Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, APRIL 1, 1929. LABOUR MILITANCY IN AUSTRALIA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 103, 1 April 1929, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, APRIL 1, 1929. LABOUR MILITANCY IN AUSTRALIA.

The scenes enacted in Sydney on Wednesday night are, fortunately, without precedent in the history of the Mother State of the Commonwealth. Though the ballot papers, which were to have been returned by the members of the Timber Workers’ Union, it is now learned, were not actually burned in the bonfire, the proceedings constitute a most contemptuous act of defiance of both the Government and the Federal Arbitration Court. That the suggestion to bum the ballot papers came from the Communist section of workers, which has been spoken of as negligible, gives Wednesday 5 night's happenings a sinister colouring of even graver hue than that of any previous disturbances in the New South Wales capital. Two thousand unionists took part in the procession through the city to Hyde Park, a cablegram stating that “following the burning of the ballot papers, which were placed in a Kerosene soaked bag and set afire, in defiance of the warnings of the Federal authorities and the police, the effigy of Mr Justice Lukin was tied to a tree in the Park and burned.” But a message on Saturday officially denied the destruction of the ballot papers or the burning of the effigy. The ballot which was to have been conducted by the Registrar of the Commonwealth Arbitration Court was intended to be a secret one, to ascertain whether the union members wished to resume work or not, it being understood, of course, that if they expressed the desire to return to work they would comply with the award made by the court. New South Wales is obtaining an unenviable notoriety for disorderly happenings, and the recent proceedings in the Legislative Assembly, which was turned into a veritable bear garden as the result of the. Labour members defying the Chair, cannot fail to have its effect on the lawless mob outside of Parliament, in its defiance of the Government and the courts. For the time being, at least, Communistic influences seem to be Uppermost. The timber workers, of course, claim that they are not on strike, but have been locked out by the employers. They applied to the Arbitration Court for a variation of the award under which they were working, demanding, among other things, a 44 instead of a

48 hour working' tveqk. The latter was refused by the coui’t owing to the loss that would have fallen upon the employers in an already greatly depresesd industry. Acting presumably on the advice of their officials, the men refused to conform with the Terms of the new award, and were notified by their employers that, until they did so, they would not be allowed to continue working in the mills and timber yards, etc. But, while the employers are .-complying with the law, the men are jiot. They are insisting upon the maintenance of conditions involving economic loss to the industry in which they have been engaged. An industry may continue working for a time under losing conditions, but it cannot continue doing so _ indefinitely. The coal-mining industry in New South Wales has been ruined so far as the export trade is concerned. Both Yictoria and South Australia are importing coal from abroad because it is procurable at a saving of 5s per ton, as compared with the price of New South Wales coal, and the mine owners of the latter State cannot possibly sell cheaper. Labour in the political arena has also imposed burdens on the taxpayer that the latter can ill afford to stand. In New South Wales, according to the Pocket Compendium issued by the State Government Statistician, the per capita taxation (State and Commonwealth) rose from £l4 7s 6d in 1924-25 to £l4 16s 9d in 1925- and to £l6 11s 7d in 1926- the latter being the last complete year of the Lang Labour Administration, and before the introduction of the State child endowment scheme which sent it up still further. A commission set up by the Commonwealth Government to inquire into a Federal child endowment scheme has reported that to give 5s per week, as proposed, for every child under 15, when the family income was £BOO or less, would cost the Commonwealth £22,000,000 a year. The Commonwealth is already disbursing over half a million per annum by way of maternity bonuses. A conference of Labour women, .sitting- in Melbourne just recently, ■ decided in favour of the maternity bonus being increased from £5 to £10; that old age and invalidity pensions should be increased to £2 per week; that a child endowment scheme should be established immediately, the allowance for children to be not less than 15s per week; that men and women should be paid alike and that women should begin to receive the full adult wage at thp age of 18. These are typical of the demands that are being made by the, Labour militants in Australia which, financially, seems to be becoming more and more involved everyday.