LABOUR QUESTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2788, 27 May 1890, Page 2

LABOUR QUESTION.

(BY KLKCTHIO TKLKGRAPH.— COPYRIGHT.) Brussels, May 24. At the International Minors' Conference, all European delegates and two-thirds of those from Great Britain approved of State legislation in determining the eight hours as a day's labour. Syi«hy, May 25. The wharf labourers have decided that the rules and regulations adopted at the recent Conference shall come iuto force on the Ist July next. The employers object to them, and it is considered probable that a difficulty will arise. Employees in the clothing trade have struck for higher wages, and as the masters are resisting the demand, it is feared that the strike may assume alarming proportions. Our Sydney correspondent writes as follows Labour is combining, and what is more, combinations of different branches are learning to work together, and form a mighty power which cannot be resisted. At present a great war is raging in Queensland, and the issua is being watched here with mingled sympathy and apprehension, according to the proclivities of the watcher. The Queensland unions have taken up the cause of the station " rouseabouts," and declare that the lowest wage which ought to be paid them is 30s per week. At the same time they have asserted the position of the Shearers' Union, and have refused to allow some hundred bales of wool shorn at Jondaryan by non-union labour to bo shipped. The carriers' union, thn wharflabourers' union, and the seamen's union have all combined to enforce this claim, and so strong are they that the 8.1.5. N. Co. have not ventured to shio the wool in question. As long as the mem remain thus determined and united their victory is certain, for they have everything in their own hands, and the employers am not likely to bring about the stoppage of the industries by which they make their money, for the sake of training a victory of principle over a few bales of wool. That's not how they made their money, and that's not how they propose to keep it. But there can be no doubt that victory in this instance will only prepare the way for further demands, and there is an obvious danger that the new and almost irresistible power which is being called into existence, may so increase its exactions as to take away the hope of profii in the employment of capital. Then indeed there will be trouble, employees banded and massed, and no one to employ them. However, it is not to bo doubted that the labour organisations will learn wisdom and moderation from experience, and that a modus vivendi, which will conserve the common interests of both will be discovered.