LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE OF THE TRADES HALL.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 241, 11 February 1888, Page 4 (Supplement)

LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE OF THE TRADES HALL.

One of tineimost remarkable and successful of the Centennial events was the ceremony attending the laying of the foundation stone of the Trades Hall. No fewer than 28 trade organisations took part in i thi3 demonstration, and the procession which marched through the principal ] thorougfcfai«e of the city, to the music of j thirty bands, numbered about 9,000 men, i ranged in the following order :—: — Nine mounted and fully accoutred New South Wales trooj>ers taking the lead. Launceston ( Tasmania) Band. Progressive Carpenters and banner. Ironmouldera and banner. Cameron atid Co. 'c five drays of coloniallytnanufactured tobacco exhibits. Eight Hours Coopers, banners, band, and implements of trade. seamen's Union, in full force, the members wearing white straw hats with nautical ribbons, and preceded by a baud and banner. Messrs Gibbs, Shallard, and Co. , display of printing presses, &c, in operation. Amalgamated Plumbers and Galvanised Ironworkers (with ban net). Boilermakers and Shipbuilders (with .banner, implements of trade, &c. ). A marine engine in full work on a dray. Band of Highland Pipers (with bagpipes and musical instruments). Masons' Society (with students' models). Coopers (with an excellent and valuable display of handicraft). Gas - stokers' Protective Association (headed by band and banners). Sydney Wharf Labourers (with band and banner, and accompanied by Newcastle delegates.) JFour - horsed dray carrying a tableau vivant of nine persons, in aboriginal, and past and present costumes, armour, and accoutrements, emblematic of the progress of Australasian civilisation since the advent of Captain Cook, An aboriginal mounted stockman, in bQVa fide, up-country station costume. A six-horse dray, with a second pose platfiqiiCj emblematical of Britannia, Neptune*-> and Commerce's relationships and civilising developments. Procession of about 300 banneret-bearers and carriers of blue ensigns, headed by a merrily-playing band. United Friendly, Trade and Benefit Society of Painters iwith band and banner.) Tailors (with band and banner). Shipwrights' Protective Union (headed by band and banner, and followed by many valuable and interesting models of steam and sailing vessels in various stages of construction). Coal-lumpers' Union (with band and banner). Operative Society of Bricklayers (with band and bannor). Coachmakevs (with banner). Fife and drum band. Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners (with band and banner). Amalgamated Tinsmiths and Ironworkers ■{with band and banner). New South Wales Typographical Association (with band ami banner). -Following the main proee&.iion was a stretch, about a quarter of a mile in length, of advertising exhibits and. exhibitors, the former of almost every conceivable form, colour, and character ; the majority of them being conveyed upon two, three, four, or waggons, and in spring-carts and drays. The Trades Hall is to be erected at the corner of Dixon and Goulburn-streets. £6,000 was voted by Pai'liamont for the purchase of the site, and the money for the erection of the building was raised by means ot a limited liability company. Its objects *re to provide a meeting place, a readingroom, and labour bureau for the working men of Sydney. The hall, when completed, ■will aooommodate 1,400 persons, and around it are distributed 25 lodge rooms, each capable of seating 80 persons. These, it is hoped, will become the permanent headquarters of as many lodges and societies of an industrial and provident character. The labour bureau, or hiring room, is designed as a meeting-place for employers and persons seeking work. The official ceremonies connected with the laying of the foundation stone were of a very simple character. Lord Carrington made a short but practical .speech, touching chiefly upon the want of improved dwellings for the industrial classes. He thought thab an effort ought to be made to erect rows of four-roomed cottages which would become the property of the occupiers by a weekly payment of 12s for 12 years, and that three-roomed cottages should be similarly available for a )eutal of 10s. There is no doubt thab in the matter of dwellings nil classes in Auckland enjoy immense advantages over the people of Sydney. Rents hero are high, and the population is closely crowded' together — continuous rows of terraces fronting narrow, unwholesome streets. Detached houses are almost unattainable, and rent is .a very serious item in the Jamily expenditure. Provisions are alsoon the' average higher in price, dairy products especially so, and the meat inferior I cannot bub believe that the majority of the people who are now flocking fiom New Zealand to Australia will bitterly regret the step. The Wairarapa, onherlasfc arrivnl,',brought upwards of 130 steerage passengers. Have these people seriously considered ' the fact thab - the New South Wales Gfivemtnent .have had 4,000 persons employed upon relief works — some of them men who have

held good positions -—and that 10,000 applications w«ro -sewfc in for the rations distributed, in the oemftannial week to the deserviner poor? In *i great* city, like Sydney, the indwiduri feels an overwhelming senee of his insignificance and'helplessness, and the groans of the suffering poor are unhesded *$nielttJie din and turmoil and strife of the amasees engaged in a fierce competition for %tread. It can only bo through gross -Boisgovernment tha: any human being should experience a desire to leave a magnifioectt and thinly-settled country like New /Zealand for colonios which in climate aaad productiveness and every natural endowment stand in such marked and admitted (inferiority to '• the Britain of tho South." But to retara from this digression to tho subject under notice. After the stone had been well and truly laid, the gathered thousands of working mon burst from their contracted bonds in ©ixon-street, and tho procession with their waving banners and interesting trade symbols, re-formed and set out to the inspiriting strains of martini music for Prince Alfred Park. Hero tho wives, and bairns, and sweethearts of the brawny sons of toil had gathered in thousands, and a. happy day was beguiled by those open-air sports which English lads and lasses love all the world over.