TRADES AND LABOUR.

Otago Witness, Issue 1989, 7 April 1892, Page 34

TRADES AND LABOUR.

THE COAL MINERS DISPUTE. (Per Press Association.) n*u xt i.v x. , , London, March 30. Ihe Northumberland miners have resolved to support the Durham strikers. The Derbyshire owners agree to limit work to five days per week. The East Durham owners will not allow the Miners Federation to arbitrate. Several pits hays been permanently closed A split has occurred among the Newcastle engineers, and many are resuming work. It is hoped that a strike in Wales will bo averted.

..... . , March 31. A ballot was taken among the Durham miners, a majority of whom declared- in favour of continuing the strike. A compromise has been effected between the employers and engineers in South Wales, and, in consequence, the proposed strike will not take place. Twenty thousand iron workers have been thrown out of work by the strike of the Durham miners. Though the ballot of Durham miners was in favour of a continuance of the strike, the Miners' Federation has appealed to the masters to allow the men to resume. All the spindles in Ashton-under-Tyne, Lancashire, will be stopped for a month, in order to reduce the quantity of stocks in hand. Four Colorado mines have been shut down owing to the cheapness of silver. Two hundred and fifty thousand men are thus thrown out of work.

April 2. Evidence was given before a committee of the House of Commons to the effect that employes in shops in North London had to work 80 to 90 hours per week. The masters, however, generally expressed themselves in favour of restricting these hours. The bricklayers of London have given notice to the masters that they will enforce the new rules on June 1. A strike is feared. The Durham colliery owners, in reply to tho Miners' Federation, have refused to allow the men to resume work until the question of wages has been settled. The cotton masters have decided to close their mills on the 16th inst. owing to a dispute with workmen. Seventeen and a-half million spindles are affected by the decision. Much distress must necessarily ensue. In Hartlepool and Newcastle numbers are starving owing to the miners' strike, and it is feared the result will bo a reduction of 20 per cent, in wages. Two hundred vessels are idle on the Tyne, and there is much distress among seamen. April 3. The unemployed in London are agitajting for work. At several meetings which they have held lately speeches of an angry sort were delivered. A dispute with regard to wages which has taken place at the oil mills in Manchester and Staley Bridge involves a sum of L50.Q00 per week. The Paris Labour Bureau has issued a manifesto, in which a proposal is made to form a syndicate -of labourers to construct public works.

April 4. The families of the Durham miners out on strike are without food and fuel, and are appealing for relief. The strike of engineers on the Tyne and Wear continues, arbitration having failed. It is alleged that sweating in the Salvation Army Matoh Factory is causing distress among private employes. A section of the engineers are seceding from the amalgamated society and are returning to work.

At a meeting of carpenters and joiners at Christchurch it was resolved unanimously that the Employers' Association be informed that the meeting considered the time had arrived when the rate of wages should be raised Is per day, and the secretaries of the Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners' Society and of the Canterbury Carpenters and Joiners' Association were instructed to have the resolution conveyed to the association referred to.

A Wellington telegram states that last year fully 100 men in the Wellington district complained to Mr Tregear, head of the bureau of industries, that they had been swindled out of their money by unscrupulous contractors, and in order that the labouring classes may know their legal position the head of the bureau has issued instructions that posters containing extracts from the Working Men's Wages Act and Bankruptcy Act relating to the recovery of wages shall be put up in a conspicuous place in each country town. The various branches of bureaus throughout the colony are also to be supplied with copies of both acts for inspection by working people.