Jottings.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4905, 21 March 1894, Page 1

Jottings.

[ Preaching at the Botany Eoad Congre' gabional Church, Waterloo, near Sydney, the Rev P. Mosea said there were in New South Wales now at least 20,000 unemployed men and women. No less than 500 women were at the present time grinding their lives out to earn from 2s 4d to 3a a day, and there were thousands of men and women of Sydney whose standard of life was not equal to that of the oabhorse. Before Mr Justice Day and Mr Justice Lawrance, in the Queen's Bench division recently, an appeal was heard from forty* three mill-owners or ocoupierß in Oldham against the assessment of their premises for poor rate on the ground that from Nov. 5, 1892, to March 37, 1893, the factories were closed in consequence of a strike. The appeal <vaß dismissed with costs, their lordships holding that it was impossible to take into account and make deductions in reapeot of temporary interruptions of business. The Window Glass Workers' Association, Pittaburg, has granted an application from the Chambers Glaes Company for a loan of 50,000d015. This is, perhaps, the first case in which organised labour has been called upon to lend money to oapital. It is probable that loans will be made to other manufacturers as they have applied for money. The inferiority of the French miners to the English colliers is shown by the fact that the average ontpnt of a miner in the department of the Nord, or Pas de Calais, is only 152 tons per annum, while that ot a Durham collier is 333 tons, or more than double. The cost per ton of coal on the French railway is nearly 9s, while in Durham it does not exceed ss. In connection with the Ist of May demonstration, it has been arranged by the Legal Eight Hours and International Labour League that the question of universal adult suffrage shall be prominently advocated. It is said that the drought in Queensland will cause a reduction of 50 per cent in the number of 6heep to be shorn.