Labour Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 7, 16 June 1893, Page 4

Labour Notes.

At a meeting of the unemployed which was held at the Dnnedin Town Hall on Friday morning, a complaint was made concerning tbe practice of sending sheepskins out of tbe country in a raw state. This, it was urged, implied the idleness of a thousand men. Mr W. H. Hutchison, M.H.8., who took a chief part in the proceedings, suggested in reply that there were hardly so many men skilled in fellmongery to be found in the Colony. The question, he added, coold not be summarily dealt with, Oae of the speakers declared that work must speedily be found or the men must come on the charitable aid. Mr Hutchison subsequently interviewed Mr Farnie, who explained that be was awaiting further instructions, the works being everywhere full-handed.

We take the following from tbe Otago Daily Titnet :— So far the evidence taken by tbe Gumflelds Commission goes to show that the Austrians are all industrious and sober, but owing to keeping together in communities speaking their own language and maintaining tbeir own customs, are not likely to be considered desirable settlers. Tbe Hon. E. Mi'chelson gave evidence to-day . He said be had not seen much personally of the Aastrians, but 'In storekeeper and others who had come in contact with them spoke in terms of the highest praise of their industry and law-abidirg habits. His brothers stated that the average cost of living for the Auktrians was 9a to 12s each van per week. He had been informed that upon their arrival in ths Colony they were not very flush of money, and being strongly averse to getting into debt, they lived very frugally until tuob time as they sold tbeir first quantity of gum, after which they lived just as well aB any Britisher. They were not as good customers however, to the hotclkeepers. Witness's own impression of Austrians waß that they were not a deeirab'e class, inasmuch as that they came without their wives and families, this being an evidence supporting the theory that they did not come to settle permanently. All the witnessess were of

opinion an export duty would have to be paid practically by the gumdiggers, ani a rise in price would bring Zanzibar and Manila gum into competition.

Mr John Burns, speaking recently at Poplar, professed himself very hopeful as to the future of demooracy. From the year 1884, he said, when the agricultural labourer was enfranchised, the working classes had gradually used their political power for the attainment of Booial, industrial, and economic ends. It was true that much of their power bad been dissipated on crochets and fads, but these were now fast disappearing. The spirit of democracy bad entered the ranks of trade unionism, whicb 10 or 20 years «go was the monopoly of the aristocracy of labour. Since the dock strike they had seen that the democratisation of trade unionism had advanced more than it had done during the whole of the preceding 50 yearß, and this had followed upon the democratisationof municipal government. Referring to the measures now before the Houie of Commons, Mr Burns said they were all of an essentially democratic character. He especially instanced the Employers' Liability Bill, which he considered the best attempt to deal wi'h the subject they had ever had. Some of these measures would, he considered, have to be forced through, seeing what the Government had at present to contend against. When these measures had become law, he thought they would see the gradual merging of the Liberal and Conservative parties into one, and the evolution of a strong and united Labour party, abe and willing to carry the aims and aspirations of tbe workers into effect.

A cablegram under date London, June 6, informs as that Mr John Burns cootends that the strike at Hull is a sign of the coming agitation for the abolition of the capitalist! as a class. The labour problem, in his opinion, will ba insoluble so long as capitalists exiat, — But how is the capi'ahst to be abolished? — by taking away hij money or cutting off his head ? The question is of some special im> portance to the class particularly concerned.

The dispute between the Shipping Federation and the Unionists at HuU (says the Liverpool Catlwlio Time* of April 21) ia not yst definitely settled, bat there ii a fair prospect of agreement, and there is no reason why it should not be effected if wiie council! prevail oa

both tides. The terms of an arrangement were drafted on Monday evening by a conference in the House of Commons, presided over by Mr Mnndella, president of the Board of Trade, the basis being freedom of action for Unionists and non-Uoionists and the suspension of the importation of free labour pending negotiations. The Shipping Federation is, it is said, manifesting a disinclination to accept Arbitration of any kind. The responsibility it thus assumes is of such a grave character as to suggest the necessity of investing pioperly•jualified arbitrators with some sort of compulsory powers. The Bill which Mr Mundella has introduced seeks to meet this requirement by constituting the Board of Trade a general umpire in disputes between labonr and capital. If sufficient care be taken to have all th« interests concerned duly represented, the plan ought to work satisfactorily. The impartiality of the Board can scarcely bs called in question either by employers or employed.

The Belgiao Chamber yielding to a demand for manhood suffrage, made with the accompaniments of strikes, riots, and outrages, have oom promised the matter. They have granted the suffrage demanded but qualified it by giving a double vote to heads of families, owners of property, and persons of a certain educational standing.

Members of the Queensland Labour party are blaming the Oatbolic vote for the failure of some of their representatives in the recent elections. They, consequently, bring a charge of narrowness and sectarian bitterness against the Church. The Church, nevertheless in standing out against the godless education on which they insist, takes counsel even for their own interests. The extremes to which, without the restraint that religion only can impose, they bid fair to proceed, must eventually work the ruin of their cause and place them in a position worse than that from which they now seek to retcoe themselves. All parties who oppose a religious education deserve the opposition of Catholics — but most of all the Labour party, whose opposition, besides implying a tyrannical spirit altogether out of keeping with their professions, tends to the most dangerous results. Other members of the party, with a etill more

sinister design, deny that Catholics were influenced in their voting by the education question, and assert that the Church threw in her influence as a matter of course on the side of capital. The design of these men is directly to excite hostility agaiost religion among the masses, and we may reckon them among the adherents and cbampioos of the red revolution. The canse of labour, then, may cry out for deliverance from its friends. The pleading of some of its advocates is such as to bring it into suspicion and to risk the alienation from it of the sympathies of all who not only desire the safety of religion but even the maintenance of ordinary law and order. We do not know what the true state of things with regard to the Queensland elections is. The Ministiy, however, have a majority, and it is reported that they had the support of the Catholic vote in return for a pledge of State aid for Catholic schools. All we can say is that if this report be true, the Catholic voters of Queensland have done their duty.

We are all acquainted with religious cant, and most of us appreciate it with a dne disgust. Irreligion, nevertheless, has its cant as well, and between the two there is little to choose. Hire is a specimen which we clip from the Brisbane Worker :— " On the whole we (the masses) most expect to find the Chnrches ranged against us. They have always been the bitterest opponents of human progress, and they will be to the last. This is not saying that there is nothing good in the Cburcheß mind, it is only saying that they are intensely conservative and avaricious beyond most other institntions."— There is as fine a Pecksniffian odour about this as if it were a choice specimen fresh from Exeter Hall.— Chadband aud 8 iggins need not always wear a white choker.

Here is another specimen from the same pen :—": — " It is only here and there that a coble Churchman like the late Cardinal Manning comes to the front with words of cheer for the masses " — That is, the work of the late Cardinal Manning is 100 prominently before the ejes of the masses to permit of its being passed over in Bilence or misrepresented. — The Pope, nevertheless, the bead of the Church, to

whose example all Churchmen are bound to conform themselves, ha issued the encyclical Humanum Genus.

Considering the extent of the employment in which women and girl labour is engnged (says the Liverpool Catholic Times), the appointment by the Home Secretary of two women as fac'ory inspectors is a commendable start in the right direction. The Queen, we see, is not altogether elated over the appointments. "It is the same," it says, " with womtn inspectors as with matrons of hospitals. Some of the latter have gone through their duties, earning not only the love and affecion of the patientß, but the respect and esteem and co-operation of the general staff. On the other hand," it continues, "there ure not wanting examples of matrons whose pettifogging interference with minor details, whose neglect of broad general principles, and whose interference in matters over which they have no control, have rendered them most objectionable to the entire hospital staff." We fail to sea the analogy. A paper written by women for women should, we imagine, be more sympathetic in this matter. No doubt a great deal depends upon the selection of suitable persons and the mutual co-operation between inspector and employer to insure the comfort of work-people in shop or factory.

O'Brien, Dillon, Stephen! and others. Mr Bussell's descriptions of this gallant but hopeless struggle wen unfortunately tinged with an anti-Irish virus, which proved that he was at the time only a mere tool of the •• Thunderer of Printing-House square," and wrote to order. Recalled to London, he was afterwards the representative of that journal in the Danish war, and in 1851 accompanied the British expedition to the Crimea, wbere he assitted at tbe Battles of Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, Bedan and Malakoff. His caust.c criticisms in tbe Times of the wretched and impoverished condition of tbe British Commissariat made him very popular with tbe troops, but won him the undying hatred of tbe English Btat-major— with the result that his letters at the close of the campaign were not as accurate or as newsy as their predecessors, owing to tbe fact that he was more or less boycotted by the leading Britiih commanders, who considered themselves insulted by the newspaper man's critical observations. The other historical events described by the facile pen of Howard Bussell were the coronation of the Ci \x Alexander 11., the Indian Mutiny, the Franco- Austrian war in Italy, a portion of tbe American Civil war, the laying of the Atlantic cable, the German-Austrian campaign of 1866, and the Franco- Prussian one of 1870-71. Russell's sympathies with the South, as well as his biassed description of the battle of Bull Bun, made this country so hot for him, that he had to pack up bis trunk and scamper back to England long before hostilities had ceased between the boys in blue and the boys in gray. Bussell is now residing in London, wbere hs is editing the Army and Navy Gazette. Some years ago be was awarded the degree LL D. by the very university that refused to give him a simple diploma in his student days. 1. A. McGahan, an Irish -American by blool, was. perhaps, the best war correspondent ever employed by the New York Herald. He represented that newspaper in the Raiso-Turkish war, and wrote from the various scenes of battle in that campaign the most thrillingly interesting letters that ever emanated from the pen of a " Special." His subsequent campaigning on the Oxua, and the success of his explorations in Asia, thanks to the tact with which he had ingratiated himself into the good graces of the Russian officers, 9X9 too well known to be recapitulated here. His account of the fall

sives" for that journal. His discovery of the road to Merv is one of tbe great triumphs of modern journalism. Owing to the friendship entertained for him by tbe officers of the Bossian Army, including the late General Skoboleff, be was enabled to send the Newt the spiciest of items, while at tbe same time never breaking the confidence of his Muscovite friends. His tour to the land of the Mahdi was the last of his journalistic experiences.

It is supposed that he lost his life in that ill-fated expedition, though do definite news of his fate has ever been given to the public.

Of John Augustus O'Shea, I need say nothing here, as I have already devoted a special article in these pages to his personality, save and except that he represented the London Standard during the Siege of Paris and the Commune, tbe Oarlist war, the military manoauvres in Lombardy ; and that in the time capacity he accompanied Gensral Wolseley to Cyprus, and the late General Grant to Ireland.

" Ghasi " Power, as he was familiarly called by his friends, was a Dublin man, and had a short but adventurous career. While on the reporting stuff of the Freeman' t Journal he enjoyed tbe reputation of being the most irrepressible wag that ever ate sandwiches or spilled beer over the counter of Fortune's bar in Graf ton street. His Imagination was at times boundless. One night, finding himself disastrously hard up for " copy," a brilliant idea struck him, acting on tbe inspiration of which he rushed breathlessly into the office, and announced to the astonished editor that he had just come from Kingstown ; that a thousand Fenians bad landed at that port, and that with the green flag waving o'er their heads they were then actually marching on Dublin Castle. It was jaat 2 a.m., an hour before tbe paper went to press. The late Edmund Dwyer Gray was telephoned to bis residence, and apprised of tbe stupendous news, whereupon he jumped out of his w<trm bed, and reached tbe office in hot haste. The wires to Kingstown were at once set in motion for confirmation of "Gbazi's" story, which was soon found to be a fake, with the result that " Ghazi " himself was summarily dismissed from his post on the journal. He subsequently accompanied General Gordon to Khartoum, where both were massacred by tbe followers of the Mahdi.