NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS. '

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14807, 10 October 1911, Page 5

NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS. '

.:.....; BT ABTI3AX. .. \M f y '.' ,' I On Thursday evening the last but one meeting of the Labour Day Celebration Committee will be held. There still remains ..... a considerable amount of detail' business to do. " Should wife or husband hold the purse.'" asks a weeKiy paper. Well, so v iar as the • average toner is s concerned, the question is immaterial. Once the', weekly bids are squared the baby might have the purse to play with, tor all it) contains. ''/. The labourer is more given to strike. than is the artisan. This is just the opposite to what you would expect, be cause his financial position, duo to broken time and small pay compared with the skilled worker, rarely leaves him with a week's pay in advance of hisimmediate wants. The Painters' Union has decided to take a ballot on the question of cancelling its registration under-the-Conciliation and Arbitration Act. The local union is part of the " Dominion Federation of Painters, and if the local, vote favours cancellation it will, to be "effectual, require to ho endorsed by the other unions in the Dominion. A dispute occurred last week in Melbourne between the Master Builders' As- ; sociation and Builders' Labourers' Union. The union demanded a rise from Is 2|d to Is 3d per hour. The master builders wanted the matter submitted to a wages, board, but the union would not have it.' After two days' strike the men returned! to work receiving Is 3d per hour. ~ ' "Dr. Gore, recently translated from the bishopric of Birmingham to that of Oxford, has addressed ; a farewell letter to his late diocese, in which he declared that he believed the prevailing industrial discontent was justified. Christians, he declares, are not justified in tolerating the conditions of life and labour under \ which the masses are living; and they have no right to say that such conditions are irremediable." . ••'->■ ... There is complaint made by. two 01 three employers in Auckland owing to, shortage of men. The cause for this is not difficult- to discern. It is'due to .better conditions prevailing in Australia. The folly of - assisting immigrants only to find that men are departing in greater numbers than they are arriving , shows! that something wants amending in our' conditions if the Dominion is to main-' tain its prestige as the paradise of the workingman. -.. .'.'■; -■•-.

The factory inspector in Timaru complains in his" report of an undue number of, applications, mostly in the carpentering trade, for permits to work at urider-rates, and states that a large number of the applicants had just completed their apprenticeship. He expresses a doubt whether the employers had giyfn the youths a fair chance of learning their trade. It must be one of two things : either our colonial boys are very stupid, or employers do not do them justice.

On the ' invitation of Bishop' Cleary, the executive of the Labour Day Demonstration Committee recently . "spent an. evening - at• the Bishop's,^Palace. ';, .', They < were delighted with the geniality, , and kindness of their host and with the entertaining stories and incidents related, fay the Bishop They also , heard with' pleasure that both, fcbe Bishop, and Father Holbrook are in" sympathy with Labour'spurpose and ; aspirations,: in which, "by aiding the funds for the entertainment of ■ the children, on Labour. Day, they have given substantial witness. • ..• ['. .,,'.; ; .

Says "M.A.P." in connection with the subject started in'* London : " Does a Man Support His"* Wife'*: —"A quarter of ' the' average worlcingmaii's (or clerk's) beer and tobacco money given to the wife for her own use. would be money well spent indeed. After, all, there are very few wives who get so much enjoyment out of life 'as' do their husbands, and a little regular allowance for herself will greatly add to a woman's sense ol independence.", As to a man's, ) being letrally supposed to keep his, wife it is oftener that she keeps herself—if only by her housework.

The cable last week brought the .pleasing news that West Australia had by a substantial' majority placed ' th© Government in the- hands pf Labour. This makes three of the five Australian States now governed by the Labour party. "Victoria will probably follow suit at the approaching elections. Perhaps - New Zealand will be encouraged >to make an effort to send as a nucleus a dozen mem. bers to the House. .This success of out fellow-workers on "the other - side" is another milestone passed in the natural political evolution of the working classes, a striking and significant sign of the times. After 35 years of public education the worker lias learned that hobnailed, revolutionary methods are futile, and he comes now with a steady peaceful march to victory.

So the Minister for Labour considers the constitution 'of the Arbitration Court requires amending, otherwise the system will "be ' defumct. He suggests the appointment of a commercial man as- president* The chances are that the proposed change i would,,: not ,be considered one whit better by the workers. The evil of the present constitution of, the Court is that it has a class bias, though operating unconsciously in its decisions. This feeling naturally exists among the workers, and the bias would be reversed If one from the ranks were made president of the Court. Nevertheless, considering the Court has had a long trial, and according to the Minister proved a failure, I would suggest to him that he make trial of one from the ranks- of the masses as . its president. He could pick : a score of them in the Dominion equally ' as capable ■ and as fair as any commercial man... . ■"■ ; : \ ..: i

Professor Mills arrives on Friday from the South, where ho has done' much arduous work, and has the satisfaction of knowing- that his proposed scheme* of the federation of labour has met with the success it deserves. He will meet the Trades and Labour Council on Friday evening at a special meeting for the purpose of receiving reports from the various unions in the district as to whether they purpose coming under his scheme. Should it i meet with the success it deserves in the North Island, then the unions of the Dominion will have a solid., grouping of their separate-" entities—-which in effect have become little better than a waste of time and energy for the : economic or •political advancement of the working classes — a national federation acting as one man along the lines of least i resistance. And that resistance, as will be gathered on a perusal of the scheme, ,is not by way of strikes, but by peaceful and legitimate meansconcentration by the workers at the ballot-box. •. .