World of Labour August 17, 1895.

*THE WORKER*

BRISBANE, AUGUST 17, 1895.

The World of Labour.

CHINESE laundrymen are knocking out the white laundresses in Melbourne.

THE Victorian Anti-Sweating League has issued a manifesto urging the adoption of a minimum wage which must at least be sufficient to keep a man and his family in decent comfort.

THERE are 25,000 tailors in Berlin with an average wage of 2s. 6d. per day for men and 1s. 6d. for women, and who work 75 hours per week. Careful inquiries made in Brisbane would disclose something akin to this.

A DEPUTATION of ironworkers which waited on the Premier of N.S.W. was informed by him that the Government was about to let a contract in Sydney for cast iron and steel pipes, the total value of which would amount to £26,000 and employ 300 men in making them.

A New Zealand Parliamentary item says that a recent commission showed that £60,000 worth of prison-made goods were imported into the United Kingdom, and £45,000 was manufactured in the United States, a goodly proportion of this finding its way to these colonies.

THE Bakers' Union in Adelaide have issued a boycott against the employers who prefer non-unionists to unionists. The boycott will be effective because the public of Adelaide sympathise with unionism and understand that through it the workers have a chance of maintaining fair conditions.

THE Chief Secretary of Victoria has notified that specifications of contract in his department (for wood for asylums) must contain a clause stipulating 6s. per day as the lowest wage for unskilled labour. This is a low wage, but it is not so low as some of the sweating contractors pay their men.

SUPPLY and demand is effecting the devils' brigade in spite of their close union. There are some lawyers in London who have brought their fees down to 2s. 6d. a case. When lawyers become hard pressed there are instances in history where they have left the fat man's service and made things all round pretty warm for him.

THE Dunedin, N.Z., City Council has adopted a motion that in all future contracts the person or firm tendering shall undertake to pay all workmen, whether artisans or labourers, the current rate of wages ruling in the district and to observe eight hours as the working day for which such wages shall be paid.

THE Mines and Lands Departments in Victoria have decided that no owner of land can demand royalty for coal discovered on his land, because the fee simple only applies to the surface, and even the coal contained in such surface was the property of the Crown. Thus has one of the great and flourishing vampires of landlordism-coal royalty-been summarily strangled.

IN brave little Switzerland, where governments are not afraid to trust the people, the municipal council of Zurich has approved of regulations providing that in case of a strike the town authorities shall take the initiative in bringing the disputing parties together with a view of conciliation or arbitration. Now here is a chance for the mayors of North and South Brisbane to follow suit, and, mind, there is a parliamentary election not far off.

A NOTABLE instance of what can be done by conciliation and arbitration in industrial disputes is shown in the report of the industrial courts in Wurtenburg, Germany, where, in 1894, the number of cases brought before the courts were 1854, viz, 1665 by workpeople, and 189 by employers. Differences were settled in 569 cases by award, and in 855 by conciliation, in 392 cases by withdrawal of claim, and 38 cases remain unsettled at the end of the year. This is not a bad record for a year, and Australian employers had better think over it.

ON one of the Government contracts in N.S.W. It was discovered that the contractor has been paying the workmen 1s. per day less than the minimum rate specified in the conditions of contract. The matter was brought under the notice of the Minister for Works, who intended at first to cancel the contract, but as the work was nearly completed he decided to allow the contractor to proceed and is now taking steps to compel him to pay the workmen the balance of the money required to make up the full wage from the commencement of their employment.

THE Melbourne Hospital is so overcrowed that, according to Dr. Molloy, “the wards are literally packed in order to make room for urgent cases.” The Government are fully aware of this and yet do nothing to remedy it, excusing themselves under the plea of scarcity of funds, while the health of the poor is thus brutally disregarded. One thousand pounds are spent beautifying and enlarging Government House so that the immensely rich (£10,000 salary in addition) Lord Brassey may be able to receive the “wealthy lower orders” of “Marvellous Smellbourne” in ostentations luxury.

THE Northern Territory Times is jubilant over the decrease of the Chinese population in the mining fields of that territory, and says; “It is the opinion of observant persons at the mines that our Chinese mining population is becoming beautifully less, and this opinion is shared in by overlanders just in from the Queensland side, who state that large numbers are still crossing the border into that colony. Some succeed in evading the border patrols; others cheerfully suffer the penalties for the pleasure of being allowed to go where they like afterwards. If Queensland is satisfied we shouldn't complain.”

LORD Hopetoun, who kindly consented to expatriate himself to the “blarsted cawlonies” for seven years at the rate of £10,000 per annum and expenses, and who has drawn half-pay from Victoria since his return to England, has announced that he will not take any more of his half-pay salary because he has dropped into another billet in Salisbury's Government. Madden, who draws £3500 as Chief Justice, and £5500 as Acting-Governor (£173 per week) is sacrificing himself in the noble cause of blowzy gluttony and pretentious priggery until Victoria gets another noble someone or another to exploit their Treasury in the interest of Imperialism. In the meantime there are thousands of people in Melbourne who would like to be assured of bread for themselves and families.

THE question of providing work for the unemployed (says the last half-yearly report of the Wellington (N.Z.) Typo Union) has caused your board much anxiety, and they have given it much serious consideration. They regret to have to state that they cannot foresee an improvement in trade of such an extent that would warrant them in hoping that it is possible that work can be found in the printing trade for the whole of the compositors at present in New Zealand. The competition of women, boys, and girls, with which the work-men have had to contend in the past is now aggravated by the introduction of type-setting machines into Australia, and a number of men thereby thrown on the labour market who hitherto were steadily employed. Your board, therefore, desire members to cause it to be known, as widely as possible, that the supply of compositors far exceeds the demand, and is likely to do for some years, and by so doing endeavour to dissuade parents from placing their children at an employment that affords no reasonable hope for their future welfare.

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Boot Trade Dispute.

Thirteen weeks trying to starve into submission nearly four hundred men, and the boot manufacturers have not succeeded yet. The majority of the bosses are gulled by the plausibility of an unscrupulous agitator into the belief that to yield to the men would mean having no voice in their business. The past actions of members of the Boot Trade Union are sufficient contradiction to such humbug. They have never unduly interfered in say one's business; they have sought to protect the trade from being degraded, and in doing so deserve some recognition from the firms now fighting against them, and whose business the operatives helped to build up.

Since the rejection by the boot manufacturers of the offer of arbitration, and the decisive ballot among the men to fight on, no further steps towards bringing about a settlement have been taken.