TRADES AND LABOUR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2251, 22 April 1897, Page 15

TRADES AND LABOUR.

■ ■ o London, April 13. Lord R-osebory has consented to aot as I arbitrator between the North -Eastern Riilj way Company and their employees. j April 14. ; The conference between the federated | employers in the northern shipbuilding | yards and representatives cf the unionist ; engineers failed to settle the point with j reference to the employment of unskilled j workmen, whose withdrawal the engineers* ■ unions demand. i Sydney, April 16. i The Newcastle miners' delegates have I decided to a»k the colliery proprietors to confer with the view of an adjustment and increase in hewiag and other rates. Adelaide, April 13. The female workers in the boot trade have I formedrfi union to support the strikers. There 1 are no signs of the strike terminatirg. ( Christceurch, April 13. j The Conciliation Board's award in the buildj ing tracle trouble is practically agreed to, but an adjournment is made to tho 265h insb. to I enable the parcies to draw up an induatrial | agreement;. I Of the labour market in Dunedin tha I " Journal of the Labour Market" reports: Building trades fairly busy, excepting bricklayers and masons ; boot trade slack, acd & number of men only partially employed ; the clothing trade quieter than usual, short time being j workad iv mo3t factories ; retail trade, fair J business doing ; scarcb, meat preserving, jam, ', and biscuit; factories, fairly busy ; unskilled labour, a good few out of employment; owing to harvest work being finished, but the number should be reduced shortly. Thirteen men were sent to Government work, and six to private employment. In Invereargill the build* ing, boot, and clothing and retail trades are reported fair ; engineering, quieb ; a number of unskilled labourers out of employment, but it was intended to put some work in hand in a week or two. During the month of March 2442 persons I were engaged on Government co-operative works. Of this number 1686 were under the Surveys department, 811 being employed in the Wellington district;, 483 in Auckland. 62 j in Hawke's Bay, 274 in Taranaki, 125 in Otago, 78 in Southland, and 50 in Wesfcland. Of the 118 artifans and 623 labourers under i the Public Works department, 13 artisans and \ 78 labourers were employed on tho Otago , Central railway, 2 artisans and 21 labourers : on the Seaward Bush railway, and 16 labourers j on the Berwick- Waipori road.

' There were 13 bankruptcies in the colony last week — two fruiterers, a surveyor, a, storekeeper, , a coaldealer, % billiard-marker, a saddler, * • draper, a farm overseer, a labourer, a miner. • farmer, »nd a circus proprietor*