The World of Labour July 20, 1895.

*THE WORKER*

BRISBANE JULY 20, 1895.

The World of Labour.

AUSTRALIA'S gold return for 1894 was 2,020,180oz. - the largest in the world.

THE Melbourne Herald has taken to the linotype machines, and in consequence forty-five compositors have been thrown idle.

THE New Zealand Minister for Labour has introduced a bill to prohibit the introduction of contract labour and to raise the poll-tax on Asiatics to £100.

THE bootmakers' lock-out at Thompson's factory, Melbourne, still continues, The men are of opinion that it is as easy to starve idle as to starve on sweaters' wages.

THE Kurumbarra (Vic.) coal strike has been settled by the men going back to work pending the settlement of the dispute, on the question of cavilling, by arbitration.

ALONG the road from Mungindi to St. George much work could be found for many of the thousands of men unemployed, as the prickly-pear is growing there thickly.

AT the Monongabela (U.S.) Tinplate Works, women, owing to their superior skill, are paid 1 dol. 50 cents a day, whilst the men employed at the same find of work only receive 1 dol. 35 cents.

LAST Sunday, 14^th July, was the 106^th anniversary of the fall of that terrible French prison, the Bastille, which was razed to the ground by an infuriated people who rose in revolution against the wrongs of centuries.

AN Anti-sweating League has been formed in Melbourne. People are beginning to say that no one should use property in such a manner as will degrade others. Another attack on so called “freedom of contract.”

CALLANDOON and other stations up the river (Barwon) are getting prickly-pear cutting done for 12s. 6d. per acre, wet weather stopped, and a reduction of 1s. per week for vegetables. Men used to such work know what kind of pay this is.

THERE is at present a tendency for wages to lift in the United States. An American exchange says that manufacturers throughout the State of Pennsylvania continue to report the “voluntary” increase of wages. It is about time wages commenced to lift in Australia.

THE master painters of Melbourne have a grievance against the Minister of Public Works because he is doing painting repairs to Government House by day work without the assistance of the contractor and is paying the men fair wages. We hope their grievance will continue.

AT a meeting of the Pastoralists' Union in N.S.W. the Queensland Government was complimented for passing the Coercion Bill last session. There is not much difference between the pastoralist and the landlord after all. The forces of Governments are placed at the disposal of both.

In the last annual report of the Mount Morgan Company the expenditure for the year including dividend duty, is shown as £198,328. The amount paid in dividends to shareholders for the same period totalled £300,000. There is much room for an increase of workmen's wages up at the Mount.

THE members of the carpenters' union in San Francisco have established a system of “building bret,” that is, all the members lend a hand without wages on Sunday mornings and week nights to erect a house for any mate going in for housekeeping, providing he supplies the timber and the land.

VIVID description of Balmain politics at the present time: “While some of the politicians were struggling on the floor of the platform someone turned out the gas, and the excitement became intense, the audience cheering and yelling all the time.” Sydney Daily Telegraph.

TOM Finney, at the Protestant Hall meeting moved a resolution in favour of early closing legislation and and then, in a mild kind of way, spoke against legislation interference. This remained the audience very much of that shifty joker, Kingsbury's, freetectionist speech delivered in the cause of protection.

JOHN M. Brydon, a good employer, is dead. He was a man who could rise above class prejudices, and take an active and sympathetic interest in labour questions. If there were a few more employers in Brisbane like the late Mr. Brydon who would act such a manly part as he did the whole community would be ever so much happier.

AT a public meeting of miners in Cooktown, resolutions were carried requesting the Minister for Mines to reconsider the permission he gave to the Chinese on the Starcke goldfield to remain there months longer than they were entitled. The yellow agony, and coloured labour in general, are somewhat favoured by the Minister for Mines.

THE political aims of the Labour Party are universally the same. The English Trade Unions Congress has issued a manifesto advising that support during the coming elections be given only to those candidates who are in favour of a legal eight-hour day and the nationalisation of the land and all the means of production, distribution and exchange.

WHEN wheat rises in price it is consequence of a “ring”or because of failure of crops – mostly the latter. When it falls in price it is mostly because crops are superabundant. The result to the farmer is the same in both instances. He is ruined financially through low prices just as surely as he is ruined through superabundance. What a splendid system of production and distribution!

ST. GEORGE is in a complete state of stagnation. In former times men who worked on the A.P. Co's stations used to stay in the town or its vicinity and hence the business people did well through the circulation of these men's wages, but now, alas, the P.U. Have changed all that. Most of the men now come from the Downs and when their work is finished betake themselves and their money back again.

IN referring to typo-setting machinery the Government Printer in his report says: “There are, however, several other machines (than the linotype) competing for the pre-eminence of usefulness, and we shall no doubt early be called upon to choose between them.” As to the staff employed at the Government Printing Office, he says “I feel sure there could not be a more efficient body of workers in any such like establishment.” This is not at all bad for an instalment of “Socialism in our time.” Certainly the staff like their employers as well as any others they might be compelled to work for outside of Government.

IN the “Act to Regulate the Manufacture of Flour and Meal Food Products,” now in force in the State of New York, it is provided that “no employe' shall be required, permitted, or suffered to work in a biscuit, bread, or cake bakery more than sixty hours in any one week or more than ten hours in any one day, unless for the purpose of making a shorter work day on the last day of the week, nor more hours in any one week than will make an average of ten hours per day for the whole number of days in which such employe' shall so work during such week.” The sooner this is incorporated in a Queensland factories Act the better will it be for bakers and the consumer of bread also.