LABOR NOTES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12814, 13 July 1912, Page 4 (Supplement)

LABOR NOTES.

} (By D.W.C.) | i (Published by Arrangement.) I The quarterly meeting of the Poverty j Bay Freezers' Union was held last MonI day evening, there being a good attendance of members. A considerable amount lof business was transacted. This union jis to be congratulated upon having such energetic men as Messrs Anderson, Rowell and Haycock as president, secreItary, and treasurer respectively. There was a splendid attendance of i members at the meeting of the General ! Laborers' Union last Tuesday evening. A very important step was taken 'in deciding to appoint an organising secretary. Mr A. H. Anderson was unanimously elected to fill that position. His is an unthankful, task, but those who 'know Mr Anderson believe he "Will be I equal to it. The General Laborers' j Union will become the largest union m l this district. | The general meeting of the East Coast i Trades and Labor Council was held last Wednesday evening. There was an ex- ; cellent attendance of delegates. Amongst other correspondence was a letter from the Federation of Labor asking the j Trades Council to arrange and convene a meeting at which delegates from the Federation would give an address on strikes at Waihi and Reefton. The mat- ! ter was very thoroughly discussed, several of tho delegates making it quite plain that they had absolutely! 1 no time for the Federation of Labor (Reg.). On the motion being put it was decided not , to accede to their request, and to state j that the members do not desire to receive their delegates, not being m symI I pathy with the Federation's methods. Organised Labor wishes the , tailors of Gisborne every success m their ef-forts-to'form a union m connection with their trade. There is every promise of a good strong union coming into exist- ' ence. There are still some trades here that should be organised. | Herr Hicknel, a German merchant, of j Moscow, lately deceased, bequeathed his business, together with his fortune of £500,000, to his employees. At. the last general meeting of the Adelaide Liquor Trade Employees' Union a recommendation made by, the barmen's section that all barmen be fined on each occasion on which they' were found serving m a bar without wearing the recognised badge of the union was agreed to. / The West Australian Labor Federation has accepted the Premier's (Mr Scadden) offer to purchase the fee simple of the new Trades Hall site, and give it back On perpetual lease. The price to be paid is £2600, and the rent is to' be at 3 per cent., subject to reappraisement every 20 years. . As a result of a 15 per cent, advance made m the textile industry at Holyoke (Mass.), tho paper manufacturers commenced to show activity, looking towards increases m wages and, betterment of conditions m the paper mills. A notice was recently posted ireAthe paper mills of the Cock'er-McElwain Company to the effect that beginning May 6th there was ;be a three-shift crew to operate the machines, each , drew to work 8 hours. -The r Taylor-Burt ; Com-; pany followed suit. This change ' •-of working plan was not followed with a cut m wages, the men receiving fbr^ 8 hours' -work what they" formerly received for 11 and 13 hours' work. « A" A great demonstration was . held at Perth (W.A.) the other day, m support of the Labor Government's action m buying sleamers lor the mail service ancl north-west cattle trade. The West Australian Labor Government, when it went into steamship-owning business, was sagely advised that the enterprise was ill-considered and unwise, but notwithstanding this woeful .warning Premier Scadden and his Ministerial' mates went full steam ahead, and the results of , the undertaking now turn out to be a most profitable gain to the State. Under- old conditions' the taxpayers would have had to hand over to private enterprise an annual subsidy of £2350 for nothing, but now Government vessels are doing a busy trade bringing down meat from 'the north, as well as transporting the products of the soil to the southern' parts', of the State. The State-owned and controlled line of steamers has caught orijso -well that, to escape the clutches of shipping rings, a large firm of merchants outside of Australia has offered to fill with Western •Australian exports half the space on a Government ship which . would make fortnightly trips to certain ports outside of Australia. In similar manner the West Australian Labor Government has dealt with a tramway' monopoly that tried to get a complete grip of Fremantle. , The Parliament, however, holding that the service is a public' utility, refused to permit the monopoly to extend its operations a single foot further, and the tram service of Fremantle is now the property of the State. The 1 late Verran Labor Government m South Australia was denounced for purchasing the Zelta copper mine. Now the Peake Government is arranging to start smelting operations on the mines which a month or two ago they condemned as worthless. '•...'•' In the Australian 'Commonwealth Parliament Mr Deakin, leader of the Opposition, has moved a want of conn-; dence motion m Labor Government. He has based his remarks (which lasted for four hours) chiefly on the action of the Government refusing to call out troops m the recent Brisbane tramway strike. That the military forces were not required to maintain order is proved by a paragraph taken from the antiLabor. Brisbane Telegraph: — "This (Deakin's) motion of censure," says the Telegraph, "is primarily based on the refusal of the Prime Minister to call out the military during that late seditious strike in* Brisbane. The Prime Minister has been supplied, by the State Premier himself, with an irrefragable answer to the indictment now levelled against him. Immediately on receipt of the Prime Minister's refusal, the State Premier almost triumphantly declared that the military were not required »„ to preserve* order, as he had ample civic forces at hand to protect the community. And that his confidence was well founded was proven by the sequel." Replying to the Deakin censure motion, the Labor Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, Andy Fisher, said: "It was a fact that Mr Badger hated unionists 'on the trams and did not disguise his hatred. "' The powerful company behind Mr Badger would shoot a .representative man of the unionists, as far as it could industrially shoot him. Those of them who had ploughed through these fields of industry were not to be deceived. (Labor cheers.) He was proud of the way the unionists- of Brisbane had conducted themselves iri that trying •time. (Renewed Labor cheers.) Whatever troubles might arise m this country m the future^ as long as they had a body of. men like those m Brisbane, with high courage and (noble , moral instincts, they need hot fear an outside crisis of any kind." And they cannot call out the military to suppress Andy Fisher. New South Wales Minister for. Lands (Hon. Beeby) m the Labor Government has locked horns with some of the big pastoralists m that State, and he says the Government is determined to force owners to divide big estates. By all appearances there will shortly be a coalition between the two great parties that at present dominate New Zealand politics.. If such a thing should come to pass it will be the United Labor Party's opportunity. If history is to repeat itself— and I see no reason why it should not — the coalition of the Liberals with the Conservatives will be the means of thousands rallying to the . United Labor Party. It has been so t in every State m Australia without ex- , ception ; it meant for West Australia, i South Australia, and New South Wales i the Government of their respective . States. Tasmania Labor party has an | equal number of members m the House . as the Government (Liberal), the balance of power being m the hands of one Independent. Then at 'the last Common- > wealth election the two parties coalesced to fight the Labor party, with the reI suit that the Labor party was returned 1 with an overwhelming majority; m fact ' they' captured every seat m the election 1 for Senators. What has been done m 1 Australia can, and will, be done .here;- if IJ.L.P. continues on the way it is going. We will soon see great developments m the Labor movement; tho United Labor Party is working along sane grounds, and must make headway. No other party seeks to interpret tae

will of the people as does tho Labor Party. No other dares to face the battle of the classes on behalf of the masses as the Labor Party. 1 recommend all who realise that the political parties who have dominated New Zealand's politics m the past have failed to apple v.ith social conditions of the I people, to "read and study the constitution anil platform of the United Labor Party.