LABOR NOTES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2532, 19 June 1909, Page 7

LABOR NOTES.

(By Unionist.)

At the- annual meeting of the Otago Trades and Labor Council; hold uist week, the following officers were elected for the ensuing term : —President, Mr Jas. Brown; vice-presidents, Messrs W. H. Warren and A. Walker; treasurer, Mr R. Ferguson; secretary, Mr 11. Breen; committee, Messrs S. Brown, B. Parsons, and C. Foley. Only about a dozen employers' and forty workers are concerned in the application of the Wellington Drivers 1 Union for a fresh award .in the cab drivers’ trade. The present award was made over two years ago. The union now seeks to have, tho hours of work •considerably reduced, and the rates of pay slightly increased. The dispute is in the hinds of the- Industrial Commissioner, who anticipates effecting a settlement between the parties. President Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor, is to leave New York next week, on a ..visit to England and the continent. Mr Gompers has been delegated by his organisation to study and report upon the industrial ■and economic conditions of the laboring people in these countries. A sum of over £4OUO is being expended by the Sydney Labor Council in the extension of its premises. - Giving evidence in the. eases of the five men charged in Sydney with stowing away on a vessel in Wellington, the chief officer of the ship stated that while in Wellington he was besieged with applicants for, a passage to Sydney. He estimated that from fifty to olio •hundred workers had approached him for the run over. Bendigo miners are actively engaged in advocating tho Saturday half-holiday in Victorian mines.. Says the; Hon. '.John Barr in the Lyttelton <; Times” : —Six hours a day and six days a week is something that is at present in the clouds. A few years ago the idea of an eight-hour day was said to be in the clouds. At that time the six-hour notion would be amongst tho stars or beyond; at any rate it was out of sight. But having brought the eight hours to earth, it was but to be expected that the question of a six-hour day would make its appearance, and it did so somo years ago, for it is only as a universal working day that it is in the clouds, there being many instances where workers enjoy a six-hour day. At present, however, wo have got to lend our energies to the establishing of a universal eight-hour day with a forty-eight-hour week as a maximum. At the present moment we have in this city of Christchurch men and women working from sixty to ninety hours in each week. Outside of Christchurch I have had instances where as high as 105 hours were worked in one week. This some will tell you cannot he altered. As, however, we are advancing to a higher mental and moral plane of thought and .life, it will be altered, but not without considerable toil and drudgery on the part of those to whose hand such work has fallen. Here again we realise.the force of the statement that “Labor needs not leaders so much as workers. 1 ' We may glance, at that which is in the clouds, but we cannot hope to bring it nearer earth until the way is cleared for it. With those who think that a six-hour day would do something towards solving the unemployed problem, few can agree. That and planting trees cm New Brighton reserve are alike useless. In many industries fortyfour hours per week are the rule; yet there are probably more unemployed in those trades to-day than in the days when ten hours a day were the. rule. To employ those out of work.-.planting trees in the municipal reserve might be a temporary relief to those so employed, ■and may he desirable, hut it leaves the unemployed problem unsolved. Still it may be wise not to let the- six-hour notion recede beyond the clouds. West Australian Laborites are busily engaged in preparation for the next Commonwealth elections. The Labor party there will contest each of the five West Australian electorates in the Federal Parliament, and a]so_ the three •vacancies in the Senate. Nominations of candidates for the. preliminary plebiscite of the unionists have closed, and the ballot for selection of endorsed candidates begins next month. For the three Senate seats, nino candidates have been nominated, including two of the present Senators, Messrs Henderson and DeLargie. Senator Croft, the third retiring representative, is not again offering himself for nomination. Other notable nominees are Messrs Holbers in the State Assembly, and man and Taylor, sitting Labor memMr. Buzzacott, whose election for and Mr Buzzacott, whose election for Menzies against the Minister for Mines was last year upset on petition. For the Cooigardie and Kalgoorlie seats in the House of. Representatives, Messrs Mahon and Frazer are unopposed by any of the other Labor aspirants. For the Perth seat there are five Labor nominations. Mr Fowler, the sitting member, having announced his intention of seceding from the caucus, he will be opposed finally by a pledged Labor man. In the-Fremantle and Swan electorates, there are also several prominent Labor men _ submitting their names to the selection contest. These two seats are at present held by Mr Hedges and Sir John. Forrest, of the Opposition. The prospects for Labor are considered by leading. unionists to be very bright, arid an all-Labor team is .predicted as West Australia’s, representatives in the next Commonwealth Parliament. The. Newcastle programme of 1892 presented by the Liberal Government under Mr Gladstone contained the followincr items :—“One-man-one-vote,” “Woman’s Suffrage,” “All Elections on One Day,” “Payment of Members, “Pavment of Returning Officers’ Fees,” “Taxation of Land Values,”- “Eight Hours for Miners,” “Arbitration to Settle Labor Disputes,” and “Provisions for Old Soldiers and Sailors. Not one of these items has yet been carried. There was no mention of old a ao pensions;' and Mr Chamberlain told the Oddfellows at the Birmingham Conference, in 1899, that old age pensions were “absolutely impracticable, and, even.'if practicable, would'be most mischievous. It would strike a serious blow at the root of industry and thrift.” .. , On February 8. 1909, according to the London “Daily News,” the police were instructed to take a count of the number of persons, who, being without homes, were found sleeping m the. open or on the staircases of tenement houses where the doors’ are loft- unfastenedIf was a. night of heavy snow fall and the number counted amounted to .L-8U-The question arises, ‘‘How many were there that the police did not find All reminders- of the. recent brief prosperity boon have disappeared from the British statistics. The British •manufacturers are now doing loss in oversea trade .than they were in trie olrlv part of 1906. .Last year’s continuous and very heavy decline m m ports and exports lias been flur’ny tj*. fii'f further drop el '-'M--.•••■■ with vY..e> for the corresponding pci-

iod of 1908. 1.1 this short space of three montlis exports.of manufactured goods have gone down by £10,535,870 —indirectly a great loss to people of the artisan class, who had already suffered severely from the depression'which extended throughout the whole of 190 S. Meanwhile, in imported manufactures there has been a net increase during last quarter of only £1,533,488. This check applied chiefly to the metal and* machinery trades. _ Most classes of foreign manufactured imports l have in creased, notably textiles. The British manufacturers which show the greatest loss in export trade are cotton, wool, iron >and steel, machinery and new ships. There are some indications or an improvement in production, but eo far it is slight, and the outlook for the present year, as regards employment, is anything but cheerful. ‘