WHAT LABOR IS DOING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3190, 8 April 1911, Page 11

WHAT LABOR IS DOING.

[Secretaries of the various local Unions ai’e requested to forward copies of their union engagements to “Franchise," “Gisborne Times" Office, and a list of union meetings will be' furnished at the head of this column for each week. Secretaries are also asked' to forward any news of interest to workers generally for publication in this column.]

UNION MEETINGS. Freezers (annual meeting)—April 10. Carpenters —April 20. Slaughtermen —April 24. Drivers —Monday, April 24.

(By “Franchise.”)

This evening at 8 o’clock the Gisborne branch of the New Zealand Labour Party will hold a mass meeting at the Sievwright memorial. Messrs Jackson and Richards, the candidates in the interests of Labour for seats on the Borough Council, and Mr Turner, candidate for the Harbour Board, will give addresses dealing with the olatform of the Party. Though a great number of different names have been mentioned in connection with the forthcoming elections, there have so far been no definite decisions published as to who will actually be candidates for the Borough Council and Harbour Board. lor the Council, Messrs Harris,. Jackson, Darton and Sheridan, at present on the ■Council, will certainly contest the election. Mr Jackson and Mr Richards are the Labour nominees, and there will doubtless be a number of other' gentlemen standing for election upon different “tickets.” In regard to the Harbour Board, Messrs Harris, Lysnai and Townley present mem'ers) will seek re-election for the borough, and Labour interests will be represented by Mr Turner. The contest far seats will be interesting, inasmuch as the Labour Party this year seek that representation which is without doubt their due. Last Wednesday the Gisborne branch of the New Zealand Labour Party applied to the Council for permission to place a number of tables in the streets for the purpose of enrolling those citizens who as yet are not on the municipal roll. Permission was granted, and to-dav those who so far have not been placed on the roll will be able to subscribe their names to the necessary form withoiit any undue trouble. By this means it is hoped to gain a great addition to the roll. Someone will be stationed at each table who has the necessary qualification for witnessing signatures appended to each paper. . , At the opening of the Cities and Town-planning' Exhibition at Crosby Hall, Chelsea, recently, Mr John Burns o-ave an interesting account of the working of the new Housing and Town-planning Act. He was then holding inquiries into two schemes affecting 10,000 acres of land; and, besides this, 30* or 40 large urban authorities were considering schemes. Birmingham had received provisional sanction for a scheme covering 2400 acres—a larger area than that occupied by Battersea. Finally, the Ruislip and Isorthvooci scheme dealt with 60CK) acies. _ Oui Act gives to the public protection, to the municipalities power, but to generous landlords opportunities of cooperating for the benefit of the communitv.” Mr Burns added that lie would be glad to .see, the , science of urban life made part of the study at London Universitv, “for what subject is more worthy of study when we remember that every 15 years 500,000 acres of land are covered with buildings. Labour in Christchurch at the present time is directing mose effort, towards municipal politics. A Labour Municipal Representatioin Committee consisting of delegates from the Trades Councils and several unions, is m charge of arrangements for the contesting of the coming city council elections. , , „ . . The General Labourers’ Union of Christchurch is perhaps the most- active and certainly the largest union in Christchurch. Its membership to-day stands approximately at 1200. Mr A. Paterson, sitting secretary of the union, is this month contesting the office against Mr T. Rosser, and the •election, which is by means of ballot of the whole of the members, closes at tlie end of the month. The contest has been brought about by the resignation of Mr Paterson as a protest against the “pin-pricking” of a minority section of the union. It is safe to predict an easy victory for Mr Paterson, and a definite squelching of the disaffected section. Labour in Dunedin is not in the limelight nowadays, yet most people are prepared to admit that, despite its apparent quiescence it is a force to be reckoned with. There there is no municipal activity, no Saturday half-holi-day movement. Still, the Labour vote at last general elections is a standing indication of the strength of the movement in the austere city. Organisation, more particularly on the political side, is lacking. There are no Labour candidates out for municipal honours. Not even \vas there a committee set up in furtherance of the Saturday halfholiday, and the opportunities offered by the amending Shops Act legislation have been neglected. As in Christchurch, the rebuff meted out by the citizens, when the issue was before the electors, has damped the . ardour of the Saturday devotees. The result of the Wellington poll is awaited with interest ip Dunedin Labour circles. ( n it will depend to a great extent any future activity in support ot the weekend holiday on the part of the Otago Trades Council and officials. The New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Federation will send delegates to the coming annual Trades Council s’ Federation at Easter time, in Christchurch. The executive oouncil has .been notified to that effect. Special remits have been sent on by the Federation to the executive in Dunedin. The remits deal mainly with matters having special reference to waterside employment.