THE LABOUR BILLS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9116, 15 May 1891, Page 2

THE LABOUR BILLS.

(Fbom Oub Own Cobeespondent.)

Auckland, May 14. At a meeting of the Trades and Labour Council a communication was received from the Knights of Labour asking the council to appoint a deputation to meet their executive in conference with a view of taking united action re the labour bills, to be brought before the next session of Parliament. THE BOOTMAKERS' STRIKE. ,

The Star, in an article on the bootmakers' strike, eajs:—" The present strike in the boot trade is probably unique in the history of trade disturbances. On the one side there are nearly the whole of the workmen and four-fifths of the manufacturers in agreement with regard to the justice of the demand of the workmen who have given up their employment. On the other side are 11 Auckland manufacturers who claim exceptional treatment with regard to the scale of wages payable at their factories. We take it that if the manufacturers who are now resisting the scale tell us frankly their real motives the; would say something to this effect: Under tte conditions hitherto prevailing we have been led to cater largely for the southern trade; our factories and machinery have been built up under these conditions; to surrender that trade now means a considerable loss, and we mean to make a fight for it. Now that we believe is the best that can be said for the manufacturers, and unquestionably there is something to be said for their side from this point of view, but not very much. With the adoption of a federal wages' scale by four-fifths of the manufacturers of the colony, including some carrying on business in Auckland, the, chance of obtaining a local statement and at the same time maintaining friendly trade relations with either the associated bootmakers or the boot operatives parsed away, and the Auckland manufacturers themselves admit that the Auckland operatives had no alternative but to withdraw from union with their fellow-craftsmen in other parts of New Zealand or surrender their employment. Of course, the right of every individual capitalist to decline to employ men on any specified terms cannot be impugned. By precisely the same right men may and do refuse to give their services unless the wages offered are, in their opinion, adequate. It is competent for the Auckland manufacturers to say: "We will no longer engage in the tiade ; we will realise as much of our capital as we can and put it into something else; bootmaking in Auckland, for ought we care, can become a thing of the past." All this they may do and no one has any right to challenge their freedom of action. But the further question arises—is it wise ? Bootmaking was one of the finest of the Auckland industries. There had gathered here a splendid body of wotkmen. These are now betaking their labour to other fields. They are going to build up the trade in the southern cities and in Sydney. How are they to be replaced ?,'