NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13262, 22 August 1906, Page 3

NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS.

BY ARTISAN". Every year in Great Britain '1000 men los« their Jives at their work. We kill 57,515 and injure over 232,000 workiugmen every year in'our mines and factories and on our railways, says the Rev. Josiah Strong, of the U.S.A. Some of the Auckland unions have parsed strongly worded resolutions regarding the awards and decisions of the Arbitration Court. The stand taken by the City Council re the trains is heartily endorsed, and should the Council lake the extreme step of terminating the concession they will have the unanimous support of the workers. With the approach (if fine weather there is abundant, evidence of a largo increase in the number of men employed in the tlaxmill-' ing industry. Millownors are on the lookout for fresh (supplies of gieen flax in every direction, and the coming year onuses to. be a record one. 1 understand that the Executive Council of Ihe Independent Political Labour party is communicating with tie" various branches re the holding of a labour convention in Christchnrch during Christ mas week. The proposal was first i ned by the Auckland branch, and receives tin- unanimous support of the members. . : The' Parnell lailwav bridge dispute is being keenly watched by a large seel ion of the workers. The piers of lie. present bridge have long been a source of. annoymice and danger to a large section ol the workers, more especially since the advent of the trolley-car. It may be ;t question of "principle" with the Government, lint with the workers the chief " principle" of government is the care and welfare of the community at large. The formation of the New Zealand Waterhide Workers' Federation has now becomean accomplished fact, and should prove to, be a powerful organisation in the near fut::.e. The waterside workers in all the large centres are affiliated, with the exception of Auckland, -where no union exists. ' A few years ago a union was formed in • Auckland, and a large number of members, ■were enrolled, but after ii time the membership Jell away, as the members believed that, they had more to lose than to gain in' an appeal to the Arbitration Court.

The condition of lie Auckland labour market remains about the same as last week. ...

The building and allied trades are fairly busy, and with the advent, of a tine spell of weather would be very brisk. Furniture trades are fair; bootmakers' rather slow, but will lie better in a month's time. The clothing factories are busy. Order tailoring is improving, and as the summer season approaches will improve greatly. Engineering fair, boilermaking good, moulders fair-, ly busy. There is a, growing demand for labour in the country districts, and the usual exodus from the city after the winter months will shortly lake place.

There was a record attendance at the last meeting of the Auckland Labour Day Committee, 27 unions being represented by delegates. The secretary, Mr. Ceo. Davis, road, correspondence, slating that the use of the. Domain ground had been granted, subject, to the payment of the usual lees; that per-, mission had been obtained for the holding of-, the art union, and that no permits.for the use of the totalisator would be issued for: that day. The committee resolved to have 20,000 art union tickets printed. The sports ' programme is to be. drawn up and advertised during the present week. The com-, mittee are working very energetically, and given a line day a record display is "anticipated.

" Upton Sinclair, the : : author of " The Jungle." in a recent, article, "Machine, versus Man," says:—" Pennsylvania some .sheep were shorn and the woo'" tinned into clothing in six hours four minutes. A steer was. killed, its hide tanned, turned into leather, and made into .shoes in 24 hours. The 10.000,000 bottles used by the Standard Oil' Company every year are now blown by ma- , chinery. An electric: riveting machine puts rivets in steel-frame buildings at the rate, of two per minute. Two hundred and sixty needles per minutes, 10,000,000 match-slicks per day. 500 garments cut each day—each by a machine tended by one' little boy. , The newest weaving looms run through the din- . ner hour, and an hour and a-half after the factory closes, making cloth, with no one to tend them at all. The new basket machine, invented by Mergcnthaler, the inventor of the linotype, is now in operation everywhere, making fruit baskets, berry baskets, and grape baskets of a strength ; and quality never approached by handlabour. Fancy a single machine that will turn out completed berry baskets at the rate of 12,000 per day of nine hours' work! This ' is at the rate of 1300 per hour, or over 20 baskets a minute! One girl, operating this machine, does the work of 12 skilled hand operators!'"