NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13494, 22 May 1907, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS.

.■"■:■■■ .-■■■■■. ~."">.ivfif% State*AiDKDi. immigration is a, revival «f the slave trade in disguise.—BrUbaaj. Worker. In the last session of the British Vakil nicnl £200,000 was voted to assist the™J. employed. ——— An 'increase in the cost of the newssi,-. ies of life and the raising of rents redo/** wages just as much as a cut in par. ——~—- The trade union is I In; bent form of M ■ ganisation as vet devised fur the profe* tion of workers under the wage system. ■ Germany. Denmark, Norway, France • Switzerland, and Italy have stringent laws for the suppression of emigration touts. • ' .•■;,"■ " Judge Heydon. of the New South Wala, Arbitration Court, promises to make it hot for sailors' crimps whenever he gets an ! opportunity. » j Mr. H. L. Hornung, who is at present on a visit to Queensland, took part in t ne ' Labour Day celebrations in Brisbane on. the 6th inst. •» I Union meetings for the current week; j -—Seamen 24th, GumdiggeiV 25th, Iron', moulders 28th, Carpenters 28th, En. gineers 28th, Trades and Labour Council 29th. • : _ ' 7 {-"W^M^ The marine officers' union, known under ; the name of the Merchant Service Gu2dj has obtained a common rule in the Federal .Arbitration Court, 'affecting, rates of wag on all vessels employed-in the Australian coastal trade. ' .' j Judge O'Connor, of the Federal Arbitr*. tion Court, has ruled that if there was a union of emplovers, and a . union of employees, and the dispute was between 'them, the dispute could be raised without the intervention of a single em- ;, ployee, and would form a dispute within the'jurisdiction of the Arbitration Court.' The result of the Queensland State elections was received with interest. Owing to the split in the Labour party, the Opposition is so far the strongest, party] Bu.t none Qt the three parties is strong enough to carry on the Government, and unleis the Government and Opposition coalese**, the .'Labour party will be able to dictate 1 its own terms. «.;;;#?;: • Louis Kauftield. a glass blower in an In* diana town (U.S.), has, after years: of V labour, invented a process for glass making which is expected to revolutionise the industry. He makes malleable, non-break-able glass. Lamp chimneys so made can be used to drive nails into a block of wood.' A hot chimney,,; plunged into a bowl of iced water, remains intact. A factory has been . established in Matthews, Indiana, and the glass is being manufactured. Should the result of the recent interview with the Minister for Labour by the Wei- ' lington Enginedrivers' Union result in the recognition of the equal monetary value of service and competency tickets, a longstanding grievance will be removed. Service tickets are no longer issued, but the competency men have been seriously handicapped by* the fact that service men, owing to the lower scale of wage, were in a great majority of cases preferred. , : - Work is plentiful in Auckland, The building and allied trades are all busy, few l union men being out. . Engineering and allied trades are fairly busy. , Furniture i trades are -on the whole good, some of the ■'•t;; factories being very busy. •• Boot factories are busy getting out the heavier lines-for ; winter wear. Clothing factories are busy, a number of hands being advertised for.. Order tailoring is fair. Waterside workers *■ ' - are, fairly, busy. .. Unskilled labour is, in ,? : good .dejnand,'.men,being'«dvyorti*<>4.,/w', j I 7 \'."' "' "'.— '' ' ' ■-.:,-.-•>.' "I The Wellington Building Trades Labourers' Union has cited '.'.,510 employers '| before the Conciliation Board. The unicir;;;;;;l| demands are that 45 hours shall constitute a week's work; labourers shall receivo nofc \ '; less than Is 4£d for working on, in,, or about any building or construction in course of erection, and that all men -em-- '&£s ployed as scaffolders shall be paid not less than Is 6d. Employers to provide a sani- . tary and sufficiently large room wherein' - labourers may Vi . change, their clothes and eat ;their meal 6; all tools to be found by. the employers; that boys be only employ? Ed in the proportion of one to each four labourers, and that preference be granted; Should the above scale of wages be granted the Wellington labourer,will be better , ' paid than the Auckland tradesman. . Mr. Masteraian, in the Nineteenth : Cenf;w;fey tury and After, describes the position ofthe working man thus: "He is being told to-day that the things which he desires re-* quire money, and that it is impossible for the money to be obtained. Frankly, hi ' does not believe it. He sees all around him evidence of an almost incredible ac-cumulation—-opulence, comfort, and luxury j—such as the world has never before known. At the same time, he is being as*' sured by the politician that there is n».;Jf| means of getting at this wealth for the , common good. He is told that any extravagant hope of an income from taxation of land is inevitably doomed to failure; that] a graduated income- would be scarcely, .'.•-" worth the trouble of collection; that the, country is already staggering under a bur-; den of"taxation greater than it can bear."!: '

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