DALMATIAN LABOURERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 62, 7 December 1918, Page 9

DALMATIAN LABOURERS

QUESTION OF PAY. The pay of Dalmatians conscripted for work was the subject of a question in the House , of Eepresentatives by Mr. H. Holland. Mr. Holland represented that these men were not paid a living wage, and he asked the Minister of Public Works to seo that they were paid such a wage. Sir William Praser eaid that these men had been handed over to him, and he had been asked to find work for them. The arrangement he made was , that they should bo put on co-operative works and paid 'tho same rates as could bo earned by other workers in tho employ of tho Government oh similar work. Thq men wished to bo paid on a daily wage basis, but to this, he had objeottti. Mr. Ell: Were- they on piece work? Tho Minister: Yea.' Mr. Ell: Why did not the question etalo that? Tho Minister: "Exactly." Sir William Fraser added thatjhis experience of theso Austrians was that they wcro good workers, and that ordinarily tlioy wero able on co-operativo works to earn more money than other men in the omploy of tho Department. They went on to hliese works unwillingly. They wanted day wages and this was refused to thorn. They wero faced with the alternative- of working- or going into internment. In ordinary times eomo of these men hod been able to earn from l&s. to 13s. a day on co-oporativo works, mid they could havo dono it on this jol). If they did not earn it, this must bo due either to tho fact that they worn not fit for manual labour, or possibly to their beiiig unwilling to do tho work.

It has been claimed for Mr. John Mor- j gan Kieharde, an American business man j who lived in London, that, lio popularised f tho cigarette in England There are, | however, other cl.iiuiMits to the distinction, including Iho Duke of, Buccleueh ' and Lauvnnco Oliplmnt, the novelist and ( write-- of travoi-books. Tradition lias | it that many British naval and military ( officers adopted this niodo of smoking ( from tho RuEsinns during the Crimean c war, and, on their return, made tho cig- c arotlo fasliionablo in tho clubs. But { somo yenrs beforo the Crimean campaign [ there was a well-patronised cigarette s morcliant named Theodorich in Great '{ Winchester Street, whoso cheapest cijjar- y ettes woro retailed .it twelvo a shilling, j Mr. Richards, who died recently, was n the father of the lato Mrs. Craigio, who c wrpto novels under tho namo of John Oliver. Hobbes. < ;