WORK AND WAGES.

Star (Christchurch), 30 September 1893, Page 7

WORK AND WAGES.

[Special to Pbess Association.] LONDON, Sept.29. • The Yorkshire miners, by a majority j of 30,000, have resolved in favour of j resuming work at the former rate of wagea.

MELBOURNE, Sbpt. 29. The marine engineers, have notified that they will go out on strike if the owners reduce the wages before the result of the ballot they are taking on the question ia completed. AMALGAMATED SHEARERS ANT) LABOURERS' UNION. The conference of the Amalgamated Shearers and Labourers' Union waa continued at Ashburton on Thursday. Mr T. Brown ocoupied the chair. Ifc was decided that the annual conference should be henceforth held in the month of April. A letter was'read, Btating that sweating waa carried on in rabbit poisoning. It was decided to communicate with Secretaries of brauches upon the subject. A report from Mr M. Fagan on the oanvassing of tbe Ashbnrton district wii. adopted. Suggested rules for the guidance of the Union in time of strikes were received from Mr J... Kelly, M-8.K., and adopted, with sn addition suggested by Mrs Garmson that strikes should be localised. Mr Kelly also j forward _d a .scheme of co-operative mßurl ance for the consideration of the Union. Mr Cooper thought that the opinion of an aotuary should ba obtained on the subject before action was taken, and moved to that I effect. Mr Power seconded the motion. j Mr Pierce moved an amendment— "That the scheme be amended by a Committee and then balloted for." Mr Avery moved — " That the matter be postponed till nest conference." Seconded by Mrs Garmson. The amendments, on boing put, were lost, abd the resolution x.a3 carried. A com- ! mittee was then balloted for, and the following were • elected .--Meßsri. J. Kelly. Power, M'lntosh, T. Brown and Hammond. i Mr.Power, in introducing the quostion of j establishing a labour journal, stated that I the feeling was strong that it was necea- : sary to have some organ to circulate ih- • formation referring to the Union and : Union matters. He had obtained au ea ti- ! mate of the' cost of running a paper o£ i .their own. He waa afraid that a plant of j their own would ba too espeneive. The other, course would bu to have a paper ' printed in some. other office. At present, j in many districts theie were only Con- ■ eervative papers, which did not give !. Unionists .fair play. ' By having a paper of their "own these difficulties wou'd be overcome. If a paper were established ib Bhould' be a purely Union concern, and not allowed to f ..11 iuto • other hands. He . suggested that 2o 6d extra should be added ! to the price of i_e_ub.rii' tickets for journal- | i.'tic purposes. He would do all in his I power to ,a__ist the Uuion ; in the matter. | Mr Cooper moved — "That a fortnightly ; paper be eatablished, and that the sub- ! Bcription b_ not more tnan 5s per annum, ! the Executive to subsidise fcr tbat !am oun c." Mr Hammond eecor.d*... the I motion, and Mrs Garmson aud sev.rai other (delegates spoke strongly in favour of it. It was finally decided, on the motion of I Mr fti'lntosh, th _t the scheme should be ! circulated amongst the members and submitted- to a ballot at some future data. A ; co-operative' land settlement scheme was j held over till next conference. The 'question of fixing a price for crunching i sheep wa_. brought up by Mr Cooper, on I behalf oi the Kaiktura Branch, and it j was decided to leave the matter to tho local branch tosetfcle. Mr Davie's amendI meat, that eaoh branch should insist upon one shilling per hour was lost. I The conference met again ye_tsrday, ! when a large amount of routine work wbb disposed of, and the conference closed its sitting. Mrs Garmson addressed a public meeting on Thursday evening on subjects of interest to- labourers generally, aud was very well received. ■* ■ - - . i.. . ■_