JUBILEE MEMOIR.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1502, 26 July 1912, Page 2

JUBILEE MEMOIR.

TYPOGRAPHICAL U^"ION. 'The jubiko BOuyenirof ..the -Wellington Typographiwil Union-is. a;bookletxontain-' iiig a deal of interesting matter concerning the printing trade in this' province ... ■ "The fifty years ending with, the date of our jubileo celebration has bad its full share of vicissitudes for Wellington, , ' says'.the .booklet. , "During that' : period newspapers have been born and have died, , other printing establishments have begun and have finished their course, but our unjon, founded in times when unionism had to face fiercer conflicts than perhaps is now the case, has survived all the shocks to which it hag been and all the adverse influences it has been called upon to face and thwart. The Wellington Typographical Union stands to-day a monument to the wisdom and the foresight of the pioneer craftsmen who founded it, and into the harvest of whose labours wo have entered. Many of those pioneers havo paid tho final debt Nature exacts from us all, but some of them aro with us to-day, ablo to rejoice in the completion of tho first halfcentury of • the union's chequered, but intensely useful, life. Thf jubilee we celebrate, and tho present strong and satisfnctory condition of the union to-day, constitute. tho most telling testimony to the keen interest the founders of' the union and their successors took in the craft, and their devotion to the cause of Labour generally." On July 23, 1862, the following advertisement appeared in tho "Independent":—

; A Meeting of Printers of Wollington will be held at Barrctfs Hotel, on Saturday Evening next, at 7 o clock, for the purpose of forming a ■typographical Society, when all are requested 'to attend. In that year the union was formed. "It must bo remembered," says the little oomP'lahon, "that in 1862 the conditions in Wellington were very different to what they are at the present time. There were not many printers in the city, and it could not. l>e expected that tho first start in unionism would bo ushered in. with a flourish of trumpets. Old compositors who have been consulted say -tha't nothiu" of a very prolific nature took place till ISGS, when the union took definite shape. After (i few years of 'ups and downs' the union practically fell through, but was- finally re-established m 1873, when a book of rules and regulations was printed. From that date tho union has steadily progressed up to tho present time." . Mr. 0. Monaghan supplies this incident in coiiirectioii, with the striko of ISCC:- . Aα the Government Printer was engaging compositors in different centres to takes the ploces of those on strike, the members-of the chapel deputed Mr. Monagban to ssnd a telegram to the West Coast warning compositors not to accept employment at the Government Printing Oihce. \\hen ho handed Ihe message in° the official at first raised no objection to accepting at, but. afterwards consulted S m V , I I r% officials in the office, and then toJt[ Mr. Monaghan that tho message T\'l ?h b v !? nt A r - Murium returned to the .National Hotel (which, he says': was regarded asitho headquarters of print-, eis at that time), and secured the services of a Gorman, Mr, Bauckc, who wrote the mwsago out in the German language and fonvankd it to.a German hotefkecVr in "estport, who m turn translated it into Srs lt maoas th °™- c'' Xs . s ! , . owi ) , S thf Progress of tho union financially, it will be of interest to note hat in J U ne, 1832, tiro balance carried forward was j>29 , ss . 7(1 . IV hm the New Zealand Typographical Association was dissolved in August of that year, he funds wore augmented by £\% ] 9s nUI om l ng f°H S sha ™ »f «"> moneys to Iho piedifc of the association. A loss on tho ha t-yeal-'s working resulted in .£l2B (" fart, being hie amount carn'pd fnrwiivl into 1893. That the finanoS of thoTnfon have steadily improved will fee apparent Iron, the fact-Hint we start the fittv-nrst year. 01 our existence with a balance in the general fund of- .£IOOS 13« id „,,, the sum of ,£>27 16s. lOd. in the mortali v fund-a total of .£1233 9s. lid " uomm)