NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13095, 7 February 1906, Page 1 (Supplement)

NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS.

lIV ARTISAN'. Farm labour is reported to be .scarce* in Hawke's Bay and in the Seventy-mile Busti districts. The total number of hands employed in the mines at Broken Hill during 1905 was 7407, as against 6991 at end of previous year. At the end of last year 47,218 Chinese "miners" were working in the Transvaal mines under contracts, and 2000 mora wer« on their way. The Christchurch Labour Bureau reported at the end of January that there was a, • scarcity of navvies willing to go to the Mid<\ land Railway works. Should Mr. Keir Harclio and party carry, out their intention of visiting the colonics they will receive a great reception from tho j Labour party in New Zealand, and also in; the Commonwealth. The Independent Political Labour League! intends to conduct a number of open-air meetings, and also to initiate a series 08 picnics and socials, so as to bring tho mem'* hers more into touch with eacli other. The Swiss tcxtilo workers have increased! their dnion in tho last three years from 3000 to 8000. and have appointed a woman secretary, which they think will greatly increase the number of women in the union. The N.S.W. United Furniture Trade So->i ciety reports that every effort has been'exhausted by the executive in trying to induce the Chineso to more fully observe tho Arbitration Court's award, but without any, satisfaction. At Port Adelaide the other day an unusual spectacle was witnessed. Non-unionist lumpers went on strike, refusing to continue loading wheat until their demand for; union rates was conceded. The three firm's concerned had to cave in. The retail boot trade shop 3 in Audkland ' have decided by a majority in the trade to close at six p.m. on four days in the week, half-past nine p.m. on Saturdays,, and one p.m. on Wednesdays. Tho above hours came into force on the Ist inst. A Timaru tradesman interested in the boot trade says that since the preferential tariff came into force English manufacturers have obtained a firmer hold on the colon market. The locally made hoots, he declared, were quite as good, and in some, respects better, than the imported English article. EJeetric power for looms has made a change in the industrial conditions in France.' The electricity is turned on from the street, and home workers have looms set up in their homes. They prefer it to factory work, since it does not tend to break up and destroy the family. Tho factory system is hated in France as the destroyer of homo life. The high price of meat is beginning Jo press heavily on the majority of the workers in the city, and the proposal of the Premier to initiate a State steamship line to carry New Zealand produce to England does nofe find much favour with the workers. Tim contention of tho workers is that the Government should first, of all supply our own people with cheap meat before catering to* the outside world. I Lady Violet Greville makes the following statement, re certain women workers in Great Britain: —"Hundreds of women who need not work, and are kept by theiß parents in a comfortable home, undertake clerical and other work at an entirely in« sufficient rate of wages, simply in order td get a little extra pocket money for amuse-* ment or finery. In this/way "they are en' abled to undersell men." The local labour market still keeps in » good condition, work being on the whole plentiful. The building and allied trades,, are busy throughout the whole of the pro--vincial district. The hoot trade is very fair;! engineering rather dull: unskilled labour in fair demand ; work on the wharves plentiful, though there is always a surplus of labour offering for this clars of employment. Xha timber mills are all busy working full time. The new award of the boot trade, which came into force on January 1, has so far worked very satisfactorily. The award was arrived at by mutual agreement between the Federated Em plovers and the Federated Cnions, and confirmed by the Court of Arbitration. Mutual agreements are found to be more strictly kept by the parties conreined than awards of court, and if is to be regretted that more mutual agreements are not arrived at. The action of the Auckland Trad-;; and La bout Council in pending out subscription lists for the technical schools is adversely criticised by a 'onsiderable section of the. Labour party. It has always been a cardinal plank in the Labour platform that education should be free and secular from the Kindergarten schools to the University, including technical education, and the pre-' sent action of the council is regarded as the thin edge of the wedge to the forfeiture ol the above principle. The Amalgamated Society of Engineers shows a steady increase of membership since the award was given by the Arbitration Court. The condition of employees in the trade has been considerably improved since the award came into force. Applications for permits to work at less than award rates from underrate workmen are decreasing, and will >» a short time be done away with. The trade on the whole is rather dull, though one or two of the shops a»o' busy. There has been an influx of tradesI men from Britain. Germany, and Scand:- ' «avia during the lan year

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