NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13048, 13 December 1905, Page 1 (Supplement)

NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS.

lit ARTISAN. During last year 55 German trade unions spent £285,711 m strikes. The Federal Railway Transportation Employees' Association has been granted registration under the Federal Arbitration Act. Blayney district, New South Wales, boasts of a woman farmer who put in a wheat crop of 50 acres with her own labour only. The recently-formed Laundry Employees* Union in Adelaide have thrown in their lot with the Women Employees' Mutual Association. . ~ The Maheno, the finest product of shipbuilding that the Union Company possesses, was built by day labour as against contract labour. The 63 central unions of German trade organisations now have a membership of 1,058,108, an increase over the previous year of 164,410. . j' ■' *' ■-- '" " As a member of one of the oldest unions in England—the Bar— am naturally an upholder of all the rights and privileges of trade union." — Justice Parry.

By 21,713 votes to 4825 the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants in England decided to pay an annual levy of Is per head for Parliamentary candidature and payment of members. The South Australian Premier (Mr. Price), finding that the Railway Department was called upon to pay too high a price for its ice. has resolved to start a State ice factory. A conference of 182 delegates from 120 London labour organisations met last October to " formulate a plan of campaign for the organisation of (he agitation of the unemployed," and a committee was formed to carry out the objects aimed at. " My ideal Sunday for the working-class is Holy Communion in the early morning, worship in the forenoon, and cricket, football, or other innocent sport in the afternoon, with another act of worship in the evening.''—Canon Rhodes Bristow at Southwar " I consider that the working man has a greater slake in the country than any other class, as with the advent of a severe wave of depression to be deprived of employment means that he stands to lose his all."—Mr. D. Stewart. Liberal candidate for Clutha, at the late election The Federal Arbitration Court Registrar refused the second application of the Federal Amalgamated Government Railway and Tramway Service Association of Australasia for ration as an "organisation." He said the Arbitration Act did not con- ! template the, aggregation of several distinct I trades in one organisation of employees as a trade union. - The New South Wales official statistics show a decrease of nearly 25 per cent, hi the number of Chinese employed in the furniture trade of that State, the number of factories being 55 with 413 hands, in 1904. compared with 59 factories and 536 hands- in 1903. The decrease is attributed to slackness in the trade to some extent, and partly to tlie provisions of the Aliens Restriction Act.' If mining officials (says Public Opinion) are somewhat perfunctory in enforcing legislative rules of which they do not thoroughly approve, the working miner is for his part not only indifferent, but occasionally criminally careless as to what may, be the consequences of his personal acts. So long as these combined influences remain unchecked the mining industry will continue to contribute stories of disaster and death. The New South Wales Printing Trades Council passed a resolution protesting against the proposal to print all the postage stamps for the Commonwealth at the Adelaide Post Office; also suggesting that, economy and expedition will be better served by ..each State Government printing office' furnishing its State requirements of postage .stamps, etc. It was also decided to inquire whether the Railway Commissioners of New South Wales had placed an order for 10,000 chromo-lithos with a firm of Swiss printers. The unrest among colliers (says the Melbourne Tocsin) is not only active in the United States, but is general all over Europe as well, Mr. Mitchell, of the United Mine • Workers (U.S.A.), in a recent speech saidthat there would be a light to a finish between the men and the masters next April, when the present agreement lapses. Australian workers have generally avoided any direct threat of that sort hitherto, so that the position in America may be considered worse. In Germany the miners have never thoroughly settled down since the last strike in Westphalia, and the Government has not carried out its promises to them. In all the Russian mines then! is the usual semi-poli-tical discontent. France alone seems satistied, and there the eight hours and old age pensions have just been passed. It should not be forgotten that in the, United States the miners are very largely Poles, Hungarians and Italians, and that revolutionary instincts are born in them.