NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14933, 5 March 1912, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS.

BT ARTISAN. It is estimated that in England-one woman, in six earns her own living. Surfacemen employed by the Masterton County Council have been granted an increase of 6d per day, from 8s to 8s 6d. The Victorian State jrickworks employees have been paid off, and it is understood that the works, which have resulted in a heavy loss, will be closed. . Twenty thousand women in Birmingham (England), it is stated, are working at carding hooks and eyes at an average wage of from 2s 6d to 4s a .week. ' The report of the New South Wales Royal Commission on female and juvenile labour in shops and factories recommends a 44-hour week, spread over six days. It opposes the five-day week proposal. The New South Wales Fire Brigade Board has granted an increase in wages of Is per day to the Broken Hill firemen, and that disturbed feeling which led to an ultimatum from the men is now at an end. Cincinnati (U.S.A.) has recently opened a municipal domestic laundry, where poor women of the tenement districts may take the family clothing and do their own washing with the aid of. the most up-to-date machinery. The final notice of cancellation of the Wellington Wharf Labourers' Industrial Union of Workers has been gazetted. This union will be registered undet the Trades Union Act as the Wellington Waterside Workers' Union. , Mr. Tom Smith, late secretary of the Wellington Wharf Labourers' Union, is now secretary of the Wellington Workinginen's Club and Literary Institute. Every watersider will wish Tom success in his new sphere. According to the reports from the Labour Department's different local branches unskilled labour is well employed at this time practically throughout the Dominion. n the South Island there is generally a good demand for unskilled labour, especially at Christchurch.

Sixty per cent, of the total population of Japan is dependent for its livelihood on agriculture. The population is 51,000,000, and of these 31,000,000 look to the soil to provide them with means for subsistence. Anyone who owns more than 75 acres is looked upon as a large .landed proprietor, the .usual run of estates being less than 25 acres.

' The 13th annual Belgium trade union congress was held on December 24 in the People's House in Brussels. The programme included : (1) Professional instruction and trade union action; (2) no work on Saturday afternoons; (3) the project of law for the revision of the law on the industrial and labour councils (4) a central council for labour education.

Insurance against sickness is compulsory in Hungary for all persons employed in industrial undertakings whose earnings do not exceed £100 a year, or 6s 8d a day. The usual rate of contribution to the insurance funds has been fixed at three per cent, of the average daily wage, one-half of the contribution being payable by the work people and one-half by the employers.

Mr. Doyle, a delegate of the Lithgow (New South Wales) Miners' Union, who is at present in Auckland, appealing for funds on behalf of the strikers who have been out for, the past seven months, is meeting -with continued success. The unions throughout the Dominion have shown marked signs of sympathy by rendering financial assistance, both by donation and levy.

The Golden Bay Cement Company has been granted a further extension of time till March 31 for the use of the old cement bags, with the proviso that double bags be used till then. This concession was granted by • the transport branch, owing to the late arrival of the paperlined bags. Immediately the concession was granted, the Auckland firms made similar application. v A representative of the Wellington Tramways' Union, who is in Auckland at present on holiday leave, states that things are again normal on the Wellington tramways. Inspector Fuller has been removed to the office staff, and the friction over uniforms was not very serious. The officers who took a prominent part in the recent trouble are President Dalton, Vicepresident Ward, and Secretary Sutherland.

The annual election of officers and committee for the ensuing term of tho Auckland Tramways' Union took place recently. The result of the ballot was as follows:— President, Mr. Paul Richardson; vice-pre-sidents, Messrs. C. Robinson and J. Griffin ; secretary/ Mr. A. Rosser ; treasurer, Mr. Walter Chadwick; trustees, Messrs. W. Kerr and W. J. Murray; committee, Messrs. T. Hill, E. Greenlane, H. Ludgatc, A. French. D. Ryan. M. McLoughlin, J. Willis, W. Dent, W. L. Breen, D. Taylor, C. D. Carrow, G. Green, S. Colqulioun and J. Clarkin.

The general labourers' trouble seems to have reached its acute stage. It appeals that the Federation of Labour will make it-i final efforts this week to effect a settlement, or bring about a conference between 'he parties concerned, and if an overture fails a strike is imminent. The Auckland unions that will probably be involved in the event of a strike are the Labourers' Union, with a membership of 1400 ; Waterside Workers' Union, with a membership of 900; Tramways Union, with a membership of 500; and the Brewerv Employees' Union, with a membership of 120.

In Wellington 'the secretary of the local Waterside Union organised the bulkkeepers into a permanent workers' branch of that organisation, prepared demands, and approached the employers for a conference. One of the largest owners immediately sent for the milkmen employed, and made advances in wages and overtime rates, conceded annual vacation, offered to provide a launch to bring tho children to and from school, and made many other concessions which had been most strenuously opposed before an attempt was made to link them ' up with the main organisation.

One of the most curious legal cases in connection with the printers' strike in London was heard by Judge Parry at the Lambeth County Court, when Sir Joseph Causton and Sons, Ltd., were sued by Thomas Burbridge, a compositor-appren-tice, of Brixton, for five weeks' wages at the rate of 10s per week. He was summarily dismissed on the ground that he had contravened certain articles of his indentures by giving information to pickets during the strike in regard to non-union men employed by the firm, which was calculated to injure the firm's business. His Honor held that the- plaintiff was perfectly entitled to speak to pickets if he liked, and that there was no evidence that the boy disobeyed anv reasonable orders that Caustons, Ltd., desired to have upheld. There would be judgment for £2 10s and costs.