LABOUR.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2269, 20 October 1891, Page 4

LABOUR.

London, Oct. 15. The union instructed the carmen to return to work. The lightermen, are much dejected at the step, and it is thought that the strike, is likely to collapse. The stevedores are consulting aa to whataction they shall take. The fall Mall Gazette says that the fffer of pensions by the employers to the ock liliOTefß is possibly a dodge to reduce the wages and smash the Unions. Mr John Burnett, the labor correspondent of the Board of Trade, . reports that the demand for skilled'labor is steadily decreasing at Home in respect to the chief industries. Eighty-six ■trikes took place during August and sixty-four in September. The Parliamentary Committee of the Trades’ Congress is framing a Bill requiring the assent of a two-thirds 'majority to enforce the recognition of the principle of eight hours a day. Believing that the leaders of the Dockers’ Union have no real control over the dockers, the riverside employers are organising a system of giving a certain number of men permanent employment at 24s a'week, working eight hours a day. with pensions, thus doing away with casual hands. Four-fifths of the men already employed at the Docks are permanent hands. 1 I Oct. 16. Mr Ben Tillet expresses approval of the employers’ scheme with regard to ■labor, providing that the suggested pensions are made retrospective. Mr Mann says that the workmen are renouncing both the Tories and Liberals, and that they demand equitable division of work and profits. Oct. 17. .The ,War .Office claims the sum of fSOOO from the Liverpool dock companies for assistance rendered, during the strike last year. Paris, Oct, 17. The ; glass-workers who went on strike have been prosecuted for a breach of contract, and each of them fined £4. It is estimated that the loss of the employers while the men are out is 12s 6d per day, Wellington, Oct. 17. Delegates from bootmakers’ union in various parts of the colony held a meeting last night with lasted till six o’clock this morning. Nothing was arrived at, and a further meeting is to be held to day. There is said to be a probability of a general strike of bootmakers over the colony. I The cause of difference between the bootmakers and employers is the new statement which has been drawn up, and it is said that the point on which the parties cannot agree is in regard to the clause which provides that a board of conciliation shall consist of four representatives from each side. Extreme reticence is observed in the matter, but it is understood that it is the men who take objection to the clause. The relations between the men and the employers are said to be very strained, and » strike is thought to be imminent. THE RUSSIAN LOAN. Paris, Oct. 16. The Russian loan of twenty-millions sterling has been subscribed seven-fold in France alone. Baron Hirsch was one of the largest subscribers.

LIFE ON SUNDAY ISLAND. Wellington can boast at the present time of a lady Robinson Crusoe. This is Miss Bell, who 1 with her father lived for twelve years on the Kermadec Islands. Mr Bell had a family of six when he first settled on the Western side of Sunday Island. Miss Bell was then twelve years of age, and before she was thirteen, according to her statement to a New Zealand Mail interviewer, she was the “ recognised huntress of the family.” Like the original Crusoe, the Bells, it seems, depended largely on goats for subsistence. Miss Bell used to take a couple of sheath knives and , start off on a hunting expedition. Being asked how she killed them, with a gun or » knife, she replied : “Always with the knife. You see the ", dogs bailed them up on the hill sides among the stunted karaka trees, and I would catch my quarry by the leg with one hand and twist ’it quickly round the nearest tree, and drive my knife in 'behind the shoulder, when they would die without a . struggle, and go rollicking down the hill afde to the bottom, where I skinned them at my leisure.” For-’ three months this adventurous young lady“ camped out ”on the side of the crater, shepherding a flock of angoras. She used to sleep wrapped up in a goatskin rug that she made, and carry down the milk and get a supply of food once a day from the house. “I only did that twice though after the other settlers Came,” she added, “ Their women thought 'it was dreadful.” From this it will be seen that even the solitude of the Kermadecs is not sacred from the intrusion of Ihe assertive Mrs Grundy. Miss Bell gives an interesting but not very alluring account of Sunday Island, which has so long been her home. It “ appears that Mr Bell introduced 500 sheep on to the island, but owing to the plague of caterpillars destroying the feed, they were compelled to give up the idea almost of doing any good with sheep farming. It. also appears that floun will not keep on tfye island. It soon gets weevily and unfit for food : but the Bella learned to go without it as an article of ; diet. Bananas, goats’ flesh, taro, yams, and* a few other vegetables were their principal' food,.aud tea and sugar they hardly ever f;used. The fact that there was no bread and butter in the island bill of r fare soon disgusted the eettlers who went down two years ago to Denham Bay, and they decided after six months trial that life without this adjunct civilisation was not worth living,: and ,-that another staple article, the; mutton bird, was abominable. The climate is warm and humid, and fires had to be kept up in ■winter and summer, though the house would at the time be t6o hot to stop in it with comfort, and the family lived most of the time in the open air. The island swarms with sea birds, and one of its sights « was the enormous shoals of whales passing in'the season on the way .south.” Myriads of sharks swarmed the waters in the muttoubird season,- “but, "added Miss i Bell, “we never heeded them when bathing,

for a person bathing alone. When several of us girls were splashing and romping about and making plenty of noise .hey would keep at a respectful distance. They are terribly cowardly you know.” •Jur readers, we are sure, will be interested to learn that this redoubtable young lady —whom the Mail reporter describes as “ a stalwart young woman of irfagnificent physicpie, with a constitution of iron ” likes New Zealand so well that she does not intend to go back to the Kermadecs. She admitted that her father mould miss her presence. “ You know,” she said, “ I have been his lieutenant for years, and pulled stroke oarin the boat.” No wonder lie said he was losing his right hand when she left.