LABOUR, ETC.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2696, 9 August 1894, Page 1

LABOUR, ETC.

Sydney, Aug 6. The men who captured the free labourers at Wilcannia have been sentenced to six mouths’ each. Aug. 7. Strikes against the new shearing agreement continue throughout the country. The Knights of Labour at Auckland have forwarded to the Minister &f Lands a scheme for giving suburban holdings to town workers. They propose that the Government should purchase 2000 acres of suburban land within a mile of a railway station on the Waikato or Kaipara railway, dividing 1400 acres into two-acre sections, leaving 600 for commons and roads; erect cottages, charging a rental yieldiog the Government 5 per cent, on the gross expenditure. Some two months ago a number of persons interested in recuring laud near Pleasant Point, formed themselves into a Settlers’ Association. After a study of the new Land Bill, and with a firm conviction that the Minister of Lands’ compulsory clause would pass this session, the Association drew up a petition setting forth their wants and forwarded it through the member for the district, Mr Flatmau, to the Hon. Minister of Lands. Mr Flatmau has the petition on the Order Paper for next week. There were 24 bona fide, applicants asking for an area of 2120 acres. It is hoped that the petitioners will meet with success. The Trades Council at Wellington is considering the advisableness of calling a public meeting to ventilate the grievances of the Shearers’ Union in Australia, and to warn men not to engage in this colony while the dispute is pending. The council have decided to ask the Government tb reconsider their decision to impose a duty on fruit, on the ground that it would be an additional burden or. the working classes as they are large consumers of fruit, The secretary of the North Canterbury Charitable Aid Board has written to the Mayor in reference to the statement made by him at a meeting of the City Council that the board had refused food to persona who were starving, asking to be informed of the names of the persons referred to. The Mayor has replied giving the names of several persona who had stated to him that they were starving, and had continually been refused assistance at the charitable aid office.