WORK AND WAGES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4949, 12 May 1894, Page 7

WORK AND WAGES.

Goxey's Array. rSpECiAi. to Peers Associa.TiON.l c NF.W TOEK, Mat 11. Tbe Coxeyites continue to seize trains, thus causing much trouble and disarrangement o£ traffic. In a fight at Yakima two police and several of Coxey'_ band were shot dead. A public meeting was held at Timaru on Thursday evening in connection with the annual meeting of the Timaru branch of the Amalgamated Shearers and Labourers' Union. The Mayor (Mr J. Hill) presided, and addressea were given by Mr HallJones, M.H.R., and Mr J. Storrier, on the labour question, and by Messrs Gordon and Mercier, branch officers, on the work of the union. . The Mayor referred to the necessity of d_vi_ing some means for averting strike-, and of counterbalancing, by shortening the hours of work, the effect of labour-saving machinery in reducing the demand for labour. Mr Storrier said that not much reliance could be plac?d upon unionism ao long as there were hundreds going abouttbecountry without work. The Employers' Liability Act and compulsory arbitration wero not Buitable to thecircumstances of induatry in New Zsaland. Mr Hnli-Jonea ngreed with the Mayor that the true solution of the unemployed question wan shortening hours, and he mentioned as causes of tbe trouble, besides i the use of machinery, the heavy payment, for interest and tbe large aggregation, of land. He defended the Conciliation and Arbitration Bill, and believed it would be passed next session; There- ica. plenty of work to do in tlie colony, but the thing to be done, was to bring work and hands* together, and thia ; the Stato muß. nndervako. Referring to i the State farms, he said tbey should be of I thousand** instead of hundreds of acres," i each should be large enough to constitute I a Belf-contained community, with villages ■ of artisans, to meet the case of men who could not work on the land. A person j present remarked that it was rtoneense to ! talk of sending men to the North Island to i do bush-felling, when thero was plenty of i work close to Timaru in clearing miles of j road covered with gorae. Mr Hall-Jones, ! who bad already argued that the local ! bodies should a_si3t tha Government in i providing work, said tbat was ono direction in which the local bodies conld assist. i