HUMPTY DUMPTY HAD A GREAT FALL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 144, 8 September 1927, Page 13

HUMPTY DUMPTY HAD A GREAT FALL

. the price of eggs has dropped right down. Preserve a generous quantity now while they are cheap, for the dear season. A Is bottle of Whittome’s Egg Preservative will preserve 16 dozen eggs—safely and surely. All grocers. 1

women and junior workers. Mr. Lany promised the representation of employees in the management of State industries and services, and that the functions of the State Insurance Office would be extended to cover sickness, compensation and accident insurance Tho bulk of labour legislation to b‘ credited to Mr. Land’s Government and the initiative with which La bout in New South Wales has gone about its .job illustrates a political leader who really “gets things done.” Taranaki Engineers.—The registration of the Taranaki branch of the Amalgamated Engineering Union has now been completed, and it is expected to lay the claims for awards before the Arbitration Court, which will sit in : New Plymouth on September 28. Thus the old firm goes on. not an\ less virile than ever before. The Amalgamated Engineering Union, until recently lcnown as the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, was established in Britain in 1851. and in 1864 the first branch in New Zealand was opened in Auckland. The inaugural meeting w?,> hold in the Aurora Tavern, now the Aurora Hotel, and for years it continued to be hold there. The relations between the society and the employers were very general and continued so even after the EC. and A. Act, which was not utilised by the society until rt had already been 10 years on the Statute Book. That was not further back than 1904, and the net result was an increase of the daily wage from 8s to 10s a day. Since then the union has remained in the front of the industrial battle. In the last la years the membership has increased from 300 to 1,200. and the society lias established itself independently and strongly in tlie engineering trades. In February next the first conference will be held jointly with the Ironmasters’ Federation to discuss questions of mutual interest in the industrv ** ‘ * An Industrial Crisis.—One never can tell how industrial trouble will spread under tactless handling. The stormv recoi'd of the South Johnstone sugar mills has culminated in the parlysis of transportation services in Queensland, and from there it may spread even further abroad. The present trouble had its origin in a strike to which the employers retaliated by engaging new hands. The strikers with the powerful Australian Workers’ Union behind them, had to be re-engaged eventuallv, but the farmer interests controlling the mill attempted to retain some of the “scab” staff. This has been the immediate precipitant of the trouble, the Queensland branch of the Australian Railways Union declaring goods destined for South Johnstone mill “black ” Premier W. McCormack, in the State Parliament, declared that the railwaymen could not control the State railways. So he sent an ultimatum to the railwaymen and the present unfortunate position has been reached. There is ample support in Australia for the strikers and their principle, but the event is none the less regrettable, inasmuch as it can ever be regrettable to stake the fight on the total exclusion of “scab” labour. The principle is vital enough.