Our Wellington Letter.

Opunake Times, Volume VII, Issue 308, 20 August 1897, Page 2

Our Wellington Letter.

Wellington, August 18. THE LABOR QUESTION. Fast and furious come the demands of the wage earners. Those who pay the wages are not permitted to have a voice. There is a statute which provides that in cases where a dispute arises between masters and men that a Board of Arbitration and Conciliation shall be set up to adjudicate and settle the differences. In theory it is an admirable provision, in practice it becomes a means of individuals in search of popularity ingratiating themselves with the electors. And in practice it has proved that, while the workers are provided with candidates to suit them and the power of the Ministry of the day to back them that the first move on the part of the employers is met by some counter-move to prevent any chance of a fair enquiry into a trade dispute beiug investigated. A few years ago the Democratic Party, headed by Mr W. P. Beeves, started a campaign with the legend on their banner " a fair day's wage for a fair day's work." This has now been improved on by the legend " a full day's pay for half a day's work." But it must not be supposed for a moment that this law was intended to apply to people outside the four chief towns which returned three members each. The full day's pay was meant for the city workers who produced boots, clothing and other necessities which the country producers were expected to pay for.

In an article in the Review of Reviews in January 3rd 1895, the Hon. W. P. Reeves stated the labor policy of the Cabinet thus:—" Money will not be. spent on useless works, just because they are relief works. Nor will the State lay out money, even on useful works, which it cannot afford to spend. The N.Z. democracy feels the presence of unemployed in the colony to be a national blot and reproach," and so on. Two and a half years have passed, and it needs not a mere journalist to allege that the unemployed blot is still with us. To remedy it Government have put on desirable workers at all 6orts of co-operative works in Wellington. They fairly swarm about all the public buildings. Contractors and skilled men jeer at the results of their labors and the comparitive value of it alongside the old system of contract work as an instance:—l happened to be in Manners Street today and noticed a one storey building going up in a neighborhood where three storied buildings were the rale. Two bricklayers were deliberately consuming time. While I was wondering what the game was a well-known builder came along aud I asked what the proceedings meant. " Mon " said he •' Yon's the new polis station and the twa loons are co-operative bricklayers, I've kept tally o' the work aud what has taken them three weeks I'd do it in four days with twa o' my men and they woald'naturn ahair." Without going into particulars I could take a visitor to half a dozen places in Wellington where the same thing applies, and the worst of it is that where a good Liberal gets top wages for doing next door to nothing where the Government is paymaster, the man who has an employer who has to provide the wages is penalised by having to submit to what is considered a day's work by the Government which tunes its fiddle to the working man. And so it comes about that whatever is dictated by the Trades Unions is obeyed by the Ministry of the day. The operation of the Arbitration and Conciliation Board is an instance. It provides for the election of representatives by workers' unions on one side aud employers on the.other, the Government themselves having a voioe in the selection of a chairman to rule matters. The outcome has been that some fourteen workers' organisations have registered themselves under the act, but only two manufacturers' associations, viz :—The bootmakers and cab proprietors. The latter organisation is in no sense an employers' union, while the other is one with some thousands of people engaged in the colony. It so happened a few weeks ago that a vacancy occurred in the Arbitration and Conciliation Board connected with the furniture trade, and the choice of a representative rested with the employers. It did not matter to either the bootmakers or the cabbies what the trouble was with the furniture people, but there was a general feeling that it was about time to have the general question of the constant demand for more wages and less hours of work to be fought out fairly. The difficulty was interfered with by two separate factions of the labor party choosing candidates who hated each other with a cordiality only known aud appreciated among Socialists when they fall out. It was found that neither of their nominators were qualified. As the Board is constituted at present the Chairman and the two members are well known popularity hunting Seddonites, but the Trades' union were so nervous of having any one on the Board to investigate the relations between masters and men that they persuaded the cabbies to nominate another Seddonite, so that when the furniture makers came up with a demand for £3 per week for 5£ days work, that it would be granted without any enquiry as to the rights of the demand. At the last moment a boot manufacturer stepped into the breach and nominated Mr Wilkie, who is a notorious anti-Seddonite, and as there were only two registered votes and on the day of election the cabbies neglected to vote and the wrong man was declared elected, there was consternation among the unions. They have had so much of their own way that the prospect of having an inquisitive nuisance like this objectionable fellow Wilkie, who probably will insist on arbitrating and arriving at a |

just conclusion in place of splitting the difference, as has been the custom, has spread dismay in the labor camp. The unions and the Trades Council have therefore been extremely busy to-day moving the Cabinet and the Crown law officials to take action to declare his election informal, so as to prevent the employers having a fair run for their money on what is humorously called the Arbitration and Conciliation Board. WHAT IB A DAY? There are two disputes on the tapis at present. The carpenters and joiners claim that they shall be paid £8 per week for 44 hours, thus getting 10s per day of eight hours and Saturday afternoon thrown in. The employer will therefore have to calculate on his schedule rates on paying 12s for every lis worth of labor done, and allow himself extra time for completing a job. What sense of justice underlies this claim by the carpenters is not apparent. To put the position squarely let us suppose the most elementary class of labor,, viz., removing dirt on a road or railway. In bygone days, when real, in place of co-operative contractors, did this work, contracts were taken on a basis that, a competent navvy could shift from 10 to 20 cubic yards per day, according to the nature of the material. Taking 16 yards as a fair day's work, the contractor would tender at a prioe which would give him ten per cent for profits and risk above wages. But when the new law, which now operates, deprived him of half a day's work per week of every man on the job, he would be worse off than the most inefficient of his navvies. And the same principle applies to every paymaster in the colony. As a proof of how the endeavor to burst up the employer has expanded recently, it is only necessary to quote from clause four of Mr Seddon's Eight Hours' Bill of the 1896 session, which provided that a week should consist of 45 hours. Within a year the carpenters have demanded that a week shall be 44 hours, with 48 hours' pay. In another year we may look for six hours being a legalday, and finally a week with no work and full pay ; and then when chaog has arrived we will get back into the condition of savages, with no one left to pay wages at all, and living on out own species on the principle of the survival of the fittest.