TRADES AND LABOUR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2059, 10 August 1893, Page 16

TRADES AND LABOUR.

(Pbr Pbess Association.) * London, August 1. The Belgian miners offer to co-operate with the strikers with a view to biinging on an international strike. The coke-burners have joined the strike. A section of tbe Yorkshire mine owners offer to withdraw tbe notice reducing wages, and to give a pledge not to attempt any reduction for a year. August 2. The coal owners are offering to negotiate terms for a compromise. The miners have issued a manifesto stating that their average wages only amount to 8d per hour, and that they have never shared in the high prices ruling when the times were good. The strikers at Dewsbury attacked the working miners. The police were called in, and during the affray several of them were injured. August 3. The price of coal has advanced 6s per ton since the strike. Negotiations for the settlement of the strike among the miners is proceeding. August 5. Owing to the strike of haulers, 20,000 Welsh miners- are idle. Thirty thousand miners are idle in Wales, and the effect of the coal strike is very acute. In consequence of the strike the employes

at the Crewe railway works have been reduced to four days' labour per week. ' Delegates from the Belgian, German, Austrian, and French misers advise their unions to refuse to export ooal to Eogland. The scarcity of coal is causing many of the factories to restrict operations. August 8. The Northumberland mine owners refuse to concede the advance in wage 3 demanded by the men. Owing to the coal strike 1000 'railway bands have been dismissed, and work in the locomotive shops is suspended. The Durham mine owners have refused to make any advance in wages, but offer to Bnbmit the question to arbitration. The miners o£ Kinross and Fifeshire will strike for an advance. Pabis, August 7. The Socialists and the Labour Exchange are promoting a general strike (to begin in October) for an advance in wages. Bbbne, August 8. A difgracefnl scene took place at a Socialist congress at Zaricb, in Switzerland. Several free fights took place over the question of allowing Anarchists to be present. Wellington, August 2. The opinion of members of the local Seamen's Union who are employed by the Union Steam Ship Company is not unfavourable to the£l reduction announced by the company, but they strongly object to the compulsory joining of the company's benefit society. The reduction was not altogether without anticipation when the circular was issued to members of the union, and the result is to accept the reduction of £1 if the compulsory joining of the society mentioned is nob enforced. It is probable that a conference will be arranged with the Union Company's officials. Exception is taken to the last paragraph of the Union Company's circular, the opinion of the men being that in the event of a revival of trade the present rate of wages should be reinstated. August 8. The Trades Councils' Conference endorsed the principle of compulsory arbitration as contained in the Industrial Conciliation Bill, and also the appointment of a Supreme Court judge as president of the Arbitration Board. The federation scheme was considered, and after considerable debate -it was resolved— "That the resolution passed at the conference at Dunedin be adhered to, and that the provisional executive for the federation scheme for the ensuing 12 months should remain in Wellington." With reference to the electoral platform, it was resolved— " That this conference take no steps to form a political platform." Mr J. Kelly, M.H.R., reported that at the conference of shearers in the South Island, at whioh 2000 men were represented, the federal scheme was approved, and' that it w#s their intention to have representation on the Federal Council when it was carried into effect. Fairplay of the 16fch June says :— "Last week's Fairplay contained the flysheet showing the cash receipts and payments of the Sailors and Firemen's Union for the year 1892. The net result is that as the union commenced the year with £3505 in hand and finishes it with £857 only, its expenditure during the year has exceeded its inooma by the difference between those two sums. As usual, the bulk of the money spent, amounting in all to £29,141, went to officials. The accounts show that out of the < total expenditure over £23,000 was spent in salaries and other expenses of running the show. This has been the normal state of affairs with this union, and calls for no particular comment. There is another point to whioh attetmion has to be called. These accounts are in no sense a ~ balance sheet of the union, and sooner or later that balance sheet must be produced. Last year the result was anything but satisfactory, and it is doubtful whether the present year's working will show the financial position of the union to have improved. Accounts are nothing which do not disclose the assets /md liabilities of a concern, and such items can only appear in a balanco sheet. What are the liabilities of the Seamen's Union (if any), and what are its means of meeting them P That question cannot be answered until the balance sheet is presented, and there is no apparent reason. why that document should nob have accompanied the statement of receipts and expenditure." The terrible facts (remarks tbe Melbourne Age) which are being dragged to light by the Sweating Board will smooth the way for Mr Deakin's Factory Act Amendment Bill. The barest recital of these facts is enough to make a sensitive nature shudder. To think of a civilised community— to say nothing at all about a Christian one— calmly standing by and looking on while helpless poverty ii being ground into the grave with over-toil and underpay, is to suggest what a mere veneer there is covering our innate savagery. We read a of Legree cracking his whip on the slave plarita- , tions, and thank Heaven with -a phariaaic grimace that we are nob as the rest of men — like those brutal slave-masters, to wit. But no Legree was ever a more brutal tyrant to his black bond slaves than is the system of unlimited "freedom of contract," which encourages the sweater to stand over his helpless' victims as the arbiter of life and death, and give oub his pittance only in return for the life sweab of his workers. We talk of liberty as a priceless gift, and we affect horror ab the acts of the Arab slavestealers. And we are right, no doubt. But if those tawny plunderers of the desert had but a newspaper press of their own, and a Melbourne correspondent to tell them of how citizens of this "marvellous " metropolis reduce their own kith and kin to a condition of abject penury, the chances are that Tippoo Tib' himself would feel horrified at our cruelties: What feeling of liberty, of self-respect— what hope, what aims — can animate those hapless ones who, spending every waking hour over their needles for the bare means of keeping life in their wasting frames, tremble at the mere suggestion that they should tell the bale of their wrongs, lesb their task-masters should withdraw the lasb frail means of subsistence, and leave them to die alone in their starving solitude 1 Liberty ! The poor wretches have not even the freedom of speech to speak their own sorrows.

The second anniversary reunion of the employes of Messrs Morgan and Cable, Fort Chalmers, was celebrated on Friday evening in the Foresters' Hall, which was prettily decorated with flags and ferna. Dancings was kept up until an early hour on Saturday morning to music supplied by Mr Mart's string band. Mr W. Shields was M.C., and the catering was entrusted to Mrs Pateman, who gave general satisfaction. About 80 persons attended the banquet to Mr R. C. Bruce, ftLH.R., on Saturday night. Great disappointment was felt that 17 or 18 ■ members of Parliament, who had arranged to go to Hawera, were unable to get through owing to the interruption of railway traffic. The proceedings were very cordial. Mr Brace was presented with a library, comprising 250 standard works.