World of Labour May 4, 1895.

*THE WORKER*

BRISBANE, MAY 4, 1895.

The World of Labour.

SESHANIA station has finished shearing 72,000 sheep, and Cambridge Downs has just started to cut in.

THE Paris omnibus men who recently went on strike have received a substantial increase of wages and their hours of labour have been reduced. As a set-off to this several agitators have been run in by the police.

A LABOUR colony is about to be established in East Switzerland on co-operative lines, and a large estate is about to be purchased by the co-operators, who intend to get as near Socialism as possible under the circumstances.

THE composition employed on the Australian Star, in Sydney, have been notified that unless they accept a reduction in wages their places will be filled by machines. Bah! The Australian Star should honestly tell the men what it is driving at.

IN the Industrial Conciliation Court of the Canton of Lucerne, in Switzerland, if one of the parties to a dispute refuse to produce a document, the assertion which the opposite party founds on the document in question is considered already proved.

M.L.A. Poynton, in South Australia, has written the Pastoralists' Association of that province on behalf of the shearers and labourers, asking for conference and suggesting that if such was agreed to by the pastoralists a satisfactory arrangement can be arrived at.

DURING the recent great boot trade strike in England a button turner was sentenced to fourteen days' hard labour for assaulting, by stone-throwing, a police escort who were protecting a blackleg. In Queensland, unionists have been sentenced to three years in St. Helena for less than that.

THE Sydney District Council of the Australian Labour Federation has decided to tender for Government contracts on the co-operative system, an example worthy of adoption in Queensland, it only for the purpose of showing that, like everything else, the skill of management in industry is contained within the ranks of wage-earners.

THE Victorian Employers' Union have written to the Government of that province regarding the minimum rate of wages to be paid to all labourers and artisans employed on all Government contracts. It is safe to assume that the Employers' Union are not requesting that the minimum rates should be increased. Nevertheless they ought to be.

SHEARING terminated at Barcaldine Downs on the 13^th. Many of the Southern men employed there gave little or nothing to the local hospital. Their appearance in town did not increase business very materially. These migrating individuals spend little during their stay amongst us but board it all up for their homes down South – B, 12, Barcaldine.

THE Sydney Telegraph reports Cardinal Moran as having said “It is well that these politicians have not to guide the course of Providence for they would soon make a nice mess of it, and they might have to call upon our New South Wales politicians to help them out of it “Now, just only fancy Damn-Chicago Dibbs, old Parkes, and the O-sool-em-on taking a hand in a job of that kind.

A BALLOT was recently taken among members of the New Zealand Workers' Union upon certain important points, which will be found detailed in the return of results just to hand:

                                                                           For   Agst.

Shifting head office to Christchurch . .  .   390   450

Establishing a labour journal . . . . . . . .  .   516   317

Death benefit scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  437   434

Importing sheep shears . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   498   324

Raising subscription to 10s. per annum    429   398

AGAINST their will many large employers of labour in the United States are rapidly moving in such a manner as will greatly assist in the Nationalisation or Municipalisation of Industry. For instance, the latest move has been made by the plate glass companies, who are making an effort to prevent cut-throat competition in trade. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. The wage-earners should all unite to stop cut-throat competition in labour.

IT appears that the coolies at Hong Kong recently went on strike owing, it is said, to the Government insisting on their lodging houses being registered. Whether that was the cause of the strike or no, this has been evident that no scabs could be obtained to take their places, and the Fat Man impressed the military and convicts to coal and load vessels whilst it lasted. The Fat Man has thus shown one of the base uses he puts the shoot-em-down to when he is cornered by Labour.

THE business to be considered at the next meeting of the Brisbane branch of the A.W.U., which is to be held in the Trades and labour Hall on May 8, will be “the consideration of contracting, sub-contracting and sweating, with special reference to the manufacture of sugar machinery.” It is just almost time that some action was taken to check the growing evil of sweating in Queensland, and to assist in such a desirable object as this all those who can supply reliable information on the matter should at once forward it to the secretary of the union before the meeting takes place.

WOMEN having (quite recently) been taken on by one of the New Zealand public departments to do clerical work, the Wellington Trades Council trusted the Government would see they got remunerated equally with men for their work. Sequel; Resolved by the Dunedin Assembly, Knights of Labour; “This assembly views with regret and surprise the statement of the Premier that women are not entitled to the same remuneration as men when performing work equal in amount and quality; that such dictum is contrary to equity, and is calculated to make sex a barrier in the way of women kind receiving just remuneration for their labour.”

AT the Monster Demonstration in London on May 1^st. the following resolution was carried; “That the workers demonstrating and making holiday upon the First of May pledge themselves to do their utmost every year to make Labour Day more and more a complete holiday, not granted by the antagonist master class, but wrung from them; send their fraternal greetings to their fellow-soldiers, the workers of all countries; declare for the Local Eight Hours Day and Universal Adult Suffrage as two of the most immediate steps to be taken towards the ultimate goal of the working class movement; and again record the fact that this ultimate goal is the ending of the class war by the abolition of classes, the ending of the capitalistic system by the abolition of private property in the means of production and distribution.”

ONE of the clauses in the Conciliation (trade disputes) Bill and other bills affecting Labour, which is at the present time being discussed in the British House of Commons, is, “If any person having been required, in pursuance of the powers conferred under this section, to attend as a witness before any conciliator or board of conciliation, and having had a tender made to him of the expenses, if any, to which he is entitled, refuses to so attend; or refuses or neglects to make any answer, or to produce any document in his possession he may be required under this section to make or produce, he shall foe each offence be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five pounds.” When the capitalistic press in Queensland sees this, editors will shriek “Anarchy ! Communism !! Revolution !!! An outrage on the sacred rights of freedom of contract; an attempt to interfere with the privileges of private property.”