THE CONDITIN OF LABOR IN MELBOURNE.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 32, 20 January 1864, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE CONDITIN OF LABOR IN MELBOURNE.

Sa 4' . GEXERAI. PRINTING.- '] - t! M Jfext/to tiie v daily newspaper pr^s *j| Jftnes the renaainder of our subject, >1^ w hich includes all the other branches « . of colonial printing. This has hot ex*t\ tended far beyond the printing which is 4 req«' re( * or business purposes ; but jail ■> 4 that is known in England as "jobbing " \£ j s practised here to perhaps a higher <tm decree of perfection than at, hotne: - jil This is because most of o.ur workmen .4 ar e picked mea ; and, somehow, the '-^ Jfelboume. habit is to do everything in Bl 'this way -extra ; ' : well. Our dead-walls hi 'are diurnally covered with posters ; # plain or colored, arid with all the intri*HJ cacies of design common to the best Jj London offices. An English playbill rrt "shipping poster often looks mean $ 'beside ourdi and in profusion of orna- *!■! ' ment or severity of neatness the Smaller * jobs of innumerable kinds are of equal % merit. From our jobbingr-offices, also, y we get a dozen or so of weekly and 3«l monthly newspapers, of admirable topoei] graphy, and the few books and pamphJets produced here. We are not strong ife ia our book printing, which is very a, rare ly practised ; but our pamphlets N are well done, and the most important m» colonial, volume yet published here, * viz., Professor Hearn's Plutoloyy, of 480 \ pajjes demy octavo, printed by Messrs <» Wilson aud Mackinaon, would ornament k any book-shelf. On the whole, Mel- \\ liourne may be proud of her printingjj offices. There are about forty masters in Mel--1 bourne and suburbs, nearly haf of I whose "establish meats are little superior f to what . are technically called "cock a robin shops,'' being owned by masters who are their own journeymen. Against r these may br> set such offices as those of i. Mason and Firt'n, Wilson and Mac- \ kinnon, Fergusson and Moore, Sands, A M'Dougall and Co., Walker, May and s Co., and others. They are of the very ," best kind, and almost all employ the -, first-class machinery. In Mason and £1 Firth's, for instance, there are four I, rotary printing machines, single and ffi double cylinder, worked by Van Yean water-power ; an hydraulic press, and ir one of those beautiful but expensive .fl pieces of mechanism'mvented expressly 4, for printing rail way tickets consecutively numbered, paper-cutters, rollers, peri forating-maehines, a stereotype foundry (the papier-mache process), ten presses, \ and many other mechanical appliances, the total value of which, with the plant, M varies, according to circumstances, from "" £7,000 upwards. In that place twentyfiva compositors and nine apprentices .are employed, besides fourteen or ** Sfteen men and boys in the press department. Hardly inferior to this really " splendid establishment come many B of the others, only one of which — that " of Sands, M'Dougall & Co.— has a railway ticket printing-machine, another being in use at the Government Prints ing office. The work done widely ij differs in kind, and varies from the ' cheap weekly newspaper to Rradshaio's ~ Railway Guide at Messrs Wilson and Mackinnoii's down to the smallest punphlet or t; prices current, 1 ' the com- ! raonest poster or the admission- tickets ai ■ for a tea meeting. Prices are equally diversified, and, in many instances, are 5 ' not ten per cent above tfiosn ruling in London. This is not made up by inferiority in material. The wretched gi ■ tissue paper used for English handbills ? is never seen here, and in color- ': printing, an article worth 4s or .*>s per pound, takes the place of the Dutch pink or varnish, worth Is 6d or 2s per pound, which is often worked up in England. Our types are as large and expensive and our press-work every bit as good as auy, so that our superior comparative cheapness is only because of keen competition, which oft^n makes a L 5 job a subject for tender. The larger establishments of course carry the palm for cheapness, except, perhaps, in the very small jobs, such as "handbills for drapers, quack doctors, and cheap clothing shops, where Jong numbers are want«d ; and these are often taken by the " cock- robin " priuter at a low figura, in order that he may keep his presses going. . At times the case is reversed, and the small printer gets a good price for a j i job, because the "reasonableness" o( ! his charge is taken for granted, while I the larger office could well afford to | take it for less. As, however, wages } are not cut down as low as the price of the work, there- are a few things I which it pays to import. For instance, | a large Melbourne firm tendered to ! supply 10,000 or 20,000 copies of in- \ struction books for the Board of Edu- ; Cation, and*, though they reckoned only • for ten per cent, profit, including wear 'and tear of material and all, they did ; not get wiihin thirty per cent, of the : price at which an English firm under- ■ took the work. In few trades, have t*o ■ many Melbourne masters of late years ; become insolvent; or something like it, ; and but for the impropriety of so doing, I we could give -the -names of neaily ten j ■ firms who have thus succumbed within 1 the last four years. Nevertheless, the ! | competition for work is as keen as ever. | We know of contracts taken for 1,000 I copies of a small pamphlet to be printed, I"- folded, and stitched for about 10s per 1 page, and in the case oi'a. pamphlet of ] sixteen 12mo. pages, I',OOO copies, | cover and all, were done for £10 ss. | The trade is also injured to a small . extent' by importations of printed stationery^ which Melbourne printers think they could do as cheaply. * and as well; if trial were given to I them. The -importers are! the i banks and insurance offices, which derive .all' their.prqfits from our community. . Were, it notV for the honesty of our law in, the'ematter- of pirated .reprints, a. book-printing office could often be made profitable, but it is far better as k is. As for protection,

printers do 'not need it in the least, and —as a general rule— they are^too keen in their intellectual perceptions;— sharpened by their trade, — not to be ardent free-traders in principle. The last remark brings us to a portion of the question before us which it will answer no good purpose to blink. The Melbourne printers are all largely Injured, and the price of wages — as regards jobbing-hands. — unnaturally heightened, by the existence in our midst of an immense Government Printing-office, which steps, far beyond the limit commonly assigned to such rare institutions. It is hardly too much to Say that but for the admirable management of Mr. J. Ferres, the Government Printer, and the high respect in which he is held by the printers of Melbourne, the whole establishment would long ago have been abandoned or confined to very small limits indeed. It was coalmen ed in 1851, after Separation, and during a few subsequent months was partially organised by Mr E. Khull, the first Government Printer. Upon that gentleman's adoption of another line of business, Mr Ferres undertook the office, and eventually instituted the present arrangement, upon him lying the responsibility of carrying on the Government business during the goldfeverish times. When he came the whole plant was barely worth £1000, and now it represents a really awful amount in money, for it is complete in all its branches, combining the newest and best mechanism, and the best type, with a corps of splendid workmen, disciplined under the most approved modes, and perhaps doing as much work for as little money as is possible in a Government institution. Ihe work done embraces every portion of printing required by the Government. From it issues the Government Gazette, Parliamentary bills and papers, the last combining reports of extraordinary length and voluminous evidence taken from Parliamentary committees and Royal commissions. The papers of the various departments are aiso published there, and so large is the scope of work as to include even the splendid uew book on the Australian Flora, which is in course of preparation by Dr. Mueller, the Government botanist. During the last few years, this sort of thinsc has increased in a way that has made the Melbourne printers really an^ry. Till^ quite lately, much of the University printing, including i the University Calendar, has been put uo to tender. Sometimes Messrs Wilson and .Mackinnon, and sometimes Messrs Mason and Firth, have performed the work in a style of unquestionable merit; but no* — so we are positively informed — it issues from the Government Printing-office, the mootpoint in the outside trade being whether, as of old, the University pay for it out of their annual vote, or manage neatly to save the expense by getting it absorbed in the regular Government work. In defence of the institution, the necessity for secresy is largely i isisted on ; but this argument scarcely holds water, when it is remembered how much of the Imperial Government printing is done at such London otTices as those of Spottiswoodes", Clowes', Harrison's, Hansard's, znd NicholJs*, who take contracts for seven years at a time, violation of the conditions of secresy beinjj unheard of. Then, again, a formidable item is the printing of Government forms of all sorts, whose name is legion, and. strange to say, even the Government railway tickets are also produced here. It is really ridiculous to suppose that these cannot be us well and cheaper done by private contract. But this is not the place to do more than briefly sketch the relation of the Government Printing-office of Victoria to the trade generally. Its staff includes about half the jobbing hands employed in Melbourne, viz. : — Overseer, £-150 per annum, two sub-overseers at £350 (a salary equal to that of the second overseer on The Aryus, upon whom rests the responsibility of building up the paper in type on the night be is on duty, than which — save the task of the manager himself — is no more onerous function in the trade) ; four readers, at £275 a year; 77 compositors, of whose wapes we shall write afterwards ; twelve apprentices, seven pressmen, an engineer and corps, two machinemen, a stereotyper, a printer's joiner and warehouseman, paper wetters, boys, and others who need no particularization, including a bookbinders' shop, employeing no less than thirty hands. So thorough and perfect is the management that it is a pleasure to a printer to go over the office. There is a " Government Printing-office Provident Society/ which embraces nea ly all the emvloyes, who receive medical advice, medicine, and money when sick, and for whom a liberal allowance is made in case of death. Each employe may take more than one share of subscription, and the balance in hand is redistributed every Christmas. As a rule, jobbing hands are in a far better position than their brethren employed on the morning newspapers. In London, a wide distinction is drawn between the men who knowingly shorten their lives and sacrifice domestic comfort to earn- their living, when nearly every- { body else is abed, and those who, working in the day time, can see their way to a hale old age. These last work only nine hours, and hard as their labor may be, the air they breathe is not poisoned by countless gas-burners, nor the noxious exhalations to which sunlight is the -unfailing antidote. In the private offices piecework — the majority of which is weekly newspaper-work— ispaid at Is per thousand. Except in The Argus office, the daily news hands get no more than this for night-work. On other than newspaper work, the pay is not generally so good, for there is not enough of it to permit of the

introduction of. the " clicking " system, and so the compositor merely sets his solid matter j -anil -ch'.irges for it so much, per. -galley.: - It is then,; leaded, and made up— wherein lies the^'fat ll - — on time. In some rare cases ta Id- per' 1000 is paid, and in' a few offices, ■ Mason and Firth's, for instance, the men are allowed the leads. However,! the existing system is not without its' advantages, for when " clicking 1 ' was! introduced into London, it told ter-1 ribly -against the talented workman, whom it is frequently the abominable custom in this and other trades to reduce to the dead level of an inferior standard, in order that less able workmen should '* get their rights." None rave more loudly than working printers if a few of their number are selected for higher wages, and yet it is strangle that such an intelligent body of men should fail to see the injustice of not giving full sccpe to superior skill. Often and often the more skilful, workman has been driven to dissipation because his brethren force him to their level, and his consciousness of merit is hi 3 degradation. No difference is made in Jespect to size of type, and from small pica, or pica to nonpareil orpeari, the charge is uniform. Time hands, and they are the most numerous, get from Is Id per hour io £4 4* per week, the average being £3 to £3 lss per week. In most of the larger offices, the masters insist on paying accordiug to ability. The men work fifty-three hours a week, a slight change from the London jobbing printers of a quarter of * century ago, who toiled regularly sixty-six hours in six days, and thought 33s per week a grand price. Since then, too, there is some alteration in the character Oi the men. Fourteen or fifteen years ago, many London compositors would take from ten to fifteen glasses of gin in the day, but now sobriety and respectability are the »-ule, especially in Melbourne, where also the average of skill is decidedly higher than in England. Pressmen are paid about the same as compositors. Attempts have be'en made to pay by the token, i.e., piecework, but that plan is very partially adopted. Giving out common jobs to compositors as piecework has been tried, but it has failed. In England, the average price for piecework is from 6d per 1000 for the largersized type, without leads, to7d for nonpareil and 8d for pearl. Time hands get from 27s 6d to £2 per week, the average being £l 10s. In the Victorian Governm nt Printing-office the men are on time, and divided into three classes, those iv the first of whom are paid £-i 10s per week, the second £4, aud the third £3 15s. Apprentices are common in a^ost every office. The usual plan is to take no premium, and give the boys a certain proportion of their wages. The lad's character and efficiency are generally formed by the office iv which he is engaged, and some of the printers apprentices are very superior youths indeed. It is Well they should be m a couutry like this, where a useful and honorably career is always open to them. The Melbourne Typographical Association, the only trade society, numbers only seventy members, but it deserves a far wider support. It is constructed on the principal of a benefit society, including the advantages of the cultivation of a friendly feeling throughout the trade. Working printers are, however, so keen and suspicious of each other, that perhaps the association suffers on that account. The members pay Is each per week, and when out of employment (unless through drunkenness or a patent want of skill) jjet 15s per week, and a loan of L 2 or L 3 when they wish to go to employment iv another colon y. If they want to go to America or Eu^hnd, and have been two years members, they receive L 5 ; if three years, L 7 (0 ; and if four years L 10; to be repaid by instalments in case of return within a term of yea*s. After five years membership, a man incapacitated from work by a^e or accident also receives a large sum. The association has had few demands made on it, and is possessed of some hundreds of pounds in the bank. It is governed by a board, and we are glad to be informed is increasing in utnnbers.