NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13480, 3 July 1907, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS.

BY ARTISAN.

It has been estimated that, there are at least 30,000 unemployed in the two States of New South Wales and Victoria.

Over 100 new members were enrolled in the Builders' Labourers' Society in Adelaide during the first six months of this year.

[ Members of the Early-Closing and the j Warehousemen and Clerks' Associations in Adelaide have strengthened each others j hands by amalgamation and forming one | strong organisation.

The executive of the Independent Labour party (which is stationed in Christchurch for this year) recommends that an organiser be appointed to travel the colony in the interests of the party.

South Australian Operative Masons and Bricklayers' Association reports that " it is a great number of years since the association has been in such a flourishing condition numerically."

The New South Wales Minister for Works reckons there should be plenty of employment during the winter months in that Slate, as a lot of railway and tramway work is about to be put in hand.

The .Mayor of Auckland (Mr. A. M. Myers) lias been appointed by the Minister lor Labour as chairman of the special Conciliation Board to deal with the dispute in the local slaughtering for the retail butchers.

I Union meetings for the current week : — I Waterside Workers, July 3; Curriers, July 4; Furniture Trades, July 5; Fellmongers, !July 5; Butchers, July 8; Seamen, July 5 ; Carpenters, July 9; Engineers, July 9; Trades and Labour Council, July 10.

Judge Heydon, president of the New South Wales Arbitration Court, says that the evidence taken in camera in the shopassistants' claim for increased wages is more important than that given in open Court. Its tenor should be made ,public now.

The employees of the Taranaki dairy factories have concluded a satisfactory agreement with the employers for the ensuing season. An all-round improvement in wages is granted, and the conditions of employment will in future be more favourable to the men.

At the last meeting of the House Painters' Union the following officers were elected for the ensuing half-year:—Mr. G. Thorpe, president ; Mr. T. McLaughlin, vice-president; Mr. H. Watts, treasurer; Mr. S. Dyer, secretary; and Mr. £'. Gladding, assistant-secretary.

It cost the A.M.A. over £1000 in legal and witnesses' expenses to have its Cobar members' claims for better wages, etc., decided by the New South Wales Arbitration Court. So long as the legal fraternity (says the Brisbane Worker) are allowed" to appear before the Arbitration Court, so long will the trade unions be bled financially.

Every year the Englishwomen's Trade■ Union "League award the badge of thcleague to the woman in the. movement who has done most to advance the cause. The badge is a beautiful piece of work by a woman goldsmith, and this year it was awarded to Miss Mary Macarthiir, who, in returning thanks, testified that; during the last half-year the movement had made greater progress than ever before.

The Auckland Cabmen's Union has arranged a fresh agreement with the cab proprietors. The only new feature in the agreement is that "the proprietors shall keep a wages and overtime book in which a record of time worked and wages paid to each employee shall be kept. The hours to be worked by the local men per month will be 340, as against 280 awarded by the Court to the Wellington cabmen. The Liquor Trades Employees' Union and the Hotel, Club, and Restaurant Employees' Union, Adelaide, have amalgamated under the former name. The union ; membership is 258, and, as new members are joining in large numbers, it is anticipated that it will be increased to 500 before the September demonstration. One of the objects of the amalgamation is to secure better conditions for the workers by seeking to improve the liquor trade laws. A large number of delegates, representing the majority of the local unions, attended the meeting called for June 27 to ' arrange for the celebration of Labour Day , next October. The following officers were . elected :—Air. J. Derrick, president; Mr. P. Birch, vice-president; Air. J. Fawcus, , treasurer ; Mr. G. Davis, general secretary ; Mr. F. Webb, assistant-secretary. After . discussion a sub-committee was formed to consider matters and to recommend to the next meeting what form the celebration should take. ; In the 34 constituencies- contested by I Labour at the late Victorian elections the j Labour candidates polled 41,382 votes audi won only 14 seats, while the Ministerialists,! with 49,027 votes, captured 20 scats. Four: thousand additional votes, properly distributed, would have given Labour the whole; '. of the 34 seats ; 2000 votes fewer would j have left it without a single representative in Parliament. S'uch are the haphazard methods (says an exchange) by which, in this enlightened, scientific age, we achieve '. the great object of representative govern- j • merit! j J At the last meeting of the Auckland Bricklayers' Industrial Union the following officers were elected :—Mr. .T. Aldcrson, ■ president.; Mr. F. McCust, vice-president; I Mr. J. McGuire, treasurer; and Mr. W. '. V. Knight, secretary. The auditors' re- ■ port and the balance-sheet showed that the • finances of the union were in a healthy ' condition. It was decided to present the . retiring president (Mr. F. McCust) with • a photographic shield of the officers of the " union as an appreciation of the able man- | ner in which he had conducted the busi- .' ness of the union during his term of office.