SLAUGHTERMEN’S STRIKE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 23, 25 January 1913, Page 6

SLAUGHTERMEN’S STRIKE.

AN AGREEMENT CONCLUDED. MEN TO RECEIVE 30s HUNDRED. Wellington, January 25. Matters in connection with the trouble in the slaughtering trade have assumed an interesting phase. Negotiations are now proceeding between the Slaughtermen’s Union and the Wellington Farmers’ Meat Company at Waitangawa, and it is understood that an agreement will be completed this afternoon. The main provision of the agreement so far is as follows: Ordinary hours of work to he between 7.00 ,o’clock and 5 p.m. on five days in the week, with an hour for lunch, work to cease at noon on Saturday; and 15 minutes allowed for “smoko.” The rates for sheep and lambs, or sheep and lambs not otherwise specified to be 30s per hundred; double fleece; sheep, 37s 6d; rams and stags, other than rams, 6d each; the rates for cattle to be: Bullocks, cows, and bulls, 20s 6d each ; calves up to 1001 b Is 6d head, and overtime to be at the rate of time and a half; not more than one hour overtime per day to be worked. The agreement includes a provision, for one learner for every ten slaughtermen.

The young people of Wheeling, West Virginia (says the New York corres'pondent of the Standard), are in high glee over a decision of the local Boa id of Health that kissing, even in public, is both permissible and safe from a hygenic point of view undei certain conditions. The only restriction suggested is that all who desire to show their affection in this manner ms. keep their lips clean. This decision is the result of a long and widespread controversy as to whether disease could be spread through kissing. The Board of Health finally settled matters by issuing an official bulletin stating that, while disease germs mio-ht he transmitted by osculation, the danger could be readily averted by’first carefully wiping the lips with a pocket handkerchief. We believe that with the energetic opening up of new areas of country the dominion is quite able to find work for all without in any way depreciating the labour market or lowering the standard of living; and we trust that the Hon. H. D. Bell, who has charge of the Immigration Department, will do his part while Mr Massey, as Minister of Lands, may be trusted to see that land in suitable areas is thrown open, to give the new-comers a fair opportunity of becoming permanent arid prosperous''settlers' once thev have acquired colonial experience and knowledge. It is by such means that the progress of the dominion and the well-being of all classes of its people can best be secured.—Ashburton Guardian. Sir Robert Stout's comments on some of the recent antics of so-callea university reformers were decidedly caustic. We fear, however, that his trenchant remarks will make hut little impression upon the young men who have been industriously engaged in traducing the institution by which they make their livelihood, _ because there is no egotism so prodigious and unassailable as that of' the 1 “superior person” whose capacity for absorbing more or less archaic knowledge hat given him an intense faith in his ability to instruct the rest of mankind. The Chancellor touched the spot when he indicated that a sense of humor mio-ht have saved some of these young gentleman from taking themselves and their mission quite so seriously, but humor is the last thing one expects to firtd in association with that academic snobbery which is too often the most conspicuous result of an English university career.—Auckland Star.

A visitor from California fold a Christchurch Press reporter that Socialism had made great progress in the United States during the past five years, but had gone back at once in each place where it had been tried. The reason was that failure to make a success of administration put the thinking people against them more than ever, while their own crowd invariably grew dissatisfied with them because they found themselves una ile to put into practice the ideas on which they had been elected. labour troubles had been generally acute, and San Francisco alone had lost 60 per cent of its factories. The I. VV .W'. was regarded as a rather bad joke, and it was the common joke that its initials stood for “I won’t work. The trouble lay with sectional unions as well, and .for an example it might be repeated that during the building rush which followed the earthquake one union advertised it in the East that the labour market was already glutted, and otherwise made it so difficult for new members to come into their craft that one man had had to pay 2200 dollars to gain admission, carrying with it the right to earn ten dollars per day. Regent Cigarettes are made from the finest Virginian tobacca. Inhalers prefer them. Smoke thmu and share in the Great Free Gift Scheme.x