LABOR NOTES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12772, 25 May 1912, Page 4 (Supplement)

LABOR NOTES.

(Published by Arrangement.) , (By D.W.C.) A special meeting of the East Coa-st Trades and Labor (council was held last Monday evening for the purpose of considering the question of the installation of the sewerage. The matter was very freely discussed and it was considered absolutely impossible for tho workers to meet the cost of connecting with the sewerage. A meeting of ratepayers is to be held next Monday evening for the purpose of considering the question with a view to bringing the subject of cost under tho notice of the Borough Council. The Labor party held their usual speakers' class last Friday evening, when a very enjoyable and instructive time was spent. 'The matter under discussion was the plank m the platform dealing with the land. At next speakers* class the subject- to be discussed will be the first plank m the United Labor Party's platform : Education Reform. This plank was considered of such importance at the recent conference that it was given the first place m the platform. It is as follows : Free and secular State education, with compulsory attendance up to the age r>f fifteen years, and with necessary books and stationery supplied by the Department. All boys and girls beyond that age not receiving full time instruction at secondary or other schools to attend' continuation classes for not less than fifteen hours per week until they reach , the age of seventeen years. No employer to employ boys and girls under seventeen years of age for more than thirty hours per week. The Secretary of the Trades and Labor Council has received word that the Hon. Geo. Fowlds will visit Gisborne on June 8. Mr Fowlds will be speaking here on "The Aims and Objects of tho United Labor Party." Things m connection with the various i.nions m this district axe going along quietly, m fact, too quietly. It would be much better if more of the members took a more active interest m their affairs than they do. I fear the tendency on the part of a great number is to only attend the meetings when things arfiinot 'going right, or when they have a complaint to make against the "boss," instead of attending regularly and helping to keep things going right, and taking their fair share of the responsibilities. Wake up unionists ; don't shirk. Some time ago I mentioned m these notes when the Tasmanian elections were to take place, and ventured the opinion that the Labor party would be returned very much stronger, 'if not actually as the Government. What do we find? Out of a' House of 30 members, the strength of the parties is as follows : — Liberals (so-called) 15, Labor 14, Independent 1; so wet see things are only middling m Tasmania so far as the antiLabor* Government is- concerned. Against the cabled statement of the Tasmanian Premier to the effect" that the Liberal vote>thad been increased m the aggregate over Labor's total. Labor exchanges record an increased _abor vote of 23,745 over the; Labor figures of last election, and a'' Liberal increased vote for the same period of only 9897. Mr H., M. Hyndman, the veteran Socialist leader of England, celebrated his 70th birthday recently. In an interview, dealing with industrial matters, Mr Hyndman said: "It is only within the la&ifew years that the deadly effectiveness of the strike has been realised. But the strike is a two-edged weapon. If persisted m unreasonably, it is apt to recoil upon the heads of the originators, ""and , produce reaction that may put back the hands of the clock." The United Labor Party have had another win m Mr E. Tregear being elected to fill the vacancy . m the Wei-

lington • Gity Council. In this instance it was;a. clear-cr' i-sue of Labor v. aoitiLabpr. - Mr Thomson, who was' Mr Tregear's opponent, clearly stated he was opposed to Labor representatives being elected to the Council, and indulged m the silly trash about Labor members having to obey the dictates of the Trades Hall and union secretaries and so forth; but m spite of. all this the citizens of Wellington returned the Labor candidate by close on 800 of a majority..-' If Labor councillors aro good for big "cities like Wellington and Christchurch, surely two or three would be useful on the Gisborne Borough Council.

Sometimes one sees a great building supported by columns fashioned like the giant figures of human forms. And across the massive shoulders of these men is an entablature on which rests the structure. In Greek these men were called : A tlantes, which is merely the .plural -for Atlas, who was one of the older family of Gods and bore up the pillars "of heaven. It used to be very common m formal architecture to place these 1 two giant figures at each' side of a great dobrway. It is not easy to learh now all that the ancients meant to tell by these figures. Nearly everything, they did was symbolic, and it is possible* they meant to typify by these figures labor bearing the .burden of the world. And, indeed, when we tKink of what labor has done for -the world it seems incredible that it, should be so despised. It seems beyond belief that those who produce food; elbthing, and shelter for the 7 entire world — for themselves and for all others— should be still condemned to poverty and insecurity. -.Is it not strange that m the midst of a vast wealth, bf great estates, palaces, cathedrals, skyscrapers, and marble shops, of silks, satins, jewels, and laces which > these Atlantes have produced, the great mass of these working giants should' be ever on .the edge of misery? They take trains across continents every day and night; They cut the^ ties, lay the rails, build the Pullmans, dig the coal and then see to it that the trains run.! They plough the fields; plant the seed,' grow the harvest, make- the. grain into flour and, into dough. . and .into bread, 'and then they, take it from tho oven and bring it to the doori They herd sheep on the lonely hillsides. They cut -and wash the wool: and comb it and, spin it and weave* it into, cloth. They then cut it and sew it and bind it and bring it to the door. And these millions of Atlantes bear all the ; burdens 7of the world, run through aU dangers, risk their lives m mines, stand before' flaring furnaces 'and produce all the .coal; the iron, and the , steel. These men quarry the stone, cut the forests, take the wood and stone and iron and fashion,,out of them our palaces. v And what have they at the end? Need we ask?-rJfyobert Hunter.