LABOUR, ETC.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2601, 30 December 1893, Page 3

LABOUR, ETC.

Washington, Dec. 27,

The steel-workers at Pontymister have gone out on strike, and are resisting the introduction of Scotch and English freemen. They also stoned the' police, but the latter charged and dispersed the rioters. The military have been summoned to assist in preserving order. Sydney, Dec. 28.

The southern coal-miners have decided against any reduction in the hewing rate. The non-associated collieries have intimated that they do not intend to reduce the present rate.

A meeting of the Executive Council of the Shearers’ and Labourers’ Union was held at Waimate on Tuesday evening, Mr Brown presiding. The shed representative* of Benmore station, Upper Waitaki, and another shearer who was present, laid before the meeting particulars of 28 men having refused to shear wet sheep, iu consequence of which the manager declined to pay the wages due ; he had also dismissed the union “rep.” and another. The General Secretary (Mr J. O’Brien) said the shearing of wet sheep was a very serious evil, and in this instance the men had done what he considered was perfectly right. In the Waimate district this season,, he said, one man had to be taken' to the hospital through shearing wet sheep, and his health was so ruined that some of the sheds meditated getting up a subscription to pay the man’s fare back to Australia. Mr O’Brien said they had medical authority to prove that wet sheep were the cause. After some discussion it was resolved to sue Mr Middleton, manager of Benmore, for the amount of wages due, and to insert advertisements in various papers advising union shearers not to go near Benmore until a satisfactory settlement was effected. The meeting then ended.

A correspondent of the Lyttelton Times says that in Christchurch men are to-day working in the tailoring trade for the same rate of pay as the women, in the order trade, vests and trousers are almost entirely in the hands of the women, because the garments are made for half the price, some paying only onethird. The only danger at present to women receiving the same pay as men is that women are partly controlled by the by the Factory Act, whereas men sweat it out even to th« seventh day. One of the curses in the trade is the private order system, which is on the increase, whereby men in receipt of constant work take orders and have them made Up on the master’s premists at his expense.