneous, the courts were open to them to teat the question. ■ CANTERBURY TRADES AND LABOUR COUNCIL. An ordinary meeting of the Trades and Labour Council was held on Saturday evening. Correspondence was received: — From an unaffiliated union, intimating its intention of joining the Council. From the Premier’s office, stating that the protest forwarded against the proposed treaty with Japan would receive the fullest consideration. From the Wellington Trades Council ia reference to Arbitration Court nomination, and the Labour Conference to be held in Christchurch st Easter. From the Department of Labour, covering a copy of the proposed Masters and Apprentices Bill, and inviting suggestions. From the Wellington Trades Council, requesting the Council to endorse a re solution approving of the Hon W. P. Reeves’s recent remarks ia Christchurch regarding labour legislation. The resolution was endorsed, and the secretary instructed to forward a copy to the Minister. It was resolved to write to the Wellington Council asking for particulars of the interview with the Premier. It was resolved to hold a special meeting as soon as copies of the proposed Labour Bills could be procured, and to elect delegates for the Labour Conference at the next meeting of the Council. In consequence of business arrangements the secretary handed in hia resignation, which wah accepted with regret, and Mr F. Talbot was appointed secretary pro torn.

NEW ZEALAND WOEKEES’ UNION. Mr J. P. Mereier, organiser and delegate for the New Zealand Workers’ Union, arrived yesterday morning from the North Island, where he has just finished an extensive tour amongst the stations of the Wairarapa and Hawke’s Bay districts. The main objects of the trip were to enrol members and inspect the branches of 'he union. In furtherance of this purpose Me Mereier travelled, mostly on horseback, over nine hundred miles, holding mestinge at stations and at the various centres of Deputation.,, The results of his mission were, on the whole, very gratifying. Besides enrolling some hundreds of new members, Mr Mereier interviewed the Minister at Wellington in reference to tho accommodation for shearers, which, on many stations, he found to be vary bad. The Minister promised to have the matter attended to. Mr Mereier also interviewed the Hon J. Carroll in reference to organising Maori shearers in order to prevent them from being used to exclude white labour on the stations. Mr Carroll promised to give the matter bis consideration, and it is expected that steps will he taken to form a branch of the Workers’ Union among the Maoris. Mr Mereier, by invitation, addressed the Wellington Trades Council, which undertook to use its beat endeavours to assist in tho formation of a branch of tho Workers’ Union in Wellington. In response to an invitation received from the Dunedin Trades Council, Mr Mereier will visit Otago to give an address in Dunedin. A number of men waited upon Mr W > W. Collins, yesterday with a petition bearing , one hundred and fifty signatures, and praying for work for the unemployed, which they wished presented to the Minister of Lands. : Later in the day Mr Collins submitted the petition to Mr M’Kenzie, and the Minister promised to have it brought before the Cabinet at the earliest possible moment.