THE LABOUR WORLD

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8355, 15 February 1913, Page 11

THE LABOUR WORLD

NOTES OF THE WEEK,

(Contributed by “Demos.”) The ballot for ttio selection of Labour candidates is now in full swing. The members of those bodies affiliated to the District Council of tho U.L.P. are being asked to select fifteen candidates for tho City Council, four for tho Harbour Board, and fourteen for tho Hospital Board. The ballot is being taken on the preferential system of voting and is made returnable on or before Tuesday, February 25th nest. Tho petition i asking that a poll of the electors shall be taken on the Saturday half-holiday question is being freely signed, and it is not expected that much difficulty will be experienced in securing the 4000 signatures required. On this occasion many shopkeepers who were opposed to the proposal two years ago are now very much in favour of the object. This is probably due to the great success which the Sydney and Melbourne shopkeepers have declared it to be. On Tuesday evening next a mass meeting of all those in favour of the Saturday afternoon half-holiday ,will be held in the Trades Hall, when a strong committee will be set up to push tho matter forward. The Housewives' Union has also promised to assist in the movement. “Nothing succeeds like success.” Tho secretary of the Wellington Betail Soft Goods Union hopes shortly to be able to report the registration of drapers* unions in Christchurch, Dunedin, and Invercargill. Tho agreement arrived at in connection with the Wanganui Drapers' Union arid the employers in the Council of Conciliation will come before the court to be converted into an award on March 12th. A conference of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners will be held in the Bee-hive Chambers on February 17th. Delegates will be present from all parts of tho Dominion, The business of the conference will be to discuss the advisability of securing a Dominion award for the trade; also several other important matters. Ihe local union is holding a social evening in the Tiffin Tea Booms on Wednesday, February 19th, to welcome the delegates. On Tuesday last a meeting of carpenters and joiners was held in the Socialist Hall, Manners street, by those opposed to arbitration. The conveners' efforts were not crowned with success however, if numbers are any indication of the feeling of the carpenters in this respect. * The result of the second ballot for the election of secretary of the General Labourers’ Union, Christchurch, was annouunced at the meeting of the union on Tuesday night. Mr E. J. Howard was elected, the voting .being : John Currie 171, E. J. Howard 182. The number of voting' papers issued was 899, and the number returned was 354. ’ The permanent employees of the Harbour Board are to hold |a meeting to discuss the advisability ]of joining the Waterside Workers Union. There is no doubt that this is the much better plan than forming a separate union of their own. We have had sufficient instances lately of small sectional units, causing considerable trouble, and in many cases holding up llarge bodies of workers on account of some trifling matter. It will be found, as time goes on, that more than one union connected with any industry or calling is most injurious, both to tho workers and employers. , On Sunday next the Waterside Workers’ Band is playing at Day’s Bay. The band consists of some thirty odd members, who look really smart in their new uniforms. It is a matter of much regret that this band should have been overlooked when the subsidies given by the City Council were allotted. At the monthly meeting of the South Australian Typographical Society the now award for this society, just issued by tho court in the Dominion of New Zealand, was discussed, and regarded generally as satisfactory. The members of the trade in New Zealand con-, sider they would be better served if assessors were appointed, as in South Australia, to assist the president of the court in arriving at a decision, as it frequently happens that he is called upon to decide a technical point with which he is utterly unfamiliar. The tension in maritime circles in Sydney is increasing. The Merchant Service Guild decided not to accept the; tentative agreements which the execu-l tive made with the three coastal com-' ponies, and passed a resolution demanding a settlement of the dispute in all tho States before considering a settlement in New South Wales. The Bishop of London, addressing the Christian Social Union, said that during twenty-four years he had not seen such improvement in sweating and overcrowding as at present. The Lar hour movement was really a religious movement, and the Labour leaders were religious from the bottom of their souls. The Church ought not to be satisfied with the existing state of things, and in that sense they ought to be revolutionists. Tho Trades Union Co-operative Societies in England are endeavouring to effect an industrial combination representing a capital of about £4,000,001), of which the workers will hold a large proportion. The action has been taken as a step towards the united action in industrial, social, and political matters. New South Wales has the largest number of railway employees, namely, 28,961. Victoria has 22,357, Queensland 9035, South Australia 8569, West Australia 7562, Tasmania 13-16, and New Zealand 13,583, the total being 91,413. The secretary of the New South Wales Operative Bricklayers’ Union estimates that tho number of men out of employment in the trade in tho Sydney metropolitan area is at present boween 200 and 300. This he attributes .o the continuous influx of bricklayers Tom abroad, attracted to Sydney by xuggerated reports of the wages and xmditions prevailing The Melbourne Chauffeur’s Union nas decided to submit a log claiming rtl 10s for a fifty-four-hour week. The mien has affiliated with the Trades Jail. A motion brought forward in the dcrman Reichstag having for its object the prevention of peaceful picketing in connection with strikes was defeated by 283 votes to 53.